Day 53

To start the day I was filled with excitement and anticipation. Some friends and I planned to take the Tumaini (orphanage) children to the beach. Before the beach, I went to the store to purchase a few things. While I was in the store, I saw fun beach toys for the children and bought a variety to bring to the beach.

My friend Patricia met me at the store. We headed to the orphanage to follow the children to Joan’s house. When I arrived at the orphanage, my friend Jessica called me to see if I could come pick her and two of her friends up to join. So, Patricia and I left to pick her up. By the time we got back to the orphanage, all the children were waiting in the matatu to head out to the beach. We followed the driver to Joan’s house.

When we arrived at Joan’s, she welcomed us warmly to her house. The children changed into their swim suits and we headed to the beach. They ran quickly to the water. When I handed out the toys all the children were so excited! They dug in the beach bag to find something they wanted to play with. We splashed and played for a couple hours. One of the boys named Meshack thought it would be funny to dump buckets of water over my head. So, he did just that. He dumped about 10 or 15 buckets of water on me. He thought it was quite entertaining. And it was! He is so cute.

Once we were done on the beach, Joan brought out biscuits, popcorn and juice for all to snack on. The children and the helpers all ate to their hearts content. They were very well behaved. After snack time, Jessica organized a couple of games for us to play. We played a bit of soccer, volley ball and other random games. We had so much fun!

What an absolutely outstanding day! The Tumaini children capture my heart so genuinely. I think today is one of my favorite days here. Then again, thus far I have 53 favorite days here. I’m loving every bit of my time.