New Beginnings And Beginnings Of The End

Wednesday morning was the first day of school for four of our favorites!
They stopped by our compound to get dressed and then be walked to school. (I just realized how strange it is that their mothers didn't want to come see their first day of school...)

Celinah and JenniferSarah helping Esther

Sammy and Torie helping Lucy

Torie was so proud of her

Jason helping Esther with her tie

Jade could not stop squealing with excitement about Celinah's clean white socks

Torie showing Lucy how beautiful she looks

Dylan and Torie were trying to create some energy in the room...
It was all Beyonce for an hour (beginning with "Pretty Girl")

Jason wouldn't let Esther put clean socks on dirty feet

Bananas for breakfast

They sent the girls off to take entrance exams and a large group of us went to Oasis of Hope for the morning.

Ryanne brought bubbles

And she was a hit with stickers

After lunch and a nap, Ryanne, Baby Brea and I went over to Discover to Recover.

Churchill (Chachi)

I was really excited to see Benja! The car pulled up, I looked out the window and saw him. He had a huge smile on his face. I said, "Do you know me?" His smile got bigger. I said, "What's my name?" He said, "Alice!"

And then he snuggled with me the rest of the time I was there...oh man, I love this kid.


Benja talked the entire time (in Swahili, of course). He is number one in his class and it was pretty obvious by the way he was reading the tags on our backpacks (Ryanne's full name) and doing Math problems on the back of the book.

Ryanne showing pictures from the safari

Brea with Naomi and Sylvia

Benja stole the tube of bubbles I brought and the rest of the kids were excited to jump around and pop them.
Andrew lives there now, too. He had a huge smile on his face as he told me about how well he's doing in school, about his sister and then asked about Ange.

As we were leaving, I was searching for Derrick to say goodbye, but he was nowhere to be found. When we came around the corner, there he was! With a huge water-filled jerry can on his head.

Derrick

We left Discover and walked across the street to House 2; the only Oasis of Hope Group Home we had yet to visit. Many of the boys are now in High School, so there were only five there for dinner...but that was enough to entertain us!

Evans

Patrick

Two of the three kittens (one is named "Millionaire")

John

Patrick and Brea

Ryanne and I helped Evans and Abby (Robert's wife) roll the chapati
Ryanne's actually become pretty good at it this week!

Abby

There was no electricity, but often that makes for a better photoshoot...

Joseph came home after his school football game
I love that big white smile!

Bram was with him too...
he was a little embarrassed when I commented on his "beard"

The white girls danced while the Kenyans rapped

And then took "in the dark" pictures

Ryanne showcased some dance moves we learned from the Nairobi teammates

We made Evans a beard of chapati flour...
but the flash was turned off, so the photo looks like he's a ghost

Evans and Joseph

Joseph

Brea and John's famous pose

Andrew stopped by to take some photos with the posters in the living room

All five boys: Bram, Joseph, Patrick, Evans and John

The stickers were just as big of a hit here as they were at Oasis

Joseph

John

We sang "Forever" by Chris Brown and danced around the living room

Dinner took a little longer than we had anticipated, so we ended up scarfing down plates of green grams and chapati. I told the girls, it felt like I was in an eating competition. It was super delicious, so I would like to have enjoyed it a little more...but, charcoal only cooks so quickly.

When Dan dropped us at home, the team was sitting around a fire, singing worship songs with Jason. We grabbed some chairs and jumped in. The night ended with "How He Loves", one of my favorites...

Only a few days left...we're playing the stupid "last ____" game...which I really don't enjoy.
It usually leads to a lot of tears.
Here we go (again).