Here is a video of the kid's show. These are some of the younger girl's singing a song. It was so much fun to see them!

back in the states! that feels weird to say - can't believe I'm back already! It was a great trip - hopefully you can tell that from the blog. The travel back was pretty uneventful, just REALLY long. I had to take an earlier flight than I planned out of Kisumu because the later flight was full and so I sat in the Nairobi airport for 7 hours... ughh. not the airport for that - just halls and halls of duty-free shopping. I found a plug and sat on the floor, playing spider solitaire on my computer. Fun. :o) That was after waiting near the check-in counter for two hours because no one was there to check me in. ha ha. anyway, I'm home, safe and sound.

It was so hard to leave! I had a great last week hanging out with the kids, doing a little malaria education, teaching some english, etc... I was really thankful for the opportunity to go to Mbita and learn more about community mobilization, education, setting up the clinic and getting to see how that community lives and functions. I am so glad, though, that I also got to hang out at YGC in Kisumu - can't wait to go back!!

The kids did a little show on thursday night - man, can they sing and dance! I cannot believe sometimes how some of those little girls can shake their hips - wonder where they learned that??? It was great - I took a bunch of videos on my camera... I'm going to try and figure out how to post it. I'm sure it's possible, I'm just technologically impaired sometimes. okay, more pictures coming and possibly a video. Can't wait to catch up with all of you in person!

This is Quinta and Winnie. They are, as you can see, identical twins. The only way I can really tell them apart is that Quinta has a scar on her head! They are the two I gave my camera too - they're having fun with it.
This is most of the older girls hostel. We were listening to music on my computer and having a little dance party. fun!!!
This is class 7 - I've taught english to them a few times. They are hilarious - and lots of fun. I gave my camera to them for the day yesterday - they took some great pics. I'll have to post them when I get a better internet connection.


So, we went to this restaurant called "Tilapia Beach" yesterday and here I am, enjoying my first fishes eyeball. blecch. the pic above is me after - I survived!

This is Faith and Pauline. Pauline helps in the house a lot - she's really sweet. Faith is a character - she is always coming up behind me, tapping me on the shoulder and then she hides. She's fast too! I can never quite catch her. :o)
Here we are in the rain!! We are pretty soaked - so cold!
This is Takawari - pretty great. Very tranquil, relaxing, etc... I watched my first goat get slaughtered - no thank you. Don't think I need to watch that again. :)

This is my friend Lavenda from Mbita carrying water - I could NEVER do that. Actually, I tried putting it on my head, but she got nervous, I think! We had to walk a good 20 minutes to go and get the water in the first place - I'm sure she didn't want to go back!
Here is our audience when we were trying to leave to Takawari the first time - it grew to about 30 kids by the end!
There is Harold, aka "Daddy", as the kids call him, trying to haul in the anchor. That was the first mistake...

Just finished dinner – so stuffed. I am eating WAY more here than at home – everything is meat and ugale, or meat and rice. Maybe some sakuma and sometimes beans instead of meat. But seriously, half the time I feel like I just finished one meal and we’re starting another. The morning starts with tea and bread, maybe some hard-boiled eggs. Then tea again at 10:30, then lunch at 1, then tea at 5 and dinner at 7! Oy.

Sunday is a market day in Kisumu – home of the largest open market in East Africa. Marisa and I went with Kevin, one of the boys who grew up here and has been working for YGC. The market was like any outside market – loud, crazy, people yelling at you, people stepping on you – you get the picture. We had a great time looking at the stalls, people-watching and we even bought a few things. That evening, I went out with the kids to the field to play football and that is where the real fun started. Salene sent someone to tell me we were going to her cousin’s house for dinner and we were leaving in fifteen minutes. I was wondering how we were getting there, as Salene had said several times she was feeling “stuck” because the van that she usually drives was in Mbita. She NEVER (or I should say rarely) takes public and so instead, I find out, she had gotten a mechanic there, Ben, to fix this beat-up old Nissan that had been sitting at YGC since we got to Kenya. Ben “fixed” it – only two doors open (one in front, one in back, thank goodness – no one is having to climb over seats) and the trunk doesn’t latch. The whole inside was completely stripped and the trunk doesn’t latch, so every time you hit a bump, everything, including your body, goes “cathunk!”. Pretty great. So we’re driving there, Salene telling him directions every five seconds, telling him to slow down, turn here, wait here, etc… We almost got stuck – had to do a little reverse-forward, reverse-forward action, because of course it has been raining (we are now full-on into rainy season) and there are deep puddles all over. We made it without too much incident and had a great dinner. Then Salene sent Ben to get the car. It is pouring, lightening – the whole works. So, we get outside and first, have to walk about 30 yards to the car, which is sitting completely dead and stuck in the middle of a HUGE puddle (more like a pond). So we trudge back, but by this time, the cousin has locked the door and turned out the lights (weird), so we stand on their covered porch waiting for the driver to come and get us. He does, but they had to push the car to get it started, so it is much further to walk – no matter, we were already soaked. :o) We drove maybe 5 minutes and the car stalled again and wouldn’t re-start. So Ben hails a tuc-tuc and Salene calls someone to help Ben with the car. The three of us get in the tuc-tuc and drive off to YGC, where we again almost get stuck, but made it out (and of course, the car got there at the same time as we did).

Monday it stormed again – so much that all the walkways flooded and we all had to get buckets to get the water away from the doors. I haven’t seen it rain like that in forever! It was flooded in less than five minutes. The kids were having a blast, playing in the rain. As I am writing this, I am sitting in our room at YGC and mouse just ran across the room – I definitely screamed. We got Emma, the cat, who is supposed to kill the mice, but I think she is just as scared of them as they are of her. I’m hoping that it ran out – I get a little freaked out that it will jump on me in the night. Which is kind’ve impossible, since I have a mosquito net around my bed all the time, but no matter. The fear is still there. J Speaking of killing animals, I was changing my clothes last night and as I’m pulling my shirt over my head, this GIANT moth (I mean mammoth) flies in my face. I swear, its body alone was the size of a mouse. Like a mouse with wings. After the screaming subsided, Marisa took two books and smashed them together, catching the moth in the middle. Screaming, again. Now, there were moth guts on the books and here was this half-dead moth, laying on my bedspread. Gross. So I scooped it up with an empty Pringles can while half closing my eyes – all better. I still cringe thinking about it.

I’m having a great time with the kids – they are seriously so sweet and so much fun! Marisa got out a coloring book today and there were all of them (well, everyone up to class 4. everyone else was still in school) coloring away – so focused. I forget they really don’t do things like that very often. Last night, I was trying to teach a few of them a card game, which wasn’t going so well. So they said, “let’s play A, K, 47”. Which, it turns out, is just this game where everyone has four cards and you try and be the first to collect an ace, a king, a four and a seven. Much easier. And there are definitely no turns – it’s pretty funny. They can play that one forever. Anyway, I will be very sad to leave them.