AH kguhgi;ouwhrtg;oqiejg;oqeijgoqejgfroanna
i have a million things to say!
but i come home in 5 days!
so ill save it till then!
thaks for all the emails and messages & prayer support!
im sure ill be giving a more... formal presentation at some point!
one thing i want to say is if you were wondering if you should go on a trip like this..
DO IT !! you will never regret it!
at first i was a little nervous about going by myself..
this sounds stupid but i was worried that the people i was going to be living w were going
going to be.. i donno.. nerdy?
but i have made amazing friends here, seen amazing things, and learned so much
i will never EVER regret coming and i hope that someday i will be able to come back to Kenya
i LOVE THIS COUNTRY
the END
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Saturday, December 8, 2007
HELLOO all!
i THINK its about time i gave you an update since i left on a not so sure note!
Ok so vbs is now over and after the first day things began to progressivly get better..
On the second day i did the planned activities with my first class at joysprings then
for my second class at new adventure i brought them outside (its too loud indoors) to a nearby area and read straight from the Bible since it made more sense then the babyfied version of the story.
I found out that the oldest kid in my class was 17.. and about one and a half mes (in height)
im not gonna lie i thought he was a teacher helper on the first day.. until he asked me for juice and cookies. it was very confusing lol!
umm so instead of the crafts we had planned for the kids i played games instead w my class..
the first day we played that game where you tie a balloon to your shoe? and try and break other peoples balloons. im pretty sure they thought it was the best game ever invented.
after that i just let the ones who wanted play football (soccer) because they dont have soccerballs (they are too expensive) so they love to play with a real ball instead of the ones they make out of plastic bags and string (a very good use of kiberas number one resource : garbage plastic)
the second day we had bible trivia and i gave prizes like pencils and sharpeners (a great alternative to the razor blades they use) also during football i brought rope and beads so the girls could make braclets. this was a tough day because we had some lying problems with the kids. id say over 80% of these kids can look you steady in the eye and lie to you as many times as you ask the question, in a row. so its a little bit of a strange feeling, especially since i usually believe anything anyone tells me in seriousness for the most part.. but im starting to be a little more... discerning? anyways it was very disturbing
the next day we split in two groups and we played that game where you pick an animal name and one person stands with a "stick" in the middle and you say.. "tiger eaaatttssss hen" "hen eaaatttsss elephant" etc etc. if you dont know it, ask me sometime ill teach it to you lol. this was a GREAT day because i really started to bond with the kids.. it was a little tough the day before because i was a little bit upset with them after they were all lying so this was a really fun activity. it ALSO helped because i didnt really know the kids names, but after the game i knew most of them by animal name hahaha so i could be like "hey.. anaconda!" and it really helped .. in a weird way.
after that the kids and I started to get along better. they would actually talk to me when i asked a question.. some said hi when i came in and some even said thank you when we gave them a cookie and juice.. it might sound stupid but those little things made a big diff.
so the last day was cut short.. as you may know (or maybe not) there is a presidential election going on. now kenya is one of the more peaceful countries but there is still some people getting killed on occation. the current president kibaki is running again for a second term and he is part of the party called PNU. now the biggest opposition is the ODM party and MOST of kibera is ODM. now.. while we were walking to new adventure we saw some guys putting up a stage and HUGE speakers and .. i donno tons of stuff. and we found out Kibaki was goign to be there in a few hours (PRETTY brave to give a speech on a hill overlooking kibera..) anyways we could hear the music from new adventure (they had music playing while setting up) and daniel (our kenyan SIM watch guy) was getting pretty nervous. he knew that if some of the people from SIM knew that Kibaki was going to be there we would be home in a second but we wanted to at least finish up the bible story for the last day! so he let us sing, tell the story and then be outta there by 2
anyways the last day was clearly the most important bc we were talking about christs death and resurrection. i just wanted to stress to the kids how awesome it was that God came down and died for us when we all diserved to die, and He really didnt need to do anything about it. they really listened it was good. I asked them who had done something bad in their life, like lie or cheat and raised my hand, and almost all put their hand up. then we asked who has had something bad happen to them. and everyone again raised their hand. we talked about how jesus was the only way . how He would forgive the bad we did and also be with us through the bad things that happen to us. We talked about how everyone in this world we know will fail us at some point in one way or another and there is only one constant.
i think it went well.
on tuesday we had bible study with the whole group and we were talking about things we had learned while being here.. we all had different things we had learned and then i asked dwight, the guy who is now SIM Kenya leader, and has been here 12 years, what he learned. He said he learned that no matter what he does, if he does it without God its useless. If we want life to be productive we need to do it w God. So i thought about VBS and wondered if i was stressing so much because i was trying to make it fun and good on my own. and realized it probably was..
and tried to change that
Anyways Joysprings went well the whole week. Im getting the vibe that Kenyans dont like goodbye because all my closest friends and students never show up on what is suppose to be their last day. like a couple of my friends left for upcountry wed. they were suppose to come to vbs till tues. but never came tues. hence no goodbye, this has happened a lot. i am going to miss those kids so much. AH
SO on a lighter note.
today i bought my favorite thing yet.
a giraffe carving..
the same size as me..
SO now i just have to figure out how to get it home.
im also taking suggestions for names if anyone has anything good. let me know.
im leaning towards something that starts with G. .. but im open to anything.
HOPE LIFE back home is good.
id just like to say.. its soooooo warm here
HAHA ;)
i THINK its about time i gave you an update since i left on a not so sure note!
Ok so vbs is now over and after the first day things began to progressivly get better..
On the second day i did the planned activities with my first class at joysprings then
for my second class at new adventure i brought them outside (its too loud indoors) to a nearby area and read straight from the Bible since it made more sense then the babyfied version of the story.
I found out that the oldest kid in my class was 17.. and about one and a half mes (in height)
im not gonna lie i thought he was a teacher helper on the first day.. until he asked me for juice and cookies. it was very confusing lol!
umm so instead of the crafts we had planned for the kids i played games instead w my class..
the first day we played that game where you tie a balloon to your shoe? and try and break other peoples balloons. im pretty sure they thought it was the best game ever invented.
after that i just let the ones who wanted play football (soccer) because they dont have soccerballs (they are too expensive) so they love to play with a real ball instead of the ones they make out of plastic bags and string (a very good use of kiberas number one resource : garbage plastic)
the second day we had bible trivia and i gave prizes like pencils and sharpeners (a great alternative to the razor blades they use) also during football i brought rope and beads so the girls could make braclets. this was a tough day because we had some lying problems with the kids. id say over 80% of these kids can look you steady in the eye and lie to you as many times as you ask the question, in a row. so its a little bit of a strange feeling, especially since i usually believe anything anyone tells me in seriousness for the most part.. but im starting to be a little more... discerning? anyways it was very disturbing
the next day we split in two groups and we played that game where you pick an animal name and one person stands with a "stick" in the middle and you say.. "tiger eaaatttssss hen" "hen eaaatttsss elephant" etc etc. if you dont know it, ask me sometime ill teach it to you lol. this was a GREAT day because i really started to bond with the kids.. it was a little tough the day before because i was a little bit upset with them after they were all lying so this was a really fun activity. it ALSO helped because i didnt really know the kids names, but after the game i knew most of them by animal name hahaha so i could be like "hey.. anaconda!" and it really helped .. in a weird way.
after that the kids and I started to get along better. they would actually talk to me when i asked a question.. some said hi when i came in and some even said thank you when we gave them a cookie and juice.. it might sound stupid but those little things made a big diff.
so the last day was cut short.. as you may know (or maybe not) there is a presidential election going on. now kenya is one of the more peaceful countries but there is still some people getting killed on occation. the current president kibaki is running again for a second term and he is part of the party called PNU. now the biggest opposition is the ODM party and MOST of kibera is ODM. now.. while we were walking to new adventure we saw some guys putting up a stage and HUGE speakers and .. i donno tons of stuff. and we found out Kibaki was goign to be there in a few hours (PRETTY brave to give a speech on a hill overlooking kibera..) anyways we could hear the music from new adventure (they had music playing while setting up) and daniel (our kenyan SIM watch guy) was getting pretty nervous. he knew that if some of the people from SIM knew that Kibaki was going to be there we would be home in a second but we wanted to at least finish up the bible story for the last day! so he let us sing, tell the story and then be outta there by 2
anyways the last day was clearly the most important bc we were talking about christs death and resurrection. i just wanted to stress to the kids how awesome it was that God came down and died for us when we all diserved to die, and He really didnt need to do anything about it. they really listened it was good. I asked them who had done something bad in their life, like lie or cheat and raised my hand, and almost all put their hand up. then we asked who has had something bad happen to them. and everyone again raised their hand. we talked about how jesus was the only way . how He would forgive the bad we did and also be with us through the bad things that happen to us. We talked about how everyone in this world we know will fail us at some point in one way or another and there is only one constant.
i think it went well.
on tuesday we had bible study with the whole group and we were talking about things we had learned while being here.. we all had different things we had learned and then i asked dwight, the guy who is now SIM Kenya leader, and has been here 12 years, what he learned. He said he learned that no matter what he does, if he does it without God its useless. If we want life to be productive we need to do it w God. So i thought about VBS and wondered if i was stressing so much because i was trying to make it fun and good on my own. and realized it probably was..
and tried to change that
Anyways Joysprings went well the whole week. Im getting the vibe that Kenyans dont like goodbye because all my closest friends and students never show up on what is suppose to be their last day. like a couple of my friends left for upcountry wed. they were suppose to come to vbs till tues. but never came tues. hence no goodbye, this has happened a lot. i am going to miss those kids so much. AH
SO on a lighter note.
today i bought my favorite thing yet.
a giraffe carving..
the same size as me..
SO now i just have to figure out how to get it home.
im also taking suggestions for names if anyone has anything good. let me know.
im leaning towards something that starts with G. .. but im open to anything.
HOPE LIFE back home is good.
id just like to say.. its soooooo warm here
HAHA ;)
Monday, December 3, 2007
a plea for mercy from teenage coolness
today was... insane
it was the first day of vbs.
i voleenteered to teach the older kids (half day at joyspring half day at new adventure)
i work w the older kids at joysprings so i was pumped to teach them.
the first half of the day went well,
when we went to new adventure.
about 300 kids were there..
and for some reason my class had 103 of them.
the age cutoff was SUPPOSE to be 12..
im pretty sure i had up to 18 there..
needless to say they thought my craft was the stupidest thing ever, (which .. if i was them.. i would have too) and the story was pretty standard, but written in a way kids could understand which was also boring for them
it was like one of those movies where the kids already know everything and the teacher gets slaughtered by the students lol.
SO im quickly trying to think of other stuff we can do for the rest of the week..
the crafts we can afford are all for little kids so i think im just going to play more games..
Also a wierd thing today..
at that school we were handing out cookies and juice to all the kids...
the older kids were coming in sparatically (we were all at a nearby field)
and i was handing out cookies,
some kids started saying they never got any..
i couldnt really tell the ones who i DID get some from the ones who didnt.
but all the ones who i wasnt sure about i looked them in the eye and asked them
if they REALLY didnt get any
it was weird bc i know some of those kids looked me straight in the eye and lied,
i mean... im sure its happened before in life but i probably didnt catch on
it was a strange feeling..
so anyways i got home.. sat on my bed to check my email.. and i didnt wake up until after 6.. i was half sitting. LOL terri got home from her day.. looked at me.. and asked what the heck happened to me...
i guess i looked a little tired
i guess i could have told them they had to go home b/c the school was told no one over 12 is allowed. it sure would be easier BUT at the same time i cant resist passing up the chance to talk to ALL those kids for the whole week. What an opportunity!
Maybe it will turn out like one of those movies where in the end all the children are so inspired and together we change the world... lol.. maybe?...
ANYWAYS so if anyone has any good ideas.. PLEASE PLEASE PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAASE suggest something..
i dont have a weeks worth of teenage coolness in me (clearly now that im 20 i can HARDLY relate [joking]).. at least vbs kind of coolness.. lol
HELP ME
thanks
it was the first day of vbs.
i voleenteered to teach the older kids (half day at joyspring half day at new adventure)
i work w the older kids at joysprings so i was pumped to teach them.
the first half of the day went well,
when we went to new adventure.
about 300 kids were there..
and for some reason my class had 103 of them.
the age cutoff was SUPPOSE to be 12..
im pretty sure i had up to 18 there..
needless to say they thought my craft was the stupidest thing ever, (which .. if i was them.. i would have too) and the story was pretty standard, but written in a way kids could understand which was also boring for them
it was like one of those movies where the kids already know everything and the teacher gets slaughtered by the students lol.
SO im quickly trying to think of other stuff we can do for the rest of the week..
the crafts we can afford are all for little kids so i think im just going to play more games..
Also a wierd thing today..
at that school we were handing out cookies and juice to all the kids...
the older kids were coming in sparatically (we were all at a nearby field)
and i was handing out cookies,
some kids started saying they never got any..
i couldnt really tell the ones who i DID get some from the ones who didnt.
but all the ones who i wasnt sure about i looked them in the eye and asked them
if they REALLY didnt get any
it was weird bc i know some of those kids looked me straight in the eye and lied,
i mean... im sure its happened before in life but i probably didnt catch on
it was a strange feeling..
so anyways i got home.. sat on my bed to check my email.. and i didnt wake up until after 6.. i was half sitting. LOL terri got home from her day.. looked at me.. and asked what the heck happened to me...
i guess i looked a little tired
i guess i could have told them they had to go home b/c the school was told no one over 12 is allowed. it sure would be easier BUT at the same time i cant resist passing up the chance to talk to ALL those kids for the whole week. What an opportunity!
Maybe it will turn out like one of those movies where in the end all the children are so inspired and together we change the world... lol.. maybe?...
ANYWAYS so if anyone has any good ideas.. PLEASE PLEASE PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAASE suggest something..
i dont have a weeks worth of teenage coolness in me (clearly now that im 20 i can HARDLY relate [joking]).. at least vbs kind of coolness.. lol
HELP ME
thanks
Monday, November 26, 2007
First i would like to make a shoutout.. to my mom .. because its her birthday
HAPPY BIRTHDAY mother
♥
Next i would like to say. life is amazing.
This past weekend was awesome two of my friends and i travelled 6 hours to Maasi Mara and went on a safari. we were gone 2 nights/3 days.
it was honestly the most amazing sights i have ever seen in my life and i will never forget it as long as i live. it was AHHH words cant even describe
ALSO today was a great day. the kids are done exams so i thought i would be more bored then usual ON THE CONTRARY i can do MORE now! ive played more games and had more activities today then i have any other day. Also today i was invited over to go tomorrow to the house of the lady who makes chipati which should be nice.. ALSO today my friends at the corner asked me where i was friday.. i guess they missed me. . ALLLLLLSOOO today (this one is especially good) one of the teachers got her glasses! ok this was a big deal.. glasses are expensive
this lady is honestly amazing. one of the nicest teachers ever, a rare find, and she really truely cares about all the kids. anyways she had serious seeing problems and she had to hold paper about an inch from her nose to read.. (im not exaggerating) it tugs at your heart strings a little when you see that BUT she got her glasses which she has been saving up for for a LONG time and now she can read at a semi normal distance! PRAISE GOD!!
hmm tonight me and Kathy went to see a Bollywood film (in theatre) . it was awesome. i didnt know what i was missing out on.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY mother
♥
Next i would like to say. life is amazing.
This past weekend was awesome two of my friends and i travelled 6 hours to Maasi Mara and went on a safari. we were gone 2 nights/3 days.
it was honestly the most amazing sights i have ever seen in my life and i will never forget it as long as i live. it was AHHH words cant even describe
ALSO today was a great day. the kids are done exams so i thought i would be more bored then usual ON THE CONTRARY i can do MORE now! ive played more games and had more activities today then i have any other day. Also today i was invited over to go tomorrow to the house of the lady who makes chipati which should be nice.. ALSO today my friends at the corner asked me where i was friday.. i guess they missed me. . ALLLLLLSOOO today (this one is especially good) one of the teachers got her glasses! ok this was a big deal.. glasses are expensive
this lady is honestly amazing. one of the nicest teachers ever, a rare find, and she really truely cares about all the kids. anyways she had serious seeing problems and she had to hold paper about an inch from her nose to read.. (im not exaggerating) it tugs at your heart strings a little when you see that BUT she got her glasses which she has been saving up for for a LONG time and now she can read at a semi normal distance! PRAISE GOD!!
hmm tonight me and Kathy went to see a Bollywood film (in theatre) . it was awesome. i didnt know what i was missing out on.
Monday, November 19, 2007
AS PROMISED
OK so HERE IT IS. the promised post.
i figured i better write today as promised before i start a riot on the homefront.
Life is going wonderful. The kids are amazing. The teachers I work with at the school are amazing. Life is amazing.
Writing in here is semi- frusterating because there is so much I dont know what to write!
Ok lets try and back up a little.
I dont think I've mentioned yet the couple that moved into our house here. Terri and Mike, when I heard there was a couple moving into our house I admit at first i was a little skeptical. We had a good thing going. 3 of us living off cornflakes and bananas. AND even the first day i wasnt sure. I was hoping for the grandmother grandfather type, and they were certainly not that!
BUT when Terri informed us that her hubby likes a full meal every night and then asked if we minded if she cooked every night and if we would mind if she bought all the groceries, i knew she was a keeper. LOL but seriously we get along great, they have lived all around the world. Mike is more the .. tall .. string bean accounting guy who likes to talk about the news and Terri has a masters in leadership training so they are an interesting couple to say the least.
Anyways they have been here for a while, but I can't remember if i mentioned them.
Oh they also bought be frosted flakes for my birthday which was definetly appreciated. .
Hmmmm
I've been helping out mostly in nursery and standard 4 these days as you may know. It is going well. Starting tomorrow we have exams so things will slow down quite a bit.. well .. there will be a lot of marking..
We have been having to leave the school after we eat lunch these days because with the election coming up things have been getting a litttttttle sketchy around kibera.
Terri and I were talking about it. There are a lot of young guys just kinda standing around everywhere because they dont have jobs (they are hard to come by here) and politics seems like a good way to spend their time.
On friday we were not allowed to go to kibera at all because there was suppose to be these huge rallies from both sides the entire day which is ALWAYS bad news lol. Anyways things are very exciting here. Sometimes it gets frusterating
When we have to leave early or cant go places, I do not feel unsafe, I cant really explain it, i think the city here... you are.. more on your guard? but it is not necessarily MORE dangerous then any other big city. I think the amount of people who will yell something or make a comment as you walk by is about the same as home. One of the girls I live with and I were talking about this and she agreed. She said the first few people who yelled at her from a car when she got into the country were all white tourists so even though there are more things to be careful of, it sometimes gets frusterating.
We need to be back on the compound at 6pm which is when it gets dark. This one i would never argue with, after 6 is NOT a good time to be out in the city but some days i just wish i could walk more freely through kibera,
I am friends with a number of people down the short road from the bus to the school
There is a lady who makes chapati who i buy from most days to have with Chai,
also, the first few days we were at the school the headmistress was worried about a group of guys who hang out at a booth close to the school, she thought they might rob us, so clearly in my mind the next step was to make friends with them so we wouldnt have to worry about that. The first couple days they thought it was hilarious when i said "Hi" and "Bye" and "See you tommorrow!" BUT now most of them know me by name and come and greet me in the mornings
OK this is getting long already haha SEE this is the problem i have so much i can say yet. hmm
I visited St. Nicholas childrens home from saturday night to sunday. Annalie and Sarah Wassink (some of you may know her, she lives in our area, about an hour away from me, we know the same people, and we met here!!) work there. I had visited there right after i arrived here and was excited to visit again. The children there are so special. Their stories are like those unreal stories you read about or see in the movies. Sarah knew some of their stories and was telling me. There is one boy Mike, he just turned 17, and is now finished highschool (the school year ends here in december) He was found wandering around a bus station when he was a little kid and after a long series of events ended up at St Nicholas. He has absolutly no family or relatives, he has to leave the school soon because he is done highschool. I cant even imagine. His whole life has been at St Nicholas, leaving the grounds to go to his highschool but thats basically it. A lot of the kids have stories so much like this one.
They are like one giant family there, and for being hurt so badly all those kids are SO ready to give of themselves to you, running up to you asking your name, about your family, holding your hand they just love to talk.
Sarah and Annalie are amazing for them. Sarah is staying a year in Kenya and has been here for around 7 months already, annalie is staying for 6 i believe, or maybe 8 and has been here for a while too. Everynight they tuck all the kids into bed, the rooms are like, hotel room style (obviously not NEAR as nice) with two bunk beds in each with two rows of rooms, two halls on the outside edges the girls on one side the boys on the other.
We made the rounds and got to the last boys' room and they made us stay for i think over an hour just talking, they were the oldest ones (including mike) they have their own boy group called "Tempo" a little while ago someone came with a video camera (i think from the states) and made a music video for them. i PROMISED id spread the news of their band all over the world and they were pretty pumped so HERE IS THE LINK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtBGEXCUa9s
i think this one is part swahili part english. they have like 9 songs(someone brought them to a studio once to record)
we had church w them in the morning (you can see the church at the beginning of the video)
it was great to worship w the kids, it is an anglican church, and the pastor was wearing the robe thing.. which i cant say i was used to but we had tea w him after and he was an amazing down to earth guy. the kids have thier own chior (a bunch of the girls- they got choir robes from somewhere too) and the guys also performed a song (they are too cool to join the choir but want to sing still LOL) one of the boys had a drum so they were playing some pretty crazy beats with the music, and trust me these kids KNOW how to play . for one song a girl had a stick and was hitting one of the metal poles that is holding up the roof it sounded amazing! but the intstrument playing is all kind of spontaneous and the instruments switch hands alot.
Last week we were at joysprings church (the church from the school i teach at) and that was the first church ive danced at. no "frozen chozen" in this church let me tell you! but the worship was awesome, and all they had was an electric keyboard, their voices and their feet
if you ever come to kenya you will see that especially the kids will try and make everything into a song or dance.
just a couple days ago.. well.. on second thought i could keep typing FOREVER. ill save that story for another time!
haha!
God bless!
oh and
P.S. i didnt realize you could leave a comment unless you signed up? that SHOULD be fixed now! and thank you all for the messages and emails ive been getting! !
i figured i better write today as promised before i start a riot on the homefront.
Life is going wonderful. The kids are amazing. The teachers I work with at the school are amazing. Life is amazing.
Writing in here is semi- frusterating because there is so much I dont know what to write!
Ok lets try and back up a little.
I dont think I've mentioned yet the couple that moved into our house here. Terri and Mike, when I heard there was a couple moving into our house I admit at first i was a little skeptical. We had a good thing going. 3 of us living off cornflakes and bananas. AND even the first day i wasnt sure. I was hoping for the grandmother grandfather type, and they were certainly not that!
BUT when Terri informed us that her hubby likes a full meal every night and then asked if we minded if she cooked every night and if we would mind if she bought all the groceries, i knew she was a keeper. LOL but seriously we get along great, they have lived all around the world. Mike is more the .. tall .. string bean accounting guy who likes to talk about the news and Terri has a masters in leadership training so they are an interesting couple to say the least.
Anyways they have been here for a while, but I can't remember if i mentioned them.
Oh they also bought be frosted flakes for my birthday which was definetly appreciated. .
Hmmmm
I've been helping out mostly in nursery and standard 4 these days as you may know. It is going well. Starting tomorrow we have exams so things will slow down quite a bit.. well .. there will be a lot of marking..
We have been having to leave the school after we eat lunch these days because with the election coming up things have been getting a litttttttle sketchy around kibera.
Terri and I were talking about it. There are a lot of young guys just kinda standing around everywhere because they dont have jobs (they are hard to come by here) and politics seems like a good way to spend their time.
On friday we were not allowed to go to kibera at all because there was suppose to be these huge rallies from both sides the entire day which is ALWAYS bad news lol. Anyways things are very exciting here. Sometimes it gets frusterating
When we have to leave early or cant go places, I do not feel unsafe, I cant really explain it, i think the city here... you are.. more on your guard? but it is not necessarily MORE dangerous then any other big city. I think the amount of people who will yell something or make a comment as you walk by is about the same as home. One of the girls I live with and I were talking about this and she agreed. She said the first few people who yelled at her from a car when she got into the country were all white tourists so even though there are more things to be careful of, it sometimes gets frusterating.
We need to be back on the compound at 6pm which is when it gets dark. This one i would never argue with, after 6 is NOT a good time to be out in the city but some days i just wish i could walk more freely through kibera,
I am friends with a number of people down the short road from the bus to the school
There is a lady who makes chapati who i buy from most days to have with Chai,
also, the first few days we were at the school the headmistress was worried about a group of guys who hang out at a booth close to the school, she thought they might rob us, so clearly in my mind the next step was to make friends with them so we wouldnt have to worry about that. The first couple days they thought it was hilarious when i said "Hi" and "Bye" and "See you tommorrow!" BUT now most of them know me by name and come and greet me in the mornings
OK this is getting long already haha SEE this is the problem i have so much i can say yet. hmm
I visited St. Nicholas childrens home from saturday night to sunday. Annalie and Sarah Wassink (some of you may know her, she lives in our area, about an hour away from me, we know the same people, and we met here!!) work there. I had visited there right after i arrived here and was excited to visit again. The children there are so special. Their stories are like those unreal stories you read about or see in the movies. Sarah knew some of their stories and was telling me. There is one boy Mike, he just turned 17, and is now finished highschool (the school year ends here in december) He was found wandering around a bus station when he was a little kid and after a long series of events ended up at St Nicholas. He has absolutly no family or relatives, he has to leave the school soon because he is done highschool. I cant even imagine. His whole life has been at St Nicholas, leaving the grounds to go to his highschool but thats basically it. A lot of the kids have stories so much like this one.
They are like one giant family there, and for being hurt so badly all those kids are SO ready to give of themselves to you, running up to you asking your name, about your family, holding your hand they just love to talk.
Sarah and Annalie are amazing for them. Sarah is staying a year in Kenya and has been here for around 7 months already, annalie is staying for 6 i believe, or maybe 8 and has been here for a while too. Everynight they tuck all the kids into bed, the rooms are like, hotel room style (obviously not NEAR as nice) with two bunk beds in each with two rows of rooms, two halls on the outside edges the girls on one side the boys on the other.
We made the rounds and got to the last boys' room and they made us stay for i think over an hour just talking, they were the oldest ones (including mike) they have their own boy group called "Tempo" a little while ago someone came with a video camera (i think from the states) and made a music video for them. i PROMISED id spread the news of their band all over the world and they were pretty pumped so HERE IS THE LINK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtBGEXCUa9s
i think this one is part swahili part english. they have like 9 songs(someone brought them to a studio once to record)
we had church w them in the morning (you can see the church at the beginning of the video)
it was great to worship w the kids, it is an anglican church, and the pastor was wearing the robe thing.. which i cant say i was used to but we had tea w him after and he was an amazing down to earth guy. the kids have thier own chior (a bunch of the girls- they got choir robes from somewhere too) and the guys also performed a song (they are too cool to join the choir but want to sing still LOL) one of the boys had a drum so they were playing some pretty crazy beats with the music, and trust me these kids KNOW how to play . for one song a girl had a stick and was hitting one of the metal poles that is holding up the roof it sounded amazing! but the intstrument playing is all kind of spontaneous and the instruments switch hands alot.
Last week we were at joysprings church (the church from the school i teach at) and that was the first church ive danced at. no "frozen chozen" in this church let me tell you! but the worship was awesome, and all they had was an electric keyboard, their voices and their feet
if you ever come to kenya you will see that especially the kids will try and make everything into a song or dance.
just a couple days ago.. well.. on second thought i could keep typing FOREVER. ill save that story for another time!
haha!
God bless!
oh and
P.S. i didnt realize you could leave a comment unless you signed up? that SHOULD be fixed now! and thank you all for the messages and emails ive been getting! !
Sunday, November 18, 2007
HELLO! i WILL write soon! i have tons to write!
until then :
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=370881&id=227400038
until then :
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=370881&id=227400038
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