Day 7 “The rest of the team finally arrives!”

We woke up early as usual and had some cereal and toast, the showers had been great the water was hot and felt good! Lance, Michael and Kuria went to meetings all day with the NGO counsel and also went to solidify some of our plans for when the team arrived. Rachel, Jillo (finally spelling it right, sorry!), Duncan and I decided to go to Kibera to the orphanage that Pastor John has been running. So, we took a ride to the slums. On our way over you could definitely tell that you were going into the slums. The smell changed, the atmosphere changed and the people changed. One thing that separates most slums from African slums is the abundance of open sewage, this is due to their lack of sanitation control and no sewer systems. The children were running by the car yelling, “hello, how are you?” That is a phrase that the children learn in school. So we responded, “Habari Yako?” which is the same in Swahili. I did notice that despite the need in the slums, the community seemed very dependent on each other and tightly woven. They all made sure to see who was coming into their community and interested to see what we were doing there.
We met Pastor John and Deacon Bernard on the side of the main road so that they could lead us to Exodus church/school/orphanage that they run which they claim 45 children ages 2-16. We jumped over sewage and under drying clothes till we arrived at the location. As soon as we arrived the children noticed us from their classroom and all smiled at us. We entered and they sang us two songs while we returned the favor with two songs. One of the oldest girls, Loren (age 9), also gave us a poem that she did about how she was orphaned, it was very touching. They wanted us to physically assess the children that were in the classroom, so being a nurse I did with the help of Rachel (a nursing student). We found that 3 children may need follow-up when the medications arrived with the rest of the team so we got their names. Then, we helped feed them all lunch of rice and red beans. After we had fed all the children, youngest to oldest, the teachers and pastor gave us rice and red beans and also hot tea as we talked. Once we had finished the hot food and hot tea, we needed to get some fresh air and wanted to play with the children. We all went outside and played with the children and has so much fun getting to hang out with them, teaching them hand games and some english words. Mary then invited us into her office and showed us some jewlery and bead work that the older children and her do in order to feed and clothe the children. They were beautiful so we bought many items mainy to support their mission but also because they were amazing. Afterwards, we all gathered our things and headed back to Lancaster.
Shortly after we arrived back home, Pastor John and Deacon Bernard arrived with a couple of his fellow co-workers to speak with Lance regarding a proposal for expansion of their current Children’s Orphanage and also school. They wanted to teach children skills in order to start microenterprises that allow self-sustainablility for not only Exodus but also for the future of the children. Lance and the rest of the team had not arrived yet so we discussed the details so that we could relay them to the rest of the team when the arrived. We made a copy and said farwell for now to them. After they left a Daystar student Diana came to suggest that we create certificates for the many student volunteers that we had enlisted so that they could add some achievements to their scholastic careers. We then waited for a while for the rest of the team and with limited cell phone abilities we just had to wait till we saw them come home.
After they arrived, around 630pm we were told that we had to meet Francis Osmondi at his house prior to picking up the rest of the team at the airport. It was dark by the time we left and we got lost heading to his house so we arrived at 730pm. We finally met with him and discussed his mission called Sheepfold Ministries. He was very passionate about his work and a very nice man. We discussed details for the rest of the team to depart to Garissa in the morning and also the plans once they arrived there. After we had finished we rushed to the airport to receive our tired and traveled team.
We waited for quite some time, as the plane was a little late, but we then saw the team excited but visibly tired. We waited while they gathered the luggage (all 21 bags with only 1 lost bag). The team that arrived was: Julie, Josiah, Amanda, Alyssa, Doug, Laura and Faria. We hugged everyone and escorted them to the cars to get them to their resting place, Lancaster 4. They were excited to talk about their 16 hour trip here and we were excited to tell them what we had been doing prior to their arrival. We didn’t get home till 11pm and because we had not gotten groceries yet, due to lack of car, Josiah, Faria, Rachel, Duncan and I went to the Nakumatt (24hr grocery store) to get what we needed. I posted the blog that I had finished at that time.( Unfortunately, access to the internet has been very hard so I do apologize for the late entries.) We then returned home and didn’t get to bed till 2 am!