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E MAILS FROM Kenya 2007
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From: kelly faubert
Subject: Jambo from Kenya Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2007 Jambo, Where to begin? It is our fourth day here in Kenya and so far the experience has been nothing short of amazing! The landscape is quite spectacular, very lush and green. It is very hilly so every morning when we wake up, we see thatch roofed huts poking out from the mist in the valley. We wake up every morning to the sound of roosters and cows and when the sun goes down at night it is so dark even with our few oil lamps. It is really quite peaceful and so nice to be back in Africa. We visited the eight school yesterday to disperse the funds and explain what supplies should be bought. The cargo is still stuck in Mombasa and we are still having trouble getting a clearance letter signed by some minister, but we hope it will make it early next week. What a day it was with the children! Our first school was Butiti primary and all these tiny children sang us the most beautiful song! It took everything not to burst into tears, they were so excited to see us! Tirimas was also increadible... the children look sooooooo much healthier than they did on the pictures last year. The staff expalined how much the porrdge is helping the children and how much better they are doing in school. They presented us with a chicken in thanks, to eat of course, but we have instead named it "poulette" and after carrying it around yesterday it is now running free at home. The women kept laughing and saying I was treating the chicken like a child. Ah, westerners, we are so bizzare. We absoltuely loved the children at St-Ursula's and Chekombero!!! Our favorites! The children started laughing and shouting so loud when we started playing with them, they were so excited, we were quite puzzled. The teachers expalined that children with mental handicaps, epilespy and downsyndrome are treated as witches in the village and they were so tremendously excited because no one had touched them in so long. That broke our hearts. We just walked around holding their hands and they were shaking they were so happy. Jackie knew some sign language so at Chekomebro we signed our names to the children and told them "you are my firend" and " you have a beautifu smile" they were so excited to have visitors. We brough pictures of them from last year and they we mesmorized. They stared in awe and cried in laughter. Those two school really struck a soft spot with us and we are very excited to go back! We are havig a fabulous time and we are in great hands. We will try to make it to an internet again soon to keep you all updated but it was a far drive this morning and Burton needs to leave for Nairobi on Saturday. Hope all is well at home. Lots of love from Kenya. xox Kelly
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From: jackie szabo Subject: kenya is beautiful Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2007 Hi everyone, I wont be checking my email too often, cause it is soo slow and also because we have to drive for an hour to get to kisumu to use a computer!! The house we are staying at has no electricity, and obviously no toilet...there is a little shack in the backyard with one room with a hole in the ground to go to th bathroom, and the othrer is just an empty room that you use to wash. you have to boil water and bring the bucket out there. today was the first day i washed since i left!! I was enjoying not showering a little toomuch :) I'm sleeping so well that I miss the rooster wake up call and i'm always the last to shower, so i usually don't bother, but my hair was getting a little nasty...so today i washed it! i think kelly and Bronwyn might have started to complain....so now i justy have really pouffy hair, its great!! i'm really getting use to it out here, and I love it. Kenya is so beautiful and the people are all so nice. I'm having areally good time. The house we are staying at is amazing!! And the family is really nice. And the food is delicious. We are being really well taken car of. I'm amazed at the generosity of Burton (the man who is taking care of us). Yesterday, we went around to the schools to drop off the checks and tobook a time we can come back to spend more time with the kids. The visits to each school were brief but the children were amazing. I really loved spending time with them. They are so grateful for tthe little they have, which makes me question our north american way of life. It has been an eye opening experience. Eveything I have here, is all I really need...we went to a school of the deaf and one for the disabled and one for the disadvantaged...it was really emotional. But the kids all had such beautiful spirits. I was shocked to hear the head teacher at the disabled school tell us that the kids were happy because its rare that people come close to them, he said the people here believe that they are witches!! Witches?! We have been having some issues with the shipment, but this morning we found out that it should be arriving by friday, which means that we can make it to the orphanage on sunday like we had planed. love you! i'll write more when i can..... jackie. ps we got corn and a chicken as a gift from one school. we almost ate the chicken but decided to keep him as a pet instead...we named him Pooulet. (not a typo, its Pooulet, its pronouced pooo-lettt! he's really cute. |
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Hello all, Well I guess I shoud catch you all up to the past few weeks... We went to visit all the schools one last time before leaving the small villages of Butiti and Itegero. It was quite sad to say goodbye, but Burton had business in Nairobi and it became apparent the shipment would not be arriving anytime soon. So, after a day in the Kakamega rainforest we moved on to St-Peter's Seminary to stay with the nuns.... visiting everything from hospitals to orphanages...we managed to fill our days with so many visits we could no longer eat or we thought we might burst (it is considered inpolite to say no to food). We ended our stay with a day visiting orphans that are being fed by Suitcases For Africa's feeding program. Two little girls read poems in our honor... the first no older than five read the poem with tears streaming down her face and the second burst into tears and couldn't even finish. It was the sadest moment I have ever witnessed. Both had lots their parents to HIV/aids. Although we witnessed many very sad things, in many ways conditions were better than we had expected and there is a strong sense of hope. That is what we must hold onto to not get discouraged. I am now in Tanzania at the base of Mount Kilamanjaro feeling very, very lucky to have been able to experience all this. I hope all is well at home.. xoxKelly
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