The day two of our kids were supposed to be flying to Kenya to return to school we were still unsure what would happen. Kenya was in the midst of a COVID spike that caused increased restrictions several weeks earlier. We are incredibly grateful that they even got home for this break since the day the Kenyan government announced that all schools would close within 24hours, and all travel between counties was banned, and that flights, etc would be affected was the day before they were already scheduled to come home.
So their return to school was delayed by 2 weeks. The kids were a bit nervous about that – since this all felt a little too familiar. About the exact same time last year, they were told they may return late for the next term. They thought they were coming home for ~36 days and ended up being gone for ~365.
However, things did calm down in Kenya, and they had only 2 weeks online, and have now returned. The school is doing a great job managing COVID risks, and has brought back hundreds of kids travelling from countries all over Africa, and so far after one full week have zero positive covid cases, and zero known direct contacts!
It did seem like a cruel irony that for Mother’s Day we gave three moms the gift of sending their kids to another country, but – hey….these are strong moms!
Since there are now kids from three Kibuye families who go to RVA, and since we have to stay overnight in Buja in order to get to the airport for their flight – it was kind of like a mini-retreat for us the day before the kids left. Getting down to the big city is always an experience – especially at a fancy hotel with a pool. The kids made good use of it, diving, chicken fights, assorted shenanigans, and what I’m quite sure was a game of “Marco Polio.”
(once again…I’ll let Jonah give you a feel for what it felt like – at least for the kids.)
Staying at this hotel means you can watch them fly right over, as the hotel is basically at the end of the runway of the airport. So we wave goodbye, and the kids wave in the plane. And no one can see anyone -but we all know what to do. Living by faith I suppose, doing things you know to be true and meaningful in some way, even though you can’t always see it.
Matea sent us this picture of them when they landed back in Nairobi. “Home” is such a loaded term for Third Culture Kids like ours. In some ways you could say they don’t really have ‘a home’ – but in some very rich ways they have ‘homes.’ So they’re back to their RVA home, back with their friends, and teachers, and people who lead and mentor and teach and care for them. Still hard to send them away – but so thankful for that school and all it’s meant to our family.
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