Africa: Day 7

Day 7: Word of the day- Lala Salama- Sleep Well! This morning Amanda and I had the pleasure of being the congregation of the childrens' (in house) church service. They all dressed in their 'Sunday best' with heels, dresses, and dress pants. Later, Amanda and I headed into Nakuru town to buy gifts for home. A lot of bargaining ... Good thing I lived in Asia, I'm a pro now, lol. This afternoon we took the kids on a walk in the neighbourhood. We walked through maize fields and past peoples' homes (hence the mud hut in my picture...still hard to fathom). I realized today that Kenyans say, 'sorry,' even if they haven't done anything wrong. It's more of a way to show their concern. For example I rolled over on my ankle a bit on the uneven trails, and two kids beside me said sorry. Similarly, Ezekial saw ME drop some bananas and HE said sorry. Here we thought Canadians had the stereotype of saying sorry, I guess we have some competition. We had some free time, so we broke out the rainbow looms and thread for bracelet making. The kids were whizzes and picked it up quickly. Although a lot knew how to do it already, volunteers all think alike! It was a beautiful day, sunny, around 22 degrees (aka winter), mixed with some late afternoon rain which made for a beautiful rainbow over Nakuru town. I came in 5 minutes late to dinner as I was facetiming with both Meera Jain and Carmen Veenema and as I began to eat, Samuel leaned over to Amanda and whispered, 'Uh oh, Rebecca forgot to pray.' Too cute, and yes I forgot but made up for it. After dinner we headed over to MIA to visit with the other group of kids. After hanging out with the babies on our laps for worship, we invited each child to choose a small gift from our loop bag...they were pretty happy-even the babies with their mini animals and dinky cars. After playtime and several magic tricks (actually I only know one-but they love it the same each time) we all headed upstairs to watch a movie...all 50 of us! It was like a private theatre. We had a nice convo w Ivan aka Daddy as all 100+ kids call him. Aside from the orphanage, his wife and he are beginning a project to feed and medicate HIV+ children in a local community who are dying because they aren't receiving proper nutrition at home or the medication needed to continue leading a proper life. They are setting up a program where these children come by a place before school for a meal and meds, and again after school. Amazing.
Ivan is definitely one, if not the hardest working guy for not himself, but kids who had nothing. He left his home in Aus 10 years ago, selling everything to build and begin MIA. Having watched the babies grow up into young, polite, educated, hard working children, is a far stretch from what their lives would have and could have been. www.missioninaction.com.au