Mary Beth and Eddie Cox at the entrance to Petals School.

The planning for our journey to Petals lasted almost two years, the physical trip there took 47 hours, and we spent six weeks at Petals making a lifetime of memories.

We are both travelers and share a love of education, children, and Christian Science. So when we heard of Petals through our friend Kenny D’Evelyn, we knew we had to go – (read about Kenny’s adventures at Petals). After joining the Petals Consortium, dipping into the world of fundraising so we could help on projects at Petals, and dreaming of safari excursions, we packed our bags and headed to the airport. We spent time with friends in Nairobi and took a safari so we could realize our National Geographic-like dreams, before heading into the lush green of southwestern Kenya.

Petals is our first excursion into rural life. Our travels through Europe, Peru, India, the Caribbean, and Australia – were nothing like this. Mary Beth learned to carry water on her head, wash laundry (cleaner than with a machine!) using well water, a scrap of soap, and pure muscle-power. Eddie yearned to bring home a view of Kenyan culture, people, context, and life through his camera lens, mainly because he knew there was no hope of explaining this beautiful life with words.

We loved the purity of Petals: we felt a deeply permanent peace and understood why the community calls it “The Healing School.” We saw older kids taking care of younger kids, older siblings sending younger siblings to school when the parents can’t pay – even when they don’t have enough money to support themselves, and they all have the hope someday of earning a little more to take care of their parents when they are older, all the while living in the same compound for their whole lives.

We spent countless hours laughing and sharing stories with our host family, the Barazas, and became especially comfortable around Lilian. In addition, we got to know four specific students: Elvince, Shem, Betty, and Vivian. Their lives are very different from each other, and a world apart from ours in the United States. We visited Elvince’s home and met his grandmother, we learned about Shem’s family and his life as a boarder, we walked rain-soaked trails with Betty back and forth from her home to school, as she juggled studying in school for ten hours a day and doing chores at home multiple times throughout the day, and we understood a little bit more about life as a Kenyan seventh-grade female from talking to Vivian.

Shem and Eddie

Vivian and Mary Beth

The stories are endless, and we have spent many hours passing them on to family or gathered friends, and we hope our blog, and our videos & photos on Petals’ website can show you a little more. Please go to the media tab above, and feel free to visit our blog and view our videos on the Petals YouTube channel.

-Mary Beth & Eddie Cox

Petals governing board: (from left) Lilian Baraza (Head of School, not a board member), Helen Ambugo, Evans Maiga (Board Chairman), Michael Okumu (Board Secretary), Jared Ambugo (Board Treasurer & Land Donor), Fred Baraza (School Administrator) with Volunteer Mary Beth Cox and Volunteer Eddie Cox.