May 1st was the day that the journey began.

Many of us travelled for hours by car or plane to meet at Toronto Pearson airport in the late afternoon of this beautiful sunny May day. We had various friends, family and loved ones with us in person, on last minute FaceTime calls, expressing our love and noting how much they will be missed. For some of the team this was a 2nd, 3rd or 4th medical aid outreach trip. For others their first time ever travelling. With a beautiful mix of experienced, retired, early career and two student nurses.The experience on this team is vast and amazing. Emergency room, ICU, Maternal child health, primary care, public health and addictions nurses, nurse administrators and a variety to other experiences. There are college professors and a combined TON of educational designations held.

We were searching, eyes darting around the hustle and bustle of the airport looking for faces we are sure we recognize, anxiously waiting to catch up with old friends from last year. Excited to form new bonds .It’s a powerful connection this work is. You take 12-15 strangers with a common interest (medicine) and a common goal (helping those most in need) and just wait to see the sparks fly, wait to watch the passion and heart play out in front of your eyes. Caring for patients who we may not remember but who will remember our interaction potentially for the rest if their life.

We find one another, we smile hesitantly, hoping it’s who we think it is. Pleasantries are exchanged, phew I’ve found my people. The airport is always buzzing with excitement, today was no different as we shuffled and divided, made plans for the extra baggage filled to the brim with important medical supplies. We waddle around pushing and pulling any manor or backpacks and suitcases, containing everything we hope we will need to be comfortable for the next 18 days. Somehow no matter what you pack you always forget something important and you always have something completely useless in your bag. Ok phew, we did it, we got checked in, paid for our extra baggage. We have some weight restrictions for all of our flights so it was a giggle to learn of everyone’s methods of making sure their bags are within the right weight range…food scales, weighing ourself with the bag then without and a little creative mathematic application to ensure all is good to go.

Wheels up at 6pm via British Airways , at 4pm and there was NO security line up. Gotta love when the airport is working in your favour.No issues, we all get through and set off towards our gate, introduction jitters now at bay, we are starting to learn about one another, laugh a little.

The friendships formed on these trips are hands down some the fastest and most tightly knit bonds you will ever make as an adult. There is no doubt that the work itself is hard, what we will see, hear, smell. The laughter and the tears amongst the villagers, the planning, successes and failures of care provision can only be truly understood if you are here. There is power is bringing together a group of people with the same , agenda and yet while everyone is here for one reason we also come with our own “why”, our own reason, sometimes however we often don’t fully realize what that personal “why” is until we are long gone.

Overall a great day, we  made it to London, spent a few hours at Heathrow and got on the second leg without incident. We are exhausted and checked into our hotel for the night. Finally some downtime, a shower and some solid sleep. We are in a Best Western hotel in Nairobi, and it is lovely. Tomorrow we take a smaller aircraft from Nairobi to Kisumu where we will get settled in the Sheywe Hotel for the remainder of the trip. Can’t wait to share that with you….there are some pretty funny things around the area!!! From there we travel daily to small remote towns to set up our medical clinics.

For now from the Spring 2025 CNFA medical mission we say Usiku mwema (goodnight) and Asante (thank you) for coming on this journey with us, for supporting us and for being our biggest cheerleaders.

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