A double blog posting today. Starting next week the rest of the team will be arriving so we will have much more to do and I will only be able to do one post a week. So this week I am going to try to share as much as I can about what we are doing and how God is working through us as we love and serve the people in Kitale. 

During the weekend I went back to Purpose Driven Academy to show the kids support on Parent’s Day. We were only able to fit in a short visit, but it was great to spend more time with them. I am blessed to know these kids and be able to spend more time getting to know them. 

Smiling Stella and Junior

With Stella, Baby Marvelous and a few friends

Today I went back to Purpose Driven Academy to talk to Margaret about a few things. We got to talking and decided that Baby Marvelous needed to be tested for HIV/AIDS. I went to her class to pick her up and all of the sweet little babies were sleeping on the floor. It was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. After we woke her up we brought her into the testing center that is located at the school. We went into the back room and the lady pricked her finger to take her blood. She didn’t cry at all and sat there the whole time just snuggled up against me. We sat quietly as we waited for the tests to produce results. That may have been the longest five minutes of my entire life. After the wait it was a great relief and a gift from God that she tested negative. It amazes me how God has protected these children. 

All of the sweet babies napping. Marvelous is front and center. 

Baby Marvelous

Discover to Recover

On Saturday we had the chance to go back to one of my favorite places in all of Kitale. Discover to Recover is a center where children who are effected by HIV/AIDS can live and be supported. There are about 50 children who live at the center. About half of them are infected with HIV/AIDS  and many of the others are orphaned or unable to be cared for due to the effects that HIV/AIDS  has had on their families. These children are some of my favorites and I absolutely love spending time with them. It felt so great to be greeted with great big hugs and ear to ear smiles when I saw all of them. They all have grown so much since the last time I saw them. Here are a few pictures with a few of the kids. 

Me with Silvia, one of the sweetest twelve year old girls I've ever met. 

Here I am with Derek, Churchill and Benja, some of the youngest boys at the center. 

Leila came to Discover with us this week, she is my very best friend in Kenya. She has the biggest heart and a huge passion for helping the children who she sees daily who are in desperate need of some sort of support and help. Two years ago, I got to watch her become a Christian and it is great to see how much her life has changed. Currently she volunteers her time at Oasis of Hope and loves on the many street kids who come to the center daily for school. I am looking forward to getting to spend more time with her. If she could, she would grab up every child she found that needed a home and care for them. She also has a huge passion for the children of Discover to Recover and I am looking forward to serving with her and learning from her during the time I am here.

Here is Leila with Kevin, one of the newest arrivals to the Discover to Recover Center. 

The orphanage where he was living closed and he was brought to the center in the middle of the night and dropped off. 

Now he is in a good place where he can get the love and care that he needs. 

It's great to be back!

After many long hours of flights and layovers, I finally made it back to Kitale. It’s so great to be back here. It’s been a great first few days of settling in, getting to know the team that been here for a few months, and preparing for the new incoming team.

Ever since our plane touched the ground I couldn’t wait to get back to Purpose Driven Academy and see Junior, Stella and Allan. We got there when all the students were in class and the head teacher went to go get the boys out of their classroom so that we could greet them. Allan was his normal shy, quiet self but still looked happy to see us. Junior is normally very happy and energetic, but was very reserved and didn’t smile once. We didn’t have anyone with us to translate to help find out what was wrong, so we walked him back to the class.

While we were waiting for our ride to come pick us we were playing with the little preschoolers. There was a tiny little girl with a huge smile on her face wandering up to me. I picked her up instantly because she was so adorable and looked way to small to be in school. Margaret Wanyoni showed up a couple minutes later and I greeted her and asked how the kids were doing. She asked me if I had seen Baby Marvelous, who we met last year when we went to visit the kid’s mother in Endebes. Margaret pointed her out and she was the same little baby girl that I had just been playing with. Then she went on to explain that she had taken Marvelous to the school because her mother is not doing well. Junior has been sad because he knows that his mother is sick if the baby is no longer in the home. It was not as happy of a reunion as I would have hoped for, but it was great to see them all. The last time I saw Baby Marvelous she was so skinny, starving and didn’t smile once the whole time I was with her. This time she looked healthy and happy. I look forward to visiting the mother in her home and seeing if there is any way that we can help her. I also look forward to spending more time with the kids and giving them all the love and support that I can.

Me with Junior and Allan

Sweet little Baby Marvelous

After a fun day in town, I headed over to Discover to Recover center to spend some time with the kids who live there. I love these kids so much and it was great to just spend a few hours with them. It was a little sad because in the back of my mind I kept thinking about how much I will miss these kids. Who wouldn't miss these faces?

Morgan

Benjamin

On a lighter note, today I got to spend the entire morning with Junior, Allan and Stella in town. Since leaving Endebes last year they live at the school so it is an extra special treat to go off campus. We went all around running little errands to make sure that these kids will have everything they need until the next time that I get back over here. It was so cute just to see how excited they were and to share those happy moments with them. I love these kids so much.

Junior, Stella and Allan happy to get new shoes that fit.

They were all still wearing the ones that we bought them last year.

All the Kids together

Junior

Allan

Stella

To Endebes

Sorry for the lag in posts yet again. I am trying so hard to fit in as much as I can as I prepare to head home in a few days. I am very sad that this trip is so short, but am enjoying every minute of being here. We finally made it out to visit Protenciana's mother, Pamela. . Last year we learned that Pamela was HIV+ and is stuck in a very desparate living situation. The Kenyan government offers free ARV's at the district hospital, but they need to be taken with three good meals a day or else they make the person very sick. This is a major problem for Pamela because there isn't enough food around, so she doesn't take the medicine. Pamela lives with her two sisters and their children. We have taken four children out of the house to ease a bit of the load, but now there is not any one old enough to collect firewood and Pamela is too weak. So while her sister is at work during the day Pamela stays home and cares for the kids.

We decided to take Pamela to the hospital to get the medicine that she needs and we took baby Marvelous with us. This was the most serious two year old that I have ever seen. I spend lots of time around kids at home and this baby did not smile even once during the entire first half of the day. It turns out that Marvelous had not eaten since the night before and it was almost 2:00 in the afternoon. So while Pamela was at the hospital waiting for the lab results we all went to lunch. After we ordered, Margaret, the headmaster of the school that Prote goes to, asked me if I had ever fed a baby before. I told her that it was a part of my job and Marvelous was in my lap before I knew it. So when the matoke, cooked bananas, came I started mashing them up and feeding her. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. She was lunging toward the spoon everytime it was lifted out of the bowl. This tiny baby ate the entire plate of food, which was probably about 7 whole bananas. Afterwards, Marvelous lit up and smiled for the first time.

It was a heartbreaking experience to see the true face of poverty. I have no idea what it is like to not know where my next meal is coming from, but this is something that this young baby thinks about everyday. It is a sad, but very real part of life out here. All I can do is pray for this family and others like it that God will provide for them.

Baby Marvelous

The house

It has been raining lots here. Last year there was a drought and this year the crops are getting too much rain. Our Endebes trip was delayed because the roads were too muddy for us to make it into the village. We are planning to make the trip out there on Monday. Until then here are some more pictures.

Cyril from Oasis of Hope

Here is a picture of me in town with Victor, who lives on the streets of Kitale.

Surrounded by tons of cute kids at Purpose Driven Academy.