Wow, almost a year has gone by, and we realized we still haven’t finished our AMAZING 9 months in Kenya Series… To jog your memory, we just finished our time at Juja, hosting several pool parties before moving back to the Happy Life Nairobi location for the last month. We spent that last month updating the Happy Life website, visiting friends, working on one more new website for another amazing organization we absolutely LOVE, Tunajenga, and finally a short 3-day vacation to the beach at my favorite childhood spot, Turtle Bay Beach Resort.

 

We have mentioned Tunajenga briefly before, as one of the organizations we fell in love with. Del & Becky Chinchen are the founders of Tunajenga, which provides jobs for men of diverse communities in Kenya (& some of the kindest men we have met ever). The Chinchen’s actually started a non-profit a number of years ago called Amani Ya Juu that focuses on helping under privileged women create & sell their handmade goods. They have warehouses in several places around the world, including one in Chattanooga! We were so honored to help with Tunajenga and spent a few days with them in their beautiful home creating an online store, photographing the astounding hand-crafted cards created by such talented men, and getting their store up and running. Their cards are so unique, completely 100% Kenyan, and use traditional kitenge fabric and other traditional materials in some amazing ways! Look at their store to see the magnificent craftsmanship these men have.

Afterwards, I had a big one to cross off my list, before we left Kenya, & that was to spend a few days on the gorgeous Kenyan coast at Turtle Bay Beach Club in Watamu. I had been here a few times before as a child, and was so excited to go back and relive all those moments through again. I basically turned back into my 12 year old self! Unlimited drinks, water activities & games, live music in the evenings, and of course perfect beach weather, soft sand, & snorkeling. We were just one of 3 other couples there at the time, as we went during their rainy season (we got lucky with hardly any rain!). It was perfect!

Turtle Bay is named after the rock that sits off the shore of the beach…

After this amazing beach trip, we had just a few days left to cross off the last few things on our list, but mostly to say goodbye to the wonderful friends we made, all the kids that became huge parts of our lives… Only one more post left to wrap up our time… We can’t bring ourselves to do it yet, so stay tuned!