CHANGING LIVES ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS AT A TIME

We have had a powerful, beautiful day!  Impossible to believe this is our last night here.  I overheard Sydney Stewart saying " I am going to be so homesick for Kenya when I go home".  I think we are all feeling that, although a nice hot shower and clean towel/ bed will help ease us back home.  

Amazingly, after our crazy late day yesterday, all were up and dressed and ready to go this morning by 9 to get to church (except Lainey and Jake who were not feeling well). In sacrament meeting,  Bowen and Abi gave the most wonderful, spiritual talks.  Abi spoke about faith during difficulty and shared the story of "footprints", Bowen spoke on families and how we can each make a positive difference in our family.  After two of the Kenyans also spoke, our entire group and all of the Kenyan youth, stood and sang "A Child's Prayer".  AHHHH the room was ringing with their voices and radiating with their smiles.  They truly did all look like brothers and sisters!  Becca, Sydney, and Cal taught primary.  Brooke, Naomi, and Olive taught Young Women,  Jason and Jacob volunteered to run the nursery for the last hour so the nursery leaders could go to a combined meeting.  A woman in the ward had brought a bag of Chipati for our youth because she had been so impressed with them last week, (The Kenyan version of a homemade tortilla).  This was lucky, because the missionaries grabbed us to say there was a baptism of two converts taking place right after church, so our "starving" youth agreed to stay another hour.  Isaiah and Drage spoke, (they were phenomenal).  Of course after the meetings we were swarmed with members wanting to speak with our youth, get their email addresses etc.  I asked a few of them to help us find the house of the woman who was preparing our lunch.  We walked to this humble home, which was literally a 15' X 15' corrugated metal lean to.  All 33 of us, plus the 4 youth who accompanied us, and the Young Women's Pres., all piled into this room and sat around on the floor and bed.  She brought out two trays of the most delicious samosas and sandwiches for us.  When we had finished eating, we asked her to tell us her "story".  She had been a political activist in Zimbabwe.  She was torutured and burned, and fled to Kenya in 2009.  The Kenya government wanted all refugees to go home, but she would be killed because of her political activities.  She lives day to day making samosas and selling them on the street for  $.20 a piece. She is now married and has a 2 year old son.  She shared her conversion story and the spirit of her sweet words was palpable in this tiny humble home.  Brian left a blessing on her home, and we gave her an extra $100 with our payment for lunch.  She tearfully walked with us to the bus stop, and expressed how that simple monetary gift from us would change her life!

I am so grateful to share these amazing, sacred moments with your beautiful children.  They are a light to everyone they come in contact with.  They are ambassadors of everything that is good in the world, and Brian and I feel deeply humbled and blessed to be with them.  I am grateful for your prayers for our safety, they have been felt and provided a shield of protection throughout these 2 weeks.  If all goes well, you will not hear from me tomorrow night because we will be on a plane on our way home!  Fingers crossed.  Brian did point out that we all ate sandwiches with salad on them today,  that was probably rinsed in very unsanitary water......keep praying!

Mindy

ALMOST A PERFECT DAY

Today was a crazy long day.  We started off on a bike ride along a dirt road with zebras, wart hogs, and gazelles along the way.  We were supposed to stop after a few miles and walk up to "Pride Rock", but there were buffalos on the bridge over, and evidently buffalos cause the most deaths in Africa, so they circumvented us over a different route and we didn't get to climb the rock.  Next we hiked up through a gorge and free climbed up a rock face to get up to the next level.  They had guides climbing up next to us and guiding our feet to make sure we made it up safely, a little sketchy!  Next we hiked up to a lookout point, found monkeys in a tree, had lunch, swam in a geo thermal hot spring pool, and finished up on the MOST beautiful lake.  We rode in a boat and saw giraffes, baboons, zebras and wart hogs on the shore, but the crowning moment was the 10 HIPPOS we saw wrestling in the water only a few feet away from us!!  They were so cool!  We thought it had been a perfect day and returned to the bus totally exhausted at 4, ready for the 2 hour bus ride back......the driver and our guide helped us onto the bus, started the bus,  then disappeared, we sat on the bus with it running  for 30 mins. I  finally ventured out to figure out what was going on, but noone was anywhere to be seen.  I hiked around the lake, and there found our driver and a group of men squatted in a circle behind some bushes....long confusing story, the woman who managed the bus, had never been paid by the driver for the safari he had driven yesterday, so she was demanding more money.  Our guys wouldn't pay, so after 2 hours of shouting and discussion, they told us to get off the bus with all our stuff and they would call matatu's for us.  I assured them we would pay the difference and just wanted to get the kids home, but they flatly refused, saying this bus driver was no longer trust worthy, and we would not do business with him.  It made no sense, as I am sure this was more expensive, and it was now getting dark, we had run out of water, and it was dinner time.  The taxi's finally came, we arrived back in our neighborhood at 9 p.m., but were stopped at the end of our street and had armed police board our matatu's to ride in with us.  We arrived at the house to see police cars in the driveway and the guards walked us in.  They assured us this is all just precautionary, "better to prevent than cure", was their remark, but we were all a little confused and exhausted!  Luckily, Mama Mary had a lovely dinner of beef stew waiting for us, and Izzo had picked up the birthday cake I had ordered, so all was well.  Most of the kids are already in bed, and I am heading there now.   Tomorrow we will lay low, go to church,  have a final group meeting and get ready for our last adventure before heading home.  I had met a woman at church last week who told me she struggles to support her family because she is a refugee from Tanzania and Kenyans do not like Tanzanian refugees.  She makes Samosas every day and sells them on a corner.   I offered to buy 100 of them for our lunch tomorrow (they are little fried triangles with beef and spices in them) so we are walking to her house after church where she will fry them up fresh for us. this will be an adventure in itself!

Mindy

BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN GIVEN MUCH, I TOO MUST GIVE

A sobering, amazing day at Kibera slums.  The largest slum in the world, housing nearly 2 million people.  Many agencies and governments have tried to assist, but there is so much corruption, nothing ever really makes its way in to make a difference.........but our kids spread sunshine today!  Laden once again with donations, we trudged through the sewage running in the streets to a small 3 room school house (kind of) housing 66 students.  We made bracelets, gave love, and learned from those amazing children.  Then we were taken to a pub in the slums (not sure why) and told about the 100 proof alcohol sold there that is poisoned with ethanol.  We went to two look out points where we could see over the entire slum area, (while we stood at this overlook, I started quietly singing "Because I have been given much", within a few minutes we had a quiet chorus singing, "because I have been blessed with thy great love dear Lord, I'll share that love again according to thy word.) and then we were taken to a bone grinding shop where they make jewelry and other gifts from animal bones........finally we went to the city and the kids got to do their shopping.  I must say that I HATE cities in third world countries, where traffic comes to a total standstill, there is no order as to who get's to proceed through the intersections, sometimes lasting 20-30 mins.  What should have taken 20 minutes took almost 2 hours!  But when we finally arrived, they were in heaven!  baskets for $3, jewelry for 1$, happy shoppers!  We hurried home to host a birthday dance party for Abi, Alex, and Laura ( the refugee camp teacher).  I made pans of brownies, we hooked up speakers on the patio, and the kids are all out having a dance off.  I wish I could teleport you here to see the joyous abandon of these youth out dancing with some neighborhood kids and the boys that work at the house.  Laura just came into the kitchen with tears in her eyes and gave me a big hug " this is a historical moment in my life that I will remember forever, noone has ever had a birthday party for me!"

Tomorrow is Hells Gate at 6 a.m., I am hoping Sunday will actually be a day of rest!

A WILD RIDE/LOGICAL AND REASONABLE/WE CAN DO HARD THINGS

We just returned from the Safari.  It was a wild ride....literally.  I am sure your kids will fill you in, but it was a VERY bumpy, windy 5.5 hour drive each way, we had a few car sick, I was white knuckle praying the whole way that we would travel safely.  Several times there were herds of Cows, goats, and sheep that were being shepherded by a Maasai farmer down the middle of the road, which slowed things down.  On the way home, we had the thrill of 20 baboons out on the road in the middle of traffic.  It was crazy!  I wanted to stop and get out and take pictures, but the drivers on the road were just honking and swerving around them, muttering under their breath.

The paradigm shift for me came when I rode the first safari day with a maasai warrior sitting next to me.  He was 20, spoke great english, swahili, and maasai, had graduated from 8th grade, then at the age of 14, been circumcised down at the river with the group of boys his age, and headed out into the wilderness for 5 years.  This is their rite of passage.  At the end of the 5 years, they must kill a male lion with spears, and return home.  As I was asking about his life, he told me all this very matter of factly.  I asked if he was allowed to come home early if he killed the lion in the first few years, and he said, "no, it is only done at the end, but we would not want to come home early.  We love this time of being men together".  I had heard that you had to kill a lion before you could marry, but he assured me this is not true, you actually have to "jump high".  The Maasai's are very high jumpers, it is part of their ritual dancing, and the children at the school had demonstrated this for us (I will post their dance to facebook).  His parents will choose his wife, which he is fine with, then he will remain at home in his tribe and raise cattle and have a family.  It all seems so logical and reasonable to me when I am riding in a jeep with him hearing it explained.  I wonder whether our western culture, with anxiety, depression, teen suicide rates, would not be better off with this plan!  We were able to visit a school yesterday and again today before leaving.  How easy it is for your children to jump in with their whole hearts and give love.  This is definitely our most interactive, daily service trip we have done.  Every day there are multiple opportunities to connect. We saw amazing animal dramas played out on safari, hyena's eating a buffalo, Lions hunting a baby elephant and the mama elephant running them off, a pride of lions guarding their cubs up to a large rock overhang..... a million zebras and wildebeasts, and a tower of girraffes (did you know that is what a standing group of girraffes is called?)

Tomorrow we are going to Kibera, the largest slum in Africa.  We have been told that we will literally be walking through sewage, to wear sturdy/ dirty shoes, and are being taken to visit four families.  We will bring them gifts of food and bedding.  It will definitely be a day to put our "we can do hard things" motto to the test.  Tomorrow night we are hosting a neighborhood dance party to celebrate Alex and Abi's birthdays, as well as Laura, one of the teachers from the refugee camp.  We have invited her to come and are going to pay her taxi fare.  She is SO excited and asked to bring her mom with her.  She says she has never celebrated her birthday before.  We are going all out with ipod and speakers, bday cakes from the store, birthday banners and streamers.  Not really sure how it will all turn out, but the kids are super excited!

Until tomorrow!

Mindy

"DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY" BUT HARD TO BELIEVE

Our wifi isnt working and we leave at 4 am tomorrow for safari, so i dont know when you will get this.  Today we divided and went to 4 projects.  Some to the baby orphanage, two groups to womens rescue projects, and the other to a slum orphanage.  It is daunting to go in and work so hard to connect, only to say goodbye at the end of a few hours, knowing that you will never see them again.  The programs we worked at today were even more destitute than anything we have seen so far,  hard to believe.  Yet again, smiling faces, bare feet, horrific stories, 13 year olds w babies and scars, 10 year old  girls rescued from sexual abuse/ parents dead from aids.  We had more street experience trying to navigate the matatu system to arrive at our destinations.  We have a "house mom" Mary, who loves us and feeds us amazing food. We love coming back to the house at the end of our crazy days.  She greets us w  so much love and tonight she had made tacos w homemade tortillas.  The kids were thrilled, she is a magician in the kitchen w very few resources.  We have 8 suitcases of donations packed and ready for the maasai schools tomorrow.  We were listening to the radio on the matatu today and soon our whole group was singing along to "dont worry, be happy"  so that is our message of the day!

A MIRACLE FROM GOD - AGAIN, IN TRUE MATT STYLE

Matt is AMAZING, i cant even begin to tell you the impact he has had on our trip.  It was seriously a miracle from god that we connected at that reception and ended up  inviting him to come. We could not have done this without him.  Lets plan to get together w you and Kent when we get back for a full update

T.I.A. (THIS IS AFRICA)

There is a saying we have begun using frequently here, T. I. A. (this is Africa).  We use this phrase when our 8:30 taxi shows up at 10 a.m., when they send a bus with 20 seats for 30 people, when there are 5-6 new volunteers showing up every night and there are not beds for them, when our "Food Day" at the refugee camp today, which was scheduled for 12:30, finally happened at 4 p.m.  These kids typically only get one meal a day, which is a mash of garbanzo beans that they are fed at school.   I was so excited to help serve them this big meal, but it was just anti climatic when they have been sitting out on the field waiting for it for 4 hours, not to mention my own group of students who are not used to being hungry and waiting for lunch til 4!  There is always one moment on our trips when I totally stress out because things are completely off schedule and Brian steps in to smooth the waters.  That was today!  We had a beautiful ride through the Rift Valley and many of the kids saw a few baboons along the way.  The IDP camp and school were all that you might imagine, with the kids barefoot and in tattered uniforms, but huge smiles and hugs, following us around asking if we would "sponsor them".  We were taken to visit a few of the homes in the camp, which was a little awkward as it was somewhat propagandish to show us the dire straits in which these people live, and then ask us to think of ways to support and make a difference.  You can sponsor a child in the camp for $120/year, it is just so difficult to wire money here, so they need to come up with a simpler formula.  I think we could all afford the $10 / month.  They had them tell us their stories, similar to the story of Therese that we heard a few days ago.  It is crazy to think of our ridiculous, frustrating politics currently in the US, but it puts it in perspective to realize that regardless of who wins the election, we will not have house burnings, gang rapes, and massacres between the democrats and republicans (I hope).  I want you to know, that although a few kids did come up and ask me when we were going to eat, or what the plan was, when I had to reply, " I have no idea, TIA", there were no complaints.  I realized quickly that it was absurd for me to be upset that my precious Orange County teenagers were going to experience hunger for a few hours, that their blood sugar levels might plumet, we all survived!  We then distributed 30 suitcases of school supplies, shoes, socks, underwear, medical supplies, 150 soccer uniforms, they are using our flourescent green soccer pennies for their dance team uniform.  The miracle will really be if noone gets sick.  We had to eat with our hands, off the same plates the kids had just used, that we had washed in dirty water with no soap.  We ate boiled rice, beans with flies hovering, and a stew made with goat meat that had just been slaughtered in the nearby field...............but your kids say they love it here and want to stay forever!  Tomorrow will be our final service day at the women's rescue centers and orphanages.

1 HOUR OF HOME TEACHING TURNED TO 5 HOURS - WE KNEW MATT MUST BE INVOLVED

Today we took the matatu 30 mins. away to attend church services.  On the way there, we practiced the EFY medley, in full voice.  We were quite a spectacle driving through towns with the full choir singing out the windows.  I of course was in tears listening to these amazing kids singing about being Children of God, Loving each Other, and working together.  Drage and Boen blessed the sacrament, Jayden and Cal spoke, Abi. Anna and Naomi helped teach primary, Becca was asked to lead the singing in sacrament, everyone sang and brought such a strong spirit to the meeting, attended sundayschool, YW/YM, and helped teach the lessons.  Jacob Bingham was asked to go with one of the missionaries the third hour to teach a discussion.  After church, a member of the bishopric asked if any of our boys wanted to go home teaching with him for an hour.  Drage, Jake, Naomi, and Jayden volunteered to go, along with one of our leaders Matt Smith.  They were supposed to meet up with us at 4 p.m. in another village where we were meeting up with some kids from the slums.  We had a great time with the kids, coloring, bubbles, playing games, giving away Nick's pile of shoes, Derek's colored pencils, crayons, Ruth Ostergar's homemade skirts, Brooke Davis' headbands and bows......no matter what we had, it was a hot commodity.  Some little girls followed me out as we left, begging for something more.  I looked in my bag and said I was so sorry, everything was gone but a few zip lock bags.  "it's okay, I would love a bag".   My panic set in at 6 when we had still never heard from the group who had gone home teaching.  We tried to call the number we had been given, and got a message that the phone was turned off.  By now, the 1 hour of hometeaching had turned to 5 hours.  I found a corner to give an earnest prayer that these amazing youth would be protected and blessed for all of their service and faith.  We returned to our "home" and just as we started dinner, at 7:30 p.m., while Hayden was blessing the food and asking that our group return safely,  Matt, Drage, Naomi, Jake and Jayden walked in the door!
Reporting that these few hours had been the most amazing part of the trip thus far for them.
Tonight for devotional, we had each person share what they have learned thus far.  I wish I could have recorded it for each of you.  Each of them expressed deep gratitude for their families, recognized that any problems or trials they felt they had experienced in life, were really inconsequential, acknowledged that true joy does not come from any kind of earthly possessions, and shared their feelings of gratitude for being able to travel and see how people are people and everyone just needs love.  Drage caught everyone off guard when he announced that although he had always planned to serve a mission, it wasn't until today when he was out teaching, that he realized what an amazing blessing this was going to be and he is TOTALLY PUMPED to go.  Olive shared how she has always been taught that you love those you serve, and how true this has been, Lainey spoke about how grateful she was to have come out of her comfort zone and try new things.........
Tomorrow we all go to the IDP camp and provide a food and medical day, these circumstances will be much more dire than what we have seen at the schools, keep those prayers coming on our behalf.  So far so good, Nick Wagener does have  a sprained ankle from his run, and Hayden has a bug bite, but otherwise all are well! Today was Cal's birthday and we have had some banners/ decorations, and several rounds of happy birthday.  The group has been THRILLED with the Oreo's Darin sent for the group. I believe there are some birthday games going down right now!
Mindy

ABOVE AND BEYOND

Where to begin....one thing Brian didn't mention yesterday, was that the walls we were prepping for paint, had huge old construction paper posters that had been GLUED to the walls a decade ago.  Think of your worst wallpaper removal nightmare, then think of trying to complete it with 2 bent rusted spoons.  That was all we had to remove these bits of paper covering the walls....along with a few pieces of broken brick.  I think one thing that we learned yesterday was the value of tools!  The IDP camp kids also had the experience of trying to build 30 chairs yesterday, with raw wood, only one saw and hammer, and no measurements tools, but there has been no grumbling!  Only humor at these predicaments, and appreciation for the value of having the right tools to complete a job.

A few of you asked me to make sure your kids worked hard, I want you to know that EVERY ONE of the kids we have with us, have gone above and beyond, and worked til they literally dropped, then kept going.  As I watched them today, I started taking pictures and thinking, oh wow, I need to let Cal's mom know how hard he is working!  then I would look across the room and think that about the group painting,  then glance out at the field, and see the kids dripping sweat, with 20 kids all piled on top of them, pulling them and scrambling for attention.  Literally, we worked all day, scraping, painting, sweeping, then the bell rings for recess, and 350 kids swarm our group, begging for attention, the kids file out and play soccer, football, basketball, the girls are teaching dances, braiding hair, painting nails, after 45 mins., the kids go back to class, and our group files back in to continue painting, and this pattern goes on all day.  Yesterday, I ordered lunch for our group from the school, and it didn't arrive until almost 2, the kids were dizzy with hunger, and as they brought lunch in my heart sank.  It was a huge steaming pot of thick grits, a bowl of chopped steamed spinach and other greens, and a pot of seasoned meat, that was mostly bones and fat.  I thought I would have kids melting down, but they all piled in, expressed gratitude, and filled up as best they could, commenting on how delicious and well seasoned everything was.  So today I decided to order sack lunches, they were to arrive at noon, but 2:00 rolled around again, our kids had been working like dogs for 5 hours, a few questions about when lunch might arrive, but no complaints, and when it finally came, they ate with gratitude.....and fervor.  After lunch we had the AMAZING experience of dividing the boys and girls up for the 6th, 7th and 8th grades.  Our girls were able to spend an hour talking to the girls about puberty, menstruation, abstinence and girl power.  Sidney jumped up on the table and demonstrated (over her clothing) how to assemble and use the sanitation kits we had brought, she was amazing!  The girls broke into groups and answered questions, shared their own experiences, and talked about the sanctity of family and blessings of waiting to have sexual experiences.  Tomorrow we will distribute 60 of our Days for Girls kits to the girls at the school.  The boys meanwhile met with the 6-8th grade boys and talked about respecting girls, Aids, and abstinence.  You should have seen them!  It is overwhelming to try and meet the needs of these 350 kids all wanting attention at once, but you would  be amazed at how adept your kids are at drawing these kids in and making them all feel loved and involved.  They painted their nails, got them to sing solos for us, raced them on the field, let them braid their hair, jumped rope, played tether ball, soccer, spike ball, choreographed dances, exhausting but so rewarding.  We go back again tomorrow and then on Saturday, we are going to be able to design and paint murals on the walls of the classrooms (I will just be a grunt worker as I have no artistic skills), the kids are all going to come back to school on Saturday just to be with us.  Our IDP camp kids are also engaged in manual labor, but have reached out to the teachers at the school, and been able to go in and teach some of their classes, read to the kids, etc.  they have to travel farther and work later, not returning to the house until 7 p.m.every night, but when offered the chance to switch and work with the school group, they all wanted to stay with their assignments.

The boys stayed up til midnight last night so they could sing happy birthday to Jayden the moment it was July 21!  We sang for her several times today at camp with all the african school kids joining in.  Brian and I are exhausted, but so grateful for every minute of these experiences.

Mindy