July 27, 2009

Today was a very long day. Actually last night was a long night. Haley got really sick. She threw up about four times during the night. I felt really bad for her. She didn't feel good this morning either, so she didn't go at all today. We left bright and early (7:30) in order to set up at the school for VBS and Youth Camp. ONLY, when we got there we found out that all of the younger kids had exams, so they won't start with us until Wednesday. All of us ended up working at youth camp. Youth camp ended up needing all of the help it could get. It was CRAZY. There are about 250 youth, which everyone was not expecting. Apparently there's only 150 children. We were expecting about 300 kids. Hopefully tomorrow will go good. Oh, everyone here is fascinated by pens. They don't have pends here. We actually had all of our pens stolen. A lot of scissors were taken too. After Youth Camp (which ended around 1pm) we headed to Squatter's Hill (the poor slum area). A lot of adults were out, which makes things obviously a bit more unsafe. A lot of the men are very sketchy. Actually, a few days ago Jamie told us a story about a girl named Susan who used to work at the school in Squatter's Hill. She was fourteen... an orphan. Her uncle and auntie lived there. She didn't go to school, but she worked and earned food by carrying water to the school four times a day (between 7am and 1pm). When Jamie asked the teachers at the school where Susan was, they said she now did parking (which I guess is another word for prostitution). She got kicked out of her aunt and uncles house. She's FOURTEEN. Only fourteen. What is wrong with the world?

The children all around squatters are so cute. When they see us coming they start running towards the vans. The children in the school are all between kindergarten and second grade. We sang songs with them. They just want to be held and picked up. It's cute. I pretty much got poop all over me from this one girl. It was okay though. Everyone smells pretty awful by the time we get back in the vans. It's totally worth it though. It's an eye-opening experience. We look forward to going to the hill everyday. Steve broke out his guitar and the kids went crazy.
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A few more random things about Kenya:
A lot of people have motorcycles, and a lot of people have bikes. There are very few cars on the road, and most of them are trucks or vans. There are also quite a few donkey carts. Another interesting vehicle are these taxi like things. They have only three wheels and don't look very safe. I'm not sure how else to describe them.
Tea time is a big thing here. The tea is pretty good as well.
You can buy a glass jar of soda for 50 schillings... which is like 75 cents, not even.
Oh, Mom! I think of you a lot because they have palm trees here. I know how much you love them. They don't really keep up with them... so they aren't really pretty.
And Dad, they had a Manchester United bus here! So, I thought of you. Even though I know you don't really like them... it's still football :)