Hope continues

The journey so far . . .

A typical flight from Heathrow to Nairobi. Though it did felt like we were being followed.

Landing in Nairobi, we recovered our bags. Thank God that we had no incidence of missing bags. The hotel was just a few minutes from the airport. We had some team briefings from Ben, and we were off to our rooms, for a good night rest. Well, not before a plate of Spaghetti Bolognese.

The next day (yesterday) was all about getting to Arusha, Tanzania. We left early (8am). Somehow, they tend to keep to time. I think they are forgetting we are in Africa 😊. However, the rest of the journey felt very much like being back in Lagos. From the Police check points to the lack of traffic rules, the local market stalls to the motor cylces, I couldn't help the feeling of Nostalgia.

The hotel in Arusha is lovely. Wonderful staff, food and surroundings. I guess we are being pampered, before facing the "joy" of the mountain.

My highlight so far was meeting 3 of the graduates from the Compassion project. They shared some of their stories of how they had been impacted by the programme. Some quick highlights

• 2 were from single parent families. In all cases though, the families were struggling with providing the basics.
• One almost died when the family could not pay for his appendicitis operation. It was finally funded by Compassion. 
• One discovered herself and her self worth through the programme.
• The 3 have gone on to University, 2 Accountants, and 3rd year Mech Engineering student. And are now willing to give back to the community.
• The sense of gratitude was profound.

For me, I could see practically that this was a means of escaping the poverty trap. Equip a generation of young ones, and when they are old, their children would probably not be caught in the poverty trap. 

I understand that Compassion Tanzania has more than 90,000 children across more than 400 projects. Kudos guys, keep up the good job.