Carlyle's Nicole Andrew says of her most recent mission trip: “I went with the idea that I would do whatever, whenever, for whomever. Four days in, that's what this trip turned out to be.”
The 20-year-old says that her most recent trip to Kenya was a four-month journey made up of equal parts faith and adventure, which she wrote about in a series for The Observer called “Letters from Africa” and on her blog, https://nicoleinafrica2015.wordpress.com.
“I arrived in Kenya having no idea what I would be doing this time, but days into my trip, I was teaching a grade one class.”
“So here I am, 20 years old, day five in Africa being dropped off in a slum where I've never been before, with teachers I've known half an hour, with kids I've never met, teaching grade one.”
And although she taught lessons, Andrew says she learned a lot, too.
“Kenya is a country I absolutely love with all of my heart,” she says. “Yet it can tear my heart out as easily as I fell in love with it.”
A committed Christian, Andrew attends Carlyle's OneChurch, and says that trading her desk job at Andrew Agencies for four months of volunteering with evangelical mission, the Jacaranda Community (http://www.jacarandacommunity.com/) in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya was an easy choice to make.
“I know Nairobi and I love the people there,” says Andrew. “It's a place that feels like home to me and it's been a giving and receiving and growing trip-on both sides. It's not just about me going there and giving. I receive so much from helping there.”
“And I really respect the approach of Gary and Brenda Kean, who founded the Jacaranda Community. Their main focus is on training single mothers a skill-like sewing-that they can use to support themselves and their children. They also provide for, protect and care for the kids so the moms can work and support their families.”
Already an experienced missions volunteer, Andrew has made two trips to Kenya, as well as numerous volunteering trips to Mexico and throughout Saskatchewan with her family and with OneChurch.
OneChurch.ca Pastor Louis Halbegewachs says, “I have watched Nicole grow in faith and into an incredible young woman because of her faith. Nicole has learned that life is about others and that through giving and serving, you find true joy. She's an incredible young woman who should be an example for most of us.”
Andrew made her first volunteer trip to Nairobi in 2012 and says that her most recent trip-which began in late January 2015-was mostly spent in the city's urban slums, one of which-Kibera- is the second-largest slum in the world, with over one million people crammed into a space the size of New York City's Central Park.
“It would be like putting every person in the province of Saskatchewan inside Central Park,” says Andrew. “It's a place that breaks my heart more and more every time I visit, yet I love being there.”
“No amount of stories or pictures can prepare you for Kibera,” says Andrew.
“For example, they started to put in paved roads there, which is good and bad. But they bulldozed down people's homes in the slum to build the road. These people have so little to begin with and then something like that happens. ..People were also getting really sick and we found out later that the new roads had cut into the water line and were affecting the water supply. Later, there was even a cholera outbreak.”
“That was pretty tough.”
An emotional Andrew says that the conditions in Kibera are often both desperate and dangerous. “Raw sewage and garbage are out in the open,” she says. “Because there is nowhere else for it to go. There are little kids eating the rotting food in the sewage, because they're hungry. What would make you as desperate as a four-year-old child eating a rotting tomato on the ground? I will never experience that kind of hunger and these people experience it every day.”
“I lost it, much as I'm doing now.”
“Kibera was a really tough one, but it ended up being one of my favourite places.”
“Many of the people there live on the equivalent of a dollar a day,” she says. “I feel a little guilt and shame, but mostly a lot of gratitude for what I have, and it made me want to help wherever I can.”
Andrew witnessed the unforgiving effects of extreme poverty and was able to intervene to help one little boy and his family while she was in Kibera.
Three year-old Kelvin was very ill; and when Andrew met him, he was teary-eyed, with blood crusted on his nose and mouth. He had been bleeding from his nose for three days and had blood in his stools for four weeks. After hospitalizations, courses of antibiotics and regular deliveries of groceries-and some setbacks- Kelvin recovered from what was an amoeba. Andrew was able to help pay for his medicine and food, and to further assist his family for what North Americans would consider a small sum of money.
“This isn't about me being a hero and saving the day for Kelvin and his mom,” she says. “Antibiotics were about $25 Canadian, and food for two weeks was about 1,000 shillings, or about $11 or $12 Canadian.”
“Later, when my mom and dad (Deb and Blair Andrew of Carlyle) came to visit, we went to Kibera to see Kelvin and his mom. They had moved into a new place with a cement floor and tin roof. She had bought a large thermos and was planning to sell coffee and tea to the workers in the slums during the rainy season.”
“These people desire nothing more than to work, to be healthy, and to care for their children doing safe and honourable work, instead of having to sell themselves or even their children to survive.”
“Kelvin and his baby sister are in a children's home now and their mom can visit her babies whenever she wants. She can go to work to support her family knowing they're clean, they're healthy and they're well taken care of. Most of all, they are safe from the life in the slums that is so dangerous-especially for children.”
“There are thousands more kids like Kelvin and I was warned by some people not to get too emotionally attached,” says Andrew. “Because even if he did get better, I was told his mom would probably fail him, and besides, there are thousands more like him.”
“Well, there are thousands more like him and I did make a difference. I thought to myself: 'This is why I'm here.'”
Andrew says that she is often asked if she feels hopeful or discouraged when it comes to her mission work.
“I always say yes to both,” she says. “It depends on the day. I think you need hope to be able to continue and you also need to understand that there are no simple solutions.”
“It's all about relationships, really, and to let people know that there are people who care and people who can help them.”
For information on child sponsorship in Kenya, contact Andrew at [email protected].
