It's laundry day

While my laundry is waiting to be washed, I wanted to do a quick update about life recently in Malava. Last week I went back to work after a week off with malaria. It was really nice to be back at work, even if the week was a little slow.

Last week I had a chance to go out to Tumaini where Michael and Jean work to help with the new orphanage they’re building on the site with the school. It’s really coming along and they say they should be able to move kids into the finished wing by the end of the month. It’s been so awesome to help with the painting and other work that needs to be done- helping to building a new home for children in need with my own hands. Michael also let me look in on his reading class on both days I was out there last week. On Tuesday he let me read “Lady and the Tramp” to his reading class and then I watched while he taught them new vocab words like “swoon” “frightened” and “creep”. When Michael was teaching them “creep” he snuck up on a kid who was sleeping and tapped him on the back of the head. Of course when all the boys were demonstrating the new word, they ran around whapping each other on the back of the head. Thursday Michael’s class sang songs to me and Tom and the class next door got so excited they had us come over to their class and sing to us too. Tumaini kids LOVE to sing and dance. They’re awesome kids, I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve been able to spend there.

This Saturday all four of us went to Kakamega to run errands and Jean and I had a chance to spend most of the day by the pool. Just a little taste of our upcoming vacation…it feels so decadent to just lie in the sun and swim in the pool.

Sunday Tom, Michael and I went to church with Angela, one of the therapists from SJC. She usually goes to the Catholic church, but wanted to take us to another one in town so we could see what an evangelical church in Africa was like. It was certainly interesting and the only thing I can think to compare it to is when we went to the Baptist Church in Georgia where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used to preach. Someone preached for about an hour, then there was a lot of singing. At the end of every song, the crowd dissolved into incoherent praising and rejoicing. Then someone else came up to preach for about an hour. They say it usually lasts 5 hours, but we only made it through 2.5. See Tom's blog for a more extensive description. After church Jean met us and all four of us headed to a delicious lunch at Angela’s house. We watched Nigerian music videos, chatted and played with her almost 2yr. old son Gracious. He’s such a sweet little boy and sobbed so hard when we finally left. I initially thought it was b/c he was scared of Michael, but it turns out he was just sad to see us leave.

Last night I discovered that “Chinatown” with Jack Nicholson is a great movie and the bootleg movie I bought awhile ago in Kakamega really does work. I had been apprehensive about using it b/c the first night I tried to use it was the night my old power cord stopped working. It looks like it was just a coincidence and I enjoyed a little bit of “Titanic” before I fell asleep. We’ve also firmed up all of our plans for April vacation. The boys are flying, but jean and I are taking an overnight bus all the way across the country. It should take about 16 hours. We’re bound to have some really cool story!

Back to laundry time…thanks for keep up with my story! It was great to talk to some of the Leininger/ Carpenter/ Kennedy/ Gomien etc… family on Sunday night. I hope Alaina’s tooth came out ok and you all had wonderful birthdays!