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 50th birthday!
Sunday morning I visited my 4th 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!!
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