Good Samaritan's Orphanage

A few weeks ago, I went with a friend of mine again to do a health clinic. Her name is Robyn Moore and she is totally amazing! She has been here in Kenya for over 25 years. She is with World Gospel Mission and has an organization call, the Least of These. Robyn is a nurse practioner and more! She goes to a number of orphanages over Kenya. This day we went to one called Good Samaritan's and is located in Mathere Slum - maybe it's the 2nd largest in the Nairobi area? I'm not sure. This was my first time actually inside a slum of any kind. We went with another nurse practioner and 2 student nurses from Ireland that had just arrived the night before! Ok, they are young! :)

While we were there we saw 81 kids, including 3 babies. This girl here (above) is actually 3 years old - she doesn't look like does she? She's had a number of health issues, but according to Robyn, she is doing better. We saw a lot of kids with ear infections, scabies and signs of HIV. It was so refreshing going with Robyn, as she has so many connections to doctors and clinics in the area. If she had any question about tests needing done, she could just call and set things up. It just felt good to know that things would some how get followed up with - and she will be back here again in a few weeks or so. Plus, Robyn is so easy going - and so good with nationals.

If you've noticed, the kids are eating PIZZA! When we were done, 2 families from Robyn's mission came with pizza for all the kids! I wish I could really explain how amazing that is for these kids and really to just bring what I think was 20 or 30 pizzas into a slum area! I was actually a bit scared things would get out of hand, but the guys really made sure it was under control. They made all the kids sit by the walls (below) and stay sitting - or no pizza, and then handed each child a piece. :) I think this may have been a first for them. The way they ate it was so funny, they picked off all the toppings and then folded it over and ate the rest! :) It was such a treat for them!

Here are the kids all lined up - and one of the daughters of the families that brought the pizza. Sorry, no pics of Robyn examining the kids - I was trying to keep up with her getting the meds ready and having them take a dose etc. At one point we heard a rat crawling somewhere and were hoping it wouldn't decide to come out. Also the flies were really bad - it wasn't a hot day, but they just wanted to stick on you. These are times when I wish I didn't have such a good sense of smell....These kids were so amazing too - just holding them or playing with them - you could tell they enjoyed it.

Catching up...

Wow, it has been sometime now since I've attempted to get this updated! So, this blog is just a mixture of this and that. Many of you know that we have decided to return to the US at the end of October. We appreciate your prayers as we make yet another move and find where and what God has for us. Below is a pic of my friend Margaret and 2 of her friends. I think it was 2 weeks ago, we had made a list of all our things we needed to sell. So Margaret came with her friends to see. It was really amazing, we had a number of people just stop by that weekend and just about claimed everything!

Ok, here is my one and only pic of Twix...(for this blog) He just loves to lay on me everytime I get this white blanket out. Then he finds such goofy ways to position himself. Oh, he is really our best cat ever! ...don't you all think we should bring him back with us? He is just priceless!! right?! :)

One evening Micah said he needed dessert and we didn't have anything really, so he went into the kitchen and came out with this plate.... here it had 3 sweet bananas sliced with peanut butter on and a few peantbutter chips put on top .... too funny!

Also a few weeks ago, we went to Diamond Plaza to eat Indian food and walk around the shops etc. This evening they had a few different entertainment things going. Here was a funny sign...only in Africa...

Ok, this is what I'm talking about! They had 2 people dressed up and walking around - one was a weird looking bunny (on the right) and the other this rather scary wolf thing! I mean it was scraggly, dirty and well - scary! A number of kids would start crying when it walked up to them! Maybe they think that is funny?

One day I was watching Dinah, John and Ruth. They enjoy playing with the play kitchen set that I have here, so I thought maybe we should have a picnic with them. So we have peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches on these little plates and water in the little cups - even Dinah's stuffed animal joined us.

These top pics are just for fun. Sometimes when I'm at the grocery store, I am amazed at where some of the products come from.

The bottom pic is a rather large papaya! Papaya are in season now and you can buy big ones like this or smaller. Are friends Robb and Char found this one at a market a little ways from here. It lasted for at least 4 or 5 breakfasts!

The last one is funny....Kurt went to a veggie store and was looking at the melons, I guess this little one got his attention. He asked the clerk what kind it was and he said "cantelope". I think that is the smallest melon I have ever seen! plus, it sure didn't last long.

Mombasa!

Here is the beautiful sunrise we saw the morning we left.
This is the very pink house that we stayed in. Funny as the week went on, we didn't think that much about it. :) It had 4 bedrooms, so we had plenty of room.

Kurt and I had one bedroom off the upstairs balcony, and Judith the other. Micah had one room to himself downstairs, and the Roberts had the other.

The beach was really private - we only had 1 or 2 locals come and ask if we'd like to buy some shells. When the tide came in, it was almost to the top of the sand line - then when it went out, it was way out there. It was so fun to walk when it was out - plus the water was warm!

We enjoyed breakfasts and dinner here, and had lunch poolside.

Here is Christine - our house lady for the week, and Sharif, our cook.

Part 2 - pool & relaxing

Here we all are. Judith joined us on Friday. Here is John and Ruth enjoying the water.

Of course Micah enjoyed the pool and had to challenge himself...

Ruth really enjoyed the water.

The monkeys came to the windows where we ate in the diningroom.

Micah didn't have a chance to get bored. :)

Nathan got a bit of sun...for some reason he didn't apply sunblock

for the 15 minutes he was in the sun....

bordom?.....

We enjoyed some good seafood everynight.

We found some great treasures from the ocean.

This was the greatest starfish we have ever found! Only thing was that is started smelling and well...kind of rotting...I thought it would dry in the sun, but didn't so we had to leave it behind.

What a great time we had! :)

events of May

Who is taller? Mom or Micah? We know what Micah says, but it's pretty close. Kind of inevitable though I think unfortunately for Angie. (note - Micah has since got a long awaited hair cut - acually Angie too!)



Mother's Day - Micah gave me these flowers - the picture really doesn't show how beautiful they really were.

Here is the skype phone we now have. We're just a phone call away anymore for anyone who would like to talk with us. As long as we have power for our internet that is.

Here was kind of an experiment. A chocolate trifle...I had never made on before and needed to make a dessert for a ladies lunch - pretty good...chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, dream whip. :)

This is our front door. Soon after we moved in last year I planted this viney plant that that has orange blooms. Well, I actually planted it out front over our wall and in the back over the wall. They all did really well, except this one by the door. I had to replant a few times - but now it is growing great! We've had a lot of rain and as you can see on the below pic - the first bloom! weehoo!

I had to put one pic of Twix. He is such a baby. We had a water leak in Micah's room and needed to have the landlord and workers come to fix it. Well, Twix is afraid of strangers and as soon as he saw these guys coming he ran up to our bedroom and crawled in the made bed, up under the pillow to hide. poor kitty...

Micah really enjoyed the care package he received from the Sonnenberg Venture Club. He has been playing with all of the different things and enjoying the "American Gum".

When Kurt was away last week over night Micah got a great idea to change his Wii person to an "old" man by adding wrinkles and glasses on his nose....it was pay back time for when Kurt gave Micah a girly nose and he didn't even notice it for a few days.....

West Nairobi School had their very first Graduation! Some of our good friends' son was in the class. They had 17 students graduate from 8 different countries.

This past Sunday we took Micah and his friend Ruben to camp for a week. Sorry I was determined to take pics of them and their room - but guess I was just too excited! :) Here is part of the camp and below the sign. It really looked nice. We are anxious for Micah to come back Saturday and tell us all about it!

This past Tuesday was Madaraka Day, Kenya's Independance Day. Since it was a day off I helped Margaret move a few things she had bought from a missionary leaving to her home. She works at Tumaini, I have come to really appreciate her friendship. Here we are in her livingroom just after having chai.