Day 13 Experiences--Tuesday, June 30

First a few comments on my father's post. Yes, I have been without internet for almost 4 full days now, making that the second hiatus from the internet I have had this trip (the first being 5 days). I am back to posting now, and despite almost getting caught up am going to have to now make many many posts a day to try to make up lost time, plus I have no idea when I will be able to get back on the internet again, maybe not for another 5 days. It is now day 20 here so obviously I have my work cut out for me. My other comment is that for those wondering where in the world is Joseph, if you dont know by now, you have obviously not been reading anything. To answer the question, I am in Africa, to be more precise, Kenya, to be most precise Nairobi, to be mostest precise, the Karen district of Nairobi, to be even more mostestest precise, in Pastor Winterles house. To be even most mostestest precise, in his computer room.

Okay, enough of the shennanigans, on to day 13

-Today was my dear brother Jason's birthday. Happy birthday to my best friend. I miss you. We all miss you. Currently he is in Africa himself serving our country and all of us once again. We love you Jason Ross Highley. Come back safe and soon.

-This was my last day being with the whole group. Their flight left at 6 today. Sad to see them go. I will never forget them and my experiences with them. They were all truly wonderful. Every last one of them. Ive already mentioned how great the Wehmeier family had been, and all the others as well, from Bob and the great stories we shared to Michael and his friendship, to all the others, as well that were so great. I thank you. Truly I do, I need to have a post dedicated to just all of them so I can mention them all. Thank you once again.

-I woke up thinking one about the rain from the night before, and thought of my dear friend and storm buddy Lindsey because of that as well.

-I also woke up thinking about a certain song that goes a little bit like this ``I am Victoria, oh I am Victoria! Taking all of Dan's stars away... Take! Take! I am Victoria...`` It made me smile to think of it and miss all my friends and loved ones back home, so basically all of you reading this now!

-I might get to meet a Hollywood group coming over to build a school that has lots of celebrities. That would be cool. We will see if it happens. I have a feeling no, but there is a chance.

-We visited the churches at Kawangware and Kibera today and I want to make special post just for the one at Kibera so I will say nothing more about it for now. Kawangware is where I will be (and to this writing have been) doing a lot of the work I will be doing now that the group will be gone. It is located in a slum much like the giant slum at Kibera, though a little nicer, probably in that it is not as tightly packed together with a few dirt roads running through it, whereas Kibera is so tight you couldnt fit a car in most of the walkways and seperations between buildings.

-Saw not only the church at the Kibera slum, but the Kibera slum up close for the first time. A train track runs right through the middle of it and you can see where rioters in the violence last year literally tore up the tracks and flung them away. They have not been moved since that time even though the rail itself was repaired. There is dust and garbage and waste everywhere. Someone read in a magazine that there are more churches in the slum than there are toilets (and there are estimated to be over 1.5 million living there, whereas the city of Nairobi is only 3 million people, meaning half the people live in the slums). In regards to the point this makes, it says that one, there are a lot of churches, but more so, t really indicates that there are little to no toilets for people to use, which only adds to the waste problem. If something like the flu or the plague struck in a place like this they would all be dead within weeks. It is just a filthy mass of people living tightly. The smell was overpowering in many places. I dont know what to do for these people other than to just pray pray pray.

Well, I suppose that is all for this day, I feel like this is a long post already, and I know that I wrote a lot on some of the following days too, so here comes a lot of posts tonight for which I apologize in advance.

In Christ
Joseph