Week Three in Kenya

Movie night!  William, the interpreter in the middle, loves to watch movies.  He brought a laptop and the kids was completely fascinated by it - since they've never seen movies before!  It was very cute to see their expressions as they watched the scenes unfold.

Elphas, one of the teachers.  He is 22 years old and is a very gentle guy.

Alex with John.  The kids will never resist any form of love!

Javier and Japheth

Playing tug-of-war.  Alex is challenging the whole group of orphans!  Of course, the kids won!  

Downtown Kisii.  It is a congested city full of people!  We were on our bus waiting to go to Mombasa at the time for our weekend "vacation" since we were at LDO for two weeks straight.  

In Mombasa (Kenyan coast).  This nice African climbed a palm tree and cut us coconuts!  They were delicious.

Eatin' lunch in Mombasa.  It was a great two nights for us all, as we all were able to just swim in the pool and relax and reflect on all we did in the two weeks at LDO and discuss on what we'd do during the final two weeks.  We also finally were able to take a shower and sit on toilets!  Next blog will tell you exactly how we lived at LDO.

Back from Mombasa - Kat taught class about Jonah and the big fish!

Javier looks like a circus tout with all the balloons!  We used them to play tag in which the objective was to pop the balloon tied on the backs of people.

Dallas is stalking someone!

An alliance is formed.  But maybe Kevin will break it?

Crafts.  The kids made cut-outs of a big fish.

Pick your color!

Kevin and Mike, brothers

Makin' bubbles.  

Felix

Another game - three-legged foot race.  We wanted to promote teammwork, and used it as an illustration of Joseph and Mary being pregnant with Jesus and therefore are "now three-legged"!

Leah and Pauline struggled to get their sync together!

A candid shot of the girls around the "water cooler" - literally!  I love this picture because they look so tough while they are actually very sweet!

Alexa playin' with trucks with the boys.  The kids do not have ANY toys at all so the donated toys was naturally a big hit and still is a favorite of the boys and the girls.

English class

Which one would you like to live in?  

Another hot day!

Playing duck, duck, geese - but the Kenyan version is cat and mouse.  I think it makes more sense.

Teaching class about the birth of Jesus

Yet another lorry!  Kristina and Kat went to town to get more wood to build another rabbit pen and a table for the cooks.

Crafts - we made lion masks out of paper plates.  

We were absolutely terrified to see lions in the orphanage.  

Another project - dig up and prepare a small garden.  This was harder than we thought, but it is good, hard work!  We built a fence around it to prevent chickens or people from walking into it.

Alexa teaching the kids a new song to sing.  She did it in a pep-rally style.

More bubbles!  The kids love to immediately destroy any bubble!

Back to the garden.  We are digging trenches around the garden and putting rocks in it so rats or small animals will be unable to burrow through.

We had many angry and displaced ants.  These were not the kind we wanted to mess around with!  They looked like hammerhead sharks and they can bite like one!  

Winston and William.  We can't imagine coming to LDO without their leadership and help!  

Winston brought his projector from his church in Nairobi and the kids were crazy about the big screen experience!  Look at their focused, movie faces.

We watched "George of the Jungle".  

Moises and Kristina cleaning his wound.  

Mike had a cut on his leg and then an infection of some kind developed and it was swollen.  Moises and Kristina took him to the hospital and with the help of donations from people like you, we were able to pay for his doctor visit and for him to get treatment.  Many of the kids have minor health problems, but there is no way to treat them.  We believe LDO would benefit greatly if there was at least one staff with training in basic first aid and proper equipment.  LDO does not even have bandages.  This is one of the many ways in which we hope to be able to support LDO with.

Mike at the hospital.

Javier teaching math!  

Can you find Alex in this picture?  Hopefully by now, you will be able to identify some of the children!

John with a pattern!  The kids' expressions when they found out that they created the patterns were priceless.

Cutting patterns.

Alexa teaching class about Jesus feeding 5,000 people.  

William turning over the soil in the garden.

Put your back to it, Dallas!  No mercy!  No tractors here!

Another activity - "Guess What It Is" - we blindfolded the kids and made them feel and taste things.  It was very funny to watch and the kids enjoyed it!

We put a big goop of peanut butter in their mouths at the end, and they all were shocked and would be perplexed at what this thing could be.  Eventually, they all liked it and wanted more!

Moises and Erick.

Heating up the jikos!