When she was just a freshman at Bridgeport High School, Leigh Hornor expressed her desire to go on a mission trip abroad. Proud of her ambition and willingness to serve others, her parents Suzanne and Trey weren’t crazy about the idea of sending their young daughter off to a faraway land.  

 

Fast forward a few years and the desire was still there. Hornor had in 2016 graduated from BHS and was attending West Virginia University, pursuing undergraduate work with her sights set on occupational therapy. She had also learned the ins and outs of international travel as she was part of a group of BHS foreign language students who toured several European countries during the summer of 2015. 

 

In all respects, she was ready to plant herself in a remote area and give something special to its people. A medical mission trip was her quest and with her parents’ support, she began searching for just the right opportunity. 

 

She found it. 

 

Through Hornor and her parents’ research, they discovered Kenya Partners, founded in 2006 by North Carolina’s Diane Hamrick, who after traveling to Kenya on a mission trip became burdened to help people of the country ravaged by extreme poverty, where mothers frequently die in childbirth and children die of malaria and ordinary diseases. Among its projects is the Wesley Mission Health Centre, fully staffed by Kenyan doctors and other medical professionals and supported by volunteer teams from the U.S. Hornor made plans to join one of those teams, informing her family and friends, some of whom helped sponsor her mission trip. 

 

On June 26, she flew to Washington Dulles International Airport where she met up with others from various parts of the country; not a single one which she knew. In fact, she was the only one from West Virginia who was heading to the Republic of Kenya in East Africa and ultimately the city of Nakuru. With her own full fleet of luggage – some of which was filled with sports equipment, her assigned item – she awaited with excitement for the 17-hour flight to a long-awaited opportunity.

 

After two days of travel, she and some of her team members arrived in Kenya.

 

“As we waited for the rest of our team to arrive, we spent the day in (the capital city of) Nairobi, getting to know the country and its people a little better,” she said.

 

They also got an up-close-and-personal look at African wildlife, even visiting an elephant orphanage. The next stop was Nakuru as she and her group traveled in trucks she best described as safari vehicles. She could only imagine what lied ahead for her. 

 

A word she would have used then to describe it is surreal. Now that she has returned from her three-week stay, she uses the words “life changing.”

 

“You see on TV that people live in those conditions, but you can’t really imagine it is true until you see it with your own eyes,” she said. “The children have nothing, yet they are so happy. And they’re so polite. You sit down in the dirt to play with them and when you get up, they brush the dirt off of you. They didn’t want anything from us; just to be with us.”

 

Though warm and welcoming, the children were inquisitive.

 

“They would rub our skin – seeing if there was black under there,” Hornor said. “They had never seen white people before.”

 

In the most remote areas, some of the natives were even a little scared.

 

“They would run from us, then stand and look at us; unsure as to whether it was ok to interact with us,” she said. “We’d have to show them what we had with us - and that we were only there to help them.”

 

While in Nakuru, she and her team held a clinic for people suffering from back pain.

 

“Our chiropractor on the team, Nick, was able to see 30 patients within the seven hours we were there, while I got the pleasure of being his assistant,” she said.

 

Many other medical projects were carried out by the team. 

 

“We had two full days of a successful eye clinic, where we tested and dispensed around 100 pairs of glasses,” Hornor said. “The people were excited to see better so they could read their bibles.”

 

The team hosted a free women’s clinic at a center called “Squatters Hill,” providing HIV testing, family planning and cervical cancer screenings. They also spent hours at a 600-bed boarding school and orphanage.

 

There was still plenty of time, Hornor said, for feeding, “loving on” and playing with the children, many of whom at a very young age are daytime caregivers for their younger siblings while their moms work in the fields. 

 

“These women worked so hard. We watched them. Some of them even had babies strapped on their backs,” said Hornor, describing how they used large scarves, of sorts, as makeshift slings. 

 

Many were single mothers, she said; their husbands having died young of conditions which would have been preventable had the right resources been available. 

 

Some of the families lived in deplorable conditions; even in huts made of dung, she said. The only bathroom facilities are holes dug into the ground.

 

“They would go to the bathroom and come back to us, with no way to wash, and climb into our laps and rub our faces,” she said. “I just tried not to think about (the germs) and played with them and loved them.”

 

Honor and her team members shared meals of beans and rice with the children, who happily ate after scooping it all up in their hands. 

 

It is life as they know it – with an attitude that Hornor said she will never forget. The country and vegetation are beautiful there, but the inhabitants are even more so, she said. 

 

While in Nakuru, she also visited the “Mercy Kids” preschool - previously constructed by Kenya Partners - where  she and her teammates sanded and painted the school’s doors and gate. 

 

“Each day was filled with new faces and stories,” Hornor said.

 

They are stories forever etched into her mind and it was very difficult to leave it all behind when it was time to return to the states. 

“Some of them asked to come with us,” said Hornor, explaining that the children who attend school learn the English language. “They said America is the closest thing to Heaven.”

 

Hornor said she would have loved to fill those empty suitcases with native children and bring them back to the states with her, being able to love on them forever. She couldn’t do that, of course, but she will one day return.

 

“I want to go back there – to the very same place – and with Kenya Partners,” she said. 

 

In addition to feeling bittersweet about her journey’s end, Hornor also experienced sickness during her final days in Nakuru, as well as the trip home. Though the team members had nice lodging conditions during their stay, her own bed – and the comfort of her family – combined for an amazing feeling.

 

“I remember laying in my bed that first night, feeling so thankful,” she said. “I felt like I had never been so clean and everything seemed even nicer than I had remembered it.”

 

It’s truly the simple things which matter in this life, Hornor said. When it all comes down to it, health, happiness and human interaction are the most important. 

 

She was able to provide services and give of herself while she was in Africa, but she also came home filled, she said.

 

Kenya Partners is 100 percent volunteer-driven. In close collaboration with local leaders, the organization provides resources and opportunities to equip and empower Kenyans to break the cycle of poverty and bring about positive transformation in their lives. Among its many programs, Kenya Partners feeds more than 1000 children each day. All volunteers pay their own expenses as they travel to Kenya to serve in the programs. The organization also provides opportunity sponsor a Kenyan child through monthly pledges. Learn more about Kenya Partners HERE.