Kenya Update

It just took me like 15 minutes to try and log into this blog.

Finally, success.

So the other day we went on a walk through Mwiki, which is the town that the Rafiki Orphanage is by. A few things to note:

1. Stephen, our dear friend who led us through town hates pigs. I think this is because he did not grow up reading Charlotte's Web or watching Babe. Cultural differences...

2. Kenyans love to display bloody raw animal carnage in the windows of the Butcheries.

3. Kenyan children love having their pictures taken, Kenyan mothers do not-once they see a mzungo (the word for a white person! Sidenote: one of our recent team goals is now to yell mzungo at as many white passerby's as we can find.) they go inside their home and close their door. It helps make you feel more like an awkward tourist.

4. Kenyans are really good at riding bikes piled high with crates. They're everywhere, it's impressive.

School starts next week. Weeeee! Can't wait.

I am assisting with grades 5/6

Eric is grades 3/4

Barclay(s) is grades 1/2 (There's a bank here called Barclays and Jeffery one of the men who works here repeatedly calls Barclay, Barclays)

Drea is grades pre-k and kindergarten.

We celebrated the 4th of July with some other American missionaries and we got to make apple pie-so fun! By "we" I mean me and Drea. Barclay and Eric helped barbeque chicken outside. We love re-enforcing gender roles. For example, Drea and I scrapbook or work in the library while Barclay and Eric mow the lawn.

Earlier that weekend Yeenlan arranged for us to visit two of her friends who live in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. After that we went to the giraffe center, and finally to this thing called Bomas where people preform tribal dances. The circumcision dance was the best-hands down.

Time is going by so quickly! It still feels like we just got here. Getting to know the kids and their mama's has been so fun, interesting, enlightening, rewarding...&c. There is so much to learn about them all.

Quotes from the week worth mentioning.

"Oooh you smell gooood. You smell like Chapatis!!" (note: chapatis are flat bread, painted and fried with lard.)

-Aaron

"Please, please during nap time I dream about you."

-Grace W.

"Please, Denise is fat, Denise get off the seesaw, please! Denise is too big!"

-Kilonzi

Also we have been making good use of Barclay's banana grams since the kids all scatter into their cottages around 7 pm. And now we are going to go catch some of the world cup at one of the Julie's (one of the long-term missionaries here).

Thank you for your prayers!