I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. I guess I've been busy. My "week off" between teams turned out to be busier than I thought but still somewhat relaxing compared to the time since the team arrived.

Since my last post, I began with a little tea time with Esther, Diana, and Belle to celebrate Esther's 3rd birthday. It was adorable. Then on Sunday, I got to listen to Paul Maswai preach, and after I surprised all the children at the village by giving out kites to each of the homes. They got their kites all the way to the end of the string pretty quickly and then some as at least one kite broke the string as the kite floated away into the neighbors farm. It was quickly retrieved, but I haven't seen the kids flying kites since that Sunday (not sure if they lost interest, the kites broke, or they all floated away, or is it just possible that we have had an extraordinary amount of rain the past two weeks and it has not been good kite flying weather).

I was able to meet with every long term missionary at the village one on one during the week between teams. It was a nice time of catching up with them, finding out their challenges, their hopes, their goals, and their prayer requests. I look forward to catching up with a few of them, the Whitemans and the Wilsons in particular, to see how they are adjusting to being back in America for some well needed time off.

I also got to meet with some of the staff, and meet with old friends like Levi. It seemed like The Nova, the new hot spot in town, at least for good mocha milk shakes, was my hangout for at least one or two days that week. I also got to meet with Teach Lillian, and the rest of the teachers and see how the school is progressing. It was really fun to see how the children have progressed and how much they have advanced as a school, especially since they opened up the school to the community. They now have a debate club, a math club, a lot of sports clubs, and they have made a lot of progress. There are 13 or 14 teachers on staff. Most of the children have improved, especially in math and science, and they are advancing in sports and clubs as well. I, and the whole village let out a huge cry when we found out that little Johnny had advanced to the "third position" or third place in his class academically after he had been in last place almost every term since the school started.

On Sunday before the team arrived I got to preach again. It seemed like a good response but I wasn't sure until I had heard from two separate house parents and also someone in the community that they, and their children were really touched and made significant life changing decisions, especially in the areas of forgiveness and shame by giving up shame and unforgiveness. The 10 days between the teams was very quiet in lodge 3 but that all changed when the next team arrived. Though they were small, they livened things up, and with Kendra joining us, it became a party.

We started out digging holes for the tree planting ceremony, and then digging some more. Finally when the tree planting ceremony came on Thursday, August 16, we had 200 people there but no trees. We were supposed to have 5000 trees donated by the local Lions Club, but they said they couldn't get them from Nairobi to us in time.  Of course things are always exciting in Kenya, and at the last minute, we managed to purchase 300 trees in town, and have an additional 200 donated by a local nursery. We could have probably planted at least 500 more trees with all the additional help that day, but 5000 would have been pushing it, and as always in Kenya, it is always about the people and the ceremony. I also got to spend some quality time with Mocha, Java, and Chai, our three "guard dogs" at the village, who never missed a bit when they saw me, and just wanted to play and lick my hands, but when the rest of the team tried to get closer, the dogs let them know to back off. I had to frequently go over and calm them down when a bunch of volunteers came over to plant trees by the dog run. We even had a lovely time planting some trees down by the river, and Betty, one of the staff at the Open Arms feeding program, and myself, each named a tree after ourselves, so hopefully the "Betty Tree" and the "Matt Tree" will grow up to offer shade to many visitors who come to the village for decades to come. It was a lot of fun, and it was good to see some old friends like Chief Togom and meet some new ones as well.

We have continued to work this week, finishing some landscaping around the baby home, mostly rerouting the rain water in front of the baby home and Ushindi home, along with trying to finish the greenhouse for the widows in the community. We almost finished the greenhouse, and I know that Ted and Brenda were disappointed because they really wanted to finish this project before they leave on Monday. Of course, we almost got done, and the project should easily be done with one more short shift by a volunteer work team, but hopefully it can be finished sometime in the next week or two so that these ladies and their families can quickly begin to raise some tomatoes and be on their way to feeding their families and becoming self reliant. We also almost finished the baby house drainage area, and hopefully we'll finish that and some more landscaping around the baby house before the next week is over, but tomorrow is our day to rest, worship the Lord, and have some fun with the children at the village. I will sign off for now but try and fill you in sooner on how the rest of our week goes.

Mungu Akubariki (God bless you)

Matt

Tuesday and Wednesday were work days. We spent Tuesday doing some work at the village, but it seemed like we didn't get as much done because I think people were tired and people were wanting to spend time with the children as well. On Wednesday morning we helped Ted and Brenda build a greenhouse for the local widows in the community that will enable them to grow tomatoes for their families and also to sell to the community. It should be a great sustainability project for the widows and their families. We worked hard and were able to get almost the entire frame of the structure installed in about 6 hours. I think the team felt good about what they accomplished on Wednesday, and on Thursday we got to play.

It was fun going up to Kerio View. Cheryl and I hadn't been there in a few years, and the team really enjoyed their time there. We got a rare treat as well, because several Kenyan Olympians were eating lunch there as well, getting in some last minute training before they ran the marathon next weekend in London. They were flying out this Tuesday, but we got to meet Wilson Kapsang (winner of the London Marathon) and Abel Kirui (2009 and 2011 World Track and Field marathon champion). We're not completely sure they will both get medals at the Olympics, but it is very likely that at least one of them will, and probably gold. I got my photo with Abel and I think he will probably win but we'll see.

On Friday morning, I had to say goodbye to our team and Cheryl as well as they headed to Nairobi and back home. As I write this blog, I called Cheryl this morning and she had arrived home safely after the long flight. After the team left, things at the lodge got pretty quiet, but first I found out I was the special guest speaker at the closing ceremony of the school for the term with all of about 12 hours notice. It was fun though, and it was great to see how much the children have learned and improved in school. There were a few wonderful surprises at the school as one child from the community, Peggy, got a perfect score on her end of the year exams in the top class of the nursery school, and numerous children from the village and the community improved significantly over the past year. The biggest surprise perhaps was little Johnny, who had been having significant problems learning in school over the past three years, and we found out at the ceremony that he was third in his class of 15 in overall testing scores. We were all so proud of him, and all the others that had improved so much.

On Saturday, I got to relax, do laundry, catch up on some e-mail, and have fun with three of my favorite girls: Belle, Esther, and Diana. Of course, Cheryl and I changed a lot of dirty diapers for them while we lived in Eldoret for a year. They have grown quite a bit, and the girls got to have a little tea party to celebrate Esther's third birthday.

On Sunday, I had Diana, Belle, Mama Rachel, and Kendra over for breakfast. I cooked everyone a yummy french toast and bacon breakfast along with some fantastic fresh pineapple. Yum yum!! After that we went up to church, and Paul Maswai, the house father at Amani House, spoke this morning. He did a great job, and we even had a guest choir come from the local Seventh Day Adventist Church. It was  a great time. After church, I brought kites over to each of the homes that Cheryl and I had bought.  I still think they are out there playing with the kites now. Some of the children were able to get the kites all the way to the end of the string and keep them up there for quite awhile. Seems like they catch on quick or some of them have done this before. It was a lot of fun. Now I am finishing up e-mail and this blog before I get ready for dinner and Skype Cheryl. I already miss her terribly.

I will try and get photos to have with all this text soon but they take too long to download with the internet here. Maybe I'll add them when I get back home at the end of August.

Mungu Akubariki (God bless you)

Matt