Prison

Day 2:
I had real difficulty putting into words what I wanted to say about this day, so I apologize for the late post (if anyone but my momma actually is following my blog).

Just look at those smiles.

Firstly, our schedule has changed so much that NOTHING is as it was originally planned.  When we left the hotel in the morning we were under the impression that we were going to an orphanage, but instead arrived at a prison.  Clearly, it's very important to be flexible here in Kenya.  At the prison we met up with the Kenyan national volleyball team (who our Baylor volleyball team will play and beat next week).  It turns out that these girls actually train and work at the prison.  We got an opportunity to talk with them about their lives and get to know them pretty well, very cool.  After our slight detour we arrived at the Maximum Miracle Orphanage where we donated 10 mattresses to the kids who had been sharing with one another in hopes that they will all be able to have their own beds now. (Sidenote: the mattresses are so cute and colorful with flowers and pretty patterns, I would very much like it if American mattresses were not so boring.)  Finally towards the end of the day we worked a sports clinic at a school somewhere in Nairobi.  At the clinic we had several stations including: volleyball, soccer, acrobatics and tumbling, and American football.  This basically rendered basketball, equestrian, and track people useless, but instead of sitting around we started a dance party, an aerobic workout session, footraces, and helped out the acro girls with the limited amount of tumbling we can do.  Eventually some of us started stunting the kids, which by far was the coolest part of the day for me.  There were SO MANY kids and they were amazed and so happy just to be lifted into the air, such a simple thing.  More than anything I think it helped us to connect with them and for them to really open up to us.  After that a group of girls followed me around asking me to dance, I was flattered because they were much better dancers than I am.  Basically the purpose of us going into some of these places is not to play an hour of sports, but to open doors for our Kenyan based ministry to step in and start a relationship with these schools, etc.

Dance party!

Day 3:
Today we actually intended to go to the prisons.  I again went to the women's prison, just like last year, and another group went to the men's prison.  However, unlike last year I was not intimidated by the negative stigma we normally attach prison.  Kenyan prisons I think are in a way much nicer than American prisons.  For example, I've been to a juvenile delinquency center near Waco a few times and was much more afraid there than I have ever been in Kenya.  Coming to the prisons this year I knew that I was in a safe place with kind people.  The women, despite their circumstances, are so joyful.  In American detention centers there is constant negativity and violence, the women in prison here constantly have smiles on their faces and Jesus on their lips and their hearts.

This is the only picture I was able to get of the prison because cameras were not allowed inside.

We played volleyball and basketball today, and I was able to help with basketball.  They loved it!  It was so much fun for us, the prisoners, and the guards alike.  We did several drills having to do with basketball and then tried some relay races with a partner holding the ball between your heads, hips, backs, etc and running to the end of the court and back.  Eventually they invited us to do an aerobic workout with their prison trainer and it was HARD!  I hope Baylor coaches never learn about his style of workout:  high kicks, squats, jogging, dance moves, etc.  I think everyone was genuinely exhausted after.

We finished up at the women's prison a little early and met up with our other crew at the men's prison.  Although we weren't able to do much there but pick them up, there was a track with Kenyan Olympians training right there within the prison.  I think because the government runs the prisons that they really are nice facilities and that's what draws national teams and Olympians to train at the different ones.

Kibera Slum

Finally, we stopped by a cliff overhanging the largest slum on the continent of Africa called Kibera.  Over 1 million people live within the slum which is only roughly 1 Km long, incredible and incredibly sad.