The Pollutor and Football

Yesterday some of the Oasis house boys came over and hung out for a while. We played football (soccer), catch, volleyball, and Chris wrestled with Stuard and Joseph. I brought out my computer and Elvis and Moses played DJ as they made a playlist and danced...At one point, I just sat off to the side watching, and thought of the day when my life won't consist of these Kenyan teenage boys and it made me sad. I was so happy to be in that moment hanging out, but didn't want to consider 4 months from now...
Towards the end, Martin, Johnstone, Justus, and Joseph wanted to pick fruit from one of our guava trees.
I showed them where it was and we all climbed up into the tree. I dont know how good of a decision this actually was since the tree is pretty scrawny, but in the end no one fell out.



We were talking about what good guavas look like and how you can tell the ones that have dudu (bugs).




It was fun sitting up in the tree, just talking and somehow we ended up on the subject of polluting (what Kenyans call a fart). I think it started when the cows walked by us and it smelled bad...Anyways, I turned to Joseph on the branch to my right and asked his if his pollutes were were the worst in his house and he laughed and said no. I turned to Johnstone, who was laughing his little high-pitched squeal laugh, when I heard someone fart and then felt, no joke, felt the tree branch I was holding vibrate. I looked back at Joseph who now had the biggest smile on his face, while trying to look innocent.
All the boys of coarse thought this was hilarious, and I have to admit I couldn't stop laughing either. I had to stop and hold my breath for a minute though, because the scent that followed was awful, which only made them laugh more...

This could possibly prove 2 things, 1. The boys apparently feel comfortable enough to "pollute" around us and 2. Guavas give you instant gas...

The Last One

So the last friend left today. Chris' friend Matt just left, so it will be considerably quiet around here. I'm honestly sad to see all the friend's go. It livened things up a bit.




It puts things in perspective, it seemed like last week that it was 2 months until they were coming and now that time has come and passed. It's crazy and sad to realize that Chris will be the next to head home. Then before we know it it will be our turn...We've all said we dont know if we'll be ready for it.
I remember my friends Rachel and Nicci, whom both have lived overseas, saying that the time would fly by. I adamantly disagreed with them. Well, I now have to eat my words because I find myself thinking I don't know how time could go any faster. Hopefully it won't.

ODM vs. PNU

So on Wednesday at Oasis, I taught class 4 & 5 Social Studies, as per request of a street boy named Kevin. I picked Democracy and Human Rights, a favorite subject of mine.

So as we progressed through the lesson, we came to talk about the politcal parties in Kenya. The main ones are ODM Orange Democratic Movement) and PNU (Party of National Unity).

ODM party symbol


Kenyan Crest


The kids got quite interested in talking about the two parties and a couple times Manu, one of the teachers, and I had to quiet them down again. So we decided to have a friendly debate over the 2 parties and what each of them stands for. It was supposed to happen yesterday, but they had a soccer match, so it's been postponed for now.

The current President, Kibaki, is PNU and the Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, is ODM. I don't know how much people in the states know about what happened here almost a year ago, but there was a lot of political turmoil and violence after the elections in Dec. About 1,300 people were killed when rioting broke out over Kibaki, who is Kikuyu, winning the election amid allegations from the Luyas, Odinga's tribe, that accused Kibaki and his tribe of rigging the election.

Things have settled down here since the 2 parties we able to reach a power-sharing agreement last spring. But I've been trying to do some research as to who stand for what, so if you know or can provide a good link let me know, Im having a bit of a time on google...

I love Saturdays

We have taken this saturday morning off and are just relaxing a bit. I love saturday mornings here where we don't have to set the alarm clock and can just sleep in and hang out. Its beautiful and more quiet than normal here on saturdays, bonus! We've had pretty busy weeks since everyone's friend's have been in town.
These past couple of weeks have flown by. I remember when we were saying, "I can't wait till Katie gets here..." and now the last of our friends will leave tomorrow, crazy...

A couple of Allison's friends from London joined us Monday night and just left Last night (not sure why I capitalized last), they were Pete and Becca Brierley, and I was sad to see them go.

You know when you meet quality people, you just enjoy them? Well, that's them. They immediately were personable and fun. They worked for an organization called Oasis back in the UK. They are taking this next year off to travel around the world to visit all of the different Oasis projects around the world. This includes Uganda, South Africa, India, Thailand, Australia, and South America. Its an incredible journey and Im kind of jealous they'll be getting to go to so many amazing places. All that to say, you should should give their blog a read because they're just that cool...It's www.brierleys.wordpress.com

We're spending the afternoon with the Oasis boys so hopefully we'll have some good pictures from that so show for later

"Would you love to be ordinary?"

Today was just another day, nothing out of the ordinary. I went to Oasis for most of the day, went into town, had some lunch, and then went home.
Just a regular day, but I guess I would have thought that by now it would feel like just that, an ordinary day, but i swear I just get happy all over again.




Its not an ordinary day, I mean I do the same thing, but I never wake up not wanting to see those kids. Or think it will be the same as the day before.



I sat with Manu, one of the teachers/adminstrative people at Oasis, during their break and watched the kids play soccer and just asked him more questions about them. Where they came from, what their life is like now, what they're like at Oasis when were not around, if theyre really as great as we think they are or is it just an act...




It was sad to hear deeper details of some of the kids stories but I was thinking as we were watching them play soccer and later teaching in class, how thankful I was for them and thankful they have a place to go like Oasis, and that they actually come everyday...

Kevin, I love this kid, he's still on the street but comes everyday and spends extra time asking me questions after math class


Kamao


Moses


Silas on his first day of class


It's already half way through November and February is going to come faster than I can imagine. I don't mean to but I think about it all the time, what it's going to look like to leave. Part of me wonders whether I've made a difference. Once I leave, someone else will come to take my place. Do I mean anything to these kids? Am I attached more then them? Probably, but then I have to remind myself none of that matters. The point is not my gain, but that these street kids, who their whole life have been thrown away and abandoned, feel like they're worth something.
I don't know what to do with all of these thoughts, I guess I have 3 more months to think...

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to Katie and Ryanne. I was sad to see them go. Allison was more sad, rightfully so, they're her best friends, but I loved having them here, they were so much fun.





I've known them both since Jr. High. Katie used to be my small group leader and Ryanne, Allison, and I were good friends. We haven't kept in touch much since I moved to Nashville, but it was great to just reconnect after all these years.
So this post is dedicated to Katie and Ryanne, it was great to have you and you were so much fun. Ry, I hope you had a great first trip and can have a pizza when you get home. Kate, I cant wait to see you back here in February.

This weekend has been a lot of fun but super busy because we tried to cram as much in as possible for Katie, Ryanne, and Matt. The weekend started Friday night at house 3, with dinner with Joseph, Ovito, John, Isaiah, Wiki, and Patrick.
Again, we can't attend an event like this without bringing our cameras. We hand then out then come back at the end of the night to discover the fun....

Wiki...


Cooking fat, this is what you put on the jiko to help cook the chipati. You have to put it on before the Chipati and even when you flip it, all that to say all of that cooking fat is definitely ending up on your ass...




Ovito


Little John can mess you up with his martial arts


They like to pose with the vegitation





Isiah's having a soccer


Ovito's Chinese












Anthony, the house dad, likes to call this our family picture



Saturday morning we went to the women's prison where James works to spend some time with the female inmates. The warden said they rarely receive visitors so they really appreciated us coming. Allison sang, Ryanne read from the bible and spoke, and at the end the warden asked if we could go to the women individually and pray for them...I have to be honest and say that I havent done this a lot so I was pretty sure I was going to screw it up. But, I ended up loving it.
As I started praying for them I just overwhelmingly wondered if anyone cared for them, if they felt loved or known. It broke my heart to think that these women might feel that they were throw aways, that no one knew they were in prison or cared. No one should feel that way. I just prayed over and over that they would know they were important and were meant for something more than prison...After the prison everyone went to Tumaini and i went home to rest. I've been sick again so I wanted to rest a little