By Sarah Koch

The sun lingers, scorching earth below.
Magnificent creation tramples the ground, gently commanding with every step.
Serene. Safari. Serengeti.

Roadside markets, haggling buyers, gorgeous treasures.
The hustle of erratic driving and 4 lanes of traffic becoming 12.
The smells of local cuisine and sounds of life.
Compounds, concrete walls, guards.
Noisy. Nourishing. Nairobi.

Joyful chanting and soul-piercing smiles greet me at the door.
An experience I prepared for, but no amount of preparation does the experience justice.
A slum that spreads for miles.
Millions – yes millions – inhabit the cardboard frames with makeshift roofs.
Children supporting families.
Sickness devouring, malnutrition a way of life, crime devastating.
Magnificent. Morose. Mathare Valley.

Oh, but the deep well of joy.
Joy like a tidal wave overwhelms the boney bodies and bulging bellies.

It doesn’t fix the devastation.
It gives a glimmer of hope to the devastated.

This joy transforms even the naivest of souls.
This joy makes returning home almost impossible…

Because if they can be ever so satisfied and filled with Eternal Love on one meal a day in a cardboard shack surrounded by death – both body and soul – then why are we so unfulfilled with everything?

We have all things, yet the striving for more, for fuller, for joy never ceases.
They have nothing, yet the purest of smiles and truest of joy consumed me that day.

16 year old me. Deeply transformed that winter.
A piece of my heart will always belong to you, Kenya.
Your people, unmatched. Your beauty, unseen. The light piercing through your ever-present darkness of fallen humanity, glorifying.

The purest of creation.
A transforming moment in time.
Where dreams were made and met.