APU Update

Jambo!

All of us have been having a wonderful time in the village. Saying goodbye tomorrow will be bittersweet. None of us want to leave the children and the joy they create with their singing and laughter. The last week has been filled with many different activities.

Tuesday, we celebrated Brent’s 22^nd birthday. We started off the morning with mandazi (Kenyan donuts) and singing happy birthday. Then the boys went back to keying and the girls tried some hoeing in the garden. Our job was to break up the ground in preparation to plant vegetables. It was a hard job. I don’t know how the women do it in the hot Kenyan sun. The women are definitely to be looked up to. In the afternoon, we had a mini surprise party waiting for Brent at Michelle’s house (one of the missionary nurses). After a tour of the clinic, we walked next door to her house and surprised him with almond cake drizzled with chocolate and another happy birthday song. After speeches from Justin and Brent, we enjoyed the delicious cake Michelle made. At devotions that night, all the children sang him happy birthday once again. Brent said it was one of his most memorable birthdays.

Wednesday, the boys went to the children’s home to key and the girls went on an adventure to the clinic to help prepare for the HIV campaign on Friday. We decided to take a short cut. Now, we’re used to trekking through fields of maize and over hopping barbed wire in skirts, but this time was different. Our short adventure consisted of crawling on our hands and knees under a barbed wire fence in leaves infested with ants and who knows what else. We all made it under without a scratch, but with much laughing and many rear view pictures. Haha. Once at the clinic, we made cotton balls (although the cotton seemed to like Emilia’s shirt and skirt more than being made into balls) and put together baskets for the HIV testing.

Thursday, the highlight of the day was our afternoon in the clinic. The rain came down hard and we all crowed into the clinic to wait for it to stop and then butter bread for lunch at the HIV campaign. We passed the time by teaching some of the Kenyan guys to “walk it out” and “thizz”. They enjoyed hearing about our silly American dances. The funniest part happened when we decided to play musical chairs. It was a rough game, with Justin and Brent cheating the whole time. Finally, it was down to Jonathan, Justin, and Taylor. The music stopped and Taylor found one chair, but behind her Justin pushed the chair away from Jonathan. The chair flies across the room, Jonathan slides and hits the floor. He bounces immediately up, on a mission, and sits down right in the chair. The last round proved to be the most intense. When the music stopped, both Taylor and Jonathan fight for the chair. It skids across the floor with the leg of the chair bending almost completely in half. Everyone gasped in surprise, but the chair was ok and Taylor won. It was a fun afternoon.

Friday, the whole team traveled to a school outside Kipkaren for the HIV campaign. It was a day for the kids to break their normal school routine and come compete in races and also be informed about HIV and AIDs. The wazungu (us white people) learned quickly how fast the Kenyans can run. Not only did they not wear shoes, but we are also 6,000 feet above sea level. Brent and Jeremiah decided they were up for the challenge though and entered the 200M race. Jeremiah was up against some of the older boys and found himself in dead last, but he put up a valiant effort. He wasn’t too far behind. Brent took off and full speed against some of the younger boys and just managed to pull ahead to win his heat. The finals took a different turn though. Brent still proved himself worthy of running along side the Kenyans, but in the last seconds fell back to last place. We definitely learned that the Kenyans are known for their running for a reason. We all had fun timing the races and cheering the kids on. It was a long day, but the experience was worth it. We are learning so much about the culture. From home visits to keying to washing clothes, the Kenyans have touched our hearts and taught us many lessons. Next up is our safari in Nakuru! We will have many more stories to tell when we are back in America. This will probably be our last post before we are home. We love and miss all of you back home. Our flight gets into LAX at 3:20 p.m. Thursday, June 4^th. We can’t wait to see your faces!