Thursday evening

Phew! It has been an exhausting day here at Daraja! Our day started at 5:50 am, where we all hiked up the hill to watch the sun rise. After finally reaching our destination, we took a 20 minute solo time and reflected on our time here at Daraja. Watching the African sun rise was a great way to start our busy day!

After our hike we got right to work, finishing up all of our ongoing projects. All before morning tea, the shamba shed, the benches and gridding of the mural on the front gate were completed. It seemed t1hat after 2 weeks at Daraja, all of our hard work paid off. However, we had no time to reflect on our projects and went straight to the girl's soccer tournament at the all boys school, Nanyuki High School. As we cheered on the girls during the game, we also started to meet some of the Nanyuki boys and learned a new perspective on the Kenyan culture. Some of these boys even asked for our facebooks and emails!

Unfortunately, the girl's games were not as successful as we had all hoped, and we arrived at Daraja in low spirits and red sunburns. But in the true Daraja way of life, it didn't last too long and we all happily enjoyed our dinner of spaghetti and laughs. As part of our final day celebration, we watched a slide show from the past two weeks, some of the photos even taken by the Daraja students. Finally, our day ended with a dance party that quickly turned into tears and hugs.

As we end our time here at Daraja, we can't help but realize the wealth of knowledge we've acquired about the girls and about ourselves. Although we may all be tear filled and sorrowful now, we know that our time here was well spent. Our original goal was to change and help improve the lives of the Daraja students in any way possible. Little did they realize that they were the ones that changed ours. We leave Daraja with a new adventure awaiting in the Mesi Mara, but we won't ever forget these past couple of weeks as the highlight of the trip.

Our time at Daraja started and ended the same way: with a hug. These girls are famous for their ongoing affection and love for everyone and we hope that when we finally arrive home in the US, we can pass on that love.

Thanks for following the blog  family, friends, and others who somehow stumbled upon this page! We can't wait to see you all in SFO in a couple of days!

Kwaherini

Olivia