I'm really sorry for not posting for a few weeks. The truth is, there hasn't been that much to report. But here are a few stories

A few Fridays ago, after some rushed grocery shopping in Kakamega, I met Katie for lunch, only to find she was already sitting with another American when I arrived. Annette runs a non profit offering alternative education options for Kenyan girls out of Chico California. She was in Kenya for 6 weeks to check on operations here. We had a really nice lunch with her, talking about her work, our work, and how nice it is to use American english. Earlier that morning I drove Neto and David to an Awareness Workshop for St. Julie's. Every few weeks, Neto, David, Angela and Grace (or some combination) go out to churches in the community to tell people what we're doing at St. Julie's and hoping to find more children with disabilities who aren't being treated. Since the workshops are all in Swahili or Luhya, my role that day was purely as a chauffeur. Or so I thought. This Friday they happened to be addressing an entire primary school. I was planning on just sitting in the car, reading my book and listening to my i pod until they were done, but the head teacher wanted for me to address the kids. So I got up in front of an entire primary school and in broken Luhya and Swahili said good morning and that my name was Sue and I was from the US. For a moment all the kids looked at me, and then all burst into laugher. Nothing like being laughed at by a room full of children. After that I let David and Neto do the talking and fidgeted until they were done. It's actually a really neat thing to be a part of b/c these awareness workshops help us to reach far corners of our district that otherwise probably would never have heard of us.
I spent most of last week under the covers rather than going to work. Not really that sick, mostly just exhausted. At first I thought it might have been malaria again, but all of us seem to have gotten it. Katie first, then me and Michael and now Tom. It seems to have passes, and I'm feeling much better.
This past weekend Katie and I went to Kisumu just for the day. She was itching to get out of the house for a little while and I didn't have enough energy for the hiking/ nature options nearby. It ended up being really fun. We ate at a Chinese restaurant, my first in almost 7 months. Then we did a little Nakumatt shopping and came home. I think we're going to head down again this weekend, but for a few days. Katie wants to see the hippos in the Lake and we might hit a few of the other tourist options Kisumu has.

I wanted to say another BIG Thanks to First Church. The second package of toys arrived last week. They've been divided between our toy lending library, the toys used at the center and the toys that are going to be used at our new outpost station. We're all so excited for new toys so thank you very much.

Thats about all in my life for now. Hopefully I'll have some fun stories and pictures when I get back from Kisumu.

In the hopes of bringing a little of the Americana summer time fun to Kenya, Tom and Michael had a cookout on Saturday to celebrate the 4th of July. Lots of our friends came when we explained that while December 12th is Independence Day here, Americans celebrate independence on the 4th of July. The food and company was great and the whole afternoon was very low key. They made hot dogs and
hamburgers and potatoe salad. I brought ice cream and watermelons. We
sat around with all our Kenyan friends, had some beers and listened to
some Michael Jackson and Tom Petty. It was a very nice afternoon. Tom
has some pictures up on his blog, so if your interested in seeing
proof that I'm still alive, go to www.aviewfromthecave.com.

Otherwise, there's not too much to report on. I bought some new
bootlegs last week so now in a addition to like 100 movies, I also
have the first three seasons of One Tree Hill, 3 seasons of How I Met
Your Mother, 3 seasons of Lost and 2 seasons of Ugly Betty.

Last Friday I went to the orphanage in Kakamega where my roommate
Katie is working. It is a special home for abandoned and abused
children. We spent the morning in the baby room, waking them up,
playing with them, giving them baths and their bottles. When they went
down for a nap mid morning, we played with some of the older toddlers
who are still too young to be in nursery school. There was a little
girl (I can't remember her name) who had just come to the orphanage
last week. She was removed from her home b/c of abuse and you could
still see the scars on her face, legs and arms. She was soo beautiful
though. I sat down on the ground and after a few shy seconds, she
crawled right in my lap and laid her (somewhat snot covered) face
against my chest. I think she really just needs someone to hug her
alot. Although in many ways, I wouldn't trade anything to have Katie's
job, she really does get to have a profound affect on the lives of
these children. I mean she has them when they come out of terrible
homes or as little babies. She gets to show them that someone loves
them. And that can make all the difference. Don't get me wrong, I love
St. Julie's, but Katie has a chance to make a real difference

THANK YOU!

I wanted to post a BIG BIG thank you to my First Church Family back in Cincinnati, especially to Katie Campbell for organizing the toy drive for the children of St. Julie's center. The first package of toys arrived in Malava today. Your generosity is so heartwarming!

I'll be sure to post pictures of our kids enjoying their new toys soon.

Just FYI, there are some new pictures from May and June on my Picasa pages, including some of our St. Julie clients and pics from my trip to Nairobi.

Welcome Katie!

Our newest volunteer has arrived! Welcome to Kenya Katie O'Dea. I spent most of this week in Nairobi picking Katie from the airport and then showing her around. It was also my first time using the matatus there alone so of course I got on the wrong one when I first got there and ended up a a part of town that they call little Mogadishu. Luckily everything worked out and I made it to Racecourse in one piece. Anyways, Katie arrived after what was a very adventurous trip from Nigeria on Monday evening. Check out her blog (the link is on this page) for the full story. Tuesday Titus (who works for the sisters in Nairobi) took us around town. Katie and I saw "State of Play" at the movie theater in town and got fast food quality hamburgers from a chain called Steers. I think Katie was really amazed at how Western Nairobi feels. Sometimes, in the center of Nairobi town, I forget that I'm in Africa. Anyways, on Wed. I took Katie to a craft market near where the sisters live and introduced to buying touristy stuff- Kenya style. Its a little overwhelming for me still, and I've been here for almost 6 mos. In the afternoon Sr. Jane took us for lunch at the Nairobi National Park (where some baboons escapes and treated themselves to lunch from a trash can in the parking lot by our car) and then to see the dancers at Bomas of Kenya. Since I've already seen the show at Bomas, I mostly stared at the white tourists, wondering where they were from and why they were in Kenya. We came back to Malava yesterday and were treated to a ride up in the new vehicle that the sisters just bought rather than taking the bus. We had dinner with the whole community last night so Katie could meet all the sisters.
Today we had a parent meeting where I didn't do much more than read my book in the back of the room, discuss the answer to eliminating American poverty with Tom and take registration.
Last week was fairyl uneventful, but I did have the chance to go to the Kenya Music competition, district level at Sr. Beatrice's school. While we were waiting for her to get there, Tom and I wandered around and ran into Sr. Inziani with her nursery school class. They had just won first place in English and Swahili recitations so they redid them for us. Super cute...they're competing next week in Bungoma for the provincial competition. If they win then they go on to the national competition in Mombasa. Sr. Beatrice's school also walked away with two first prizes. Go Malava district!
This weekend we're going to show Katie around a little bit more to get her used to Malava and Kakamega. She'll be working at an orphanage for abused and abandoned children in Kakamega, so I'm sure she'll soon know that town than the rest of us. I hope all my Cincinnati people have fun at Paddlefest this weekend!
Look for new pictures on my picasa page soon, I'll try and post them today!

Gowri I'm a bad friend...but a very happy belated Birthday!

There's not too much to report from this end. I went to Eldoret to the Angelican Church clinic there with some of our kids this past thursday. A bunch of kids didn't show up so we only ended up taking one car. We thought that we would have a quick day but unfortunately they forgot the leg brace for Jairus so we had to wait for them to attempt to fashion a crude one that will work until we can take him again for the right one. Otherwise, life here has been pretty normal day to day. I would like to say a VERY big thank you to the First Unitarian Universalist Church community and especially to Katie Campbell for your generous contribution of toys to the St. Julie's Centre. I can't wait for them to get here. I'll be sure to post pictures of our kids when they get here. Your generosity is really heart warming.

Next weekend I'll head to Nairobi for a few days to meet our newest American volunteer- Katie O'dea. For those of you who don't know, Jean left Kenya back in April due to some minor health problems. I've gotten used to being on my own in the community here, but it will be nice to have a roommate again. So I'll be sure to send you all an update from Nairobi sometime next week.

I hope everyone at home is doing well. I miss you all. I can't believe that next week is our half way point is next week. Time is flying by. Thanks for keeping up with my stories.

Another month passes us by and I continue to be amazed with how fast time flies. Everyone at home keeps telling me it feels like I've been gone forever, but the last 5 months have gone in the blink of an eye for me. In a few short weeks we'll be half way done with our time here in Kenya.
In other good news...I will have a new roommate on June 22nd. Katie O'Dea, another NDMV volunteer who has been in Nigeria since January will be joining us in Kenya. While we're sad for the community in Nigeria that is losing her, we're happy to have her coming to us!
There's been a lot going on in the last week or so. Tumaini finally opened its new orphanage (after months of Michael's painting) and we had a chance to see the children off from their old home. Tom, Michael and I joined the rest of the Tumaini staff along with Ryan and Randall (two other American volunteers who were working short term at Tumaini) for the big move from one home from the other. I helped Violet, the social worker at Tumaini, get all the girls dresses in their finest. Unfortunately, I didn't actually make it all the way to the new orphanage with them. Like so many things in Kenya, festivities began much later than they were supposed to so I had to duck out early and head to the hospital in Malava to have some blood work done before they all left for lunch. Sure enough...I had malaria again. They're not sure if it was the same strain as before or if I got it again, but they put me on a much stronger medicine this time and I'm feeling back to my normal self already.
Last week we also had a chance to meet children from another local primary school. Pst. Jairus, a community bases rehab worker and St. Julie's parent invited us to visit the school near his house where his wife is the head teacher. We were introduced to all the classes and the teachers and learned some of the challenges that the school has been facing over sodas. I walked around and took pictures of the children in their classes and we promised to return sometime soon for a whole school day. Afterwards, Jairus invited us back to his home to meet the rest of his family, including his beautiful baby grand daughter. Her mom actually let me hold her for a while which doesn't happen very often. We had boiled maize (corn) on the cob that had come straight out of the field and Jairus told us more about his family. All in all, it was a great afternoon and I'm looking forward to going back. This weekend was a four day weekend. We had today off work to celebrate what we have been calling Independence Day part 1- Madaraka Day. Madaraka means power in Swahili and today in the anniversary of Jomo Kenyatta officially taking power. Part two- Kenyatta Day- comes in December and celebrates the day that Kenya officially become an independent country. I was reading a very interesting article in the newspaper the other day about how many problems in Africa stem from the fact that they have tried to become modern, independent countries in decades while Europe and the US had centuries to get it right. This is kind of amazing to think about. In the US we take being our own nation for granted. There's certainly no one still alive who remembers when we were a British colony. Independence is only 46 years old here and there are still lots of people who remember that transition time in the 1960s. Anyways, we didn't do much special to celebrate. Michael made an excellent brunch of corn, potato and leek chowder and we watched Kung Fu Panda with some of the local kids. I did have a chance to get down to Kisumu for a night this weekend. It was nice to eat out (somewhere other than the Honey Drop or the petrol station), buy yummy new foods at Nakumatt and generally get out of Malava for a little while. Oh and I saw the first movie in the theaters since leaving the US. That was awesome. I found out recently that the new Harry Potter movie will come out in Nairobi on the same day that it comes out in the US. I might be really lame and go to Nairobi to see it. Or wait until it comes to Kisumu.
Well I think thats it for now. I have pictures from Tumaini and from Pst. Jairus's primary school to put, which I hope to do very soon. Thanks again for following my story!