Christmas in Kenya

Our house at Christmas...



I freaking love my lit up Mary...found it at Transmatt


Our manger


Stockings were hung by the fire with care...






Tonya decorated Emmanuel for Christmas


Dinner table


No matter where you have Christmas Dinner, be it Kenya or America, theres always a mess afterwards


Dinner was followed by a photo shoot....Complete with the cheesy "family photo" Although, I cant say its an accurate family photo because Chris isn't in it, but you get the idea




The whole group...

Christmas Eve

So last night we had Christmas Eve Dinner with 13 people. Andrew and I ran to the market to get everything we needed, and no surprise it was insane...Insane is actually an understatement...We got mauled in the Khetia's Supermarket...You would have thought the world was ending it was so packed with frantic people.

I have bruises from being hit with shopping carts and at one point I had to abandon some intended items on our shopping list because I literally couldnt move through the crush of people. Ive never seen anything like it...I wish I had taken pictures...

After, we rushed home to start dinner because we were already an hour behind. As we rushed into the house I heard Christmas music and the house was beautifully decorated with all kinds of Christmas stuff. Allison was sitting on the couch just smiling. She had spent the afternoon drawing and decorating the house for Christmas...I just looked at her and started crying. It was the first time it actually felt something like Christmas...I seriously couldn't have asked for anything else...Ill post pics soon of how awesome the house looked like, she might actually have some up on her page already...It made my day...
To be honest I was kind of sad I wasn't home with my sisters and it was starting to hit me I'd never missed a Christmas, so to walk into the house the way Allison had decorated it, I couldn't have asked for more. It was great.

Dinner was a lot of fun and ended with an American/Ukrainian photo shoot...More to come

Christmas at Oasis

Tuesday was the big Christmas party at Oasis...Long story short I had a full report of the days events ready to post and the damn internet took it so for now Ill express the day in photos...It was unbelievable...

We got up at 5:30AM to get ready for the day and were at Oasis at 6:45AM...Im not quite a morning person, but I love the random times that I do get up at that time just for a change, and especially on a day like Tuesday...

The calm before the storm...



Our Ukrainian roommate Vitalec blew up all these balloons

All the clothes and shoes organized


Alice and Andrew were put to work peeling potatoes and organizing the clothes...

The kids started arriving by 7-7:30...Some of the first to poke their heads into the center were Kamao and Ajix...

"Oh my gosh, shoes..."


Trousers



Joseph handing out the clothes...


Picking out shoes


Look how tiny Kamao is compared to Pato


Pato and his makeshift belt


Jennifer and her new skirt


The kids were so excited we could hardly keep them out of the Center and we loved getting to see the before and after. Kids would come in in their street clothes and come out in their new outfits, they looked stellar!

Acdon



I have a ton of pictures from the day, but I cant get them to post so ill just chose some of the really good ones and hope those can do the day justice until the internet decides it wants to work again...


Fitting room

Elizabeth helped in the changing room


David getting ready to go change



Some of the newly dressed boys


George, P.I.G., Charles, Etao, Collins, and Donald


Kamao's photo shoot...




Christine and her friends waiting in line

Wendy


Donald and Anthony


Moses and Elvis



Anthony and his glasses



Collins and his spiffy outfit, sans shoes...


The boys in their new clothes, They would get embarassed when we told them how handsome they looked



Kevin


Rael likes her shoes


The other Rael approved too


In this picture I had just caught P.I.G. trying to look into the girls changing room, busted...


Teresa and her crew


Rael and Christine


The rest of the days activities consisted of taking tea, watching Home Alone until the power went out, some singing and dancing, as well as reading an email from Lydia that she sent to all of the kids, and topped off by a lunch of Chipati, meat, potatoes, and soda...

Tea Time


Later,
Allison's favorite, Bushuru sang for everyone



All the kids at the end of the day


It was a really fun day and we're pretty sure the kids enjoyed it...

Party Time

Today was great. We went to town and got the last of everything for the Oasis Christmas party tomorrow. The kids are super excited about it, even getting stoked on us blowing up balloons.

After we went to town, Moses and I took Eunice to the doctors to get her tested for malaria. We could tell even before we went she had such a high fever, but had to get her tested just to be sure. Turns out we were right, so we got her medicine and headed back to Oasis...Seems like everyday theres a new kid with malaria, and I can't say I envy them, it's not fun...

After lunch we were trying to get all the kids to leave the center so we could decorate, but they were all hanging around trying to get a peek and getting their heads shaved for tomorrow. We'll be there bright and early at 7AM to finish and get everything ready...

We're just as excited for the party and there will definitely be more pictures than you can handle come tomorrow night

Arsenal vs. Liverpool

Last night we went to house 2 to watch the Arsenal vs. Liverpool game with the boys that didnt go anywhere for Christmas. I've always enjoyed futbol (soccer) and would watch a couple matches or read about the teams and players, but never got obsessed about it. Being around these kids, they want you to play with them and they're always talking about the games and the players, so needless to say I've become more invested...

Pato playing soccer...


This is Charles, he goes to Oasis everyday and is a neighbor of the house boys.


Keya


We thought elvis might not be the type to pose like the younger boys...turns out we were wrong, he's just more quiet about it...


Andrew and Keya


This is what happens when you ask Keya to take a picture...Allison even had him do it a second time with no luck...

Elvis and Moses


Justus and Moses


It was a really fun night just getting to hang out and watch the game. Elvis and I kept fighting over who was the better team. He's all for Manchester United and I'm for Arsenal. Granted I still am learning and he knows way more than I do, but he would get so worked up over anything I said, so after a while I just made things up to get him going. He would just keep say "Aye, Bwana...you know..." and then rant at me in Swahili...priceless.
Oh BTW Arsenal drew 1-1 after Adebayor got a red card. Oh well they're still better than Manu U