Bre Dougherty: 10/25/09

October 28-Happy Birthday Molly StoeckerJ

Sooo…It’s a quarter to 8pm here, and our Internet is finally up and running again. It’s been down for about ten days, so, sorry for the lack of blogging. I'm really excited to fill you in..I have so much to share!

I’m having a wonderful time here and the past 10 days have been great! I will share some of my favorite memories…

Oasis of Hope

I’ve continued helping Leyla teach at Oasis. It’s been fun (and a little challenging) trying to come up with new ideas. Today we played “Heads up 7up” for fun. I kept laughing because there would be 7 kids standing in front of the class and 6 or 8 kids would stand claiming their thumbs were touched…always one less or one more than the kids standing in front of the class. They eventually got it, and the greatest thing about my participating with them is that I was picked every time. On Monday, Leyla and I also tried this sort of pictionary-like game with English words. They all seemed to get involved...it was just great!

Allison’s Birthday celebrations:

Allison turned 27 this past weekend on the 24^th. We celebrated by going to the “Girl’s House” on Friday and some of the younger boys from "House 1" joined us. Then, “House 2” on Saturday, and out for some great food on Sunday at a restaurant called Pinewood.

The “Girl’s House” was so fun! We ate chipati, green grams (lentils), and rice and drank soda from the bottle (from the bottle-which I love about Kenya). Then after dinner we passed out brownies that Allison had made earlier (which the kids loved). We then danced for an hour with no music. Well, we created our own music, which was so fun. Beat-boxing, spoons drumming on the table, etc etc. I taught a bunch of kids the dance moves to the Macarena (and now I’m asked everyday, literally, to do the Macarena someone,) However, since I don’t know any words to the song (does it even have any words…I think there are two versions, one with words and one without) I just make sounds until I get to: “HEY MACARENA!”

Saturday at “House 2” consisted of Chipati, dancing, and Uno playing. Spending time with these boys has been one of my favorite things about Kitale. They all have unique stories to how they ended up at Oasis of Hope and in their home. They have such high aspirations (judge, lawyer, newscaster, pastor…to name a few) it’s encouraging to me personally.

Sunday we went to Pinewood for dinner. Pinewood is a Chinese/Indian/former dance club restaurant, ha! The food was delicious. I ordered this great soda called Alvaro and it tasted like pineapple gummy bears (Shane-you would have loved it!)

Dinner at Pinewood: Allison, Jeffery, me, Olivia (Jeffery's wife) holding Charlotte (their daughter), Jordan, Leyla, Emanuel, and Dan (our taxi driver...who we see almost everyday...so we are well acquainted)

Olivia, me, Allison, Charlotte, and Leyla

Girl's House: We counted 22 of us that night...all eating and hanging in one room

This is me painting Jon's nails (yes, Jon). I brought nail polish over to the Girl's house and I didn't know it would be such a hit with everyone...the boys and girls.

Here is Wiki, Kamau, me, and Eso

Me and Allison dancing and singing

Me holding Kamau

Me hugging Lucy (Lucy in her same dress that I love & want one of my own)

Oct 19: The Boys House

Allison and I went over to house two and hung out (House two is the house we have been going to on Monday and Wednesday nights to help tutor in math). It was so fun to spend time in an informal setting with no agenda. Allison, Evans, Moses, Justice, Martin and I played Uno for hours, drank soda (again-from the bottle) and ate this really great pastry called Mandazi. It was fun spending time with these boys and laughing with them and totally getting competitive in trying to beat them in Uno. Moses was sitting next to me and every time he had a card that would make me draw 2 or draw 4 he would set it down on the table face down and make some comment about having a gift of present for me and he would make me turn it over. I’m smiling writing this but I don’t know if this will be funny to anyone except Allison and myself.

House Two:

Justus, Steward, Martin, Stone, Allison, Moses, me, and Jose eating dinner together

Allison, Pato (brother of Lucy, Ajix, Amlango) and me

Tree planting:

Last week (Oct 20) was so fun! We were invited to attend a tree planting ceremony at the Kitale Club where 5,000 new trees were being planted. I kept joking around asking if I would be able to plant some trees on my own and lo (it’s not low, Allison and I looked it up) and behold I planted about ten trees! I mean the holes were already dug and all I had to do was place the tree in the hold and put some soil around it, but I feel solely responsible for ten new trees in Kitale. Haha.

5 pics of me planting trees (about 4 pics too many)

Jordan, me and Allison planting our first tree

Me...planting my very own tree

Little baby tree...

Me planting a tree by myself...yepppp, told you I was proud

I know this is a bad pic because my hand is in the way, but I had to add it because here I'm pictured with these men: one of which is a pastor, the other a bishop, the third, I'm not sure. I've never met any of these men but the man taking the photo insisted I get in the photo with them. I couldn't stop laughing.

Today in Shimo:

This afternoon we visited 12 homes in a nearby slum called Shimo. All the homes we visited were homes where children from Oasis live. We’ve only been home for a little over an hour and to be completely honest the afternoon is still sinking in. It was great to go to these children’s homes and meet their mom, dad, aunt, or grandmother. We brought each family a blanket, flour, bars of soap, and some candy for the children. The crazy thing about this was just to see how poor some of these children's families really are. But regardless, it was a great experience and I enjoyed going.

It was SO funny. When we first got out of the car in Shimo there was a group of kids surrounding us saying "Muzungu" (white person). Jeffery told me it's the first time some of these kids have seen a white person. The kids looked excited, most were laughing and a few looked scared. I put my hand out to shake one of the girl's hand who looked scared, and she slowly crept up to me, touched my hand, and then ran as fast as she could. I laughed for a minute straight...I've never thought of myself as scary!

Shimo...I just had to add this because it's so beautiful

We crossed this bridge...

Back: Jordan, Leyla, Jeffery, girls' mom holding baby Chris, me, Allison,

Front: Jennifer, Ester, Jon, and Celinah

Jennifer, Ester, and Celinah all go to Oasis and they all have great personalities!

Jeffery, me, Lucy (holding her baby brother Peter), Leyla, Lucy's mom with Erica hugging her leg, Allison, and Jordan. Lucy, who I've mentioned many times, is the cutest little thing. She also goes to Oasis everyday. She is still wearing her infamous dress, but it just is covered with a little jacket in this pic.