Have you been counted??

That was the question all over the news this past week. The 5th national Keyan census was going on. It started on Monday night and ran all week. The way they do it here is that they have people called enumerators that come to everyone's homes and asks them the questions. They say it takes about 30 min to be interviewed. Bars and social spots were asked to close Monday night as the exercise began and they hoped to reached 90% of the population that first nigh. They also made Tuesday a public holiday for the same reason. I was really hoping to be home when they came to our house and get to be a part of it and see how it really worked. Well, as of Friday morning they hadn't made it to our house- yea they didn't make 90% by Tuesday at all!! haha. So anyways, I missed it while I was at work on Friday so kinda bummed about that but so interesting to see how they do things differently here.

Last week for dinner we had chicken right off the bones which is a rare occasion at the house. While in the middle of eating I turned to my house mom and asked if it was one of the chickens from the backyard. She said "yes, we killed it this afternoon." I know my family will be proud to hear my response was simply "thought so" and just kept eating without missing a beat! haha. I only share this because we once killed our own chickens when I was little, and I refused to eat them so mom had to use the meat in a soup and not tell me until days later.

On Saturday myself and the two other volunteers took the 12 older children on a field trip to see the Bomas of Kenya which is where they do different tribal dances. We spent friday night making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (no one else had ever had them but me the American! haha) and putting together sack lunches for everyone. Saturday morning We loaded the kids up in the van and set up for a long, fulfilling day! We had our picnic then went to play on the two jungle gyms that they have on site. It was so interesting because all the kids were very timid and did not just run right up to it like we had expected. Turns out they had never been on a large jungle gym like that before. We showed them the ways around and crawled through it all ourselves and that got them going. Some of them were still a little too scared of the slides though! After a lot of play time we went into the auditorium for the show. The kids loved the show and some even did a little dancing in their seat and one feel asleep because we missed afternoon nap! At the end they got one of the kids on stage to dance and then dragged me up there! It was quite comical. All in all it was a wonderful day and so much fun with the kids. I am so glad we were able to put this together for them.

With the babies we have been doing 'baby massages' and they seem to really enjoy it. Some of them get so tense from not moving around that much or getting that much play time that I think its really good for them. Chris is still very sick, and I continue to pray he will get better!! We are expecting 6 new babies this week so I can't wait to see them. For the older kids- we did a lot of painting with them last week. This was fun painting such as one day we lined the play pen with colored paper, put paint all over their feet and let them run across it. Oh what fun that was!! We have also been doing a lot of dancing and I have some really cute videos of that! The rewards chart is working out so well and all of them have improved. One of the ones that has had such good behavior lately, Sammy, is actually being adopted this week! He met his new parents yesterday morning and in the afternoon he kept saying "Sammy mommy and daddy!" Today they started their bonding and he just radiates smiles- its so good!!

Sunday evening Liuba had the three of us over for dinner. It was so sweet of her and her husband and we really enjoyed it. They live in a town not too far from work and in what would be equivalent to out apartment complexes. The homes are so different though because it literally is two rooms and then they share a bathroom with the compound. It was a very good evening and I know Liuba has really enjoyed having us a Happy Life.

It is such a hard week so far knowing that I am leaving the kids on Friday. I hopefully won't shed too many tears but I know I will miss all the babies smiles, hugging and kissing the kids, being literally knocked over by the big kids as they yell my name and run to my when they see me. Ah! Well I am going to enjoy this last week, hang out with some friends over the weekend then be off to Tanzania early Monday morning.