Safari's, Schools and doing things Spur of the moment

Finally blogger is cooperating with us. I pray that you are all in good health and good spirits. We definitely are here. Thank you for your prayers. I would first of all like to say that my burn is in it's last stages and is almost completely gone!

A lot has happened since we emailed last. We have recieved a few more children to stay with us at the home. One of the boys has a severe eye infection and will be going to the hospital to have his eye removed before it spreads to the other eye. So please pray for him as this will be a life changing surgery. Another girl was brought by the police just last night. She was found abandoned and the police dropped her off at the home. She is so tiny and so precious. They are guessing she is a couple of weeks old, but there is no proof of her birthdate. Please pray for her health and survival. If she makes it through these next few weeks there is a good chance of her being adopted...like most of the infants that come to Huruma.

The Gospel Dancers have the opportunity of a life time here. A Kenyan artist has decided to write a song and this Monday they will be recording it. If everything goes as planned it will be aired on the radio. It's a Kiswahili song, but I've learned all the words and on Monday I will be going to Nairobi with them. These kids are so talented and the song is awesome. I will bring a copy of it home with me!

This past weekend, Sarah, Cassidy, Channel and Stephanie (two new volunteers) and myself wen to the Masai Mara for a safari! It's the 7th wonder of the world and it definitely lived up to its reputation. It was a 6 hour ride on the worst roads imaginable, but worth every bit of travel. We even went on a hot air balloon ride over the mara...it was unbelievable! We almost got charged by an elephant and we got our safari van stuck about 10 meters away from a pack of lions and we got out and pushed! It was awesome! We saw zebras, giraffes, hippos, lions and so many more animals. We got to visit a Masai community and experience a whole new culture within a new culture. We slept in tents and ate food cooked over the fire. It was so good to see parts of Kenya and I felt so refreshed when I got back to Huruma, I was ready to be with the 150 children again!

My class is awesome. My feelings of being overwhelmed have left me and now I am just loving it. I was at a staff meeting the other day (which are interesting to attend because they start speaking English and then they naturally go back to Kiswahili or their native tongue and then remember I am there so they go back to english) and I learned so much more about the Kenyan culture and school system. Class 4,5 and 6 do not have any text books for science and for the other subjects they share 1 book between 2 or 3 of them. This makes it difficult to teach and to learn, especially because other teaching materials are not readily available. So I have learned a lot about doing things off the seat of my pants and just saying, no worries, it's ok.

Cassidy only has one week left with us. Time has been going by soo fast! I am so thankful to God for the relationships we are building with the children and staff and the other volunteers. And for any of you that know me well and know that I'd never get up and sing in front of the church. I wish you were all here to experience it! haha. It's funny here, because if you are a guest they invite you to come up to the front, greet everybody and then sing a song. So we must always be prepared to get up in front of anybody at anytime!

We thank you all for praying for us and thinking about us. We pray for you as well.

Love
Joelle