Monday, August 1, 2011

Day 9: Psalm 118:14




















"The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."















-Psalm 118:14


Friday; July 8, 2011
10:00 P.M.



Man my days are getting mixed up! I can't remember what day it is, what the date is, or anything! Anyway!
Today was a fantastic day! You're surprised I know! ;)

We woke up, ate an awesome breakfast (omelets here are my fave), and set out for our work site!
Today it was in the slums at a Baptist Youth Center. 



The Youth Center is a school for grades K-8 and there's this huge dump behind it.



The building to the right is the school, to the left
is a classroom, and behind are the miles of trash
constantly being burned.




What's worse is that the center is right in the middle of the slums in Nairobi. The slums consisted of tin house after tin house. Well, I say "house" but it's really a 4x10 foot shack. Walls made out of squares of tin nailed together. My mind can't even wrap around the fact that people live like that. Breathe that kind of air. Sleep where there is absolutely no safety or guarantee from harm. Go through other people's trash for clothes, tools, and food.

















When we got out of the van the smell was almost unbearable.
But after a while you got used to it.

All the girls decided we needed to go to the bathroom, so one of the office ladies led us to them. They were outside. We were shocked to say the least. We walked into this building that had probably 8 outhouses all connected together, and it smelled like feces of all kind.







I walked in to use the bathroom (it was a must) hoping to find a porcelain looking rim, but it was in the actual ground.
And the floor was wet all over (and not from water, if you catch my drift).
So...the girls used the squatting technique Mrs. Leigh Ann showed us a few days ago :)

There was a little girl that came to use the bathroom while we were all waiting for all of our girls to get done. She shaked all of our hands and smiled THE cutest little smile. She walked past us to use the bathroom and fell down on the rocks that led up to the "stall" (which were wet and discolored...also not from water). She then stood up, looked at her hands, and wiped whatever she got on them on the stall door. All the way down the door frame.

The little princess....pre-fall. Haha :)

There is nothing sanitary, nor safe about that place for it to be an environment for human beings. Let alone children.

After the bathroom trip, we went up to Pastor Euticauls Wambua's office in the school (he also serves as the principal) and had a meeting with him. He told us a little about the school's history and how it came to be. He hopes for it to turn into a high school soon. We then prayed and broke off into our crews and started to paint. We talked to some girls and then I went upstairs and helped. We painted the yellow classroom walls light blue! It was super pretty.






After a few minutes of painting, me, Amber, and Linda got to go into the Kindergarden class and they sang us SO many songs! There wasn't even a teacher in the room with us to start any of them either! They just kept going one after another. It was so so cute. A teacher eventually came in there with us and we talked about Jonah and the big fish and then David and Goliath. We danced with them too :)
I love their excitement for life. It is just too innocent and it makes me jealous! I wish I had that kind of zeal and passion. And to have it all the time just for the sake of it! No reason at all except for the joy in the fact that their alive! I mean, you KNOW they have no reason to be happy. But these children have already learned that happiness comes from more than their circumstance.

Again, we come to teach THEM, yet we get schooled ourselves. Today, by Kindergardeners. God has such a sense of humor, doesn't He?






We finished up painting, took a group picture with all of the kids, and headed to the market.
I bought 90% of my gifts today! :) For lunch I ate some ice cream and it was really awesome! I counted up how much I spent today and I got 2 baskets for my mom, a bracelet, a keychain, a carved elephant about the size of half of a football for my dad, a little carved elephant for my mom, a wallet for Maggie, a purse for Lindsey, and some coffee for my Dad, all under $100! I love the cheap-ness of living here!

So we left there and I started to feel super sick.
So much so, that after 15 minutes of standstill traffic, I had to get out. I started to sweat and and have chills at the same time, and I knew something wasn't right. So our driver, sweet sweet Charles, pulled over and Mr. Randy helped me find a restroom.

We finally got back to the hotel afterwards and I was feeling a lot better.
Me and Amber got ready to go eat at Carnivore.
It. Was. Fantastic. And amazing. And incredible!
Each table has a little flag that you keep up if you want them to keep bringing you meat. Tonight they had leek/potato soup, rump steak, leg of lamb, leg of pork, pork sausages, lamb chops, pork spare ribs, chicken wings, chicken yakitori, chicken livers, ox testicles, chicken gizzards, lamb sausage, turkey, lamb liver, camel, crocodile, ostrich meat balls, and a potato!








The only thing I remember saying no to were the ox testicles (of course), and the lamb liver I think!
The things that were actually good was the chicken, the beef, spare ribs, turkey, camel, crocodile, and the potato! Everything else was good those just stood out the most! There wasn't anything I tasted that I just couldn't swallow! For dessert I had strawberry and passion fruit sorbet which was very good, and some coffee which was outstanding. Overall, the meal was fantastic! Best meal since we've been here by far!

We left Carnivore and came back to the hotel. We met together as a group and Rob talked about how we can keep the camp fire alive after camp is over. He led us to different Scriptures that all linked together in these truths:

1) When we enter His gates with thanksgiving and worship, we experience His presence.
2) When we have His presence, we receive His joy.
3) That joy of the Lord is our strength.
4) In that strength we are able to resist the Enemy and seek God's paths.
5) Because of our resistance of Satan, we are able to have abundant life to the brim.

It all kind of worked as a chain reaction type thing! Like I said, Rob is such a good communicator and teacher.

But now we're off to bed! Water still gets on the floor from the shower, but it's nothing that a couple of towels from the front desk won't fix!

It feels like I've been in Africa for months.
But it's not a bad thing.
It's like a, this is almost beginning to feel like home kind of thing.


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1 comment:

  1. I love all of your photos Holly! And I love reading about everything God is doing in your life and in others' lives through you! I love you lots!

    ReplyDelete