A New Place, A New Friend, and A Permanent Position(for now)

So this is the living room of our new home at the House of Hope. It is really nice. More nice than what we expected or even deserved, I think. We are able to cook (first meal: spaghetti and salad, second: eggy in the basket...simply beautiful!). Things are strange in the new place. First off: There are not 44 children just around the corner asking for cards or a new movie. We miss that, strangely enough. They do still come and stand outside our door and holler requests. Next: There are noises that come with a new place. The first night we kept thinking there was someone knocking. Last night Tammi swore there was a small rodent in our rubbish (GARBAGE!), there was not. We feel weird living in such luxury when millions of children have been orphaned and living alone on the streets, begging for food. But we will make the most of it.

Kelly arrived on Tuesday. She was also really surprised by the accomodations! The children seem to have really taken to her and she already has a set position in the community. We were worried about that, since all of the trouble finding a place for myself, but things appear to be going great thus far. I think she will really be an asset.

I appear to have a permanent position for myself as well. I will be moving from class to class offering "insight" on the days lessons. I might use materials or just offer a new perspective. But I have a schedule, and that is great!

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Some play by play:

10/11/06
No more waking up to whispers of our name from around the corner

No longer in the big house and we are a little sad. We moved to our own space that is really close to the house however it is not in it. We knew the first morning would be a little weird to not hear 44 children all getting ready for school or church or playing, and it was hard and weird. We could hear them in the distance but it was not the same as waking up to screaming, laughing, singing, and crying. I will miss it very much.
Our space surpasses anything we ever expected to find here or in Africa for that matter. I am still not sure what I think of this. I want everyone to know that I feel honored of such a space and I am very grateful to everyone who made this possible, however it is hard being white hear, we are learning that people have a very hard time seeing past our color and the money they think we have. So moving into a space that is very large by anyone standards is a hard to swallow when many of these workers will never have a space like this. We watched as a strong team of men worked day and night to have this space ready for us and we were humbled and felt very much not worthy of their hard labor. They are workers and we are still not sure if we are even in the same ballpark as them. I completely realize that this space and Kelly’s space will be used when there are teams here and that it will save them team lots of money, however, we were ready to give up everything to be here so all this is a little weird and hard at times.



Kelly makes her way to House of Hope

As most of you know a friend from Ecclesia named Kelly has come to join us for a few months. She is here to work with the children with art therapy. I am very excited about this I think this will be really good for the children and getting them to be more creative. She seems to be really excited and ready to work with the children. It will be nice to have more hands when we are working with the children. Please keep her in your prayers!

Going to the airport was very exciting for us, we were allowed with Margaret to greet Kelly at the gate, so that she would see our faces when she got off the plane. This is how we were greeted when we arrived so we thought it only right. This is really not suppose to happen but Margaret is a very important person here and the men who work security at the airport are from the same village as her late husband, so when she walked into their office to ask and said her name the men stood up to greet her. So you guessed it, we all got backstage passes! So we picked her up and came home to find the older children just as quite as when we came. Many of the younger children had gone to bed already so it was just the older children who were waiting for her. She let them ask her questions and they started to open up but it was really late and they needed to go sleep. It was weird to see myself in many of Kelly’s reactions. I could see how far I had come. I could see how much I have changed already. I could also see this for Michael. He is different now also, he is a leader and a helper here. All who knew him would be blow away and so proud. I know I am.

I forgot to tell you about my birthday celebration!

As you have already see, I got the best song sang on my birthday by some of the best kids ever! Hearing Happy birthday from family is amazing, but hearing it from 44 kids that are truly grateful every year they live, will bring tears to your eyes and that it did. It was very unexpected because it was the day after my birthday. Margaret came home with a large box of biscuits and the kids knew something great was about to happen. So she told them that the day before was my birthday and that they should sing to me and that they did! Then I got to pass out lots of biscuits to all of them, a birthday gift I am sure to never forget!

Kelly’s first day

Kelly and I got our day started at around 9ish. We did not get up until 2ish pm our first day here, so we were quite impressed. She came over and we were off! I took her all around the house and then we went to the school just as the children were about to have tea time, so we partook in a nice glass of tea. The children were very excited to see Kelly and they could not wait to play with her. She jumped in with both feet. We stayed for circle time in the nursery and she got to hear all the great songs the children know including my favorite,10 green bottles dancing on the wall. Then we were off back to the house to go though all the things she brought. We separated all the things that were for the children and all the art supplies she brought and most importantly our stuff! We were so excited to see all our goodies!! THANK YOU EVERYONE most importantly GARY and CAROL! But no special thanks to HEATHER TAYLOR because of the pictures of the family enjoying themselves at Chuy’s and then the chocolate bar, made our mouths water and you know we are not drinking to much water these days. Just kidding, we love you all!

Funny story

So we were all in the TV room watching a movie and Mbau farted pretty loudly and Isaac got upset (he was sitting next to Mbau) and he started to complain in Swahili to him and Mbau said something back that seemed like he was saying it was not him. So Isaac decided to smell Mbau’s butt and low and behold it was Mbau because Isaac stared to wave his hands over his nose and say some harsh words to Mbau in Swahilli

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Sorry, no videos this week. The internet at the Nakumatt is just too slow. Maybe next week fi we make our way to the Sarit Centre (CENTER!)

Bye.

Ps. Good luck, Dave.