R.I.P.

I apologize for the long, long gap between blogs, but the past (almost) two weeks has been kind of crazy for me. Its also kind of hard for me to write about this, because it has been really an upsetting experience, but here we go.....

Two of my very good friends here are skydivers named Hayden and Zak. I met them the first day that I was here, and hung out with them practically every day since then. They are both amazing people, very kind, and so much fun to be with. On Wednesday, Feb 13th, they went up in their plane with two other people (Baraka, the pilot, and Sian, a tourist) and the plane died and crashed. Baraka was killed instantly, but Hayden, Zak, and Sian were retrieved from the plane still alive. They were taken to the hospital in the back of a police car because there was not a way to get an ambulance to the scene. Hayden died as they were doing tests at the hospital. Zak and Sian made it. Sian was air-lifted to Nairobi on that Thursday morning, and I went on the medical plane with Zak to Nairobi on Friday afternooon. The hospital in Nairobi is AMAZING and very shortly after arriving there, both were in stable condition. In Nairobi, I stayed with a family that used to go to my church in Moshi, and they were really wonderful to me. It was still lonely though, and really hard to handle seeing Zak and Sian in such bad shape. Zak became concscious on Monday, and was able to nod and shake his head and recognize me as well as recognize names that I mentioned, which was very encouraging. Claire, Adam, and Sinead came up to Nairobi on Tuesday afternoon, and that really helped me out too. Both Zak and Sian are doing very well now. Both have undergone multiple surgeries, and will have long recovery times, but will eventually live normal lives again.

That was a very brief overview of what happened, but it would take wayyyyy too long to write all the details in. Today Emma, a good friend of mine from i-to-i as well as Hayden's girlfriend, had to answer Zak's first questions about what happened to Hayden and Baraka. Please pray that the news won't hinder Zak's recovery, as it has been very hard for him to take. Also pray for all the families and friends involved in this situation. It is so hard to understand why such amazing people have their lives cut short. Everyone at my house has been so amazing and supportive to me througout this and I am so thankful for all of them. While I was in Nairobi there was a beautiful memorial service for Hayden at the airport. All the kids from Boma orphanage (70 of them) came and sang a song (Zak and Hayden always spent time helping out there), Emma and Nodd got to go up in Babu's plane (he's a good friend of our boys), and everyone released helium balloons into the sky at the end. Sometime next week, Emma, Nick, and I will go up in Babu's plane to a picnic spot that he once took Zak and Hayden too for our own smaller memorial.

Sorry that this was depressing. On a happier/funnier note, Maggie gave me the wonderful idea of listing daladala themes on here. I'll try and post one on each entry. Just to explain, the daladalas (see previous entries for a description) all have wierd themes to them with strange slogans.

Seen on a daladala in Nairobi: Baby Exodus
-who knows what it means...pretty creepy...really funny

Abby