Swimming Swimming!

Wednesday we went to the Kitale Club with the kids that live at Freda's. I was so excited to take them swimming for the first time in 4 months.

Before we left we stopped by to see Cassie's new BFF, Coche Fantastico :)


I liked him until he ate my skirt...friends don't eat each others skirts...


Time for swimming!
Cassie loved Dottie


The kids loved Cassie, she was like their personal jungle gym



Ester


This kid is too dang cute


Minutes later, Elia walked to the side of the pool, dropped his pants and peed in the pool, in front of the staff...who says people from Kipsongo don't have manners?


Relaxing a little


Morgan!


My other little man


Gail




Swimming was so fun, I can't wait until the next time, and I think Cassie enjoyed it for her first swim.

Monday, Im a little behind...

Monday we went to Oasis in the morning and then Sister Freda's Hospital in the afternoon.
Martin from house 2 needed to go too, so after being at Oasis for a bit we headed out to Freda's.

But not before we observed Joseph's newest idea...gymnastics...I think it'll be great for the kids. They'll be able to get bunch of energy out and learn some discipline at the same time.


The Oasis kids love Cassie


Onto Freda's...
Freda has about 4 or 5 giant pigs that I wanted Cassie and Martin to see


The pigs would grunt and scare the crap out of her...Martin and I laughed at her.


Cassie went "Ahhhhh, puppies!" when she saw these guys. She's a sucker for animals.


Richard took us on a walk of their farm. They grow everything from coffee, pineapple, bananas, tomatoes, napier grass, and corn to name a few.


Since Martin wasn't feeling too well he took it easy and played with the cat. It had an evil twin that kept trying to scratch the crap out of everyone. I stayed away from both of them just to be safe...


Lunchtime


Cassie finally got to meet the little guy that I want to smuggle home...Elia


High five-a!




Next blog, swimming pool and the biggest bug I have EVER seen...in our house!

Some Things Don't Change

Sunday was a really full day, so much so that we were too tired to stay up and blog about it, so in a nutshell...
We went to Oasis church in the morning. It was my first time getting to see the house kids since I arrived so I couldn't wait to see all of them. I dont know if they knew I was back in Kitale yet or if i was going to be at church because they looked so surprised. It had already started when everyone got there so we had to save the catching up for afterward.

Stone and Moses


Evans and Pato


It was surreal to be talking to the boys again, but I could tell they had changed, positively, since the last time I had seen them. Some, like Bram and Evans, spoke better English, others it was their personality.






After church we went to the Kitale prison. I have been to the womens prison many times, but never to the mens. Pastor Steve is in the middle of partnering with the prison to help build them a clean water source.
We spent some time with the male prisoners first and then headed over the womens section, but not before Cassie made some little friends.



The cute prison kids...


After the prison we went over to house 2 to have dinner with them and house 1. This is one of those cases where I dont mind saying
Some things never change, they still love to dance and run around and have fun. Which we were happy to take part in. There are a lot of things I miss about living here, but that had to be on the top of the list.
They definitely still love to dance...






One thing I really loved was that they seemed so much closer as a group. It made me so happy to see how they loved and took care of each other so well. And they were so great being friendly and respectful of Cassie and trying to make her feel welcome.

Stone took over the camera for a while and this is what I found...












Cassie helped serve dinner


Can't wait for the next time!

Mt. Elgon

Today Steve took all of us up to Mt. Elgon, which is about an hour and a half away, to distribute relief supplies of blankets, corn, and of all things maxi pads:) to the community. I hate maxi pads, but they are like gold here.

Cassie enjoyed the car ride. It was a really beautiful.


These kids like the taste of tetanus...


A ton of people turned out for the distribution, which also included a medical clinic from Freda.



As we looked around we notice there weren't many men in the crowd. Steve reminded us that when the clashes happened a year and a half ago, most of the men in the community were killed, leaving the women and kids behind.



Steve called Cassie up and had her help put a blanket on one of the oldest mamas in the village. She especially loved it when they sang and danced because they were so happy to receive the supplies.


A couple of cute mamas...


Matt gave out corn rations.





Cassie loved this baby...


Cute Richard hanging out at the clinic, he's always a hit with the ladies.


On the way home we saw and effective Kenyan way to travel...Don't worry Tooey, Cassie will not be doing this...for a few weeks.

We made it!

After almost 3 days of traveling, my younger sister and I made it to Kitale, Kenya.
She was absolutely amazing during the incredibly taxing trip, probably having a better attitude than I did. We left Long Beach, CA and headed for NY on a red eye, then transferred to a 12 1/2 hour flight to Dubai (longest in my life, can't even imagine how Cassie felt, it only her 4 or 5 flight ever.)From Dubai, we flew on to Nairobi, where we had to spend a the night and then caught a bus for 8 hours northwest to Kitale...We slept 12 hours last night...

Cassies first shuttle ride in Nairobi...


After a restful night we got up and went to Oasis. Pastor Steve and a bunch of college age students (including Chris and Matt) are staying at the compound for the summer. They were having a street kid washing day for all the kids that attend Oasis and live in the area. It was so great to be back and see everyone, it felt like I had never left. They were even more excited to meet Cassie and she got mobbed by all the kids.


She jumped right in and helped direct the medical clinic line.


Our friend and driver Alan...was board


Cassie dug this kids style


Me and the munchkin





Tomorrow we are going to an IDP camp.
Thanks for all your prayers and support, we'll keep the updates coming...