Highlights

I can hardly believe that, as I write this, I only have 10 days left. It's a complete shock to me, even still. So much has happened, in the past week and even things that I have forgotten about in my last post. I'll try to update with as many details as possible.

about 2 weeks ago, we had the opportunity to go to the Kibera Slums. It is the biggest slum in Kenya, holding about 1.5 million people. We first went to a school for young children - 2-7(ish) years. We took some soccer balls as well as cookies with us to give to them! They loved all of it. Then we just played with them for about 2 hours. It was so much fun, yet heartbreaking to see the children. We made such an impact on their day, and really were able to give some joy to them. After this, we went to an orphanage. There are 90 children that live there, and about 250 that go to school there during the day. We didn't spend much time there, but we will be going back next week. I can't even put into words the living conditions there. As we walked through the slums, the children would yell "how are you?" because often that is the only thing they can say in English, and most of the time they don't even know what it means. They just know that's what you say to a mzungu. Then we got to see an overlook where you can see the whole slum, or at least most of it at once. When we went through the gate to get there, there was a swarm of children that ran up to us, and would not let go of us. One little boy grabbed y hand, and wouldn't let go. He melted my heart. At that moment, I considered stealing him and bringing him home. :(
It was a great experience and I'm excited to go back and see all the children next week and take them some more supplies.

Another MAJOR highlight of the last week or so is that we got to visit with a team of students that spent 10 days in Rwanda. They had a very long lay over in Nairobi on their way home, so we got to spend an entire day with them. We rented out a 29 passenger bus that we used for the day! We got to the airport right as they were coming out, so we took of running. It was soooooooo great to see them and catch up with all of them for a while. As we were leaving the airport, we saw some giraffes. Right there, in the city - so crazy! Then we just hung out at the Y for a while before heading into town. We took them to JAVA to get some coffee, then to City Market to experience a Kenyan market. Then finallyyy it was time for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Carnivore. You pay a flat rate for a meal of many crazy kinds of meat. We had ostrich meat balls, lamb chops, beef, chicken, turkey, crocodile, and each had its own accompanying sauce. It was so delicious. They would come around with a slab of meat and use a machete to cut it off right on your plate. It was something I have never experienced before, but such an awesome experience. Sadly, after dinner we had to take them back to the airport. Leaving so late at night and coming back to the city, was like deja vue of our arrival. It was an odd experience.

Early in the week, we were also able to go to two of the students' homes for a meal! We got some home cooked kenyan food, and were able to meet some of their family members. It felt really great to be in a home again, as the Y is not so homey. Butttt, it was lots of fun, and also came with lots of adventure!

This weekend coming up, we have our training program. We will be going away for the weekend with all of the students and staff for a retreat. We will have a key-note speaker that will be speaking three different times throughout the weekend. The program will be called Deepening Roots, and based off of Colossians 2:6-7. It is our desire that the students really experience God this weekend and are able to deepend their relationship with God. As a team, we will be doing 2 different workshops. I will be helping with the one on fellowship and witnessing. They are two different aspects of our walk that are both very important, and we hope to convey to the students why they are important based off Biblical reasoning as well as personal experiences.

We are beginning to be very warn out. We seem to be tired all the time, regardless of the amount of sleep we've been getting. And, as this weekend approaches, we fear that we will continue to be tired. Please pray that we will feel rested, and be able to give our all for our last week and a half here. We want to finish strongly and be able to invest full-heartedly in the students, but it is very difficult when we are so exhausted.

It's going to be a very crazy, and busy week and a half, but I'm so excited for it! And I'm also excited to be home! Thanks again for all of your prayers and updates! miss you lotsss