sorry I'm slacking!!

Ah! Its been about 10 days since my last post! So sorry! I feel like I really am living here now and not just on a trip so either a lot of stuff has become normal and I don't think to share it or things have become just routine with the work now. Soon I will be heading to a new place with all new adventures so I will pick back up again I am sure!

The kids have been wonderful! The rewards chart is working so well and their manners are improving so much. They have all earned face painting so we had an afternoon of tigers, spidermen, and butterflies! Since this month they do not have school we have been able to bring them around the small kids in the morning some days. A few of the older kids will sit against the wall holding one of the bigger babies while other kids will bounce babies in their little bouncy chairs. They are so good with them and its good to have them all together. One afternoon this week we made musical shakers with the older kids they loooved it! We often do obstacle courses or play dance freeze. Ah I have some of the best videos of them dancing!! We are planning an outing for next weekend to take all 12 of the older kids so I am very excited about that and pray that it all works out!

I have found that there are some things here that I can only take mental pictures of. Twice last week I on my walk to work I saw a little boy pulling a makeshift car on a string. It was an old liter juice box with part of the top cut out. He then took two sticks and stuck them through as axels and then he fixed bottle caps on the ends for wheels. I dunno why I am sharing this but it was just one of those things that stuck out in my mind.

I have found myself reading the paper occasionally here which I never do at home. Sometimes its while I am waiting for a friend at the internet cafe and other times I pick it up at the house. I also watch the news fairly often. When we watch it in Kiswahili I have no idea I can only sometimes figure out what is going on but there are also a few English news shows on. Actually the news plays a lot on the TV here. Anyways... A lot of stories have been on the water shortage and how it is effecting the country. They were showing cattle on the TV last night and they were so thin you could see their ribs. Its like that when I see them around too- def not plump cows like we have in America. The story that really got to me though was in the paper last week and it was saying how some families, especially in some of the slums, are buying animal feed to feed their families because it is cheaper then corn and wheat. I just can't even imagine....

As for the babies... Chris is really sick and it just breaks my heart to look at him. He is just under 6 months old but looks like a premature baby just born. He has an umbilical hernia which is what has been causing a lot of the problems. Please pray for him to get better!! Naomi has been working on standing herself up. I now know what parents feel when their child takes their first step because when I was able to let go and she stood by herself (even if it was just for a min) I become so wicked excited!! I am determined to get her walking by herself before I leave here! Things have just been really good with them all. They still looove bubbles and it calms all of them down if they are having a cry fest. We've been doing baby massages too to help with digestion and relaxation too.

The house is now calm with only 4 volunteers in it aside from the family. I do miss a lot of the people that have been there but an so thankful for everyone I have met here. My nights are often just relaxing and watching a movie. I was sick for the first time here this past week. I had a fever and just felt crappy. I was fine after a day of rest so I think in three months having one sick day is okay with me. I am so thankful to have stayed in such good health here. I can't believe I only have two weeks left here before going to my next project in Tanzania. As much as Nairobi drives me crazy some days... I will miss the city. I started to make a list of things to remember about Kenya and then a list of things I miss from America. I am happy to say that my Kenya list is much longer! I promise two more Kenya posts before I leave here.

power rationing and rewards chart

Since I have been in Kenya there has been water rationing going on. This is where they turn the water in certain areas on at certain times so everyone has water tanks to hold water for the days it is not on. Well now they have started power rationing. This is the first time they have done it and will continue to happen until the rains more and they have more water to run the power plants (or something like that). Normally they turn the power off from 6am-6pm three days a week and then on Saturday morning. However, yesterday it was off all day and all night and still off when I left for work this morning! Ah!! I don't so much mind it while at home because I just read by flashlight and eat dinner by candlelight, but I hate it when I can't get on the internet which makes me feel awful and so addicted to communication with people back home! Ahh!!

As for the kiddies I have deemed myself a new job at cutting their nails once a week! Ah they grow so fast!! With the older kid the other volunteers I work with started a rewards chart this week and it is working very well. We are working on positive reinforcement and teaching them manners. They are learning very quickly what actions earn them a sticker on their chart so behaviors are looking up!! The good thing is that the "moms" are getting into it too! I hope it can continue. Its so good to hear them say 'thank you' and apologize when they do something wrong to another kid, etc. The first reward is face painting so hopefully that gets to happen tomorrow.

We are still waiting on paperwork and things to go through on some of the kids being adopted but Elijah and Cyrus went home on Monday and it was a sad day for us volunteers because Elijah was def one of everyone's favorites. Gloria came back for a check-in visit and it was good to see her happy and doing well. Patience is now the only one between 1 1/2 and 2 years old so we're trying to give her some extra loving!! We tried to do finger painting with her but she was a little too unsure with the paint. She does, however, looove bubbles! She always goes "WHOOOA" when we start to blow them. The babies all love it too and if they all start crying to just blow bubbles and everyone calms down- some days it is the only thing that will make Jennifer stop crying! Johnathon is getting better with walking and even can pull himself to stand up which is so exciting!! He loves to put his head on the babies and give them love but sometimes he can get too rough so we gotta watch that. Okay I think that's all the baby updates for now! :)

big update!

We got two new volunteers at the house this weekend; both actually from Canada . The woman is one of my new roommates and she is doing this project as a present to herself for her 50^th birthday!

Sunday morning I visited my 4^th church here in Nairobi . Three of us went to one of the girls orphanages to attend church with them. There were probably a thousand people at the service. This was the first one that had lots of praise and worship and that was fantastic! They actually had six dancers on stage with the band to put movement into the worship. That was a first but it was very good! There were only two mazungu in the band as well- yay! One of them was preaching that day and when he started to talk I turned to my friend and said “southern accent!!” Turns out he was from Louisiana so of course all of service was in English- yay! All in all it was a good experience. This orphanage, Kings Kids Village , is set up closer to the group homes we have in the states where a group of about 10 kids live in a cottage with “parents.” Their kids range in age but since they are not babies they rarely have anyone get adopted.

That afternoon I took two of the girls from the house to my orphanage. (Of course I jumped on the occasion to show off my kiddies!) The kids are all so much better no more sicknesses at the moment which is a wonderful thing. Its been chilly all week so we have unfortunately not been able to take the babies outside for play time. We did get another volunteer at the orphanage, Emma, who is getting her masters in something to do with child therapy (I cant remember exactly) so she has had some awesome ideas of stuff to do with the kids. I think she is going to be really useful to the moms and everyone here with all her knowledge and the kids love new activities. We brought out bubbles with the toddlers and they went crazy for them! The oldest kids have not had school this week due to break so Ive gotten to see them more and fall in love with them even more!

The police did their investigation on baby Jennifer and found her mother (no idea how!). She is now in custody for abandonment and set to be in jail for 3 months. Jennifer is having such a rough time adjusting and def one of the worse cases psychologically they have seen with one of their kids. She doesn't eat, always cries, etc. Liuba (our social worker) is going to work with the children's officer and the police and assess the situation to see what is going to be best for Jennifer (reuniting her with the mom or keeping her here).

On Monday Melody and Gloria went home with their new parents. I hope everything works out with them. They have check ups with our social worker at their home and then they also have to make visits back. Today was a BIG adoption day too. We have 5 more kids getting adopted! Austin, Rosemary, and Nathaniel all under 1 year old. Then Elijah (2) and Cyrus (4) are getting adopted by the same parents! They will all go home next week sometime so I know that will be rough. The other volunteers and I were sad today just thinking about them leaving but also happy they now have parents. Ah!

Today on top of all the adoption news it was also very sad when Liuba told us a bunch of the babies stories on how they came to the home. Some people in this world are just crazy and so cruel to children; I cant believe some of the stuff they do! The stories are too awful to post here. I am so glad these children are now in safe hands! I also learned that 4 of our kids cannot be adopted because of paperwork issues such as the parents signed documents with the courts 4 years ago saying their child could not be adopted and then they disappeared so there is nothing that can be done until the parents are found. Ah!!

With all of this going on today we also had to take the littlest ones to get their next round of shots. Ive done this with them before, no problem, today however the driver decided to leave and not tell anymore. None of the women at the home could drive the van so we were pretty much stuck. We ended up walking with the babies about 10 min to the roundabout where we could get a taxi. It was 3 volunteers (all white girls) and three moms from the home all of us carrying a baby. They have no car seats here so you just hold the baby in your lap. On the way home the car that drove us didnt even have seats in it so we were sitting on the floor of the car holding the babies! We def got some death stares both on our little walk and at the clinic. It was quite the experience.

So the word of today is- AH! Oh yea one last thing to share... I got hair extensions! It took about 7 hours and they are tiny braids and then the hair going down to the middle of my back. The ladies at my friends orphanage did it and it took about 8 of them! haha. My heart hurt of course and still does at times but hey now I dont have to worry about my hair for a month which is sooo good!

Okay so another last thing... Yesterday while we were in town running a few errands I met a gentleman from Greensboro!! Yay! It was a small taste of NC but so nice. A month or so ago my friends saw a purple High Point shirt on someone in the slum where they were working- how crazy is that!!