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

The Strongest Man in the World...

Last night I heard a ton of noise coming from Ayub's house on our compound...So I went to investigate and when I got to Ayub's house I found Ayub (basically our Kenyan dad) and Cleophas (our guard and friend) watching, what else but, WWE wrestling!

Apparently it's a regular saturday night even for these two, and I think I may have to join them, it was so much fun. Ayub didn't stop laughing and cheering on the wrestlers. He would say in his Kenyan accent " Wow! Look at this man, have you ever seen such a thing?" While everytime someone got hit, Cleophas would put his hands on his head, grab his hat, and say "A lalalalalala..."

Ayub's favorite part was when there was a "little person" wrestler. Apparently, he's never really seen one, let alone one who wrestles...I wish I could video Ayub's laugh and post it, it's one of my favorites and so contagious. It just makes you happy when you hear it. Oh Ayub...

Home

Today most of the house boys left to go home for Christmas. They have been talking about it for months, and truthfully we didn't know if it was going to happen because of money. Everything worked out and thanks to a bunch of donations to Oasis, they were able to go at the last minute.

Before they left Geoffrey had a talk with them about traveling, their "activities" at home, and when to be back. We heard that the boys didnt have bibles of their own and we found a huge box of them here at our house, so Allison, Chris, Andrew, and I decided this might be a good gift to give them before they left. We wrote their name, our favorite bible verse, and signed them



The boys in the office with their bibles...



So of coarse as we were saying goodbye we had to take as many pictures as possible...

Wiki & John


Evans & John


Dr. Stone



Esokon, Paul, and Bram before they headed to Lodwar


Evans


Bram



We said goodbye to the house boys and then this awesome photo shoot took place...



Mobsters...


They all wantedto see themselves, so they mobbed Alice


Our littlest ninja Kamao, hes got a wicked Praying Mantis...




Kamao was in rare form today


Seriously looks like an alien...


Cute Teresa


Ovito's brother Isaiah...


Simon


Andrew's workout


Hand check


Who knows...


After we walked into town to get the rest of the Christmas presents. Andrew and I wandered around the street to find some kids we know who hadn't come to Oasis and found these two at the kinyozi...

Yep, it's for real, the Pentagon opened a kinyozi in Kenya...some sort of under cover thing...

Bram wanted to look smart for the fam, and why not? He has 11 brothers and sisters waiting...This kid's 16! He looks like an old man...

Christmas Time is Here...

Yesterday and today Joseph, Andrew, Allison, and I went to town to start getting things for the Oasis Christmas celebration coming up on Tuesday...
We spent a good amount of time at Joseph's friend's store getting clothes for about 120 kids. Each kid will get a new pair of pants, a nice shirt, socks, and shoes...

The floor of the store was covered, you could barely see joseph's feet.





This is the crowd that began to gather because of all the "Mazungu's" in the shopping center...


Andrew looked like Santa Claus hauling out the bags of clothes...


We can't wait for Tuesday the kids are so excited for Christmas. I'm really thankfull to be here for it. I'm sad I can't be at home this time of year, but getting to see these kids on Christmas will make it more than worth it...
Also, to everyone who sent donations to Oasis for Christmas and to replace what was stolen in the boys homes, a huge THANK YOU for making it all possible, it couldn't have happened without your help...There will be more to show after Tuesdays party, we're keeping everything hidden for now:)