Day 73 Sweet boy

Today I went to Coast General Children’s hospital with Michelle and Simone. It was great to see the kids again. One of the boys I saw last time is now in ICU. He was brought to the hospital a bit too late. We think he won’t make it because of that. If he was brought sooner he would have had a better chance to survive. Some of the parents don’t have money to bring their children to the hospital, so they take them when their child is doing really badly and then it’s too late to save the child.

Day 72 Juice store

I woke up early this morning, got myself prepared for the day and went off to Mtwapa to purchase juice for the upcoming Super Saturday. The store that is in Mtwapa sells the juice for a really good price. Paul met me at a gestation and then took me to the store. We had to wait for about 30-40 minutes for the soda to be delivered. A man riding a bicycle had about 240 juices strapped to his bike. He dropped them off by us. Then he went to get the rest of the juice. There should be enough juice now for this Saturday in Bomani and the following in Ingili.

After purchasing the juice I dropped Paul off and headed to Bomani. Allen met me at Bomani and got all the teachers together. We gathered to discuss the details of Super Saturday. I let them know how the day would run on Saturday. They seem happy to volunteer for the Super Saturday event!

When we were done discussing the details all the teachers gathered their students in the church so we could practice the songs they will be learning on Saturday. However, one small detail was missing. There’s no CD player. So, I pulled up the car. The kids came outside. Then I opened the car doors, put the CD in and cranked up the music. We practiced the songs a couple times. The children are such fast learners. The teachers were eager to learn the songs as well, so they can continue teaching it to the children before Saturday. One of the teachers had me play the song while she recorded it on her cell phone. Before I left Ann fed me a wonderful meal of ugali and peas. She made sure that the cooks made a special plate just for me.

I headed off to Ingili. Allen followed behind to meet me there. When I arrived one of the teachers welcomed me warmly. We went into the school office and waited for all the teachers to gather. Six of the teachers at Ingili are coming to help in Bomani this weekend. We reviewed all the details of Saturday. Similar to the response in Bomani, the teachers seemed ambitious to volunteer for this event.

On my way home I picked up some biscuits and paper at Nakumatt for the event. When I arrived home I grabbed the ink cartridge to buy black ink since the printer is low. However, the piece broke off on top of the ink cartridge. I went to the store to buy the ink and see if the printer would work. It does not. Then I took the printer into the shop that I bought the ink from. He sent me to a place nearby that can fix the printer. I took the printer into the shop. A man told me that his son fixes the printers and he is not in at the moment. Now I am waiting to see what happens.

As I was a bit discouraged about the printer today, George offered me some good advice. He said, “Kristen, don’t worry about the computer, worry about me. The computer is replaceable, I’m not.” As I thought about his words I understood what he was trying to say. It was a good reminder to not be overly concerned with things. When I am too concerned about ‘things’ (whatever that may be), I get worried or frustrated and in turn it is easy treat others around me with a little less attention because my focus is on the ‘thing.’ However, no matter what is happening around me the way I treat people is very important because I cannot replace a moment with a person; however, I can easily replace a thing.

Day 71

Today I spent time getting things ready for the next Super Saturday and went to get a massage done. The massage really helped my back. I also went for a swim in the ocean.

Before bible study I went to briefly visit the kids at Tumaini. When I arrived a little girl named Hope was walking in the hallway. She was really excited, ran to me and we hugged. When I walked in the room I gave and received more hugs from the kids. One of little boys came up to me and started singing a song that he was taught during Sunday school, inviting me to sing it with him. Moments like that today are absolutely priceless. I would not trade them for anything.

Day 68 Change of plans...

Recently I have been having some back issues. It’s been maybe a week or longer. I think it’s a muscle. This morning when I woke up it was hard to move. I think I over did it by picking up those sweet girls a couple times and walking with my backpack. My back issue got worse and I realize that is self inflicted.

Chris and Lesley offered to carry my backpack on our walk, but of course… I did not take the offer because I don’t want to make them do extra work and because ‘I can handle it.’ Hmm… sounds like a pride problem. Ha ha… and I could not help but pick up those sweet little girls when one of them was getting tired trying to make it up so many stairs, I told her to hop on my back for a piggy back ride. Then as they left, I picked one of them up off the ground as I was hugging her… I mean really… I couldn’t help it… she was just so sweet and cute!

Well, today I am paying for all that. It is hard to walk or make any movements without feeling the pain. We had plans to go hiking and visit neighbors. All of that was put on halt. I decided to go home today instead of tomorrow.

The bus ride back was pretty bumpy. Ouch! When I came home I thought it would be good to get in the pool and swim a bit because last time I swam in the ocean it really helped my back. However, the swim was of little help this time. Not sure why. Time to rest and let this thing heal!

Tomorrow I will try to stay in bed most of the day. I am an ‘on the go’ type of person… staying in one spot is quite the task for me. This will be interesting! Ha ha…

Day 67 Sweetest couple!

This morning I went to the church in Vipingo to see the children perform the songs they learned from Super Saturday. They did so well and looked so cute standing up there in front of the church singing the songs. The service was good. They even had a translator come up and speak English so I could understand. How thoughtful! There was a lot of music during service. Everyone was so joyful! I just loved it.

My friends Lesley and Chris were in town because they helped out with Super Saturday. They are have come from America to live in a village called Ribe for one year. Lesley is an English and Math teacher at a primary school. Chris is an engineer working on some projects in the village. They are a wonderful couple. I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know them.

Today after service I went with them to Ribe. We took a matatu to town (Mombasa), and then a bus took us the village of Ribe. It was about an hour and a half journey. Then we took about a 20 minute walk to their house. On the way to their house we passed by Lesley’s school. There were lots of classrooms filled with desks. Her class holds about 90 students. Then I saw the office of the school and one of the friendly workers greeted me. As we continued on the walk to the house we ran into some of their friends that live in Ribe. There was this sweet old man who lives in a hut made of mud. He was so happy and welcomed me so warmly to the community.

We came up to their house as I looked up it was on top of a huge hill. The stairs were a nice workout to walk up. When we came to the top of the stairs I saw the cutest little doggy! They call him Rhino. He just kind of hangs out by the house but has no owners. He was a little scared of me at first. When he heard me talking in my high-pitched tone (dorky, I know) calling him near, he wagged his cute little tail and came over to greet me. He’s so sweet!!! Then as my attention went to the beautiful scenic view they have on that hill. WOW! You can see very far out. It’s a breathtaking scene. Mombasa is an hour drive away and I could see the city from their house.

Visitors came to the house as we were about to leave for Chris’s soccer game. There were these two little girls with their mom. I hung out with them until they had to leave later on that night. Oh my goodness… They were so sweet, smart and fun! As we walked toward the soccer game one of the girls was teaching me a bunch of Swahili words. When we came back from the soccer game we sat on the living room floor and played card games. I taught them a card trick, two card games and some other fun things. They were like sponges! I could not believe how fast they learned things. They reminded me of my niece Taylor who picks up everything super fast and can teach whatever she learned to someone else that very day. They were bright like Taylor, helpful like Taylor, talkative like Taylor and loved learning like Taylor (boy, I sure do miss Taylor). I really enjoyed my time with these girls. I sure hope I can see them again. We just clicked really well. They did not want to leave to go home! I wished they could stay longer!