Let Me Introduce You....

This past year brought many surprises......trips to Romania, Senegal, and Kenya, a shift in jobs, emergency surgery, hospital stay/bedrest for a few weeks, and moving to a new home. This week marked 9 months for one of the most pleasant and unexpected surprises: RICK WISE!!!

I had the delight of sharing Kenya with Rick last week. It was his first time to visit this beautiful place. It was a whirlwind week of seeing a variety of the Transformed International projects, relaxing at the compound and meeting people in the community where I am staying, visiting a recording studio in Kitale with Scott, taking his first (and hopefully not his last) boda-boda (bike taxi) and piki-piki (motorcycle taxi) rides, traveling to and from Nairobi on a tiny plane through a storm, a day of fun in Nairobi, mosquito bites, and spending time with me in a land that I love. I was so excited to share this place with him.

While traveling back from Nairobi (after dropping Rick off at the airport) I found myself on the 8 hour Easy Coach bus next to a semi intoxicated Kenyan man named John. He was thrilled to know that I was an American and spent the first hour asking me how I felt about his cousin (yes he was referring to Obama as his cousin). After a lot of banter about politics, he began asking me if I was married. I had no intention of letting him know I was single so I made up a lie and told him I was engaged and that I had just dropped my fiance off at the airport. Well, this became quite the topic. John was shocked that a man would purchase a plane ticket, travel 8,000 miles and take days off work to come visit someone for 1 week. He kept saying, “he is a good man” and “wow, this man must really love you”. “He is a good man. Do you know he is a good man?”

This topic came up at least 5 times during the 8 hour bus ride. While I grew tired of chatting with intoxicated John, I did not grow weary hearing about how good of a man my “fake fiance” is. Rick really is one of a kind. He fills my life with laughter and has been an incredible friend through the ups and downs the occurred over the past 9 months. I spent the first weeks of our dating relationship giving him all the reasons why he should run away, but he chose to stay. He is not just a “good man”. He is a GREAT man! THANK YOU Rick.......for getting 6 painful shots in the arm, for taking a week off from work, for traveling 8,000 miles across the ocean and back to be with me!!!!