There and back again: Two Odessa girls help change the world

We would like to start with a big hug for all of the support (financial and/or spiritual) that the Odessa community gave us for this amazing journey! No matter how great we are at describing the events, feelings, emotions and the people we met on our trip, we can never do it justice! We are convinced that you need to go and experience it for yourselves!

The organization that we worked with was the 410 Bridge. They are such an awesome organization. They have five core principles that they focus on in each community: water, education, health care, entrepreneurship, and of course spiritual health. These pillars help to build up and encourage growth in the community. The name comes from 1 Peter 4:10, "Serve each other according to the gift each person has received, as good managers of God's diverse gifts." This is something you all have done with your support of our trip! They also firmly support the idea of a bridge, us, as their American friends, are willing to help them to improve and develop their community. However, we are only willing to do this by helping them, not doing it for them. This model gives the people of Kenya ownership of the activities and ownership of these improvements. The model is dedicated to empowerment through Godly support. For more information see: http://www.410bridge.org.

After almost a whole day on the airplane (22 hours), we finally got to meet our team. They had been in Nairobi for a few hours already, just waiting for us. We jumped on the bus and off we went! We drove for approximately two hours on a paved road to get to our hotel. We had running water and flushing toilets! What a treat, definitely not what we had been preparing ourselves for. Later we would learn that the community had little to no running water and pit latrines (which are basically holes in the ground used in lieu of a toilet). At the gas stations, they had "fancy" pit latrines, which had tiled floors… Regardless of how fancy or how basic these things were, they never failed to be stinky and full of creepy crawlies (did we mention we both hate spiders).

Out to the community was another two-hour drive on a very primitive, very bumpy, very spine- compacting dirt road. Worse than any road around Odessa and I've worked on the county road crew. We took this road two times every day. It was then that we learned that Kiria (our community) means "flooded" in the native language. As the name suggests, the roads were half flooded, and therefore a muddy mess.

When we got to the community, we were greeted by the whole community singing and dancing. They sang and danced for about half an hour which ended with a time of fellowship to get to know the people before we were off on a "short" hike up to the water source (which just so happened to be halfway up a mountain). This short hike was approximately two kilometers straight up hill through a mud pit of farmland.

We then crossed a huge electric fence that was built by the government to keep the elephants, lions, and other wild things out of the farmland. We were not scared at all… every bush that rattled or sound that was heard made our entire team jump. Needless to say, we were a little on edge walking unprotected through the homes of all the wild African animals. By the time we made it to the water source, we were all huffing and puffing. One of the community members told us that prior to the 410 Bridge entering this community (and helping to create a piping system that delivered the water down the mountain to the community), the people would make this hike ten to twenty times a day to gather water, yikes! In 2008, they started the water project which dammed up the water source and piped it down to four locations in the community, making it so they no longer had to hike the mountain just to get (semi) clean water! Future water projects are aimed to increase the dam size and pipe water to every house in the community. Our Kenyan leader was so very nice and on the way home stopped so that our entire team could buy gumboots (what we call irrigation boots). Everyone's feet were so happy the rest of the trip!

Day two, we started our service project. When we were told that we would be doing roadwork as our service project, both of us were less than thrilled, to put it in a nice way. But after being a part of it, wow, we really made an impact on those people's lives.

Around Christmas, the rainy season starts in Kiria, which means the roads get so muddy that they are impassable. Part of the money we paid to go on the trip went to buy small boulders. These were hauled in for us to use to fix the roads. When we showed up the entire community was waiting for us. That in itself was a humbling sight to see! We took these small boulders, placed them in the deep muddy ruts, broke them into small pieces with sledge hammers (ok, the men did that part), and covered them back up with mud and grass. What a process!

The road was then passable! Everyone worked. If you could walk, you were working – everyone from the children, to the women with no shoes on, to the old men. Moreover, not one person complained – just like around here, right? Ha! There was such a sense of community, commitment and pride. Everyone uses that road, so, everyone helped. When everything was said and done, we completed about two miles of roadwork. The people of Kiria can now come and go as they please. There is still a lot more road work to be done, but at least they can get in and out of the community for the next month (which is something that isn't always possible during the rainy season)!

After our intense roadwork, we had the privilege to experience home visits. Our team was divided into four small groups. Our group visited a man who is 86 years old! He was very happy to have us in his home and told us great stories. This man fought for Africa's freedom against the British, has eight children, a mess of grandchildren and great grandchildren, and was struck by lightning only three years ago! Wow. This man was amazing. A young man from Kiria said that people come to this man for wisdom and advice. Later in the week, we came back to spend more time with him, hear more stories, and share a meal with him. It was a great experience!

Church was an all day event. They do some serious worship in Kenya! An hour of singing and dancing, an hour of announcements/business/current issues, and an hour of preaching. I found it very interesting how applicable their current issues with an election coming up are to things that we faced not too long ago with our own elections.

Afterwards we had a time of fellowship with the elders while the children played outside. We then went to the city center to participate in a “crusade.” A crusade is where every church (about eight total) in Kiria gets together for a community-wide worship. This happens about once a month starting in the afternoon and continuing late into the night. We were only there for three hours of dancing, singing and worshiping, but, wow, were we all exhausted.

Our last day was very emotional for everyone. The guy’s played checkers with the men and the ladies painted the nails of the women and children. The look on those women’s faces when the lotion was rubbed into their hands was priceless (especially since many of them had never had such an experience before) along with the chatter and giggles that broke out once they smelled their soft n' smooth hands. It was nice to give them such a special treat. The entire community gathered once again to say goodbye to our team. They (of course) sang and danced for us, and presented us with hand-made cards with names that had been chosen for us by the people of the community, in the native language. Tasha's, Nyakiambi, means confident woman, and Jessica's, Njoki, means girl who returns to where she travels to (hmm, I wonder if they were trying to tell me something).

In only one week the relationships that were made were life-changing. The people of Kenya and of Kiria are so raw, and so real, not masked by any expectations or hiding behind any false sense of identity. Though we (regretfully) didn't bring any of the children home with us, and had to leave behind so many fulfilling friendships, we also left behind a piece of our hearts and the expectations, ideas and standards that we came to Kenya with, thinking we had to fulfill some certain level of achievement in order to be considered "successful" as a member of the United States of America.

No, we left that all behind. If there was one thing we saw in Africa, it was true happiness. We experienced people who dedicate themselves to relationships with others, not measured by money, belongings or any worldly possessions that seem to steal our focus all too often here in the U.S. As we try to get back in the swing of our life in the United States we hold tight to the memories of our new friends halfway around the world, and of the many "thumbs up" and smiling faces of those amazing kids. We brought back with us an appreciation of all that we have truly been blessed with and a longing to be better stewards of what we have been given. Though we're not sure exactly when it's going to happen, we both plan on going back to the community that stole our hearts and consumes our thoughts. Thanks again for everyone who helped enable us to take part in such an amazing experience. Your support has changed the world. Can you believe it?! Two girls from Odessa helped to change the world! God Bless!

Sisters Natasha and Jessica Heimbigner are the college-aged daughters of Scott and Sherie Heimbigner of Odessa.