Clinton

This is Clinton. He lives with Ben & Christine who run Gilgal High School. I met him when we first got here and had a sleepover at Ben & Christines back in August. Hes the quietest, cutest little kid. He grew up in the village but his mother passed away when he was young. His father was killed last year in the clashes and his grandmother not long after. All that to say he is a total orphan at the age of 11. Ben & Christine have taken him in and say hes a great addition to the family. He's kind and respectful and helps out around the house. Ive loved this kid since the night we had dinner at their house.

Christine told me how after he got his last marks from his previous primary school, they were concerned because they were very low. They said the primary school he attended was poorly run and Clintons education was suffering so they wanted to move him to a better school where he could recieve extra help in his schooling to catch up.

This is his first day at Greenfields Primary. Its a beautiful school and from talking to the head master and some of the teachers it looks like Clinton will get the attention he needs to perform well.




One of my favorite moments was when we were in town getting his uniform and he was just standing by himself staring off into space. I told Ben, "I wonder what he is thinking." Ben asked him and Clinton said he was watching the activity of the street in the reflection of the cupboard glass. He said it was like watching a movie. I think this kid is dam cute.

Gilgal

Today was our first day back at Gilgal High School. They closed back in November so we havent seen any of the students since then.
The first week of school usually fills in slowly, because the students might be coming from far away or not have all their school fees or books. Yesterday there were only about 6-8 students, more will show up throughout the week. Some are coming from as far away as Sudan.
I have missed the school and was definitely excited to be back and see the students

The girls and Christine


The guys...Edwin, the one with the tie around his head, is Head Boy...He takes it seriously



Tobias pretending to be revising


They really werent working that hard,it was all for show of the camera...


The class was pretty relaxed so the neighborhood kids joined us



This is about the extent of work that was done...quality picture-taking



This is one of my favorite students Silas. I call him "nini" with in Swahili means "what", because he says it all the time instead of actual words... I found out yesterday he wont be coming back, but instead going to a high school closer to where he is. I was really sad that I had to say goodbye, but at least I got to see him.


The girls wanted to show us the river where they get their water from. Its not an actual river, but a pipe that pumps clean water




Chumba...


Some of the neighborhood kids

Women's Prison

We just got back from an amazing morning at the womens prison where our friend James works at.
Some saturday mornings we go out to the women's section of the prison and just spend time with the women and their babies, whom they're allowed to keep with them until they are around 4 years old, and sing, share from the Bible, and pray with them.
This morning we went and thought we were only going to be there a short time, but ended up staying for almost 2 hours. It was amazing to see the faces of these women.

We each shared one of our favorite verses from the New Testament and why it was a favorite. Allison and Andrew spoke from Ephesians, I spoke from Hebrews 11, Umi's was from John, our friends Felix and James spoke from Philippians and Romans...Between all of us I think we covered the New Testament pretty well...
Then one of the women prisoners shared her favorite verse and then Jane, the women's prison pastor...
Its almost impossible to describe to anyone an amazing moment in your life and get them to understand, but this morning at the prison was one of those moments. At the end 10 women inmates decided to accept Christ into their hearts. I've been present when people decide to become Christians so many times, and not to downplay those moments at all, but there was just something different and super intimate about getting to be there with these women this morning.
We don't see them everyday, in fact, we dont go there as often as we would like, but the prison definitely holds a special place in our hearts, so to be a part of this morning, I feel so blessed. Keep these women in your prayers, they are truly beautiful and wonderful women

Pool Day

Yesterday was pool day! I have some good news to go along with it...We went to the hospital to pick up the kids to take them to the pool, but we found out that we were going to be a few kids short. Esther and Joyce, the 2 oldest girls, were sponsored and would be at school. We were sad they wouldn't be joining us, but it didn't compare to how happy we were to see them go to school.

Some of the kids at Freda's school/feeding program









Once we loaded up the kids we were off to the Kitale Club for swimming
Morgan and Elia


Cute Morgan


Freda's daughter-in-law Susan and her daughter Gail


Elia




You can barely see Dottie she's so small


Old Man Moses


I call this one "Dottie the refugee"


These kids love to stick their tongues out...notice a pattern?




Again with the tongue


Mine and Moses' feet, I'll give you one guess...


Morgans a born poser



Look at my little man


Im sorry he's just too dang cute


After the pool we dropped the kids back off at the hospitale and put them to bed for their afternoon nap. Richard had to take Freda's mom back to her home in Kiminnini, which is about a 20 min drive out of town, then 30 min off the main road. I had never been there before so we just went with him. Im glad we did. It was a fun little adventure and I got to see another part of Kenya I'd never been to before...
The road to Kiminnini


The view from Freda's mom's house


Richard was explaining how they build houses in her area. He said first they make the structure out of wood, like this, then fill it in with mud and then once that has dried, you plaster the outside with cow dung


Some of the neighborhood kids

Books!

Yesterday we spent most of the day at our friends bookshop. We have gotten to know them quite well since we go there all the time for the kids school supplies.
Well, were definitely not their only customers and they have been bombarded since school started. We were tlaking to them and they were telling us how they have been losing money because the prices of books has gone up but because they have been so busy they have not had time to change the prices and therefore have had to sell at the lower price...




Allison had the idea of offering our services to help change all the prices...I dont know why but I thought that would be fun...and it totally was. We went for a couple hours and re-wrote prices and re-shelved books, all the while the front desk was going nuts with customers...I hope we helped a little