Update from Friday, the 22nd

Today is Friday... the trip is slowly coming to a close.... sadly :(

I recovered from the bug that I had without having to go to the doctor. Shadrack's rest remedy proved to work well. The next day I was feeling back to normal again. Its strange how your body acts when it lacks rest. With doing the medical clinic and then working at the school, I guess my body just kind of glitched. How strange! I'm just glad that its over with because I was seriously worried. Even if it was Malaria, its almost as common as getting a cold, so people don't really freak out about it.

The past week I've been going to the REM school and teaching creative arts to the kids. There was one class that began cheering when I came into the room. All of the kids are great. I wish I could smuggle them into the states with me. Some are small enough to fit in my carry-on. It's kind of weird seeing the kids be so small. Most are that way from malnourishment or from just having HIV. The kindergartners look like they are 3 yrs old. The pre-K kids look like walking babies.

Tomorrow, I'm going to a big park with the kids from the orphanage (they call it the children's home). I'm told that there is a waterfall and boats that you can ride on. It sounds like a lot of fun. During the evening, I'm going to hang out with Cat's family again. I'm not sure what they have in store for me, but I'm sure it will be fun. Cat told me that her family loved me when I visited last Sunday. They are all really funny.

Sunday I'll be going to church and then hanging out with teacher Edwin. We will hopefully go to a market and pick up some last minute souvenirs before my plane leaves monday evening.

I unfortunately was not able to go to Gong to see the land that Pastor Shadrack had picked out. Apparently the owner of the land is now unwilling to show it to Shadrack. I guess that the land process takes a long time because you normally form a friendship with the owner. Shadrack said that the owners will not negotiate a price unless you have cash in hand...so its hard to tell how low an owner will go without having something for a down payment. Shadrack says that land in Nairobi is like gold and is very expensive. Now with the economy, the price of land will rise every year and that is why Shadrack wants to move quickly and buy some land. I gave Shadrack those land questions but I'm assuming that he wont get it back until the last minute. I'm also not sure how much he can fill out now that this land fell through. Shadrack says that he will now have to start the process again of finding land. He not only wants land for a building but also for a missionary dorm, and also land to have animals so that the secondary school will be self-sustaining. It sounds good, but I wonder if 4 acres of land could provide for all of those needs?

I'm assuming that its okay to tell Shadrack about where the remaining team money will go, but I'll just tell him I wont have a definite amount until the end of the trip. The GOYA board decided that the money will go toward fixing a leak in the orphanage and also fixing a leak in the 8th grade building. All remaining money will go toward the payment of the construction crew for building the 8th grade classroom.

I just looked at the weather forecast for London on Tuesday...it looks cold! April left me hand and toe warmers so I'm probably going to be putting those to good use while I'm there. I'll probably need to get a hat and gloves while I'm in London since I didn't pack a winter coat...just a fleece zip-up. I only have 6 hours this time in London so I'm just going to see the Tower of London Bridge and then go to the infamous store called Harrods. I figure I can waste as much time as I want inside Harrods.

I'm pretty sure that I wont be able to blog anymore, so this might be my last blog from Kenya. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers! I heard about Haiti, they play CNN here. It looks devastating.

Mom and Dad: I hope grandma is recovering well. Dad, I hope the MRI goes well. I'll see if I can talk to Peter the driver about Safaris... he has his own travel company. See you on Tuesday!

Love,
Stacy