London

I arrived in Heathrow at the crack of dawn this morning and headed to the city, where I had breakfast with Melissa, a friend/colleague from Taiwan. (She lives in London.) It's funny being in London, and looking around me and not seeing any black people... Wow.

Heading to my gate now. Soon, I'll be off to LA!

ARGH!

I spent an entire day taking pictures and video at the official opening of the Kipkaren Children's Home and the Brook of Faith Academy. But lately, my computer's been doing randomly formatting my camera's Compact Flash card as I download pictures, so I lost every single picture taken today!

Fortunately, Micah was there, too, but he shot mostly video.

I had filled up almost my entire 1GB card, and it's all gone.

Ugh!

Energy

It's supposed to be the dry season, but the past few evenings, we've had soft rain. Last night and this morning, it has been pouring! It's a bit of a challenge when you live in a world where there is no such thing as a tumble dryer. I remember the first time I took a team of APU students to Mozambique and we had to hang our laundry on the line, one student took photos of the process saying, "This feels like we're in the movies! You mean, people still do this in real life?!" We do indeed. It seems like the rain may have passed for the moment. The wind is blowing slightly, and the sun seems to be sticking its head out in the east. Wind and sun. Our dryers are showing up. (Moments later they hid and it's pouring once again. I guess I can look at it as my laundry being washed three times in one day!)

***
Today is a national holiday in Kenya. It's the end of Ramadan. There are few Muslims in our direct neighborhood, though there are two mosques nearby and a fair number of Muslims living in those neighborhoods. In North and Eastern Kenya, Islam is more predominant. On the topic of Islam, and excellent Web site I've recently been made aware of is 30daysfire.net.

On that note, I need to get back to work.

The Boys

DSC04478.JPG
Originally uploaded by Boyznberry.

Today, I had an intern take some pictures of the kids and I for a project I'm working on.

These are two of the littlest boys at our home, and both are close to my heart. The one on my lap is Samwel Kanmau, and then there's Kelvin Kipkurui next to me.

Click on the photo for more pictures with the kids.

Disappointed Faith

Power was out again today, from around 10:30. I had called wonderful Kenya Power around 4 pm asking what time they we could expect the power to be back on. "It will be back at 5 pm." That hour came and went. By 6, I called again. "We will reconnect any moment. Please be patient," I was told. So I thought it would be safe to color my hair since the power would be back any moment!

By the time I had to rinse my head, there was still no power. I thought to myself, why on earth did I even have faith in Kenya Power to restore the power any moment? The water was freezing cold. As in it would give you a headache, it was that cold. But it didn't since I already had a headache... I've been fighting a strange stomach bug all day and was in bed for most of the day with an achy body. So doing the icewater thing was no fun.

It was good use of my time, though, since I couldn't do a whole lot witout the power being on. It came back sometime after 7. Hoped to stay up late to do some things, but I'm wiped out. I'm going to sleep now instead...

Love Bugs

Yesterday, I showed the kids their last movie for the next 3 months! We've gone through all the VeggieTales movies months ago, so we've been watching other movies. Yesterday, it was time for Herbie. I didn't stay to watch it with the kids since we have two interns who could help with supervision while I worked. Yet even just starting up the movie and seeing the bug brought back memories of when our family used to go to the drive-in theater to watch Herbie's antics. I can't imagine that I really do remember seeing The Love Bug since I was just one year old when the first of the Herbie movies was released. Anyway, the kids loved the movie and cheered for the beetle, though they themselves have never seen a car like that. In fact, afterwards, Rogers asked me, "Adele, was that movie real?"

Before the movie started, kids kept asking, "Today, we'll see Jesus movie?" They loved watching the Jesus Film for Kids, but no-one knows who now has our DVD of that film, so we've not been able to watch it again. (A friend in Canada is sending me a new copy.) I told the kids that when I'm back, we'll watch that movie again! It amazes me, though, how these kids LOVE to learn about Jesus.

One week from today, we'll take all our children to Kipkaren for the official opening of the children's home there. You can imagine how excited the kids are about going to see their cousins in Kipkaren! They always hear me talking about going to Kipkaren and they've seen pictures of the children's home there. However, actually going there for the day will be a huge treat!

The day after the celebration, I'll be boarding a plane for the US. Actually, it'll be a plane to London first--there are no direct flights from Kenya to the US. In London, I'll take the train to the city and meet up with my friend and former colleague Melissa for breakfast. Then it's back to Heathrow for the flight to Los Angeles. In LA, I'll be connecting with friends and then speaking at Azusa Pacific's chapel for the conclusion of Global Vision Week.

So between now and then, the most pressing items on my infamous to-do list is to send out a children's home newsletter, a personal newsletter, finalize my talk for APU, make a video presentation for the ELI celebration, and make another presentation for my meetings in California and Iowa. Among other things. And get everything ready for me to be gone for 3 months.

This week will definitely fly by!

A long yet invigorating day

Today, I took Micah to a nearby lake so we could talk about ideas for ELI's communications in an inspiring environment. While out and about, Micah took some amazing pictures. I'm learning so much from watching him and asking questions. I'm excited to see how we can work together to create communication pieces to serve the needs of ELI and glorify God!

I took this picture of him taking a picture right before we headed home, arriving just in time to welcome Rachel, our newest intern at Ilula.

Tomorrow, I'll be leaving for a 3-day retreat for ELI leadership, so there won't be any posts from me until the end of the week.

P.S. I just walked out my door to put something on my front porch. Wish you could see the African sky tonight. Even early this evening, it was covered with stars. Now, at close to midnight, the milky way is a thick line through the sky, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of stars. There's no moon, hence the incredible sight.

Ah! We serve a BIG God! May I never cease to marvel at his creation. May I always live in an awareness of the beauty around me.

Sunset

Sunset
Originally uploaded by Boyznberry.

Earlier tonight, right after getting home from Kipkaren, I was sitting at my desk, working, when I saw from the corner of my eye that the sky was on fire! Or so it looked, at least! We had the most amazing sunset!

I ran over to the children's home to take some pictures. In this picture is Rogers, a 10-year-old who is dear to my heart.

Saturday Night

Earlier today, at Kipkaren

It's late. I'm pretty wiped out right now. And just as I was working just minutes ago, it struck me: I haven't washed my face yet!

Why on earth would that be important? I'm not in bed yet! Thing is: I was at Kipkaren today and hugged tons of kids. One boy in particular, Kiprono, kept coming back for more hugs. I was hunched up, hugging the littlest ones and making squeaky sounds every time one hugged me. This was one of those really silly games you sometimes play with really little kids. Anyway, Kiprono kept coming for more squeaky hugs.

Later, as we were talking with Juli and Allison, little Kiprono still hanging onto my hand, Allison commented, "What's that? ... Oh, ringworm. We'd better treat him for that." The young boy's ears were all broken out in the fungus. And I had been hugging him, his face touching mine.

Thing is, I don't want to first scan a child to see if they might have some condition before hugging them! And I don't want to run and wash up if I notice they have something. But as I walked off, I thought, "I'd better wash my face as soon as possible."

More than 12 hours later, I just remembered to wash my face. Oh, well. At least I know now how easy it is to treat ringworm, should I have caught it...

It was fun to see Rooney (he actually smiled at me when I said, "Sassa, Rooney?" I don't think he expected anyone to know his name!

So though I'm alive and thankful to be, I'm pretty wiped out tonight. Tomorrow, I'm heading back to Kipkaren for meetings. Oh, I really do pray for focus during the in-between times...

Young Photographers

This afternoon, I went to see the veggies the West Side kids been cultivating from seeds I had given them. I took my camera to capture their pride.

Cecilia asked if she could take a picture of me. I've been careful in just handing my camera to the kids. It's a heavy and expensive piece of equipment. But lately I've allowed them to sometimes take pictures. I carefully hang the camera around their necks and show them how to hold the lens...

Afterwards, I talk to them about the pictures--unless there are too many kids crowded around, which makes a discussion of composition pretty much impossible.

I am thinking of starting a little photography club with the older kids. I'm sure they'd love that. I already have had someone ask if they could contribute towards purchasing simple digital cameras for such a club. I think it would be a really, really neat tool to empower the older children! I can just imagine what wonderful photographers some of them will become! But more than anything, it will give me a tool for deeper relationship building and pouring into their lives, showing them they're worth spending time with.

Back row, from left to right: Gabe, Rogers, Adam.
Front row: Emmanuel, Levi, Matthew and Cecilia