As hard as it is to believe, today we had our final site visit in Kenya and we will be loading onto a bus to take the (long and bumpy) ride to Kampala, Uganda tomorrow night. How have the weeks flown by so quickly? To say that our time and experiences in Kenya have been an absolute blessing would be an understatement. Not only have our visits and interviews been enlightening, informational, and thought provoking, they have challenged us in new ways in the area of counseling. Member care and cross-cultural counseling have always been a passion for me, and this trip has shown me the areas in those fields that need to see growth, has encouraged me through the great advances, and has simply fanned the flame of passion I had before. I do not know just yet how God will be using me in cross-cultural counseling and member care, but I am so excited to continue on the journey and experience what is in store. It has also been a blessing to watch my teammates passions grow. I have no doubt that these remarkable individuals will do amazing things for the Kingdom through counseling and will be forging new roads in the areas of cross-cultural counseling and member care. Having them here with me has helped me to see aspects of counseling here in Kenya that I may have overlooked and we have been able to support and challenge one another in our thoughts and ideas in these fields.
This week, Erin, Julie and I were able to return to St. Al’s to sit down with two of their counseling interns from Amani counseling center. This interview was very different from the others in the sense that the women we interviewed were willing to be much more vulnerable and personal rather than clinical and strictly professional. I had my notepad out for notes, but instead got so wrapped up in their stories of the blessings and challenges of counseling children who have been affected by HIV, that I didn’t end up writing a thing! It seemed to lessen the value of their willingness to share, to make it cold and impersonal. This interview has stood out to me this week more than almost any other. Both of these women are receiving their degrees in counseling this summer and bring a fresh perspective to the practice of counseling in Kenya as well as counseling youth in such heart-breaking and life-altering situations. Both women are mother’s, which only added a depth to their passion for these children. They helped us to understand to a greater extent the depth of these children’s situations and the unique needs they have for counseling. We also learned that through the counseling offered and the opportunities St. Al’s works so hard to make available, drug use was down at St. Al’s, much lower than any other school in the slums. The local secondary school next door to them, also serving students from the Kibera slums, has 60 children per class room (this is in high school!) and estimate that over 70% of their students are drug addicts. Both of these women have worked, at some point with students like this and they expressed the huge difference at St. Al’s. These children’s main struggles have to do with issues at home, healthy issues, and identity struggles, but not drugs or alcohol. They credit it to the student’s high desire to learn and stay at St. Al’s, as well as the administration setting a good foundation and keeping the classes to 25 students per class. What a drastic difference can be made when a child is given hope and direction!
Our next visit was to Mater Hospital to see their counseling center. We sat down with Lillian and Precious to discuss what it looks like to be a counselor at a hospital, what resources and changes they think could change for the better, and get their view on cross-cultural counseling. We were not particularly excited about this meeting, to be blatantly honest. It was very early and very far, and we had no idea which Matatu to take until 5 minutes till be were supposed to leave. Even then, it seemed faster to walk (which would have taken hours) because traffic was at an absolute standstill and we couldn’t find a matatu going where we needed. As we walked down the muddy side road, we all confessed that we were considering cancelling the appointment and just turning back and giving up. “God,” we prayed, “If we are meant to make this visit, please make it clear, because we are weary and not sure if we can make it today…” At that precise moment, a matatu jumped the curb to drive down the dirt side road (if you could even call it that) we were on to take a short cut. It pulled up next to us and we timidly asked, “Railways station?” “Yes, railways, get in!” Onto the matatu we climbed and we were on our way. God clearly had a different plan than us. The traffic still delayed us, making us 1.5 hours late to our appointment. Though we had to wait in the waiting room for a while, we finally got into see Lillian and Precious, and I thank God that he sent that matatu down the dirt road to get us, because it was one of the best interviews of the week!
Lillian and Precious both have their license to counsel, which in Kenya occurs after you receive a BA in counseling. They mainly work with clients referred to them from within the hospital. They counsel critical patients and their families, do HIV counseling, addictions counseling, trauma counseling, and even marital counseling. They do receive some walk-ins, but it is few. I was impressed by their ability to balance clients, making sure no one counselor has to many, and allowing the counselors to develop areas of specialty, then sending clients their way. One big shift from the last time I was here is the development of the KCPA (Kenya Counseling and Psychological Associations) creating a Kenyan Code of Ethics. Westerners have always introduced Counseling and psychology to countries, and the struggle then becomes not simply doing Westernized counseling in a culture where it is not applicable or appropriate. I love when countries take what they have learned and then change it to fit their culture and the particular issues they have. This is happening in Kenya through the creation of the Code of Ethics and licensing procedures with KCPA, which is very exciting! They opened up to us about the switch within Nairobi from people not accepting counseling as an option based on stigmas surrounding the field, and the culture shifting in the 1990’s. They claim that after the 1997 bombing and the HIV epidemic, counseling became something people were open to and able to seek. They credit it to the shift from “If I need counseling, I am crazy!” to “This terrible thing happened to me, as well as so many others, we ALL need counseling.” The communal aspect is so important here, and that shift made counseling, at least in the city, an option. Having worked in the countryside with NGOs, however, Lillian and Precious pointed out that the shift has not fully occurred there yet and counseling is still viewed as something negative. Interestingly, within the slums, you cannot seek counseling for yourself without going through the permission of the “elders/leaders.” It is the same in the bush villages, making mental health needs even harder to treat. It would certainly make it hard for someone like me who would be new to their village and community, to be helpful at all. They mentioned the need for research into the particular needs of those in high poverty conditions. They absolutely disagreed that mental health needs are irrelevant when an individual needs basics such as food, clothes, and shelter, but rather seem them as needing to occur together. This encouraged me so much after we had been presented with some opposing views at other sites.
I could go on and on about the cultural differences and special needs we learned about, but one other thing that struck me was Lillian’s and Precious’ focus on the high need for self care! This is something I care so much about and something those in the helping professions struggle the most with. Burnout is so common because we push and take on too much and care constantly for others without caring at all for ourselves, until we simply can’t do it anymore. Lillian and Precious pointed out this concern, discussing their self-care habits, such as seeking personal therapy for themselves, doing team building exercises within the group, going to the gym, going to the salon, or having ice cream and watching movies (um… can I do self care with them please?!) They said it was hard to work that in and they literally make it a part of their schedule and just have to force it to happen. I need to take a lesson from their book!
Overall, this site visit blessed our group and we left with new knowledge, new questions, and grateful hearts that the Lord made a way for us to meet these women, even when we were ready to turn around and call it quits, I’m just so glad we didn’t!
Much more to come on other sites, but I wanted to keep this post shorter. Please continue lifting prayers for our teams health and safety, especially as we begin our journey to Uganda tomorrow! Also pray for funds for the team. Some of the places we are staying or traveling options are more than we had anticipated and budgeted. We trust the Lord will provide for this unexpected amount, but it has been a heavy stressor on our team, most of whom are still trying to raise the initial amount of funds for the trip, $2800. If you feel called or are bale to support me on this trip, please see my previous post with instructions on how to do so. To those who have already made a donation, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, you have helped make this life-changing trip possible and I am so deeply grateful! Love you all, another post coming soon. Next stop, Uganda!
So, glad to hear how everything’s going. Praying for all of you!!