“Slow and mindful steps, slow and steady breaths,” is another mantra that Emily and I used throughout our trek through Canada in order to keep ourselves conscious of our movements, and it is another mantra that I have found extraordinarily important to keep in mind during all of my experiences throughout Kenya. In true circular fashion, I felt it would truly complete this series of blog posts if I conclude with another mantra from Canada since it is how this all began. Recall: “Are you in the moment?” The mantra that took my adventurous spirit from the state of dream-hood to reality, and that serves as a reminder meaning more than I ever thought words could mean, as well as a catalyst for my growth. Not only do these mantras help to keep me present and grounded, but they give me the serenity I need to prosper in any given situation. Each and every adventure that I go on is a way for me to challenge myself to further develop, and my time in Kenya thus far has provided me with that opportunity as well.
As the past few weeks have come to a close, plenty of goodbyes have had to happen, but luckily they’ve been followed by a few hellos! The hardest part for me about saying goodbye though is that I have to let go of things that I’ve become so attached to, however small. For instance, the way that the security guard at my home in Eldoret greeted me every morning with a huge smile on his face, sending me off with well wishes for my day, to the way that the chef at the compound jovially said “karibu” (you’re welcome) after being thanked each meal. Saying goodbye to those people, even those people that I’ve only exchanged a few words with, is so hard because of the impact that they’ve had on my life, and I can never thank them enough for all of the ways that they’ve changed me.
It’s such a double-edged sword however, because the best part of travel is the people that I meet, even though ultimately it leads to the inevitable goodbye. One of the many reasons why I love travel so much is for the opportunity to interact with people, have them share their culture with me, and genuinely have my eyes opened to perspectives I never would have thought of before. There are many people that I’ve met these past four months who I know I may never see again, and many others who I’m certain that I will. But either way, I want to thank everyone in Kenya for welcoming me into their hearts, and helping me to find a new place to call home. Everyone that I met wanted me to tell America that they said hello, so what better avenue than this blog! “Hello from Kenya!”
So let’s start,with the end then. I left Kenya and landed for a layover in Amsterdam. The first place that I saw when walking off the plane was a Starbucks and I beelined for it, fiending for my iced chai latte. As I took my first sip, I realized that it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as I’d expected it to be, and the rest of it didn’t fulfill me the way I’d hoped it would either. As strange as this may seem, this was the first inkling I had that everything was different. I guess to understand why this was so significant to me, you would have to know that I spent literally every penny of my meal plan at Hofstra on iced chai lattes from Starbucks the previous semester. So the fact that I no longer enjoyed the flavor anymore, well you can imagine. As I said, I knew that everything was different.
I had a bit longer to ruminate on this during my flight into New York, although mostly in a fatigued and clouded state of mind, aka. a completely unproductive line of thought. This time when I got off the plane, I was concerned primarily with how I was going to receive all of the love I was bound to be bombarded with from my family at Hofstra. A couple of my “sisters” picked me up from the airport and we went out to IHOP to meet some of our “brothers”. We took the same drive from the airport towards my school that I’d taken from my school to the airport prior to my departure for Kenya, but absolutely everything looked different. The very things that I passed and thought “jeez I’m going to miss that” were the very things that I now looked at and said “damn, I could definitely live without that.” And then being with everyone was far more natural than I expected even though I spent the majority of my time trying to stay awake (going on 30+ hours of no sleep). I spent our time at the restaurant taking note of the smallest things, like the condensation on my glass of water because of the ice, an unfamiliar feeling now that my fingers and tongue had been without for a bit of time. During the rest of the weekend, I stayed with my friends and attended graduation where the true fin to a chapter concluded. This inspired me to prepare more thoroughly for my future. I left graduation and went immediately to purchase GRE preparation books with the intent of attending graduate school. This however, is outside of the scope of this post!
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| Love you Grandma!! |
Although there are so many aspects of everything that I could discuss, that will have to come at a later date because at this time, everything is still very overwhelming and I’m trying to process it all! But as I begin to formulate more thoughts, I will be sure to document them here.
I’ve come a far way from what I once was but am not yet what I’m going to be, and I am so looking forward to continuing to develop throughout the rest of my formative years, and hopefully for the rest of my life! Nimeshukuru sana sana!! Thank you so much for following me along this journey, and here’s to many many more! (PS, please feel free to click on the link to Instagram below for a more up-to-date view of the adventures I’m on throughout this summer).
Siku njema!
Beca
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