The summer after I graduated from high school, I went on a service trip to Kenya for three weeks with four other girls from my school.

The main focus of our trip was to support and assist a local organization dedicated to assisting orphans who had been impacted by HIV/AIDS, Twana Twitu which translates into 'Our Children'. In addition to our main focus of assisting and serving the needs of children in the community who had been orphaned as a result, both direct or indirect, of HIV/AIDS we also spent a bit of time exploring the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi.

During our time in Nairobi, we spent an afternoon visiting with girls around our age (mid-to-late teenage years) who lived in Kibera.

Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi and the largest urban slum in the whole of Africa. During our visit, we met with community volunteers from the Carolina for Kibera organization. The experience was eye-opening and some of the exchanges I had with those girls have remained vivid in my memory since that day all those years ago.

Visiting The Giraffe Center outside of Nairobi, Kenya

 

 

Hiking along the Great Rift Valley

Traveling to and volunteering in the Migwani District in eastern Kenya

Lake Nakuru National Park, Nakuru, Kenya