"The end of a matter, is better than its beginning."

"The end of a matter, is better than its beginning..." - Ecclesiastes 7:8

(Or As my Dad may have written "The ending is just the beginning"...Ronnie James Dio, Black Sabbath)

 It is hard to believe that my trip has come to an end.

Ecclesiastes got it right- (unless its the end of the last slice of a chocolate cake, of course).

Before I started my journey, I thought being in Africa for six months was going to be the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  As of four days ago, however, I have discovered that the hardest thing I've ever had to do is leave Africa. After nearly two months in The Gambia and three months in Kenya it is a strange feeling to be in England, and having tea with "the Queen" at Windsor (only kidding with my Queen Grandma !!)

   As most of you know, my original plan was to spend six months in The Gambia and maybe a week or two in Kenya. But plans change. And I couldn't be happier that they did. Getting to know the kids and staff at Rafiki has been a true blessing.
As expected there was a huge difference between America and Africa. What I hadn't expected was the difference between The Gambia and Kenya. This adventure has given me the opportunity to learn about two new cultures and through that I have begun to appreciate these small differences and see how they make each of us our own person.
I have met some of the most inspirational people while in Africa. Each person I have met had their own story, not all the stories were as expected and now I can add my own story to a big book of unexpected life journeys.

  Before I left many people questioned why I would want to put of college and spend half a year in a third world country, away from home and away from all the comforts that that entails. Today I have an answer for those people. I went because of people like the characters in my book of unexpected stories. Life happens and we have to learn to adapt. It is how we adapt that determines the plot of our journey.

     Its been four days and I am still trying to sort out everything that has happened on my adventure of a lifetime. What I have experienced has left me at a loss for words. That's not right. It has left me at a loss for ADEQUATE words.

 I have plenty to say and much to the annoyance of my family (I am sure) I could go on for days about the amazing time I have had. It is going to take me a while to compile everything and I promise that when my brain isn't running at a hundred miles an hour I will update you all again.

 But for now I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way. I want to say thank you to my friends back home who worked so hard to keep in touch. I know I wasn't the best at responding to emails and facebook messages but you stuck with me.

I want to thank all the staff at WYCE and Rafiki for having me as a volunteer for so many months. Both organizations are there for the betterment of the children's future and both could use your help. I have added the links to both of their websites so you can learn more about them and their missions.

 I wish to thank my Auntie Sara and Uncle Ebs and all my Gambian family for taking me in and for trying to make the transition as easy as possible for me. They also allowed me the opportunity to "take the stabilizers" off earlier than expected and be more independent.

I also want to thank Grace, for being a friend, a mentor, an inspiration, a big sister, and somebody that understood what I was going through. Without you I probably would have started talking to myself and the kids would have really thought I was even crazier.

 My extended family in England have been some of the most supportive people my whole life albeit from afar and over the past few months their support has only increased.

This blog would just be another random web page if it weren't for all my followers and readers. Thank you for caring enough about what I say to keep checking up on me. Thank you guys!

 Most of all I want to thank my sisters and my parents back in the US. To my sisters, Orla and Enya, being your big sister definitely helped prepare me for working in an orphanage with 30 girls wanting to borrow my clothes and chill out in my room. Thank you for remembering that I am always there for you and for making me laugh from thousands of miles away. (Enya, sorry I couldn't bring you back a little brother Enya maybe next time ).

Mommy and Daddy, you haven't just helped me while I have been away you have been there for me my whole life. I know it can't be easy at times, taking care of three kids and doing everything in your power to give us the best opportunities in life . I speak for Orla and Enya as well when I say thank you for EVERYTHING.

   The adventure isn't over yet though. Before returning to America I will be spending the next month in England visiting family and relaxing. I promise to keep you all up to date and as soon as I can get my brain and my fingers to go at the same speed I will write more about my adventure.

In the meantime, I was wondering do swans taste better than quail ?:)

 Love and thanks always,
          Niamh

Final Week at Rafiki

Well I can't believe I am in the last week of my trip to Kenya.....next Sunday I fly from Nairobi to London where I will stay with my grandparents and undertake some well deserved R&R before heading back to the States and the next phase of my life as a student at the University of Florida...Go Gators.!!!

I will greatly miss the students and staff at Rafiki and once I catch the "wi-fi bird"  again I will  be providing a full write up of the impact my time in Africa, both in Kenya and The Gambia, has had on me....needless to say it is life changing and spiritually re-affirming....

In the meantime I wanted to share will you something that my Dad will never be able to do (and I don't just mean fitting into some size 32 jeans  :)).

Love Niamh

Here are the respective BEFORE and AFTERS

Before the braids

After the braids

Before the kids

After the kids!!!

Eighteen-18

While in The Gambia I celebrated my eighteenth birthday and this got me thinking what it meant to be 18 in different cultures. 

At the age of eighteen you are seen by the law as an adult, you can vote, you can buy a lottery ticket, and if you commit a crime you are now tried and sentenced as an adult. But are you really an adult? Do others perceive you as an adult? There is some unseen line that we cross on our eighteenth birthday the line between childhood and adulthood. It is like crossing the border from Florida to Georgia, one minute  you’re in Florida and the next you’re in Georgia. It almost seems like you are in the same state, like you never left Florida in the first place. The only way to know is the sign saying “Welcome to Georgia.” What most people miss however is the sign directly after the welcome sign displaying the Georgia law stating that talking on the phone while driving is illegal, . even though it is legal in Florida. A new state, a new set of rules. Much like the new set of rules you get when you turn eighteen.  When you turn eighteen, you get a birthday card as your welcome to adulthood  and a new book of rules to follow.

However it is not the distinction between a child and an adult that interests me. It is the difference between eighteen year olds around the world. There are small differences like the difference between me and my cousins in the UK when they turned eighteen. Living in England, turning eighteen meant my cousins could go down the street to a pub and legally order a beer. A rite of passage I will have to wait three more years to partake in. For them their eighteenth birthday also signified that they could now drive a car, something i have been doing since i was sixteen. These differences seem small and insignificant compared to the differences I here in Africa.

I first noticed it a month ago when a new patient walked in with her one month old baby. She looked young but many Kenyans do. The baby was sick, just a small cough that seemed to be going around the neighborhood. The nurse prescribed medicine for the cough and paracetamol for the pain and small fever.  She paid and left and I did not think twice about her. Two weeks later she came back her baby was feeling better but she was experiencing some pain while breastfeeding. That was when I looked down at her chart and read that she was only eighteen. As the nurse examined her I sat there holding her now six week old daughter. The pain was caused by a small abscess, nothing serious it would burst by itself in a few days and the pain would go away. The nurse prescribed more pain killers and once again the patient paid and left. This time however I could not stop thinking about her.

The expectation of eighteen year olds today in the developed world is that they graduate high school and go off to college. At least that is the American expectation. But what about other countries expectation. Are eighteen year olds in China expected to do something different? What about in Russia? Brazil? India? In Kenya is it expected for our patient to start a family of her own and have children when i still feel like a child in my family?

I wake up at 8 am  to go to class. Our patient wakes up four times throughout the night to feed her crying baby. I grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast. She milks the cow and makes porridge for her family while she still has not eaten. I spend a few hours in class. She spends her whole day cleaning the house and working in the farm. I throw my clothes into the washing machine and press start. She hand washes not only her clothes but her families clothes as well. I spend my extra time hanging out with friends and watching Netflix. She has no extra time.

There is no difference in age but thousands of differences in life. Eighteen!!!

Love always,
      Niamh

R"AAAAAAAAAA"TS!!!

I HATE RATS (and no this is not related to my previous blog on eating !!!.)

 I will admit I have an irrational fear of rodents. Rats, mice, gerbils, guinea pigs, even hamsters. Walking past the rodent section at PETCO sends chills down my spine and makes me feel sick to my stomach. I have made this perfectly clear to all of the children since there has been several rat sightings in the dorms recently.  

So it should not have come as a surprise when they all heard me screaming the other night... apparently even with my fair warning they were not prepared for what they heard. 

I was just minding my own business walking to my room when i flipped on the hallway light and a big back blob of fur ran past me. The seconds that followed were filled with the sound of my screams cut short by the sound of my hyperventilation and the pounding noise my feet made as I ran away as fast as I could. 

Since then I have turned my mosquito net into a rat net.

Love ( for everyone but the rats),
         Niamh

Enjoying "Haute Cuisine" in Kenya

Jambo Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in updating my blog, but for the last month or so I have had very little access to usable wi-fi....(I thought I had found it in Kenya, but perhaps its moved again!!!)

 Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to give an overview of the foods I have enjoyed in Kenya. As mentioned previously this is not really a place for vegetarians and indeed I have had the opportunity to try a few things that I never encountered in the US. These include quail, rabbit, lamb and some other meats of "unknown origin".

Whilst quail may sound very "exotic" as food to be served at an orphanage, I should explain that Rafiki were donated 500 quail and so we were eating this for breakfast, lunch and dinner or so it seemed. (PS I never want to see another quail again though we were very grateful for the donor !!).

Another interesting meal was "Bear".Before my Dad tells me there are no bears in Africa (I know) I should explain that Bear is the name of my sister's pet rabbit back in Florida.

Needless to say, I could not bring myself to eat "Bear" and therefore stuck with the non-meat option that day.


The staple diet consists of a type of collared greens called "Sukama wiki" and a maize based dumpling known as "Ugali". Sukama wiki is a Swahili word that means "stretch the week" and is what the local population eat when they had run out of money for meat.

We also have sweet potatoes which are the size of footballs!!


Rafiki has a small pond where we raise our own fish, so we have a type of catfish that they call "mud fish" (perhaps a little help from the marketing department  on product branding is needed :))

On special occasions we have "Blue Band" which is a type of Kenyan margarine. I mentioned this to my Dad, who said that this was brand that he had as a boy in the UK, so perhaps it's the fact that it is imported that makes it special here.

We also have a bakery at Rafiki that makes fresh bread and was funded in part by "Anonymous of Boca Raton". So thanks to Mr.Anonymous, I have been able to enjoy beautiful healthy bread as well as having a warm place to hang-out when it is cold here.
(PS I know who you are Mr.Anonymous, so thanks for the "dough for the dough" so to speak).

Talking of the weather, it has been very cold and wet here in Kenya. I wish I had brought some warm clothes with my, but luckily I have been able to "borrow" some from my Aunt and from my friend Grace. Sometimes, I forget that originally I was only due to visit The Gambia and had not envisaged needing more than a few t-shirts and skirts. I have had to become very adaptable and resourceful which is the African way, making do and improvising without complaint.

Finally, after discussing with my parents, I have decided that I will not be returning to The Gambia on this trip as originally "planned". Unfortunately, the Ebola situation  makes travel to West Africa difficult and whilst, there are no cases of Ebola reported in The Gambia thank heavens, it has reached Senegal one of the countries I would have to pass through as explained in a previous blog. So no "Planes, Trains and Automobiles part deux" for now.
Whilst I am very disappointed that I will not be returning to The Gambia  on this trip, I know I will return here soon, it has a special place in my heart,  so it is "bye for now, rather than farewell".

Love to all, Niamh xxx

ManiCURES, PediCURES, and InseCURES

    My hands have never felt so soft and my shoes have never smelt so bad. Grace and I had another little adventure to Nairobi today. We visited Susan, another volunteer at Rafiki who owns a salon in Nairobi. In Africa when you get offered a mani pedi you don’t say no. The amount of dirt and dust that accumulates under your nails is enough to build a second Sahara desert. Trust me my feet were beginning to resemble my bright red hair.

    It was also nice to see another side of Kenya. Nairobi exemplifies Africa through its diversity and development. There are parts, such as where Susan’s salon is, which resemble an up and coming western city.   Other areas make you forget you are in Africa, you could just as easily be in NYC or Miami. But what people think of when they think of Africa in general is a continent that is primarily populated by zebras, giraffes, elephants, and slums. Ten minutes outside of Nairobi city center and you would find that Africa. On one side of the road is the Nariboi National Game Reserve. On the other side lies the largest slum in Central and Eastern Africa, Kibera.  As you step out of the car and into the city of Kibera you are first hit with the smell. A smell so significant that it can define a city. It is a combination of everything in the area, the mandazi being fried in hot oil, the damp clothes hanging on wires from hut to hut, and the overpowering scent of human waste. Flying toilets, that is how they use the bathroom in Kibera, nothing more than a plastic bag. Now imagine houses not much bigger than your bedroom at home, packed together like cars in rush hour traffic, barely enough room to walk in between, let alone enough room for kids to play. Street vendors line the sides and it’s the people that control the roads not the cars. Kibera is situated in a valley and on either side houses fill the sloping hills toward a valley floor. The fallen debris and rivers of human waste, used water, and trash collect at the valley floor creating a pit of garbage.

    The difference ten minutes can make. The contrast between Nairobi Center and Kibara is representative of the contrast between a typical western civilization and how that western civilization perceives Africa.  Two sides. One Country. Kenya.

My New "Rafiki"s at Rafiki

   Thanks to "The Lion King" I knew at least one Swahili word before arriving in Kenya, Hakuna Matata. Since being here though I have learned another important Swahili word, "Rafiki" which means friend in English. While in Kenya I have been working/living at Rafiki AIDS/HIV Children's Ministry and it certainly has lived up to its name. In the short three weeks that I have been there I have made many new friends and found a little piece of home.

    I spend my days working in the clinic and my nights spending time with the kids. Every morning I wake up with a smile because I know that I get to spend the day doing what I love. The kids are absolutely amazing and each one is so special. Special in a way that in only three short weeks these kids have changed my life forever. The little ones make me smile when they hold their cup of morning tea in both hands and blow on it like little adults. I just started drinking tea this year and these little five year olds have been drinking it practically since they were weaned off their mother's milk. The older ones work harder than any American teenagers I know, not only do they clean and cook but they also take care of the younger ones, doing their laundry and making sure they take a bath. That being said they are also normal teenagers, they have homework and they love music...... especially Justin Bieber!!!. They have taught me so much and they find it so funny when I try and do something they have been doing since before they could walk. The crowd that accumulates to watch me do my laundry or try and cook chapatis, is comical. But slowly I am getting better and faster and at least I am impressed by myself.......going to college will seem like a breeze after this.

     It is not just the kids who have taught me so much but the staff as well. "Mom" and Mama Rosie have been so kind and caring to me. Taking me in as one of he kids but still respecting me as a young adult, by including me like they would each other. They take care of 55 kids everyday without complaint. Mama Rosie reminds me of my own Mother and I enjoy spending time with someone that feels so familiar. Like my own Mother she is amazingly strong and caring and loves every child like they were her own. Having a mother figure so close has helped me so much especially since I miss my own Mom immensely.

    The biggest comfort though has been finding a friend.  Grace is a fellow American and who is the nurse in the Rafiki clinic. Although she is 6 years older than me , she has embraced me as a peer and not as an annoying teenager, and has become a closes friend. She is the type of person I want to be after I have finished college. Understandably, I do sometimes feel alone, in a country where you are surrounded by new smells, sights, and sounds and so it is nice to find someone who can relate to the familiar smells, sights,and sounds of home. Working in the clinic with her has helped me confirm my goals in life and attending church on Sunday with her and the kids, has helped me reopen a door in my life that I had slowly been closing.

    I am so thankful for the opportunity before me and I will continue to accept the challenges I face with a smile. It is funny but before coming to Rafiki I could have told you the exact week I was on of my trip and how many I have left to go, but now I wouldn't have even realized that I had reached the half way point of my trip if my Aunt Sara hadn't told me. Time flies when you are having fun. I still miss home everyday and it sometimes hurts to think about those I have left behind,  but now I have people around me to help me through the tough times and make the good times even better. I am so thankful for my new rafikis at Rafiki.

             Love Always,
                           Niamh