Kenya and Tanzania: All the feelings

In by Veeeee // 8:19 PM // 1 comment

Hello everyone!

So, Kenya and Tanzania. People keep asking me "how was your trip?!" It's so sweet and feels nice when people ask but I'm having a hard time answering them. I have so many answers to the question. I often find myself wanting to say "How much do you want to know?" or "How much time do you have?" or "Do you want the feel-good version or are you really asking?" It was everything. All the feelings happened. It was amazing, challenging, exhausting, fun, scary, incredible sense of community, deeply sad, inspiring, tiring, emotional, everything. You name it, I felt it. This post will be like an overview of the trip and then subsequent posts will be more specific. My own processing of everything is still happening so the content and how I categorize them is likely to shift as I sift through my thoughts :) You have been warned.

We did a lot of moving around on this trip. The longest we stayed in one place was 4 nights, most places we stayed for only 1 or 2 nights. We didn't stay in every place we visited, some places we were there for just the day. In Kenya we landed in Nairobi and visited Karen, Naivasha, Kibera, Namanga, and Amboseli National Park. In Tanzania we were in Arusha, Moshi, Dar es Salaam, and Bagamoyo. Some days we traveled the whole day but not many. Most days consisted of workshops in the morning and skill shares in the afternoon. Twice we worked children from the community. Workshops mainly involved the group from the states and the 6 Kenyan and Tanzanian partners.
Some of the skill shares were bookmaking, dyeing with natural dyes, printmaking, and break dancing. Some of the workshops were mandalas and engaging with art, violence against women, grief and loss and creative writing, intro to dance therapy...there were several more but those are what come to mind right now.

At night we would go to dinner and after dinner we usually hung around the hotel and talked, drank, and enjoyed each other's company. Sometimes people would turn in early or want to have some alone time. I found myself doing both. I had a very difficult time emotionally keeping up with everything that was happening. I tend to be a deep processor and need the time and space to do that, but usually that was just not something I could fit in. It was a challenge to manage everything. I was going a lot of writing and a lot of drawing. Looking back I don't think I was really processing though, I think I was just trying to contain it all so I didn't have an avalanche of epic meltdowns.

Whether you choose to or not, you get really close to the people you are traveling with. I have found this to be one of the many gifts of this trip but also one of the things that made me have a really hard time. I made several friends who I am really excited to be colleagues with and see over the years at conferences or trip reunions and stuff. There is definitely something to be said for a shared experience of a trip like this one.

Well, I think that's what I have right now. There will be a series of posts on the trip so follow along if you're interested. I'll end with some pictures :)

Somehow this girl and I managed to almost miss several flights over the course of the trip, including our very first one from STL to Chicago. I'm still not sure how we made it all the way there and back.