Zebras, Rain, Mud, and a Flat Tire

You guys, today was eventful to say the least. The day started like any other day. Breakfast, devotion, loaded the bus. You know, that old chestnut.

It got exciting when we were heading to the village and a HUGE FAMILY of zebras just started crossing the road right in front of us!


So, of course we had to stop and take pictures. The zebras really have no fear… they came pretty close to us. Well, they had no fear until my husband decided it would be hilarious to chase after them. So, chase after them he did:

Hilarious.

We then stopped in the next town to buy gum boots (rubber boots) and work gloves. I love stopping in the towns outside of the village. There are always kids there ready and welcome to say hello, smile, and come right up to you wanting to know your name. You can get a real feel for what life is like for many of the Kenyans just by stopping in these towns.

After stopping in town, we headed to the village for the first “official” work day. Most of the group split off and went to go work on the fence they are building around the school, while Teri and I chose to work with the preschool children in the classroom.

This is a photo of the newest classroom they have built – it actually was built within the last year:

What’s amazing to see is the progress. This classroom is an additional classroom for the Kiria Primary School that is solely for pre-K / preschool aged children. It also is going to soon house adult education classes. The funds for this building came from both the money that we send through newhope church adopting this community in addition to the BrightPoint for Children sponsorship that I do (that’s the organization that I sponsor Anastacia through… and the money that I send goes to things like this classroom).

I also will never tire of seeing those kids drink from the fresh water tank. That tank was installed about a year and a half, two years ago from donations from newhope and it’s the only clean water source available for the kids in the village.

The classroom and the water tank are just other examples of why I love what I do and why I love serving in this community. We don’t come one time, build something, and then leave never to know if it actually gets used. We come back time after time after time seeing the progress, developing relationships, and building trust.

I can really tell that trust is really the most important part of this whole endeavor.

Back on track (sorry, I go on tangents when I get passionate about something).

Anyway, so we played around in the field with the kids for a while. Oh, and I seem to be clumsy here in Africa. Last year it was my eye, this year I was playing duck duck goose with the kids, slipped on the mud when I was running from the goose, and proceeded to fall right on my chin knocking my jaw out of place. Yeah, that hurt. But it’s all good now.

After my little duck duck goose incident, we went into the classroom where I couldn’t harm myself to color. The kids were coloring Lisa Frank coloring book pages (Lisa Frank, FTW!) and it was so awesome to see how hard they work on their pages. I feel like kids in America (maybe not all, but some) get coloring ADD and want to move on to the next thing right away. These kids colored their one page for a solid hour and a half, never tiring.

This is a picture of Felista hard at work on her page:


And here’s a picture of all the kids (well, most of them) with their coloring pages:

Also, here’s an ADORABLE video of the kids singing in the classroom:

Words to the songs they sang:
“I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men if you follow me.”
“Read your bible, pray every day, pray every day, pray every day. Read your bible, pray every day, if you want to grow.”

How cute are they?

After morning work, we had a late lunch, but that’s when things got interesting. It started raining. Hard. Well, rain is great for the community and the farms, but bad for us – because that meant we had to leave the community a little earlier than planned because the road that we take to get up and down the mountain is ALL MUD.

So, much to our chagrin, we left early and made our way out of the community… getting stuck going up the mountain on the mud road. After a lot of backing up and trial and error, our AWESOME bus driver Patrick made the way up the mountain. It’s probably a good thing we left when we did, otherwise we may never have made it out of there since it kept raining.

Well, you’d think that would be all, but it wasn’t.

The bumpy roads made me, uh, have to go to the squatty potty really bad. And as much as I hate those squatty potties, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to the hotel. So we pulled off to stop at a little place to go, and as I was walking back to the bus, I noticed this:


Yes. A very flat tire.

There was no way we were going to make it to town on that tire. So, the men got to work and an hour or so later, we had a changed tire.

Needless to say, it was an adventurous day. And honestly, as sad as I was to leave the village early, God clearly had a plan. Because if we hadn’t had left early, we probably would have gotten stuck for real, would have been changing the tire in the dark, and it just would have been bad news bears for everyone.

Anywho.

We are all tired, but if you’re the praying type here are some prayer requests our team has:
-Weather. We ask that the rain hold off till night. The rain is GREAT for the community, but like I said earlier, bad for us. We aren’t able to get in and out if it keeps raining like this. So, if the rain could hold off until nighttime, we’d be all set.
-Health. A few of our team members, myself included, are having some health issues. Altitude sickness, colds, and sore throats to name a few. I guess not to mention my dislocated jaw (which is fine now despite a little swelling). We just ask that our team stay strong and healthy for the rest of the week so that we can really devote our full energy to the community.
-Relationships. We are really at an amazing point in our relationship development in the community. We just ask that God continue to have his hand in all that we do.

Thank you guys for your support and encouragement! 🙂

Updates tomorrow. 🙂

Nakupendasana, rafikis.