Wash your hands!

Good Morning Thursday!

Today we are planning a full day at a school with at least 50 children - although we expect there will be more! We are ready with the story about Zaccheus (remember the song???).

This picture was taken yesterday at a near-by orphanage. Part of the ministry during our time here is to teach children the importance of washing your hands. The picture is two of the Dutch volunteers that teach the children about the germs that are on their hands and why they need to wash. To go along with the lesson we brought a hand-washing station so the children actually have a place to wash!

The picture also shows Ashley holding a small boy - this is the same boy that Ashley met on her last trip that was very sick with malaria. It was exciting to see him there and how he had grown in the past year!

Here is another picture of the school and a better view of the school room and some of the children. We enjoyed looking at all the pictures the children had made and the teaching pictures that were hung on the walls and around the room. John, the man in this picture, is the director of this school and the woman in the pink dress is the teacher. Edith Chamah is the woman next to Olivia and helps us with interpreting to the children. Edith is also very involved in the ministry here and is the wife of Martin Chamah, Christ's Hope Kisumu Director.

Since there are so many of us - a portion of the team visited another school and shared a story with the younger children and a lesson based on the Choose To Wait curriculum with the older youth. After our morning visits we decided it was a good time to just take the afternoon to relax and plan for the next few days. Planning is a huge part of what we are doing. Although we have stories ready to go, we take the time to think (and pray!) about the school we will be visiting and what activities we can do based on the numbers and the ages of the children. Our planning is well worth the time as each person knows their assigned task and the "team" effort kicks-in!

I know we are all anxious to share more with you about these experiences. It is a challenge to try and share the emotions that pass through each of us on a blog posting....

Otherwise - we have had rain each night we have been here - which we understand is a blessing since it has been very dry. It is warm but not excessively hot - I really don't know what the temperature is and maybe that's a good thing! The water usually is not working in the late afternoon and early evening but eventually comes back on later. When we look around and learn about how many people here have to walk each day to get water - our incovenience is a non-issue!

I just took an informal poll of the entire team and we are in 100% agreement - WE DO NOT MISS the snow and the cold! :)

I believe it's time to end this posting and know that we miss you all!

H