Remembering Father D’Agostino and Going Home!

On Tuesday, we met Shashank, who works for McClatchy here in Nairobi, for lunch at The Swahili Corner downtown. I got chicken marinated in Swahili spices, kale and jipati, which are all traditional Kenyan and Swahili food.

Then we went to Nyumbani to say goodbye to Donna and Bernard. They just received good news. Their first court date is December 7th.


I hung out with Winnie, who is the little girl I’ve absolutely fallen in love with. I gave her a stuffed animal I had brought to Kenya with me, and she loved it!

When it was finally time to go to Father D’Agostino’s memorial service and I had to put her down, she wouldn’t let go of me. My heart about melted at that point.

I REALLY want someone to adopt her. I’ve already checked, and I can’t because I’m not old enough. In order to adopt a child in Kenya, you have to be more than 21 years older than the child among other things. Winnie is 3, and I’m 23 so I’m not eligible.


The papal nuncio, who is the pope’s representative in Kenya, led the memorial mass for Father D’Agostino, who was the founder of Nyumbani.



The children sang and danced.




Priests, children, volunteers, board members and staff members all said different prayers.


And Sister Mary, who is now the executive director of Nyumbani, said while she and everyone at Nyumbani missed Father D’Ag’s inspiration, courage and compassion, they would not mourn today because Father D’Ag instead would have wanted everyone to persevere in Nyumbani’s mission-- helping HIV-positive orphans throughout Kenya-- instead of mourning his death.

After the ceremony, we visited the gravesite of Father D’Ag where the Nyumbani nuns and children spread flowers and water over his grave and had a moment of silence.




Attending Father D’Ag’s memorial service was the perfect way to spend our last night in Kenya because pretty much everything we’ve done in Kenya has revolved around Nyumbani and none of that would have been possible without Father D’Ag.

We begin our journey home tonight (Wednesday) at 11:20 PM. We fly from Nairobi to London, London to New York, New York to Cincinnati, and Cincinnati to Nashville. We finally arrive in Nashville at 5:30 PM on Thursday.

I can’t believe my trip is over. In some ways I feel like I just got here yesterday and in some ways, I feel like I’ve been here for a long time. But nonetheless, I’m so excited to be going home!

The next time I update this blog, I’ll be on U.S. soil!!!!