Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving! We all have many things to be thankful for. I'm not going to bore you with my list... because I'm sure it looks very similar to yours... I'm thankful for my family... for my boyfriend... for my friends... and so on and so forth...

But I truly hope everyone had an AMAZING thanksgiving... because I had TWO!!!
I had one at Brian's parents house and one at my sister's place. Both meals were outstanding. Props go out to all the cooks who put their time into those dishes!

But I do want to say one thing I'm extremely thankful for. My brothers. I was gone for ONE NIGHT, and this is what they did to my room...

They took my bulletin board down... and I'm not sure what the baby rocker was for...


They even stole my pillows!!!!!


My room was clean before I left... WHAT IS THIS!!!??? I think the electronics are now mine...




-Britt

DAY FIVE - 30 September 2008

I guess I never mentioned this before, so I will now. The deal with the skirts. In Kenya, women wear skirts, below the knee... plain and simple. In areas like Nairobi, you would see women in pants, but if you saw them in rural areas... it gave you a label you probably didn't want. So, all the women on our team wore skirts below the knee.

TUESDAY - DAY FIVE

This morning I woke up around 6:15am. Not really sure why I decided to get up EARLIER than the day before... but I did. I ate a wonderful breakfast of bacon, toast and scrambled eggs. That got me to thinking, I ate better over there than I do here. Maybe I should fix that ;D

We headed out at about 8:30am. However, I had a busy morning. Tuesday (Day two of VBS) was my group's day to run VBS... so I had some last minute scrambling to gather supplies. Amazingly enough, I wasn't freaking out... I know... weird... ;D

This morning I rode in the van with Rick, I think that was the only time I did that... as it so happened... lol.
Anyway, since we left before the other van, Rick decided that we would stop at the equator on the way into Cheppema this morning. I was so excited... especially because I was wearing my favorite skirt!!!! We took TONS of pictures. Several of each team member, then groups... people straddling the 'equator line', etc. However, I got a unique picture. I went into the middle of the road to take my picture on both sides of the equator. One foot in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern. Now, don't ask me which is which, cause I don't know... BUT if I had to guess, I would say that my left foot was North and right was South... see what you think in the picture below. Either way, before I got out of the road, I did manage to get a car to honk at me!!!

Anyway... when we got to the Hope Center, the kids were having recess (we arrived later than the day before because of the equator stop). They were waving to us as we pulled in, with MASSIVE smiles on their faces. We had brought along bubbles today, so we decided to break them out and play with the kids. I can not describe to you how much fun these kids had with the bubbles. The girls chased them, or ducked away from them... and the boys... they attacked the bubbles... it was so funny!!! And of course, some of the kids ate them. Even the older kids had a lot of fun with the bubbles.

When the kids went back to class, I went and observed the preschool classroom. The little kids in there were soooooooo sweet! AND SMART! They were singing the English alphabet. The song went "Capital letter AAAA, small letter a... Capital letter BBBB, small letter b..." But really, you had to HEAR them for yourself. It was so adorable.

I moved on to watch some other classrooms. I went into the standard 3 classroom and sat next to some of the kids. Rachel was up front teaching and the children were writing answers on the board. It amazed me to see that these kids were itching to get up there to write the answer. The kids jumped out of their seats, raised their hands HIGH in the air, and shouted 'teacher, teacher'. What amazed me even more was that they didn't care if they were wrong... they just wanted to TRY! I was blown away. Some of the students in American schools could learn a thing or two about valuing education.

Anyway, after leaving that classroom, I ran into Stephen. We both expressed interest in seeing the grade 8 classroom. So, we hopped in there to watch Elain, Amanda, and BJ teach the students. They taught on everything from snow (and everything that goes with that...) to the United States geography and government system. They needed a little bit of help on the government system (it's been a while since they were in school), so Stephen and I obliged.
The girls even taught on sports and they sang "Take me out to the ball game."

It amazed me yet again how attentive those kids were... and they were willing to learn, even with those crazy wazungu (white people) teaching their class. ;D

The kids broke again for recess. Jennifer found me this time and pulled me aside. She showed me some pictures of her brother... the one who came to America... his name was Elijah. The pictures she showed me were ones taken IN America. This pictures were obviously something that she cherished very much. And she took great pride in showing them to me. I was very glad that she did.

After they went back inside for class, I walked over to a few of the teachers. Sometimes when the kids are doing an independent study, the teachers get a break. Lisa, Sherry and I held a conversation with them for about a half hour. We learned a lot about Kenyan marriage, dowries, Kenyan government and geographic divisions, Kenyan school systems... etc.

After a while, the team ate lunch. Same as the day before... but this time, we had JELLY on the sandwiches. Lisa, Tim, Terry and I gathered supplies for VBS.

VBS was amazing! The kids loved it! When Lisa, Tim and Terry had to act, they did an amazing job!! The kids were laughing hilariously!! And when we asked the kids to memorize the verse, they did an amazing job!!! We didn't have to give them any clues or anything, they had it immediately!!

The health lesson for the day was teeth brushing... and it was obvious that the kids enjoyed it. We even caught some of the kids brushing their teeth after the lesson! It was awesome! The craft for the day was even better, I say that only because I participated in it.

We took polariod pictures of the kids for the craft. We had them stand outside and smile for the camera. They were escorted inside and given a dum-dum to keep them busy. We also put the memory verse at the bottom of the picture. It was so amazing to see how these kids LOVED their pictures. They would look at them, and show them to each other... and then put their fingers on it... it was just... I can't describe it... I wish I cherished pictures like that...

We even took pictures of the teachers and the headmaster, and the pastors. They loved it too!

After we had taken all the pictures and brushed all the teeth... the boys played soccer and the girls sat around and talked. I got to hang out with Jennifer. After learning some more Swahili, we had to leave.

The team got back to Sunrise around 6pm... we ate an amazing s-peghti dinner with fresh nanasi (pineapple) for desert... and then we de-briefed.

At the de-brief, Shane shared a story from his first Christmas in Kenya. He was almost killed, he was robbed and his children asked him "Daddy, am I going to die?". It was hard to keep my eyes dry.
Pam also got vulnerable and shared some of her story from Tanzania.
The team prayed over Shane and Jill.

I went straight back to my cabin, journaled and went to bed!!!

Check in later for pictures!!!

-Britt

Pictures from DAY FOUR

Pictures from DAY FOUR


The house to be roofed...



I'm trying to figure out how to play that game...



Stephen practicing for worship...



The map for VBS...



The dining hall at the home...



Jennifer in her room....



Jennifer and I...



-Britt

Day Four- Monday 29 September

DAY FOUR--

Woke up around 6:30am. Very groggy, I headed over to breakfast. Two of the team members (women, of course) had made pancakes and hard-boiled eggs.

I took a VERY SHORT shower and got dressed for our first full day in Cheppema.

The team headed out around 8:30am. It is an hour ride from Sunrise Acres to Cheppema. We pass the Equator on the trip... personally, I thought that was pretty cool. One thing I noticed on this ride... the Kenyan people wave at cars that are passing by. Especially the kids... I made it a point to wave back.

When we got to the Hope Center, I started to help in the clinic with the Nurse (her name is Doris.) We had brought LOTS of medicine with us to help supply the clinic. Those of us helping tried to explain the medication to Doris and to help organize her medicine cabinets. I mostly just organized the medicine by type and let the other women do the rest... I don't know a whole lot about medicine... LOL

Then I went over to check out what the boys were doing on the houses for the teachers. However, since I was in a full length skirt... I really wasn't much help over there. I did get a few pictures though.

When I realized that I wasn't getting anything done with the men at the house... I headed over to the school. Recess had just started, so I watched some of the girls play a game. It looked REALLY FUN... but I didn't really know how to play. The girls drew a grid in the dirt. Then, four girls would jump into the grid... one at each corner. While singing, they jumped around in the squares in a specific pattern. By the end of recess, I had finally gotten the pattern, but then, it was too late... ugh!
All the kids went back inside... some of them with bigger smiles than they came out with... I think that they enjoy learning more than free time sometimes.

Since there weren't any kids to play with during school... I went back over to the houses. I decided that I would take the initiative to get lunch ready. We all decided to eat lunch on the far end of the property under the shade of a rather large tree. Stephen pulled out his guitar and we practiced the songs that we would be performing for VBS.

After lunch came our first hitch of the day. The kids were supposed to be in school until 5pm. We had planned to do VBS at 3. So, we worked with the headmaster and decided to do TWO sessions of VBS. The first was for the young children who were done with school... preschool through standard (or grade) 3. The second session was for standard 4 through standard 8.

Since the kids don't learn English until standard 4, we had to have a translator for the first session. BUT we didn't need one for the second go round. Stephen, Dave and I led worship and Elaine was up there to help us sing! The kids loved the motions (or, as I had to remind myself to say, actions... if you want to know the reasoning behind that... I'll tell you later...). And they even started singing the songs along with us. At least, as much as they could pick up.

A fun note: we did the song called "Every Move I Make" and this song starts out with a chorus of 'Na, Na, NaNaNaNaNa'. Well, in Swahili Nanasi means pineapple. So, they kids thought it was funny. We also did a few other songs. One of which the kids really enjoyed... Everyday! I'm sure most of the team has had more than enough of that song thought ;D

After worship... BJ, Terry, Amanda and Lisa did an excellent job with VBS. They were thrown together at the last minute, and they pulled it off beautifully!!
After the lesson, we split the group into two and while one group colored and decorated treasure maps... the other got a lesson in washing their hands. It was really neat, they used glitter as an object lesson. Wonderful Idea!!

Then, we did it all over again for the big kids!

After the 2nd VBS, the girls wanted to show us the children's home. So, Jennifer took me up to the house and showed me around. Some of the things I saw were extremely upsetting. I guess I had a picture in my mind of this perfect haven for these kids. But instead, the home was sort of run down. I guess that the pastor who ran the home in the PAST did not really keep the building up to standards. Jennifer showed me the chicken coop, where they used to have chickens... until they were taken. She also showed me a very small kitchen and an extremely small dining room for the amount of children.

Jennifer then took me to the girls quarters. Most of the girls live two to a room. She however has her own room, from what I understand, she gets it to herself because she is so much older than the other girls. Jennifer helps out with the other girls and makes sure that they are getting taken care of. Jennifer took me into her room. It was rather small, but I wasn't very surprised by the size. She was very proud of it and of her few possesions. You can see pictures below.

After we walked back outside, Jennifer told me the story of how she and her sister came to the home. I almost cried. It was a heart-wrenching story. I don't feel that the story is mine to tell... but I am reminded of it when I start to think MY life is bad... that story is something I will always carry with me. She also talked to me about the pastor that used to live at the home. Having an idea of what that man was like, I did my best to just listen to her and not throw in my two cents.

We went back up to the center and it was time to leave. Evidently, the rest of the team had been waiting on those of us that went to the home. Jennifer told me that she was going to make me a gift for Sunday and that she loved having me (and the rest of the team) there.

We drove back to Sunrise... and the entire time, all I could think about was the story that Jennifer told me about her life. We again ate at the home of Sunrise's owners, another amazing meal. We had a de-brief after dinner... there were quite a bit of tears... it was hard to stay calm. Dave did a devotional on Deut. 32:11... VERY MOVING!

After the de-brief... my team met to plan for VBS for the next day. We got everything worked out and we were ready for tomorrow. Stephen and I practiced because we had messed up a couple of times during worship on the first (and second) go arounds of that day. However, to save Stephen's face, I will admit that none of the issues were in any way his fault, it was all Dave and I.

I went back to my room after that to journal. BJ came in and started asking me questions about me. When we got down to the "what do you want to do with your life?" question... BJ said, 'you know what you should do... you should work with kids... maybe in children's ministry... you really have a talent for it.'

What can I say?? I think I'm right where I'm supposed to be. On that note... I went to sleep.


Working in the clinic...


For some reason I'm having trouble uploading pictures on this post... I will try to do so in another post..

PLEASE COMMENT... LET ME KNOW YOU ARE READING... I promise it will make me write faster...

-Britt