The final days

I am officially down to my last few days in Africa. My experience has been extremely memorable and life changing. These last couple weeks have left me feeling blessed beyond comparison; from getting to celebrate 25 years with Nairobi Lighthouse Church, to spending a week in Apt. D with 11 children, to spending time with friends. It has blessing after blessing. In church last weekend the church recognized mothers for Mother's Day. I was sitting with one of the boys, Alex when they asked all mothers to please stand. Alex could not understand why I wouldn't stand up and kept telling me that I was just like a mother to them and NEEDED to stand up. He pleaded with me, pulling on my arm, begging me to stand up just like all of the other mothers....I didn't stand, which upset Alex very much....but my heart was touched and I felt more honored than almost any mother in that room.  Another huge blessing this week included the celebration of a birthday. Here it is custom for the birthday person to serve the first pieces of cake to people of importance; mothers, fathers, aunts, ect. Evans, the birthday boy, brought me a piece of cake. I know for some of you that probably sounds like something silly to make a big deal out of, but I was so touched that I could barely accept the piece. Now, I am not sharing these things to try and brag about "how big of an impact that I must have had on these small children." This is not the case at all; these children are the most loving and accepting children you could ever meet. They love everyone this much. I am sharing these things to help express the impact that these children have had on my life, melting my heart with each smile. Because of them my eyes have been opened to a new and purer love. I know that leaving in a few days is going to be extremely hard, but I know that it is time for the next step. As I prepare to go, I know that I am leaving a changed person and will forever carry a piece of Africa and these children in my heart.

May Begins....

Once again I have fallen behind with blogging. I am falling more in love with this place by the hour. The kids are so much fun to hang around and I am getting to know some of the older ones. This week I have been helping out in one of the apartments because one of the mothers is on break. Essy and I have been spending the night and helping in the mornings. It has been fun, but the mosquitos in the living room make it hard to sleep. As I have mentioned, it is the rainy season; in fact it is pouring outside at this very moment. During hard rains, flying termites can be found all over the place, including the houses when windows and doors get left open too long. Evidently they are delicious, I will be the judge of that when I work up the courage to try one for myself. Joe showed me how to cook one over a candle. He insists that they taste wonderful....I am not so sure if I believe him yet. Other than that, we are just preparing for school to start back up on Monday. Also, on Sunday, our church is having a 25th year anniversary. It is going to be a full day of events. Most of the kids are involved with choir or dance teams and they have been going to practices for the last two weeks or so. I can't wait to see all that has been prepared for the celebration.

The "Gentlemen" as they call themselves- aka Clifton and Davis

Sammy modeling the flowers

Faith and Fatuma

Fatuma and I 

                                            

Joe cooking up some flying termites! YUM! 

 I spent the weekend with my friend Miss Jane. It was a lot of fun. However, it rained really hard on Friday again so we ended up being stuck in traffic until about 11pm almost midnight. Did I mention that we left at 4 pm? I don't think that I will ever complain about heavy traffic again. Getting home that late is very common for most people around here during the rainy season.We would literally shut off the car for 5-10 minutes at a time before we would be even able to move an inch. So that was an interesting experience! On Saturday, Jane took me into town and we ran some errands for the church. It was fun to see more of the city. She even took me to a new mall. I think my jaw literally hit the floor! It was huge and extremely nice, it even included a 4 screened movie theatre upstairs.

A typical hand cart for hauling goods

On the way to Miss Jane's house. 

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and God Bless.