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