Friday-Monday

Friday: Discover to Recover, TI and Ugali

On Friday we visited Discover to Recover again. (Discover to Recover is a center where kids are either effected or affected with HIV/Aids...There is also a school attached for kids whose parents can't afford school) I met this really sweet girl named Nancy who made me a ring out of beads. She was 14 and spoke English really well. After talking to her for maybe 5 minutes, she proudly showed me her bedroom that she shares with 3 other girls, one of which she shares a twin bed with. It was really interesting to hear Nancy’s take on her friends that are infected with HIV. She personally isn’t infected, and she answered a lot of my questions. An eight-year-old named Derek who is HIV positive hung out with us in Nancy’s room. He was so sweet. I showed him pictures of my family and friends and a picture of me when I was about five-years-old. He was so stoked on it and thought it was so funny to see a picture of me closer to his age. He kept confirming that it was actually me. Since he was taking medicine regularly he looked healthy and I would have never known he was infected if Nancy didn’t tell me. I know I must have spent time with children here who have HIV but this was my first experience of knowing for sure.

Here is Allison blowing bubbles for the children at Discover to Recover

Here is a picture of Benja and Allison at Discover to Recover...how cute is he? Allison says, "He's like this rad, old fat man as a kid!"

Here are some more kids from Discover to Recover

Here is Me (and my ring), Nancy (ring maker), and Christine at Discover to Recover.

Later that day we went to another compound called TI (Transformed International) for a BBQ. TI is a Christian organization where American’s and Canadians (mostly) stay for some time and work on various projects in Kitale. It was so funny to be surrounded by a ton of white people. I was laughing to myself at the fact that it felt weird at first. It was a lot of fun though, and we got some good laughs out of me rapping “Gangsters Paradise” and Allison trying to “jump” and touch the ceiling. (Side note: If you haven’t seen Allison try to jump, you have to ask her!)

After returning from the TI compound I had my first taste of Ugali (I’m not sure why I feel the need to capitalize all the new foods I try). Ayub calls it “African Cake” (very misleading). It tastes like air. Not good or bad. But he also made this delicious dish with kale. I just enjoyed hanging out with him and trying a new food I’ve heard about for 4 weeks.

Saturday: Halloween

In the afternoon we attended a Bible study that is held at Oasis for some of the older kids. I actually led this weekend and I talked about Ephesians 3:20, "With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine," something I've been thinking about a lot since I've been here. Besides that, Halloween pretty much came and went like any other day here. It’s so funny how I saw nothing even remotely “Halloween-ish.” I haven’t even seen a pumpkin. Allison and I watch "Donnie Darko" which has a scene that takes place on Halloween, so that sort of counts.

Sunday: Jordan’s Birthday!

On Sunday Jordan turned 22! It was a fun day! We actually visited this deformed animal conservancy. It’s pretty much exactly like it sounds. There are 3 and even 2-legged goats and sheep. But this was the most shocking of all! A bull with 4 horns and two faces merged into one. Totally creepy! Sorry bull.

Then we took a boat ride in this little lagoon. Emanuel (they guy next to me) is from Rwanda, and someone made a joke a couple weeks ago that he’s my boyfriend, so everyone told him to put his arm around me for our” first boat ride.” He just recently starting learning English so he actually sits in Leyla and my class at Oasis.

Also at the conservancy: Emanuel and my first see-saw ride-haha.

Monday: Oasis of Hope and Jeffery and Olivia's

Yesterday at Oasis I thought it would be fun to do a project with popsicle sticks. Jordan and I gave each student 10 popsicle sticks and some glue. We told them they can make anything that they wanted and to be as creative as they want. After about 5 minutes of the students looking at their sticks with blank stares, Jordan finally made a sample “house.” Then they were all about it, and it was really fun to see them jump in and get really excited about it.

Here is the class I teach with Leyla. This is where I go Monday-Friday.

This is me with Rose on my right shoulder, Sarah in front of her and

Here are the kids working on the popsicle stick project

In the front of this pic is Emanuel. He is so bright. He knows the answer to almost every question I ask in English or Math. He's has such a sweet personality too.

This is Joanne. I love calling on her to write on the chalkboard because she is so very tiny that she has to stretch to reach even the bottom of the board. It's so cute to watch, and sometimes I like to call on her just because it's so cute! She is Centrine's (from the girl's house) sister.

This is Elizabeth...she's so sweet! Last week when we were playing "Heads up 7up" Jordan came into play with the class. He wanted to guess that Elizabeth touched his thumb but he was unsure of her name so he asked me. Elizabeth saw me whisper her name to Jordan and she thought I was cheating by telling him who touched his thumb! I felt so bad because with the language barrier there was no way to explain that we weren't cheating!

Last night we had dinner at Jeffery and his wife Olivia's. She is such a great cook! She made chicken in curry and chicken in coconut milk, chipati, rice, green grams, and this really really spicy dish (carrots and peppers). It was really fun to hang all together. We watched Madagascar and Juno, ate SO much food, and just lounged. I was just telling Allison yesterday I can't believe I've only known Jeffery for a month. I feel like I've known him for years. He just has a very warm and welcoming personality.