I'm sitting here in our "internet cafe," trying to figure out what we've done for the past week. It's been crazy how much we've been doing. It's been absolutely bananas, but it's been FANTASTIC! On Tuesday, we visited the school that Emily teaches at. When we got there, we met all the teachers and then split off into groups of 2 and went into different classes. I was paired with Caleb and we started in class 5. We then moved to class 1 after recess and the teacher put us in charge of teaching science, so we taught the parts of the body. It was so much fun, we were singing and dancing. After the next recess, we moved to class 2 and the teacher left us in charge again and we taught English this time. After school, the school has what they call games, which is a big soccer game and just a free time for kids to play. The boys played soccer, and we passed out stickers and played Frisbee and jump rope and just loved on all the kids. It was an awesome day.
On Wednesday we went back to building. This time I got to go to the river to get water. It was so awesome to be able to walk the path that family takes everyday to get water. We loaded two donkeys with water jugs and started on our journey. It took us about 20 minutes to get down there. Once we were there, we lead the donkeys into the water and started filling up the jugs. We had to get into the water to fill up the jugs, and the water felt so nice on our feet. We took the water back up to the house and continued working. We played with the kids and did a lot of work.
Thursday was a great day! I bought a goat for Nduleve, the little girl my family sponsors. We had bout 2 other goats for other kids, one for Wambua, the boy the Youth Group sponsors, and the one for Kelvin, a boy that someone from the church sponsors. Nduleve, her sister, Musengya, and their grandmother came to meet us at the Mulei building. We had tied the goats to the top of the bus (no goats were harmed in the process, it was quite comical actually), and we all got in and drove Nduleve and her family home. It was so great to see Nduleve's house and to meet the rest of her family. Seeing where Nduleve and her sister sleep, and seeing Nduleve's backpack sitting on their bed like it was the best thing ever was so great. It was just so incredible to spend time with Nduleve again and to see her family life.
Later that day we went to Wambua's house to give him his goat. We got there and there were so many kids there running around. We played soccer, and jumped rope and passed out stickers. There were some older ladies there and even they started playing frisbee and soccer with us. It was so much fun! At both home visits we brought food packages, and the families really appreciated them. After the house visits, we tried to go to build, but the contractors were already gone so we said hi to the family and hung out for a little and then left.
Friday was a crazy day. We had 2 family visits that day. We went to Muia, Rick's family's sponsor child, and Benjamin, Ian and Jackie's sponsor child. Muia was up first. I'm not going to go too deep into his story right now, but it really shook me. It was one of those moments where everyone was trying to hold themselves together. Kids like Muia are why we need to sponsor kids. What Tumaini does, is so incredible. And going to Muia's house reinforced just how great of a ministry they are. Tumaini knows the families in their program, and they have a personal relationship with them. The staff at Tumaini have such a passion for helping the people in Masii and it is so amazing.
After that emotional experience, we went to Benjamin's house. Benjamin is Ian and Jackie's sponsor child. We had such a great time at his house playing with all the kids there, and it was so great to end the day on that note. Before we left Benjamin's house, Benjamin and his grandmother brought out a gift for Jackie and Ian. They brought out 2 live chickens (yes, you did just read LIVE CHICKENS), 5 eggs, and a big bag of cowpeas. It's so crazy to think that a family that has barely anything is giving a gift to Ian and Jackie, it's such a wonderful thing.
Yesterday was just bananas! We had our 2nd Fun Day for the community here in Masii and the kids in the church. We had 210 kids show up. It was so great! We were able to give each kid Chai and bread for a snack, and then we fed them each lunch. It was so great to be able to feed them all and give them all great attention! At the end of the day, we gave them all stickers and toys and candy as they walked out of the church. Overall, it was such a great day! We were all so dirty and tired and felt so sore from all the kids jumping on us, but it was so worth it.
Today was church. And service today was really great. After church Kaleb, Sean, Ken, and I went to the Youth meeting. The Youth group here is anyone in high school and college who isn't married. It was so much fun to fellowship with such great people. They were talking about their weekly meetings and when they were going to have them. After they talked, we talked about the hike we are going to go on this upcoming Saturday. We then played a few games and just got to know each other, which was so cool. I got to know Vickie, one of the youth there, and it turns out that her mom runs the bookstore downstairs in the building we're staying in. So as we walked back we were talking about what we are studying in college. Vickie is studying mass communications in Nairobi. She came back to Masii for a short break in school.
When we got back from the Youth meeting, we left and went to Pastor Williams' house for fellowship and swallowship. Sunday nights at their house is a bible study for couples so there were kids running around the house and there were 3 couples present. We talked about different cultures and ate Kenyan food and fellowshiped. It was fun.
Tonight (we just got done with this like a half hour ago) we skyped the church and were able to say hello to everyone. It's so cool that we were able to talk with Pastor Mike and shine light on our trip. It was awesome! My grandparents were able to see me and my mom got to see me and hear me a little. It was really cool. =]
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