Stock Me Up!

Today we finished the rest of the school shopping, well for the most part...we still have to exchange books and pick up a big order of socks...but overall its done...
we got up really early and headed into town to get everything together. Then we brought it back to the house to organize everything for each student...

The organizing process





These pyjamas look comfortable


New pyjamas, theyre going to be huge on the boys, but they can grow into them


The girls nightgowns


What all do you need to start a new school term in Kitale, Kenya? Why toilet paper, shoe polish, vaseline, bar soap, and toothpaste of course!


Allison and I had an interesting time with this part...we had to shop for and put together all the boys underwear...the younger boys weren't so bad cuz they're cute little kids...we just don't really want to think about or know what kind of underwear the older boys like Elvis or Kevin is walking around in...something just doesn't feel right




I took to organizing the clothes while Allison organized all of the cleaning supplies like toothbrushes toothpaste, soap, and shoe polish...About 45 minutes later we had everything ready to go...

A closer look


First school stop, Purpose Driven Academy, where we have about 11 kids in school

"The boot"




This is Shaban, we fight and yell at each other "Enda Kipsongo!" which means "Go to Kipsongo!" (the worst slum in Kitale), but we really love each other...

Allison handing Rael her new materials


Crydon


Donald and Amos


Acdon is a great student...


Kitale Family students recieving their new materials


Acdon and Sheila = brother and sister



Elizabeth, Sheila, Acdon, Donald, Amos, and Crydon


Off they go, they grow up so fast...

January

Its already Jan. Thats just crazy.
Tomorrow is the first day of school for all the kids since November. It marks the start of a brand new term. We handed out some of the school books and supplies we had prepared last week after church today and the rest of the kids will get theirs tomorrow...
In other news, Allison made me a paper chain to countdown to my birthday. I was super excited about it because she had one for Katie and Ryanne coming back in Nov. and Chris had one counting down his departure. She said we each had to have a paper chain to countdown to something, so mine was my birthday...sweet:)

Swimming

Yesterday we took Freda's kids to the pool at the Kitale Club...We usually take them every thursday but because Christmas and New Years both fell on thursdays we had to wait. The kids are getting braver every time we go. They used to be afraid and would barely go into the water, now most of them jump right in, except for Elia.

Morgan


Elia actually went into the water this week


Moses and Morgan





Tiny Dottie


Time for chips and soda
Moses was confused by the carrots that were mixed in with his fries...


We love Richard, I think I caught him off guard with this picture...

New Years Rockin Eve...

For New Years we had intended to go out to dinner and have a big night out...But plans changed and we ended up staying in and having delicious macaroni and cheese and watching Harry Potter 2 until midnight when we rang the new year in by banging pots and pans...This is a tradition that Allison takes part in every year, but I've never even heard of it, so it was my first time...

Self-timer action





Tom Riddle

How many rulers does it take...

Allison and I spent this morning in town with Geoffrey buying all the textbooks and workbooks that the Oasis kids will need when they start school on monday. There will be 51 kids in primary and 1 in Secondary (high school)...
Allison had prepared lists of what each kid would need and how much it would cost so when we went to go purchase it all we had to do was show them the list and they compiled it from there...It made things sooo easy when it could have been complete chaos...
After loading the books into the taxi we headed home and set to organizing everything...Workbooks, textbooks, and school supplies like pens, pencils, erasers...
We were so excited to get to organize everything for the kids in preparation for school...So a bunch of school supplies, another quick trip to town by Andrew, and a couple hours later we had everything organized...

You'll never guess how much these boxes actually hold...



The mountian of textbooks...



Workbooks



Anybody need a pen?


Elvis better study hard




Look at Allison's organization skills in action...


The finished product...






Call us nerds, but we love organizing, so it was fun...plus we love the kids...Thank you so much to those people who donated, these school books were bought because you gave!

It's been super quiet around here as you can tell by the lack of posts in the last week or so...With the craziness of Christmas and the holidays, it seems like everyone is out of town or lying low until school starts next week...

I've enjoyed it because I never really let myself relax and I'm almost finished with my last Harry Potter book (yes, Im obsessed), but I've moments of cabin fever, if thats possible on our huge compoud, and run to town for bread...

Like I said school starts next monday, so yesterday, today, and tomorrow will be spent getting all the supplies for the kids who will be going back to school. Yesterday we went to Transmatt and bought all the pens, pencils, rulers, and sharpeners. Today we'll be getting books and some of the supplies for the boarders...

After we had purchased everything at Transmatt we met some the house boys who didn't go home for Christmas at the Alakara for lunch fo Chicken and chips...

Pato


All the boys


Paul and Moses


All that chicken made Paul sleepy

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...