It is better to give . . .

We are still working on the concept of giving. In an effort to teach the children that it is better to give than to receive, we have been giving out items to those in need around us. A few weeks back we gave out clothing, then it was rice, then beans and the most recent item was sugar.

Clothing Giveaway

Kids are ready to go!

Neighborhood children taking their "new" clothes home.

Even the mamas enjoyed the new clothes!

This week the children distributed some used clothing to neighborhood children. We are trying to teach the concept of giving without expecting anything in return. What a great experience for them to be a part of. Not only were the children and their parents excited to receive the clothing, but our children really got into the spirit of giving and one little boy literally gave the shirt off his back. They had to much fun they decided to do it again a couple of days later.

Fun in the Sun!

All in the poolCool Benny

Yasini coming up for air
Little Mery

Ruth and DoriSimon taking the plunge
Collin and Isaya warming up

We took the kids to the pool today at Ngurdoto Lodge. What fun they had. We finally had a day that was nice and warm, but the water was still cold. Despite that fact, the kids had a great time. Then we came home and had ice cream floats. They all went to bed early tonight, tired out from a busy day.

New Faces

Ruth

Jordan

Our volunteers have arrived. After about a week of getting used to things they are now in full swing. Ruth and Jordan are attending Southern University. Ruth's home state is Arkansas. She is a sophmore and majors in Social Work. Jordan is from Florida and is taking Graphic Arts. We are happy they are here and the children have made them feel very welcome. At the present, Ruth is working with the children in House 1 and Jordan is working with House 2. We will be moving them around so they can get to know all the kids. Karibu to both of you!

Up, Up and Away!

This month has been filled with fun things and new experiences. Last Sunday, we took all the children on a field trip to Arusha airport. We have several boys that are facinated by airplanes. Erick desperately wants to be a pilot. Teacher Maureen had a great idea of taking the kids to the airport to see the airplanes. A doctor friend of Teacher Maureen's donated some money for the children to do something special. So we put the two ideas together and came up with chartering a small airplane for one hour. They put the children into groups of five and each group got about 15 minutes of flying time. The kids had a blast! We got different reactions from the children, some absolutely loved it, some were scared, some a little queezy, but overall it was a memorable experience for them and so fun to share with them.

Summer Fun and Sad Goodbyes

Teacher Maureen & House 2 Teacher Maureen & House 1

Watching videos on the computer. Filling water balloons!
The whole group at the picnic.

Teacher Maureen is a volunteer that has been here with us for 5+ weeks. All of the kids have learned to read while she has been here. What a blessing to have her here helping the kids. She just loves reading and promotes it heavily so the kids have enjoyed reading and being read to while she has been here.

Yesterday we had a picnic in her honor. We played games all afternoon like duck, duck, goose, water balloon toss, relay races, and even some African games. We had a picnic supper at the pavilion with roasted hot dogs, baked beans, potato chips, potato salad and ice cream. So much fun was had by all.

Today Teacher Maureen left to go back to the United States. There were many tears and sad goodbye hugs. We will miss you Teacher Maureen but will hope and pray that you come back next year! Thank you for your time and love.

More Construction

Abdul reading with Teacher Maureen





Latest work on Administration Building

It was so nice to have Baba Frazier and Mama Virginia here for the past couple of weeks. Much construction was completed and the new administration building is really coming along. Days are getting warmer. The kids are on a break from school for this month. Nice to have some time off for them. We have a volunteer teacher from the states here working with kids for about six weeks. She has been a tremendous help in teaching them to read among other things. She is amazing with them. Really good at what she does. We are blessed to have her here. When Maureen leaves we will have 2 volunteers coming for 10 months. We are looking forward to that as well.

Cold days

When you think of Africa you think of hot weather. Well, sadly that is just not the case all of the time. Right now it is "winter" here and I am cold!!! For the past 2 months we have had rain and cold. This is the long rainy season and even though most of the rain has ceased, it is still cold. The temps get down at night in the high 40s and low 50s. And the daytime temps are in the 60s. One day this week it may have gotten up to 70. But when it is damp, it is cold. I am wearing socks, long pants, and two shirts everyday just to keep warm. In August the temps begin to climb and stay warm until next March. Remember, we don't have heat in our homes, nor are the houses insulated or sealed. We do have hot water, so fortunately I can take a hot bath at night to warm up. We drink lots of hot drinks and try to keep moving. With the colder temps also comes sickness.

The changing temperatures bring ear aches and colds in the children. We are dressing them warm, but we have had several trips to the doctor, even for us. Sinus infections, colds and runny noses are prevalent. But through it all, God is good and all of us are doing better.

The second floor on the administration building is finished. Yeah! We are looking forward to the next phase of construction.

We have a teacher coming in July to spend 6 weeks with us. She will be working with our teacher and doing some extra tutoring and so on with the kids. She was here last year and the kids all know her. It will be great to have some extra help. In August we have 2 volunteers coming (college-aged girls) for 10 months. This will be new for us but we are excited to have them come be a part of our team. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and we embrace all these new experiences! God will lead us, we know, even though we know there will be many things to work out.

Thank you in advance for your prayers and support.

Pouring Cement

Our days are busy now. The second floor of the administration building is being poured. What a process here to pour cement. First, we had to borrow a mixer from our neighbor, Peter O'Neal. He was gracious enough to lend us his. But then we needed to move it to Havilah. We had to round up a truck big enough to carry it, and enough men to load and unload it on and off the truck. Then we had to rent a motor to turn it. Next we hired 45 people to pour the floor. You might be wondering why in the world do we need 45 people? Well, it takes about 5 people to run the mixer, one puts in a bucket of sand, another water, another cement, another gravel. When the cement is ready, they unload it into buckets and pass it up an assembly line of people to the top floor. They empty their buckets and pass them back down. Then there are people on the roof that are smoothng the cement and putting it in place. Such a long process. It will take about 5 days of this before the top floor is poured.

MISSION GROUP

We have been busy preparing for a mission group from Takoma, Maryland to come to Havilah. They are a group of 31 people, mostly high school-aged young people. There was much to do to prepare for their coming -- houses to clean, slashing the grass, planting the garden, maintenance, buying supplies for building while they are here, landscaping, and even haircuts for the children. They arrived last Friday.

The mamas and I prepared a meal for them with traditional African food. We made chapati, ( a flat bread like a tortilla), beans and rice, ugali and greens, a fresh vegetable salad, and platters of fresh fruit like mango, pineapple, and watermelon.

So this week has been incredibly busy. We had 10 people staying in our house and the rest of the

group staying in the other empty house. The girls in the group stayed with us, and the boys stayed in the other house. It was a blessing to have them here.

They have been working on the new administration/learning center. This is the building project that we are working on right now. We have two houses that are empty that we are working to fill with children and when the new building is finished we will move into an apartment there for the directors. James and I will also have an office for each of us.

While the group was here they were busy seeing sights as well. On Sabbath they hiked for about 3 hours up Mt. Kilimanjaro to a waterfall. They also went in town to Arusha to the Cultural Center. They went on Safari to the Ngorongor Crater. They visited ADRA and the Cradle of Love baby home and a Maasai market in town. We went on the safari with them. What a beautiful place! The Crater has some of the most beautiful scenery. We saw many animals that day as well, but not too many that we haven't seen already, except we saw some lions from a distance. That was really cool. Can't wait til we get to heaven and we can see them up close and have no fear of them! While we were there, we visited a Maasai village. What a great experience! We saw dancing, we went inside their homes (which by the way are made from cow and goat poop -- lots of flies!) We visited with them and learned more about their culture. They have some very interesting traditions. Sabbath evening ended with a wonderful dinner at the Ngordoto Lodge (a beautiful 5 star hotel about 2 miles from us). Thanks to 2 very generous ladies that paid for the whole group. We ate some traditional African food and got to see some acrobatics and dancing. Really cool. Some of the kids even took a swim. What a beautiful evening. It was so nice to "get out". The group left on Sunday and things have been back to "normal" this week.

Blessings to you all for a wonderful week ahead.