The Second Of Two Days Our Van Was Stuck In The Mud

Thursday (our last full day in Kitale), we slept in a bit (45 minutes, which is a lot for our typical routine) and then headed over to Sister Freda's Cottage Hospital.

In addition to the hospital, the grounds include a girl's school, a pre-school, a small farm and a nursing school. We broke up in to a few groups and wandered to different pieces of the compound.

Jason jumped in and lead a round of "Nyama, Nyama, Nyama"
he yells "Meat, meat, meat" and the kids yell "meat"
then he yells an animal and, if you eat it, the kids yell meat.
anyone who yells for 'not meat' (cat or snake) has to go in the center

Jason and the Saddleback team were there for the morning, too. We performed a few numbers for Boaz. (Grace rapped for him...clearly the best part of his day!)

Marvin and Cindy sang their song

Sly held Isaiah for a long, long time

The team circled around to speak to and hear the story of an old woman from a local slum

Nikki and Isaiah chatted on top of the van

Oh, and then we watched a pig slaughter

Grace spent over an hour with Boaz

He loved this picture

After lunch, we headed out to visit the homes of Oasis of Hope children that live in Shimo la Tewa slums. Our bus pulled in to the neighborhood and, of course, it began to POUR rain. We made a quick announcement: anyone who wanted to get off the bus and come to the visits, would be doing so in the rain...and, since it was his/her own decision, no complaining was allowed. Anyone else was welcome to stay in the bus, without fear of judgment or frustration.

20 of our 28 team members jumped off the bus, ready to visit homes.

See how hard it was raining?

I could do home visits in Shimo every day for the rest of my life.

BP, Geoffrey, Manu...soaked, but ready to go!

Colin, Sly and Nikki went to the first home

Tyler, Grace and Daizy joined them for the second

For the third, we had to run down a huge hill and jump over a spontaneous rushing river. Josh, Tyler and Harry made the visit while Cindy, Juddy and I waited on the other side of the "river" (where Josh lost his Rainbow sandal).

Josh walked barefoot for the rest of the trek.
Gross...and dangerous...he is also the only one who slipped and fell.

After ten or twelve homes, we found out that the bus had tried to go around and meet us at Shimo Primary School, but had gotten stuck (yes, for the second day in a row!) in the mud. So, the team of 8 was stuck inside...just sitting there...and we had to walk the rest of the way.

No problem for us. We were having a great time!

Collecting dozens of children along the way...

Crossing the Shimo bridge

We visited a total of 20 families, giving maize flour, laundry soap, tea and sugar to each home. The rain cleared up and it was a beautiful (muddy) walk to the closest Oasis Group Home to see the kids, but also to give us some time to wait for the bus to be towed out of the ditch.

Oasis Boys House 3

Oasis Girl's House

Pastor Frank called as we were leaving the girl's house. He told us the bus had been towed out, but was now stuck behind a car that was stuck in the mud. Awesome.

We'd now been in Shimo (and they'd been trapped in the bus) for five hours.
Our half of the team LOVED it. We walked (and laughed) all the way back to the Kitale Club.
As a thank you for the LONG, LONG day, we invited Manu, Geoffrey and Charlotte to stay for dinner. We arrived around 7 and the bus-half of our group made it in around 7:30...not too bad.
As we walked back to our rooms, we were told that one of our girls had fainted and hit her head on the way down. We went and found her, asked her some questions (and called Amy, a nurse) and figured out she had a concussion.

A crazy end to a crazy day, but the bus was unstuck, we made it to Nairobi and she made it home just fine...