Heading home.....

Well its about 7:00 pm here in Nigeria and we are on our way to the airport. We fly out soon. We fly to Amsterdam and then to Chicago. We are all very excited to be back home. It was a life changing trip for many of us! Looking back some of my favorite things has been the service work (working in villages, playing with children, meeting wonderful Nigerian people). We have made friendships that will last a lifetime and many of us will be back to Africa again I'm sure. I know I will. Right before I left for this trip I had a friend tell me "Africa gets in your blood." How true that is! I love the people here and plan to be back many times to help those that need it---especially the children. Our team leader, Elise told the group during a meeting that,"the only difference between American children and african children is ONE thing---OPPORTUNITY!" How true that is.

We will all do our best to be the voice for these people that need our help. Rotary is a wondrful organization that we can partner with to do this!

Thank you all for following. I might post a few more times and then will post pictures when I get home. Thank you for all the comments and prayers. It got me through during the tough times. Love you all!

Kelli

winding down...

Today is Friday and our last day here in Africa! I can't believe how fast it has gone. The team is a little tired and emotionally drained from the entire experience. It will be nice to be back on US soil. I also know I can't wait to eat American food! I've lost some weight while I've been here as have many of the team members. I just can't get used to their spicy food! And one can only eat so much chicken and rice! :) The other day after I was under the weather someone offered me chicken and rice and I almost threw up when I smelled it! :) I'm thankful for all the food we have in America! This thanksgiving and ones to come will always be more meaningful to me after this experience.

Yesterday we traveled 3 hours from the Yankari game reserve back to Jos for 2 more days of work. The drive went fast and we visited 2 sites yesterday afternoon. The first was a school for the blind. It is absolutely amazing how resilient the people there are. Most are adults learning a type of trade they can use to prosper in their upcoming years. They need a well and supplies so we looked at meeting those needs. We also presented them with a few gifts. They were so happy and thankful. Its hard enough to see how poor the people in Africa are but then to see them with a disability like blindness. I know they must get their strength from God or they wouldn't be able to continue. I've learned so many lessons on this trip and on our way back from the school of the blind I learned another....I have been blessed with so much. What am I going to do with all the talents and abilities God has given me? Am I going to use them to benefit myself like I've been doing or use them to be a voice for those less fortunate? Well I decided right then and there that is exactly what I'm going to do. God made me with a little fire in my belly and I will use it to do more for others. I am so excited to come back and light the fire in others to help the people of Africa...especially Nigeria!

After we left the school of the blind we went to another orphanage. Now I've said in other blogs before how difficult this is for me. I knew this would be no different. We arrived at the orphanage to help with some project work. After that was finished we went to visit the children to give them beanie-babies! They loved their babies we gave them. They just held on to them for dear life. One child tried right away to take another child's beanie and a small fight broke out! :) it was cute though--they already were so protective of their gift we had given them! They also love to be held and they love all the attention. When we were getting ready to leave they hold on to your pants or cry or both. That is so hard for me! I walked out of the orphanage once again with tears running down my face! I hate leaving them there!!!

However I know I will be back someday and when I come back it will be to provide them with even more. I hope when I come back they all have been adopted!! That would make me so happy.

Okay I'll send a couple more blogs throughout the day on Fridays activities as well as some funny stories I still need to share. Keep checking the blog these next few days and thank you ALL for the prayers and kind words. They have helped me through this experience as many of you know it hasn't been easy!

Love you all!

Kelli

Safari...

This morning we got up early to go on an early morning safari. There is something very surreal about driving out in the jungle where there are elephants and lions roaming freely! So cool. We drove around for about an hour and a half and all we saw were birds--which were beautiful but no big animals. We are going to head back out for an evening safari later on and our guides tell us we are more likely to see the lions, elephants, etc tonight!! We are excited about that.

The rest of the day we are going to relax and all take a dip in the natural spring here on the grounds. Its like a natural "hot tub." :)

I will keep everyone posted about the evening safari. We hope to see some cool things.

Yankari Game Reserve..

Today we are taking 2 days to spend time at the Yankari Game Reserve about 2 hours east of Jos Nigeria. Its one of the largest game reserves in Africa. We are all very excited to have a few days to see the beautiful animals, etc. Several people on our trip have gone there before and says its amazing. We need some time to relax before finishing off the week working at schools, orphanages, and visiting other potential project sites. I will keep everyone updated on how the safaris go. We are going on an early morning safari tomorrow and an evening safari tonight. I hope to have cell service on my blackberry so I can blog. If I don't I'll be sure to catch everyone up on Thursday when we all get back to Jos.

Kelli

Orphanage visit...

Greetings blog followers. Today is Monday here in Nigeria. Its been a tough day for me. First I woke up and the food has finally gotten to me----many trips to the bathroom facilities. They say it will happen eventually. We are just not used to the food. I have meds I brought from the US that will wipe it all out within a day. Pray I get my strength back.

We went on a orphanage visit today to see what needs the facility and children had. It was such a hard thing for me to see. There were about 15 children there. One child really touched my heart. He was craving attention and after we brought gifts for them we were about to leave. As we were saying our goodbyes he would not let go of my leg. It was so hard. I cried a lot and am still having a hard time. I want so badly to take them all home with me, however I know that is not possible. I'm going to have to really work hard when I get back to raise money and team up with Rotary to help these children as much as we can! They deserve it! I love them so much and will work hard to be their voice.

That's all for now. Thank you for the prayers. We have been here now for over a week and many of us feel emotionally and physically drained. Keep lifting us up so we can help these people of Nigeria...they need us!

Church

Today is Sunday and our team got up and went to a local church here in Jos. It was so refreshing to hear the Nigerian people sing and worship. Very cool!

Its hard to describe the atmosphere in this place. But I'll do my best to describe church today...

We got their and walked in and sang several songs. Then the pastor gave the sermon and it was so awesome. The team and I discussed after church how we thought it was directed towards us. The pastor talked about having patience! It spoke to many of us bc its been hard for us to be away from our families and with people we don't know very well for 2 weeks. However God does things in his own time so we have to remember that when becoming impatient.

 We then had communion and church was done. It was a very meaningful service to me...as I looked around the church I saw many white people in the crowd. I later learned this church was where many missionaries that work in Nigeria go to church. Wow! I couldn't imagine doing this all the time. Its been hard enough for me to do it for 2 weeks. I just have the most respect for these people and will continue to pray for them. I met several of them after the service and of course they are the most loving people you will ever meet. I was happy I got to meet and visit with them!

We are relaxing, doing laundry, journaling, etc the rest of the day until we start back to work tomorrow!

Cheeseburger in Paradise!

On Saturday most of the day we traveled from Kaduna to Jos which was about a 4 hour drive. That can be brutal when its 95 degrees outside and they don't believe in air conditioning here! :)

After we arrived we were greeted by several Nigerian Rotarians and they took us to lunch in Jos.

Jos is much cooler climate than Kaduna. Probably close to 10 degrees cooler. I noticed the difference right away. It seems much nicer here---don't sweat all the time. We are going to really enjoy that.

Jos also has less Muslim population and more Christians. However, we were told that a year ago there were some uprisings in this area between several tribes. About 400 people were killed! We go everywhere with guards. We feel very safe and they take very good care of us. I have never felt like I was in any danger here.

Anyway....we were taken to lunch and it was a lebonese restaurant and they served food we recognized! I have never been so excited as when I saw they had a CHEESEBURGER and fries!!! I was in heaven. No more rice for a change. :) Most of us got a burger and fries and a soda. It was the best. I was so happy.

After lunch we came back to our rooms and got ready for a meeting with fellow Rotarians. We went to that and enjoyed fellowship with them. Its always so interesting to meet the Nigerian people and sit and talk with them. I always ask a lot of questions to help understand their culture. They always explain things so well to help us understand. While at fellowship we had the honor of meeting a retired 4 star general of Nigeria. That would be like the equivalent of meeting Colin Powell from the US. It was pretty cool. Much of our trip we have met many significant people from this country bc they respect what Rotary International is trying to do for their country.

After fellowship we headed to bed. It was a good day. Tomorrow is Sunday and we will be attending church and resting the rest of the day before we start working in villages and orphanages on Monday and Tuesday.