Karibu Kenya Kaitlin!

(Blogpost by Catherine Shumaker)

My first week in Kenya by myself went really well! It is amazing to get to see the kids all growing up so much since I first met them almost 2.5 years ago. All the kids are healthy and "fat" as they like to say in Kenya (I would say just a healthy kid size). They all are highly capable of eating way more food than one would think could possibly fit into their bodies! They are doing well in school and get along (at least most of the time). It is heart warming to see what a good home environment can do to a child in only a few months!

Janet has been with us for 7 delightful months now

Selah has only been with us for a few weeks, but seems to be adjusting well and loves having a house full of brothers and sisters :)

In other news Kaitlin Backes is now an international Traveler!   It was so exciting to know that another friend from work will be joining me in Kenya for a few weeks! I couldn't wait to introduce her to Kenya and the experience and people that I have come to love. We spent the night in Nairobi at a friends house where we ate amazing food! Kaitlin had a first Matatu ride that was unlike one I had ever been on. Matatus are 12-seater mini buses that enable you to get around Kenya on the main roads. They are cheap and reliably uncomfortable due to the fact they usually carry 20+ passengers. It is not uncommon to find a chicken strapped to the top of the car or inside the van, but this experience was a first. We stopped at a town where market day was happening when suddenly a goat was placed in the trunk, which is open to the rest of the van. The goat wasn't well tied and ultimately got loose under the backseat and was agitated (he hit his head on something when he hit a bad bump) and was rolling around on top of all of our feet. He ultimately bled all over my legs (yes the vegetarian had her legs covered in blood).. Thankfully Kaitlin and I weren't the only people who were horrified about this goat being loose and bleeding everywhere. He was retied and we went on our way. Looking back on the situation, it was a great Karibu Kenya (welcome to Kenya) for Kaitlin :)Just in case anyone is wondering, it apparently isn't legal to have a goat in a public car according to one of our Kenyan friends.

The kids were highly confused when meeting Kaitlin because hers is not a name used in Kenya so the kids just kept asking "what is your name"-which threw them off of their usual animated selves but only for a short time. Kaitlin and I kept busy visiting several hospitals and clinics. We ultimately made several trips to this small dispensary and clinic run by two nurses and two support staff. It was fascinating to see what was being managed by these nurses! We absolutely loved this experience! We saw lots of malaria, active chicken pox, some nasty wounds and a variety of other conditions.

We also made four sanitary pad presentations to local primary schools and a secondary school. The classrooms were all pretty standard for Kenya. The are many desks which the children usually share between 3 students.  One wall is painted with chalk paint for teaching, and some have electricity.  If there don't have it, they just use natural light from windows. It is also an extremely eye opening experience when you enter a classroom in Kenya and compare it back to the US. Many of the kids do not have shoes on, are often wearing their one and only uniform, and are carrying an old cooking oil bottle that is filled with water since the schools don't have access to clean water. We were able to give the schools underwear for some of their girls since you need underwear to be able to utilize the pad kits. We also were able to take some of the schools some soccer balls, which meant all the kids could play with a true ball as compared to a ball they made out of plastic bags and rubber bands.

Kaitlin on the back of a piki, following our load of pads

Catherine

Twister and New Sisters

(Blogpost done by Catherine Shumaker, project manager for TLC).

Karibu Kenya! Getting off the plane in Kenya is one of the biggest rushes of excitement for me!  This trip to Kenya has been a little different than other trips. For the first time I spent a week alone in Kenya in an attempt for Jessica and I to be able to spread our time further. It has been  eye opening, exhausting, but also wonderful. 

We were lucky enough to add two new girls full time to our house. Two of the girls we were sponsoring at home were no longer in a safe environment. We attempt to keep our children with family as long as possible, as long as it's a safe place to be.  Thankfully we were able to remove the girls from the home quickly and without resistance once we became aware of the situation.  Millie and Selah were put in a new school, which is where our full time kiddos go, so it helped ease the transition a bit. They have been thriving at our house since coming which makes all of our hearts so, so happy!

(Millie and Selah on their first day at their new school)

In addition to getting the girls moved to our house, my first week here was filled with other new and exciting changes.  We are getting ready to not only expand, but to buy our own land to create our permanent house! We are so very excited to be creating our own space, designing it for our needs and making it our own! The land is about 1.5 acres with a small fish pond and spread around the land are mango, banana and avocado trees! The house will be sitting up a bit over the fish pond and the land beyond with a beautiful view of our space. There will be plenty of land for us to grow our own crops in an attempt to be as sustainable as possible. The land appears to be extremely fertile with lots of crops currently growing on it, and all the neighbors seems to be lovely!

In the meantime, the kids love the game Twister so we decided we would create a Twister mat on the cement pad next to our current spot. They got Twister last year, but the mat did not survive as long as the board, so they could no longer play... The kids were the lead painters once I showed them how to do it, and they absolutely loved painting it. When we were done I found all their toenails had been painted with oil-based house paint... What can you do? The kids and adults have all enjoyed playing on the mat when they get home from school.

So my first week was busy helping get our new girls settled into our house, dealing with visiting the land, meeting with the contractor at our land to discuss the best location for the house, but also many nights filled with knowing the girls were safe, lots of laughter, smiles and pure child joy! What more could you ask for?

Catherine