WEEK 9: "This is PURGATORY."

MONDAY

We took Harris to “Feed the Children” to get a glimpse of what we do every week. He seemed to enjoy hanging out with the babies…although I don’t think imitating crying back at a crying baby is the most soothing way to calm hysterical kids. Lol (Sorry, Harris)

We gave him a tour of the facilities. Hung out with our other kids for a little bit after lunch and then spent some time in the multi-sensory room. Gosh I love the multi-sensory room! So relaxing! Great way to end a work shift.

TUESDAY

Tuesday morning we made the oh-so long trek into Karen center to catch the matatu to Nairobi…all right it only took 20mins…but Kate lay down the “NO whistling. NO humming. NO singing. NO making annoying noises” Rule…hence it felt like forever! Lol …Love you Drinkster!

At  11am, we went over to St. Benedict’s and helped teach an art class. I got to help Henry which actually turned out to be really fun! I had the kids do an “Ocean Themed” drawing. The kids were really well-behaved and did a great job getting creative and filling up their pictures with sea creatures, airplanes, and pirate ships! It was nice to get to work with Henry since we usually don’t hang out too much when we visit Nairobi. I have to hand it to him…he did a really great job helping the kids with their drawings and complimenting every one of them to let them know what a great job they did. The kids seemed to like him as well which is great!

I don't know how I'm qualified to help teach art! lol

Henry checking the kids work.

They were so proud of their work. :)

After drawing class, Kate, Harris, and I went outside to see the kids at PE. We were immediately surrounded by dozens and dozens of kids who all wanted to shake our hands, slap us five, and touch our hair and skin. It was hilarious and a good time all around!

You mess with my hair...I'm gonna mess with yours!

In the afternoon, we took a 45mins trek down the road to visit the Mogra Rescue Center which is supported by the Trufant family. I remember hearing about the center either my freshman or sophomore year at BAC so it was cool to get to actually visit the place! We were given a tour of the facilities by a really nice guy named Timothy. We saw  the dorm rooms, the class rooms, storage room, and  we even got to hang out with the babies for a little bit which was oh so fun! We love babies! J We also got to see the farm where they grow all their produce and keep cows, fish, and pigs. Really cool place!

WEDNESDAY

Harris took us into the slum of Methare to visit St. Maurus, Mogra Star Academy, and Street Children. St. Maurus is a home for mentally and physically disabled kids. I can’t begin to tell you how cute these kids were! So sweet and friendly! We sat down for a while and just hung out with the kids.

Everybody loves the hair! Boo yaa!

Next we stopped by Mogra Star Academy which is the school in connection with the Mogra Star Center. We were given a room by room tour by Joseph and Samuel, two of the school officials. We were taken into several classrooms where we introduced ourselves to the kids and were sung to. The kids were really awesome and so enthusiastic! It surprised me to see how many kids they fit in each classroom! There had to be at least 30-40 kids per a classroom…and these aren’t big classrooms! Once again, no one knew how to say my name. I got the unanimous “Whaaat?!” confused face in every classroom. Quite amusing. We were also shown the kitchen, library, and computer room. Our tour guides explained that none of the computers in the computer room work and that they were hoping to either find someone to fix them or hope for someone to donate new ones. It’s too bad because it would be a huge benefit to these kids to learn some basic computer skills. In my opinion, it would probably help them a great deal if they make it to university or go looking for jobs.

View of the slums from the top floor of the school.

Last, we stopped by Street Children where Harris showed us around the place. Street Children is a home for orphaned boys in the slum. Unfortunately there were only about 3 boys there at the time since most of the boys are at boarding school right now. However, we did get to see our Kenyan friend Dan who works there which was nice.

By afternoon, we went to lunch at Steers to fuel up for the ride home to Karen. All in all, it was really awesome to get to visit the Amani Center and see all the places Harris and the guys work at. They get to work at a lot of really amazing places and I know they are doing great work there.  It was a great visit and definitely worth the mid-week travelling!

THURSDAY

We had a full day of work at “Feed the Children”. Zumba Thursday! Our kids were taking a trip to the park so we didn’t get to spend too much time with them after lunch, but it was still a good day!

Singing a song about butterflies...They are too cute! :)

FRIDAY

WELCOME TO PURGATORY! Let me begin with the sentiment that I loooove what I do here! I love the work, the people, the kids, and the country! Every week is different and AWESOME! However, the one day of the week that always tries my patience is...FRIDAY. The walk to work isn’t the bad…but I 100% DREAD walking into the playroom at Cottolengo! I love my little Cottolengo kids, but boy are they a handful!

We had a family come visit today! They were really sweet! The Dad said they lived in Saudia Arabia, but he was from Ireland and the kids were born in all different countries. We didn’t see much of the Mom, but the Dad was very sweet, encouraging his kids to play with the babies and help during lunchtime. It was a pleasant distraction from a very crazy day!

Once again, I took another shot at changing cloth diapers…my opinion on them hasn’t changed….GIVE ME PAMPERS OR GIVE ME DEATH! Really…cloth diapers are so gross! Furthermore, it was one of those days were the kids were making lunch time a very long, drawn-out process. Around 12:30pm when we usually go to lunch, Kate and I got stuck supervising two of the bigger kids while they finished their lunch, one of them being a very devious little girl who likes to wreak havoc at every turn! I don’t even like lunch at Cottolengo but I wanted to go to lunch…that’s how frustrating they were being! Just one of those days! Ya know what I mean?!

SATURDAY & SUNDAY

Ok…we were total bums this weekend! Harris came for the weekend and I’m pretty sure we bored him to death with our lack of motivation. Lol We literally sat in the apartment watching movies all weekend. Definitely a much needed break from a “Go go go!” 2 weeks…but ya…we did nothing.

Yesterday, I celebrated my “Name Day” with Sr. Judy! Happy Feast Day St. Jude!! They don’t celebrate birthdays at the convent unless it is a big one (like 30, 40, 50, 50…etc) so everyone celebrates the feast day of their patron saint. Since “Jude” is my confirmation name, I got to celebrate mine yesterday! So fun! The sisters were wicked awesome and made a cake. Sr. Rosina and Sr. Loice even gave me a really pretty African wrap skirt and a JPII  prayer card! I didn’t expect anything so it was really sweet of them! And nothing lifts the spirits like being hugged and sung to by over 40 sisters! They are such angels. I love them to pieces!...even if they linger. Lol

So yaa…the past 2 weeks have been wicked busy! Hence, the major delay in posting all of this! I’m really hoping I did mix up any of the days…since I’m a total slacker and didn’t journal the past 2 weeks either. Whoops…So that’s about it! Stay tuned for this week’s recap which *hopefully* will be posted this weekend!