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

So...I just realized at this very second how much I love playing catch…Allison and I just played and it was awesome!
Some other awesome things include Nutella, Kenyan Peanut Butter & Biscuits (altogether) Chipati, Motor Boda Bodas, and the various Kenyans we get to have be a part of our lives…As I was going through my photos I noticed some funny pictures I wanted to share…

Today was the most random but fun day…Running, Chocolate cake, cutting down a large tree, farting, small cars with too many people, and a Kenyan discotech were all part of it
This isn’t so fun but first, I went running today for the 2nd time! Yesterday I went for the first time in over 6 weeks and it was awesome! It’s a bit of a challenge because we cant go outside of the compound for safety reasons, but the property is about ½ mile around so about 2 laps equal a mile or so, apparently…



I say apparently because no one really knows and were only guessing, but that’s not the point. The point is that I actually ran and it was awesome. And definitely needed because of all the Chipati and biscuits with peanut butter and nutella we’ve been eating lately…and when I say biscuits I mean cookies…
I also loved it because it’s a bit of something normal and regular for me, so getting to do it here was refreshing and somewhat theraputic…
Another awesome thing that happened on the compound today included a giant tree outside chris’ window getting ripped out…They had to, again for safety reasons take it out, if someone was able to get onto the compound they could easily climb up the tree and into chris’ bedroom and kill him…Which would suck, so they had to get rid of it. Getting rid of the giant tree consisted of a group of street children spending 3 days digging it out by hand then having Stonic pull the trunk out with his car





I think one of everyone’s favorite events of the day was when James got back from Nairobi with a huge chocolate cake…Allison had asked him when he went to Nairobi a couple days ago if he could get us chocolate cake mix…Well, James being the awesome Kenyan that he is, bought us an entire chocolate cake! So we had a nice surprise when we woke up this AM..its almost already gone!
We actually did get some business done today, while all of this was going on we were having meetings with all the people we are going to be working with in the following months…




Later we went to a place called Pinewoods for dinner with a huge group. While we were waiting for Stonic to come and pick us up we noticed there was some music playing next door…I guess I should tell you that Pinewoods is a nice hotel/restaurant (that has great Chinese food).
Well, apparently they have a discotech as well, so while we were waiting we decided to go check it out…They sucked us in with their awesome music and we ended up staying for about 45 min. We were the only ones in there besides some random Kenyans that were either the DJ or homeless.



The DJ was actually legit. He played the most random but good stuff from Black Eyed Peas to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” to Enrique Iglesias…I know, those of you who know me, probably thought I was cringing, but sometimes you just have to let it go and dance…Which we did cuz we had the whole dance floor to ourselves…
I think one of the highlights was Caroline dancing with the random homeless man that had wandered in from the street, he also happened to be smoking in an entirely wooden building. And when I say dancing I mean he just stood there as Caroline ran around him in a circle…



I don’t know if it gets better than that but it was definitely topped off by the taxi ride home, when we tried to fit all 6 of us into a Toyota Carolla…7 if you include the driver…

Kipsongo





Today was definitely interesting and stretched me a bit…we went to a part of Kitale called Kipsongo. And through all my missions trips I thought I’ve seen most everything there is to see. Before coming to Kitale I felt as though I had a handle on what poverty and the 3rd world looked like. Not to say that I was desensitized, but I could handle it.
You know what Bono said about God being in the slums and in the cardboard boxes? I found myself asking where was the Lord today as we walked through Kipsongo.
It sounds harsh and Im not saying that to make it sound like I lost my faith or questioned the Lord’s sovereignty in all of my surroundings, but its another realization that Im going to struggle with and have to work through…It’s a different kind of poverty than I’ve seen.




This woman suffered from Elephantitis



There are so many stories from today that I could write about and I actually really want to but at the same time I don’t want to feed into what Im already feeling, and I also feel that these people deserve more than those stories. If I was in the middle of it all and trying desperately try to see where God was in the middle of it, I can't imagine what these people think...Where does their hope come from? They deserve more than being thought of as nothing so instead Ill let the pictures speak for themselves and if you want to know more you can email me...I also ask that you pray for Kipsongo. One thing I was thankful for was Pastor John and the fact that there was a church attempting to work...
I'm thankful for being here because it yet again shows me that just because I've been on a ton of missions trips doesn't mean I've seen it all and I'm also glad because as much as it hurts and sucks to experience all these things as if I never have before, I'm glad my heart hasn't hardened...
This woman was drunk and had passed out in a gutter before villagers moved her to her hut...it was 2PM.
This boy was 18 months old and 1 of 5 children who's mother was dying




These kids mother had just died and they had been living in the hut with her body for 5 days...

Shima La Tewa

The New Well At Shima La Tewa...