Sunday Church

Today we went to church with all the boys at Oasis, which was awesome! All the boys got up and danced, which we loved!






This little dude, Silvano, copied all my moves!


Afterwards we went to lunch with all the boys...

Apparently it was too sunny for Evans...I also love the headphones & vest he stole from the choir...

Love this kid! Moses and I actually had a great conversation, I wasnt dancing...


Braumweal, Jonah, & I


Braumweal up close..


Paul....


Jonah &I


I'm so sad they are all going back to school tomorrow, definitely proud of them, I'm only sad because I wish I could still see them everyday...At least we'll have the weekends with them

And just because I feel like it, I'm posting a new picture of Elia, he's doing so well!

"Can Life Get Any Better? I Submit That It Cannot!"

I wish I could express just how much I love the kids from Oasis. It’s ridiculous really, how excited I get to hang out with them and then can’t wait for the next time we get to hang out again. Allison & I were talking & we both agreed that every time we are with them we don’t want to say goodbye without knowing when we will hang out with them again…They start school tomorrow so were really sad that we wont get to see them until the weekends, don’t get me wrong were very proud and happy theyre in school were just going to miss seeing them everyday…




Here are pictures from Lydias going away/house warming/welcoming Geoffreys baby party yesterday…



Evans and I brawled...I won even though I got the bloody nose...


Martin & Stewie doing "The Macarena" to "Shut Up" by the Black Eyed Peas







This is what happens when you let them take your camera...

Today was a special day for some of the Oasis kids. The 18 students who had the highest marks or improved the most got a special reward, and this year they got to go to a nature conservatory. But not just any conservatory…they had deformed animals!


It was a pretty interesting place…hence these odd signs we were greeted by when we got there…



The whole place was kind of odd, but it had a good point, jus in a nuclear-fall-out-doomsday kind of way, if that makes…

This was a display on the causes and effects of global warming...A little odd but it gets the point across i guess





It really was such a great time and I think the kids really loved it. Pictures say more than I could so I'd rather just post away…



Steward wasn't quick sure what to make of the cow

Wheres the 4th leg? Oh wait, it's coming out of its butt


After the deformed animals portion of the tour, there was a recreation area...

Heres those pictures I tried to upload earlier..
Chris and one of his favorite people, Freda's husband Richard

One the way home in the back of Pasto Wanyani's truck


Sister Freda & Chris

Emmanuel, hes 5 months old, but is smaller than a newborn. Thankfully he's at Freda's and will grow to be healthy

Things Just Keep Getting Better

So remember how I said I couldn’t wait to get back to Elia, the little boy from Kipsongo? Well…we got done early with our meeting this afternoon, so I grabbed one of the Ukrainian women, Tonya, that lives with us and we headed over to Sister Fredas for a couple of hours…Sister Fredas isn’t very close to our hoe, its actually out of town a ways, so it took a bit to get there, but it was so worth it because my little man was there just hanging out in his crib.




Uugghh it made me so happy to see him! The boys from Oasis of Hope were also at Freda’s. All three houses had been brought out to her so that they could be tested for HIV/AIDS. All of the boys had said they had been sexually active but didn’t know if they were infected, and here that’s a big problem…Esp. since a good portion of them were made orphans because of the disease. As nerve-wracking as it was, it was something that needed to be done.

We weren’t quite sure what the outcome was going to be but we hoped and prayed for the best, but deep down we thought there might be some boys who were positive…So after hours of waiting the results came back for all the boys…
ALL were NEGATIVE!!!




Not one boy came back positive…We were so happy and relieved. And you could see it all over their faces as well.
Lydia told us how this morning before they left for Sister Freda’s, one of the boys had come up to her and nervously asked that if someone came back positive, would they have to move out of their house. They thought that if they tested positive they had screwed up and that they would be penalized for it by getting kicked out. Lydia quickly reassured them that no one would get kicked out and the only thing that would change is that they would have to start taking medicine and everyone would take care of them. It just made me sad that they thought they were going to be turned away. It just makes me want to be there more to reassure them that they are not going to be turned away and that is why we are all here is to show them how important they are…
Today was a good day☺
Well I had planned on posting more pics, but Kenyan internet isnt so great and allowing me to at the moment, so I will post more pics later

Elias

Today was such a great day. We were at Oasis for the first part of the day. Which was great. We helped Geoffrey organize the office and did some arts and crafts with the kids.
After lunch we went to Sister Freda’s, not really knowing what we were going to be doing. We ended up spending some time with her husband Richard and then went over to the hospital to work with a boy named Boas, who has cerebral palsey. One of the nurses has been working with him to get him to walk.
As I walked into the room, I noticed a small boy in a crib and realized it was one of the little boys from Kipsongo last week. Last I saw him he was with his mother in Freda’s mobile clinic in a church in Kipsongo…His mother was begging Richard and I to take him because she was dying and had 4 other children. When he would look at you, he would stare straight through you, it was as if you didn’t exist…It broke my heart to watch him.
So I was ecstatic when I saw him at Freda’s. His name is Elias, and he had been dropped off by his father and one of his older sisters a couple days ago and he’s not going back to Kipsongo. There was a noticeable difference in just a few days. He’s been given medicine and food and doing a lot better. He’s 18 months old but I changed his diaper today and he was wearing a diaper meant for a 6month old…
We’re only scheduled to go to Freda’s once a week but I’m hoping to work it out to where I can go more, so we’ll see…
Check out the little guy at Kipsongo last week and then at Freda's today

Kipsongo



Sister Freda's

Chicken...Kenyan Style

To say yesterday was a lot of fun is an understatement…Lydia form Oasis of Hope threw a birthday party for all the kids form Oasis. Most of the boys don’t know when their real birthdays are so Lydia has one big birthday party for all of them. It was massive...and so much fun…I am so excited to start working at Oasis. Tomorrow is our first real day and we’re going to be there 4 days a week.


There was so much amazing food!




David



Jerrfey & Joseph...A.K.A. Mr. Spark...I called him Sparky tho


the shirts the boys made


Evans

Some of the girls from our bible study...

Evans & Joseph


Carol and I also did Pilates today…I didn’t take any pictures unfortunately but just use your imagination…
For dinner tonight we decided we wanted to have chicken, so yesterday we had Mary kill and de-feather a chicken for us and I was a genius and offered to prepare it today not thinking that all the organs would still be in the bird... So imagine my surprise when I opened the refrigerator to find a chicken with all of its organs including the heart, kidney’s and spinal column…its cooking now so Ill have to post an update with how it turned out…
my first time...gutting a chicken


Here’s some other fun pics I thought I’d post, like my first ride on a motor boda
my first motor boda