Hi All:
Our trip to Uganda was wonderful, scenery and people different and had lots of experiences. To get there and get back took the majority of each day, so we stayed an extra day. We had a tour the first day, then went back to the places we enjoyed the next day. Highlights:
* as we passed Lake Victoria near Jinja, Uganda, we saw two tributaries coming from the lake and then meeting together to form the start of the Nile River, which then flows to Egypt.
* Brenda, I went by a salon which said they cut 'caucasion' hair, so Trudy and I went in and had our hair cut. Had not found a salon in Kitale which cuts 'mzungu's' hair. Anyway, he asked if I wanted it layered and I said 'yes, and shorter.' Sooooo..... layered it is!! And shorter. Shows the 1 1/2" of grey which has grown out - I'll deal with that soon!!!
* On our way home in the bus we were stopped by the bad police, I think. How you tell them apart is the good police walk around the car then come on board to check things out, and the bad police make the driver come out of the vehicle and interrogate him. Reason I think they were the bad police is the bus helper got 1000 shilling bill, flashing it to us passengers, then gave it to the driver outside. That was it - on our way. That is part of the corruption here that people are just used to.
* A MALL!!! Yes, we went nuts of course! Then came lunch time and David, Candice and I headed to PIZZA HUT - pizza!!! Dane and Trudy went to a hamburger place to eat. Hate to say that pizza was one of the highlights, but it really way.
* Accommodations were fabulous. Huge house with beautiful grounds which we booked as we are a mission group. Candice and I roomed together (she mentioned that I snored - hummm, I'll have to look into that abit more!). We had a lovely western bathroom. Cost $30 US each night for each - not bad.
* Does seem to be differences in the countries. Uganda maybe more progressive. I asked the taxi driver the rate of unemployment there and he said 68%. Mind boggling.
* We went to a market where I bought a little mud hut, thatched roof manger scene with little black baby Jesus, etc. What was special is it was made by adult handicapped artists from Uganda. David bought a drum, Candice a gorgeous shoulder bag, Trudy material for a dress/skirt with African designs, and Dane a very nice shirt.
* We later went to Lake Victoria where David and Candice stuck their feet into the water. It also was in a bay so we never did see Lake Victoria without being in a little landed area.
* Money very confusing (30,000 shillings in Uganda equals 1200 Kenyan shillings). Things were very reasonable.
All in all, it was worth it going. Dane mentioned now we needed to focus again on why we are in Kenya, and I'm still in Vacation mode - can't shake it!!! It will come.
Went to MCCH yesterday and met the 'big kids.' These are students who were raised at the orphanage and now gone on to secondary school or college. Since the school year just ended for everyone, they have now come back 'home' for a month.
I'm a little disappointed in the wild life episodes - there are none! Well, we did see baboons in Uganda, but it seems as though all wild life are in national parks or are so far away from us that we will not see any.
Will hopefully add a couple of photos with this blog. They should be of:
* me getting my hair layered!
* me with my new male friend (haha: it was a statue at the Wildlife National Park for Disabled Animals. I also will add a photo of one of the cows from this park. The large thing hanging down is its stomach! Also a boat from the part which the kids got to ride in. Gershom, who is in the photo as Candice is paddling, had never been in a boat or ferry in his life - little nervous he was. He is the manager of MCCH.
* photo of a matatu (taxi van crammed with people) with live chickens on top!
Tomorrow will be December 1st. Happy Birthday Todd and Kyle (my nephew and son). I was a little 'I want to go home' the other day, but with the help of a friend and more self talk, I'm back on track again and looking forward to December as the kids at MCCH will not have school and we will be doing lots of activities with them. Christmas? There is so little about Christmas surfacing and it's so hot that it is hard to relate to all the Christmas activities going on in your part of the world. So enjoy your shopping and planning.
Love to you,
Nancy
(If photos don't get on this blog it's because I did not connect up with David who has the card reader for out camera chip. I will do it as soon as I can though.)
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
We're Off to Uganda !!
Hi Everyone:
I have just dropped by the internet cafe after our field trip to Kenya Wildlife Conservatory, a beautifully forested piece of property that houses and maintains deformed animals. There was a cow there with three eyes, four horns and his mouth was on one side of his chin and his teeth on another. Lots of cattle with short legs in the front. We took the grades 1 and 2 from MCCH, and we had a great time.
Before I add a few more interesting tidbits, just to let you know that tomorrow AM we will leave for Eldoret via a Kangaroo Taxi (a van that only holds 7 people). Then we will catch a Kampala Coach Lines bus to Kampala, Uganda. We will stay there Tuesday and Wednesday nights, maybe Thursday as well if we haven't done everything we wanted to do/see. Should be a very interesting trip. Have been told to watch what we eat even closer than here in Kenya, so I'm going to stop by Trans Matt grocery store and load up on rice cakes, peanut butter and water.
Speaking of water, we woke up to no water today - at all. The water company had stopped the water coming into the house and the host family had nothing stored up. So they were trying so hard to get enough water from their little bore hole for us to function in the morning.
Couple of days ago at MCCH - all the sudden one of the cows started giving birth. All the kids watched it, David took fabulous photos of the birth and "Dane" the calf was born from "Trudy" the mom cow. Here's the story of the cow: It was given as a dowry when Benta, the social worker at MCCH, got married. So she has named the calf after Dane Ruck and the mom after Trudy. Little Dane Calf is just so cute - very protective mom he (yes, it's a male) has. At out host house, we have three chicks which were hatched a couple days ago. Yesterday was their maiden voyage to the yard - oh my goodness they were adorable. Truly a farming community.
We, Trudy, Dane and I, attended the Kenyan MCCH Board meeting, as the three of us are on the Canadian MCCH Board. We were talking about some things taking so long to get done, (ie, the electricity), so the Chairman told us from Canada that he should have given us a rubber band when we arrived as it would show us you need to be very flexible here (and we are also learning to be more patient).
At the end of this week the MCCH children will be out for their holidays, going back to school in January, starting a new school year. So we as a team will be busier in December going to MCCH every day, interacting and doing crafts with the kids.
Remember Fred, the chicken which was given to us from Josephine? Well he is still alive and doing well and getting bigger. We have decided to keep him for another month and celebrate my birthday with a yummy chicken dinner!
Interesting politics going on here in Kenya. About a week ago a new Constitution of Kenya draft was printed in the newspaper. They are going to have a totally new constitution when it has passed. Right now they are asking Kenyans to give their feed back for a month, then they will go through it again.
Don't think I will be adding any photos this time. I totally believe your prayers for our safety and health have kept us safe and well. So I want to thank you for that and ask you to keep doing it while we travel to Uganda, especially since we have been warned to be very careful what we eat and traveling here and there - let's just say it's not the safest!
Hope you're all well. Is it American Thanksgiving tomorrow? Or was it last week? And is everyone starting their Christmas preparations - oh, it will be different here at Christmas. Hard to relate to it as there is nothing Christmassy anywhere here yet.
Love,
Nancy
I have just dropped by the internet cafe after our field trip to Kenya Wildlife Conservatory, a beautifully forested piece of property that houses and maintains deformed animals. There was a cow there with three eyes, four horns and his mouth was on one side of his chin and his teeth on another. Lots of cattle with short legs in the front. We took the grades 1 and 2 from MCCH, and we had a great time.
Before I add a few more interesting tidbits, just to let you know that tomorrow AM we will leave for Eldoret via a Kangaroo Taxi (a van that only holds 7 people). Then we will catch a Kampala Coach Lines bus to Kampala, Uganda. We will stay there Tuesday and Wednesday nights, maybe Thursday as well if we haven't done everything we wanted to do/see. Should be a very interesting trip. Have been told to watch what we eat even closer than here in Kenya, so I'm going to stop by Trans Matt grocery store and load up on rice cakes, peanut butter and water.
Speaking of water, we woke up to no water today - at all. The water company had stopped the water coming into the house and the host family had nothing stored up. So they were trying so hard to get enough water from their little bore hole for us to function in the morning.
Couple of days ago at MCCH - all the sudden one of the cows started giving birth. All the kids watched it, David took fabulous photos of the birth and "Dane" the calf was born from "Trudy" the mom cow. Here's the story of the cow: It was given as a dowry when Benta, the social worker at MCCH, got married. So she has named the calf after Dane Ruck and the mom after Trudy. Little Dane Calf is just so cute - very protective mom he (yes, it's a male) has. At out host house, we have three chicks which were hatched a couple days ago. Yesterday was their maiden voyage to the yard - oh my goodness they were adorable. Truly a farming community.
We, Trudy, Dane and I, attended the Kenyan MCCH Board meeting, as the three of us are on the Canadian MCCH Board. We were talking about some things taking so long to get done, (ie, the electricity), so the Chairman told us from Canada that he should have given us a rubber band when we arrived as it would show us you need to be very flexible here (and we are also learning to be more patient).
At the end of this week the MCCH children will be out for their holidays, going back to school in January, starting a new school year. So we as a team will be busier in December going to MCCH every day, interacting and doing crafts with the kids.
Remember Fred, the chicken which was given to us from Josephine? Well he is still alive and doing well and getting bigger. We have decided to keep him for another month and celebrate my birthday with a yummy chicken dinner!
Interesting politics going on here in Kenya. About a week ago a new Constitution of Kenya draft was printed in the newspaper. They are going to have a totally new constitution when it has passed. Right now they are asking Kenyans to give their feed back for a month, then they will go through it again.
Don't think I will be adding any photos this time. I totally believe your prayers for our safety and health have kept us safe and well. So I want to thank you for that and ask you to keep doing it while we travel to Uganda, especially since we have been warned to be very careful what we eat and traveling here and there - let's just say it's not the safest!
Hope you're all well. Is it American Thanksgiving tomorrow? Or was it last week? And is everyone starting their Christmas preparations - oh, it will be different here at Christmas. Hard to relate to it as there is nothing Christmassy anywhere here yet.
Love,
Nancy
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Old Blog Post - Read it Anyway!!
Kitale has been host to an agricultural show held at the fair grounds. You could say it was a mini-PNE from years and years past. The Kenyan government sends this show all around Kenya.
We woke one day to no running water, which continued for four days. This happened because the show had come to town and they need the water to keep the crops wet there. Was told the water would be back on when the judges have finished judging the crops because then it doesn’t matter if the crops have water – their owners have either won or lost. So our little bathroom crew (Candice, David and I) had a discussion about what we would do re toilet water for four days. We hoped it would rain a lot so we could have that collected water to use. Our conclusion was to do what each of us had learned on our Mexico orphanage trips – “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.” It worked well, and the rains cooperated. Showers were extremely brief, dunking your head in a bucket of water first, lathering then quickly rinsing. I won’t go into all the times the power was shut off as well!
This past Friday all the schools in Kitale closed so the students could go to the show. The grades 4/5 children from MCCH went and so did our team. It was very crowded but very colorful as the students wore the uniform from their schools. Candice, David and I decided next time we could make lots of money by opening a booth for the kids to shake hands and talk to mzungus (white people) as we really were an attraction.
The kids from MCCH went on one ride. A few chose the ferris wheel. This ferris wheel had no electricity going into it. It went round and round by good old hand labor! And if you wanted your little child to have a ride in a car, you plunked them in the plastic kiddie car and the fellow pushed it up and down the dirt road from the back of the car! Candice and David rode the camels – check out the team’s blog, as I’m sure there will be photos of that event.
Course the whole trip started by me tripping over a bump in the road that I had not seen. Every road, sidewalk, any place to drive or walk here is not smooth or even, so I have to constantly keep my eyes down so I won’t trip. But back to the story! So I tripped, started falling. Candice grabbed my left side and I put out my right hand to break the fall. There was a piki piki (motorcycle) right there, so my hand grabbed the handlebar of the piki piki. I guess I also twisted the handlebar, which was really the accelerator, so it revved the motor. Like Candice said, I need to be thankful it was only in neutral! Gurrr – getting old presents its challenges. But I’m ever so thankful that the team members now automatically put their hand/arm out for me to grab whenever we cross the street, go up stairs, get on/off the matatus (taxi vans), etc.
We went to Kitale one day to go shopping, etc. The street kids see the truck and come over to us asking via hand motions or faltering English for money, food, shoes, etc. David, Candice and I were sitting in the back of the truck when this young lady came and motioned she had a little child back at Kipsongo, the slum where the majority of them live, and wanted money for milk to feed the child. You don’t give money because they spend it on glue, which they sniff through the nose or inhale by mouth. Guess a street fellow was watching her and told her to stop. She said something back to him that he didn’t appreciate, so he went after her, pushing her several times. It escalated - he picked up a stick and started after her to hit her on the head. At this point, “Candice the Brave” literally flies out of the truck and goes after the fellow, calmly telling him to stop and stop now. I guess at that point she asked herself – ah, what do I do now if he turns and hits me! It did end peacefully after a Kenyan came by to interpret between Dane and the fellow.
Today we went to MCCH for church. We had just arrived when Josephine, a lady from the ‘Mama’s Bible Study,’ came up with a little plastic bag and handed me a live chicken she had brought for our team as an honor for coming to Kenya and visiting her home. At that point the chicken started flapping so she took it out of the bag, showing that it’s feet were tied together to make it easier for us to carry on the matatu. I guess this is a tradition, so tomorrow the rest of the tradition will be carried out – the chicken’s life will be ended, then our host will cook it for our dinner.
So this email was dated November 9th and thanks to Jackie encouraging me to save the text in every possible way on my laptop I am able to send it now. Our Team were supposed to go to Faith Community Church today to help out with the street kids time there (bathing, washing their clothes, feeding them and giving them each a piece of clothing). But it was canceled so they could have a huge Christmas day for them in December, so we got extra computer time today.
Will keep in touch! Love, Nancy
We woke one day to no running water, which continued for four days. This happened because the show had come to town and they need the water to keep the crops wet there. Was told the water would be back on when the judges have finished judging the crops because then it doesn’t matter if the crops have water – their owners have either won or lost. So our little bathroom crew (Candice, David and I) had a discussion about what we would do re toilet water for four days. We hoped it would rain a lot so we could have that collected water to use. Our conclusion was to do what each of us had learned on our Mexico orphanage trips – “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.” It worked well, and the rains cooperated. Showers were extremely brief, dunking your head in a bucket of water first, lathering then quickly rinsing. I won’t go into all the times the power was shut off as well!
This past Friday all the schools in Kitale closed so the students could go to the show. The grades 4/5 children from MCCH went and so did our team. It was very crowded but very colorful as the students wore the uniform from their schools. Candice, David and I decided next time we could make lots of money by opening a booth for the kids to shake hands and talk to mzungus (white people) as we really were an attraction.
The kids from MCCH went on one ride. A few chose the ferris wheel. This ferris wheel had no electricity going into it. It went round and round by good old hand labor! And if you wanted your little child to have a ride in a car, you plunked them in the plastic kiddie car and the fellow pushed it up and down the dirt road from the back of the car! Candice and David rode the camels – check out the team’s blog, as I’m sure there will be photos of that event.
Course the whole trip started by me tripping over a bump in the road that I had not seen. Every road, sidewalk, any place to drive or walk here is not smooth or even, so I have to constantly keep my eyes down so I won’t trip. But back to the story! So I tripped, started falling. Candice grabbed my left side and I put out my right hand to break the fall. There was a piki piki (motorcycle) right there, so my hand grabbed the handlebar of the piki piki. I guess I also twisted the handlebar, which was really the accelerator, so it revved the motor. Like Candice said, I need to be thankful it was only in neutral! Gurrr – getting old presents its challenges. But I’m ever so thankful that the team members now automatically put their hand/arm out for me to grab whenever we cross the street, go up stairs, get on/off the matatus (taxi vans), etc.
We went to Kitale one day to go shopping, etc. The street kids see the truck and come over to us asking via hand motions or faltering English for money, food, shoes, etc. David, Candice and I were sitting in the back of the truck when this young lady came and motioned she had a little child back at Kipsongo, the slum where the majority of them live, and wanted money for milk to feed the child. You don’t give money because they spend it on glue, which they sniff through the nose or inhale by mouth. Guess a street fellow was watching her and told her to stop. She said something back to him that he didn’t appreciate, so he went after her, pushing her several times. It escalated - he picked up a stick and started after her to hit her on the head. At this point, “Candice the Brave” literally flies out of the truck and goes after the fellow, calmly telling him to stop and stop now. I guess at that point she asked herself – ah, what do I do now if he turns and hits me! It did end peacefully after a Kenyan came by to interpret between Dane and the fellow.
Today we went to MCCH for church. We had just arrived when Josephine, a lady from the ‘Mama’s Bible Study,’ came up with a little plastic bag and handed me a live chicken she had brought for our team as an honor for coming to Kenya and visiting her home. At that point the chicken started flapping so she took it out of the bag, showing that it’s feet were tied together to make it easier for us to carry on the matatu. I guess this is a tradition, so tomorrow the rest of the tradition will be carried out – the chicken’s life will be ended, then our host will cook it for our dinner.
So this email was dated November 9th and thanks to Jackie encouraging me to save the text in every possible way on my laptop I am able to send it now. Our Team were supposed to go to Faith Community Church today to help out with the street kids time there (bathing, washing their clothes, feeding them and giving them each a piece of clothing). But it was canceled so they could have a huge Christmas day for them in December, so we got extra computer time today.
Will keep in touch! Love, Nancy
Monday, November 16, 2009
Little News from Kenya
Hi Everyone:
I'll quickly tell my story of frustration, then get on with this blog entry. I had prewritten the blog entry on my lovely Mac laptop, then made the journey to the internet care to copy and paste. After one hour, I paid my shilings and left as it would just turn to computer garbage every time. So now I will type it out again on this internet cafe computer and it should go. Then I will attempt to send photos to Mark and he will enter them on my blog - you will then have updated news from me!
Life for me here is just going along well. The weather is heating up, so I am used to sweating now and realizing it takes about an hour to totally cool down after being out walking in the hot sun. I must have eaten something that was not washed properly last week as I did have some bowel/stomach problems, but after a couple of days I was up and at it again. I have to be very careful what and where I eat as it will make a person very sick to get some of these parasites on your food. I have started buying apples (30 shilings each = 45 Canadian) which I bleach then eat and, oh my, what a treat! Have not tried a salad yet - all of the contents would have to be bleached.
Couple of questions I will answer: no, I have not rode giraffe ... yet! Candice and David did have a ride on a camel at the Agricultural Show (photo on team's blog). The weather: yes, getting hotter. Think December will be the hottest. Our home stays very cool as I am surprised when I go outside how hot it really is. The rains have stopped ... for now. You never know when there will be a huge shower though. I have not seen one snake here, which is good!! I also have seen very few spiders and the ones I have seen are very small. The only bugs which are pests are roaches (few of those), crickets (always two in my room doing stereo chirping) and mosquitos, which come out at night and buzz around my mosquito net, which I sure am so thankful for! The games the kids at the orphanage play - well, yes, they make up their own as they have very few games. Lots of volleyball and football and rolling of old tires around the grounds by using a stick. I have taught them concentration with a deck of cards which they enjoy. In December we will be spending lots of time with them as their school year is over then and we will be entertaining them. I brought lots of new songs (thanks, Jean) and crafts (thanks, Jean) which will be a hoot to do with the children.
Last Friday our team paid for a field trip for the grades 6/7 to go to Kisumu, which is the third largest city in Kenya and is on Lake Victoria. The trip included a visit to the post office, the court house/courts, the airport (the children were invited to go up to the control tower, which is rarely done but the manager had worked for an orphanage for 10 years and had a soft spot for our students - their behaviour was impeccable!), then to Lake Victoria. It looks like the ocean. Some of the kids had never seen a body of water like that - they were thrilled. Wish we had had more time at the lake, but everything takes more time than you think. The trip there and back was beautiful. You leave the Rift Valley and enter a different torraine. Tea and sugar canes are grown in that area.
The Friday before we had gone with the grades 4/5 to the Agricultural Show which comes to Kitale every year sponsored by the Kenyan government. The children went on one ride each. The ones on the ferris wheel were wheeled around by hand power!
This Wednesday we will go again to Faith Community Church where the street kids will congregate and will be able to have a bath, wash their clothes, have their wounds/sores tended to, fed a meal and receive a piece of clothing. We really enjoy doing this as it starts a relationship with the street kids. We see them again everytime we go to Kitale.
Our chicken project at MCCH is almost ready for the final touches - the chicks (or kukus as they call it here). The coup has been wonderfully made and the kukus arrived a couple days ago. When it's in full operation, there should be 300 + chickens laying eggs or ready for broiling. The next project is a green house to grow tomatoes to eat and sell. Kenyans are hired to build these structures.
Speaking of kukus, last week at Church a lady, Josephine, gave our team a live kuku as an honor for us coming to Canada. It is a tradition to do that. So we brought it home on the matatu (taxi van) hoping it would stay in the bag! The tradition is to continue where the next day you kill the kuku and have it served for dinner. Well we named him Fred and he's still alive!! I think the plan is to keep it until my birthday, then have a feast of our little Fred!
I phoned Dana for his 35th birthday and had a little boohoo afterwards. Imagine that he's 35. I hear Scruffy and Farrell have races up my stairs - my little buddy must have been teasing me when he kept 'saying' "carry me - I can't walk."
I'll keep better notes on our lives for the next blog post. In the meantime, miss you all!!
Love, Nancy
I'll quickly tell my story of frustration, then get on with this blog entry. I had prewritten the blog entry on my lovely Mac laptop, then made the journey to the internet care to copy and paste. After one hour, I paid my shilings and left as it would just turn to computer garbage every time. So now I will type it out again on this internet cafe computer and it should go. Then I will attempt to send photos to Mark and he will enter them on my blog - you will then have updated news from me!
Life for me here is just going along well. The weather is heating up, so I am used to sweating now and realizing it takes about an hour to totally cool down after being out walking in the hot sun. I must have eaten something that was not washed properly last week as I did have some bowel/stomach problems, but after a couple of days I was up and at it again. I have to be very careful what and where I eat as it will make a person very sick to get some of these parasites on your food. I have started buying apples (30 shilings each = 45 Canadian) which I bleach then eat and, oh my, what a treat! Have not tried a salad yet - all of the contents would have to be bleached.
Couple of questions I will answer: no, I have not rode giraffe ... yet! Candice and David did have a ride on a camel at the Agricultural Show (photo on team's blog). The weather: yes, getting hotter. Think December will be the hottest. Our home stays very cool as I am surprised when I go outside how hot it really is. The rains have stopped ... for now. You never know when there will be a huge shower though. I have not seen one snake here, which is good!! I also have seen very few spiders and the ones I have seen are very small. The only bugs which are pests are roaches (few of those), crickets (always two in my room doing stereo chirping) and mosquitos, which come out at night and buzz around my mosquito net, which I sure am so thankful for! The games the kids at the orphanage play - well, yes, they make up their own as they have very few games. Lots of volleyball and football and rolling of old tires around the grounds by using a stick. I have taught them concentration with a deck of cards which they enjoy. In December we will be spending lots of time with them as their school year is over then and we will be entertaining them. I brought lots of new songs (thanks, Jean) and crafts (thanks, Jean) which will be a hoot to do with the children.
Last Friday our team paid for a field trip for the grades 6/7 to go to Kisumu, which is the third largest city in Kenya and is on Lake Victoria. The trip included a visit to the post office, the court house/courts, the airport (the children were invited to go up to the control tower, which is rarely done but the manager had worked for an orphanage for 10 years and had a soft spot for our students - their behaviour was impeccable!), then to Lake Victoria. It looks like the ocean. Some of the kids had never seen a body of water like that - they were thrilled. Wish we had had more time at the lake, but everything takes more time than you think. The trip there and back was beautiful. You leave the Rift Valley and enter a different torraine. Tea and sugar canes are grown in that area.
The Friday before we had gone with the grades 4/5 to the Agricultural Show which comes to Kitale every year sponsored by the Kenyan government. The children went on one ride each. The ones on the ferris wheel were wheeled around by hand power!
This Wednesday we will go again to Faith Community Church where the street kids will congregate and will be able to have a bath, wash their clothes, have their wounds/sores tended to, fed a meal and receive a piece of clothing. We really enjoy doing this as it starts a relationship with the street kids. We see them again everytime we go to Kitale.
Our chicken project at MCCH is almost ready for the final touches - the chicks (or kukus as they call it here). The coup has been wonderfully made and the kukus arrived a couple days ago. When it's in full operation, there should be 300 + chickens laying eggs or ready for broiling. The next project is a green house to grow tomatoes to eat and sell. Kenyans are hired to build these structures.
Speaking of kukus, last week at Church a lady, Josephine, gave our team a live kuku as an honor for us coming to Canada. It is a tradition to do that. So we brought it home on the matatu (taxi van) hoping it would stay in the bag! The tradition is to continue where the next day you kill the kuku and have it served for dinner. Well we named him Fred and he's still alive!! I think the plan is to keep it until my birthday, then have a feast of our little Fred!
I phoned Dana for his 35th birthday and had a little boohoo afterwards. Imagine that he's 35. I hear Scruffy and Farrell have races up my stairs - my little buddy must have been teasing me when he kept 'saying' "carry me - I can't walk."
I'll keep better notes on our lives for the next blog post. In the meantime, miss you all!!
Love, Nancy
Monday, November 2, 2009
Thank you ALL for the e-mails ... here's more photos!
Thank you so much for your e-mails I received after my last blog entry. It was so much fun to read each of them and picture each of you - I do miss everyone of you and our interactions together. But for now we will keep in touch this way. I was so glad to get some photos to you and want to thank Mark for posting them on the blog then and now. I think I am doing good just getting a blog entry done!
The photos this time should be:
1. two little boys with a hoop. They made this toy, which they roll around the grounds with a stick. It's made of sticks then wrapped with string to hold it together.
2. I love the photos of hands - we had so much fun doing it!
3. The two girls sewing are making Christmas dresses for every girl in the orphanage. Remember there is no electricity there, so those Singer Sewing Machines are run by 'treadeling.'
4. There should be one of me (not my best photo) and my two little friends, Lucy and Brenda, who run up to me when I arrive and grab my bags and carry them everywhere for me - what service!
5. Photo of the coffee beans (red) and after the red coffee beans are peeled, the white beans have to dry on racks (behind the red beans).
6. Course there is the photo of my sponsor boy Joshua and his friend Vince wearing the two pairs of shorts that Sharon Goddard sent - don't they look great!
7. The photo of all the students lined up in their uniform - well the neighbor to the orphanage gave a bag of gwavas (Sp?) and the word got out and the kids ran to get one!
Today I'm in pain - have pulled a muscle in my thigh. Hummm, too much walking up that hill or possibly 'the hole' experience has irritated a muscle!!
The power continually goes off at our home. It happens almost nightly at 6:30 p.m. just when our host lady is fixing our dinner. Lucky she has a propane stove. I wake each morning hearing Gabriel (one of the workers) getting water out of the well for our use by cranking this handle which makes the water flow. Then he lights a fire in this brick fireplace so we have warm water for our showers.
I continue to work with kids one-to-one, hearing stories of their childhood. They loved to be hugged and have some individual attention. I am also having them write to their sponsors back in Canada. They can't believe I drive! Keep asking to take out my silver teeth! Were wide eyed when I took out my playing cards and shuffled them - guess old people don't do those things!
It is hard to relate to Canadian holidays when the weather here is the opposite of what it usually is in Canada on those holidays. They do not celebrate Halloween nor do they know anything about it.
There is a huge malaria conference going on right now in Nairobi. The statistics of cases and deaths from malaria are staggering. If a vaccine could be found to deal with this little mosquito infected parasite it would be such a break through.
Here's an interesting tidbit I learned from the newspaper yesterday. Thousands of girls are missing thousands of days of school each month because of their periods. Families are so poor here that girls cannot afford to purchase pads so they stay home from school during menstruation. There is a group from California here who have been helping a widows group and one way they help these ladies is by having them make cloth reusable pads to sell or give. This will also help all these young women not to miss school every month.
Well, we will see how the rest of this week goes. Our water at our host home and every other home as well has been turned off because Kitale is hosting an agriculture show which the Kenyan government has traveling around the country. Guess they need the water from November 2 through 7th. We do have well water we can purify for drinking but we're praying for more rain, rain, rain so we can collect it and maybe have a shower!! And the whole of Kenya itself had a power outage this week for about 7 hours - some glitch. Oh well, we have not suffered any since arriving so maybe now we'll get a taste of no water and no electricity like so many people here experience daily.
I won the prize yesterday for the most mail received in one day! Poor Candice had to give up her 'title.' One of the letters I received was mailed October 4th and the other October 18th and I got them November 2nd! But it's fun to get mail (hint, hint).
Not too much to write about so I will leave it for now and 'chat' with you later! Just one other thing: Had to use the 'hole' again - faced the right way this time - no back splash!
Love,
Nancy
The photos this time should be:
1. two little boys with a hoop. They made this toy, which they roll around the grounds with a stick. It's made of sticks then wrapped with string to hold it together.
2. I love the photos of hands - we had so much fun doing it!
3. The two girls sewing are making Christmas dresses for every girl in the orphanage. Remember there is no electricity there, so those Singer Sewing Machines are run by 'treadeling.'
4. There should be one of me (not my best photo) and my two little friends, Lucy and Brenda, who run up to me when I arrive and grab my bags and carry them everywhere for me - what service!
5. Photo of the coffee beans (red) and after the red coffee beans are peeled, the white beans have to dry on racks (behind the red beans).
6. Course there is the photo of my sponsor boy Joshua and his friend Vince wearing the two pairs of shorts that Sharon Goddard sent - don't they look great!
7. The photo of all the students lined up in their uniform - well the neighbor to the orphanage gave a bag of gwavas (Sp?) and the word got out and the kids ran to get one!
Today I'm in pain - have pulled a muscle in my thigh. Hummm, too much walking up that hill or possibly 'the hole' experience has irritated a muscle!!
The power continually goes off at our home. It happens almost nightly at 6:30 p.m. just when our host lady is fixing our dinner. Lucky she has a propane stove. I wake each morning hearing Gabriel (one of the workers) getting water out of the well for our use by cranking this handle which makes the water flow. Then he lights a fire in this brick fireplace so we have warm water for our showers.
I continue to work with kids one-to-one, hearing stories of their childhood. They loved to be hugged and have some individual attention. I am also having them write to their sponsors back in Canada. They can't believe I drive! Keep asking to take out my silver teeth! Were wide eyed when I took out my playing cards and shuffled them - guess old people don't do those things!
It is hard to relate to Canadian holidays when the weather here is the opposite of what it usually is in Canada on those holidays. They do not celebrate Halloween nor do they know anything about it.
There is a huge malaria conference going on right now in Nairobi. The statistics of cases and deaths from malaria are staggering. If a vaccine could be found to deal with this little mosquito infected parasite it would be such a break through.
Here's an interesting tidbit I learned from the newspaper yesterday. Thousands of girls are missing thousands of days of school each month because of their periods. Families are so poor here that girls cannot afford to purchase pads so they stay home from school during menstruation. There is a group from California here who have been helping a widows group and one way they help these ladies is by having them make cloth reusable pads to sell or give. This will also help all these young women not to miss school every month.
Well, we will see how the rest of this week goes. Our water at our host home and every other home as well has been turned off because Kitale is hosting an agriculture show which the Kenyan government has traveling around the country. Guess they need the water from November 2 through 7th. We do have well water we can purify for drinking but we're praying for more rain, rain, rain so we can collect it and maybe have a shower!! And the whole of Kenya itself had a power outage this week for about 7 hours - some glitch. Oh well, we have not suffered any since arriving so maybe now we'll get a taste of no water and no electricity like so many people here experience daily.
I won the prize yesterday for the most mail received in one day! Poor Candice had to give up her 'title.' One of the letters I received was mailed October 4th and the other October 18th and I got them November 2nd! But it's fun to get mail (hint, hint).
Not too much to write about so I will leave it for now and 'chat' with you later! Just one other thing: Had to use the 'hole' again - faced the right way this time - no back splash!
Love,
Nancy
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