Raising awareness, spreading hope

When 19-year-old Becca Schafer stepped off the plane, she was not only in a different culture or country but on a different continent.
 

The Ball State sophomore psychology major spent eight weeks this summer in Nairobi, Kenya, and worked with Missions of Hope International, a non-profit, non-denominational Christian organization that strives to meet the needs of underprivleged citizens around the world.
 

Schafer found out about the opportunity through the mission director at her church. She applied to the program and began raising the funds to go; the cost of the trip was about $6,000.
 

"I had to raise all my support and did a lot of research on where we would be going," she said.
 

The trip to Kenya marked her first trip to another country. She prepared for the journey for eight months and participated in a pre-departure orientation, which focused on what it would be like to live in a different culture and AIDS education. She got immunizations and a passport; she even learned some Swahili to better prepare for the trip.
 

"I read books on what it might be like and what it means to be cross-cultural," she said.
Before leaving the United States, she had mixed feelings.
 

"I was really nervous just because I hadn't done much traveling in the United States or the world, and I hadn't gone far from home," she said. "But I was really excited to be going."

A different world

In the capital city, she experienced "crazy" traffic and was overwhelmed by what she saw. The streets were lined with men with huge guns, and she thought they might have been policemen.
 

Schafer stayed in a guesthouse near the University of Nairobi campus. She said her room was similar to a dormitory but more private because each room had its own bathroom.
 

The slums around the city were overwhelming for Schafer.
 

In one square mile, she said there were 1 million people living there. She said it was powerful to see such poverty in one place — especially compared to her home life — but she was hopeful about the work she was going to do.
 

"As we came in, we were bringing hope," she said.
 

The culture shock for Schafer wasn't as intense as others in her group experienced, she said.
 

"I didn't have as much [culture shock] as a lot of the people around me because I truly enjoyed every second of it," she said. "It was just a shock of where I'm from versus where I was."

Typical day

Schafer worked in the department of community health evangelism, where she went into the slums to help people with physical, emotional and spiritual needs. She walked around the slums to share HIV and AIDS education with people because of all the misconceptions that exist about it. She would take food to them and also helped lead some support groups for people living with HIV.
 

She said she spent a lot of time making home visits to people living with HIV and AIDS. She would spend time talking to them to understand what life was like for them, she said.
O

ther days, she worked on a project called "Bringing the Light." In the slums, it's very dark because there are no windows in the houses. With the landlord's permission, Schafer helped cut holes in the roofs of the houses and covered them with Plexiglas to create a skylight in the house.

Special moments

Schafer often communicated with the help of a translator, and she didn't always get to know the children she was helping. But one day, she met a boy named Curtis.
 

"I was really drawn to this kid," she said. "There was something so joyful about him. I had this feeling he needed God's love."
 

She soon learned that Curtis and his mother had HIV. She found out about Curtis' illness toward the end of the visit that day.
 

"It was cool to be there for him," she said. "He's taking medication; it's really tough for a kid."
 

A week later, she went back to that area of the slums and Curtis recognized her and remembered her name.
 

"I showed the kid a lot of love - that I love him and that God loves him," she said.
In Kenya, if a child has a disability, it's seen as a curse on the whole family, as there is not a lot of education or knowledge on disabilities. Educating families about HIV and AIDS was the highlight of her summer, Schafer said. She said eventually she'd like to move back to Kenya and do disability ministry.
 

Besides working with Schafer and others on projects, the Kenyans always wanted to talk to the missionaries and often invited them into their homes.
 

"We went in [their homes] and played with the child and told them God still loves them," she said. "[We] encouraged the family and told them about clinics."