Today is our fifth day in Kenya, and it has been bliss! Bliss to Kenyan standards, of course. Very slow internet, bugs, sweat, dirtiness, but there is an abundance of love, laughter, and happiness! The latter definitely outweighs the former, so it is worth it!
What have we been up to? Like I posted earlier, we stayed overnight in Nairobi upon our arrival. Hence, we arrived LDO on June 1st. It feels like we have been here for quite a while, but it has only been five days at LDO. The flight rides and Nairobi took up some of our time.
The first order of things to accomplish was to build a more sturdy canopy in the "green". If you remember from last year's pictures, there is a relatively large space of dirt that lies between the two buildings. We thought a tarp would hold up against Kenyan winds, but apparently we were VERY incorrect.
But no problem as it was a very valuable lesson learned. This time around, we are using our metal posts (from last year) as a strong foundation to build a wooden canopy with metal tin roofing. This is still a work in progress and we look forward to completing it. Give us a few days to complete the first segment of the canopy (a patch of canopy that connects one building to the other and is about 14 feet deep). We are looking to extend this canopy for another 14 feet or some before we leave back for the US. This would give the orphans and staff a very nice area of shade to stay under during the hotter weather.
We are also more involved in teaching the orphans during school hours. Last year, we allowed the LDO staff to continue teaching, so we could do other things. But we realized we do value our time with the orphans and one of the best ways to do this is to actually build relationships with them through teaching courses. Each day, Javier and Chris will ask each of the ODO team members which class he/she wants to teach the following day. Then when that day comes, we will know which class we are teaching. Yesterday I taught Science to the Std IV class and discussed different kinds of weeds. I took the class on a stroll outside LDO in search for the weeds we learned about. Moises taught Science to the Std III class and discussed the weather. Today, I taught Science to the Std III class and continued talking about the weather and covered different farming activities during the wet and dry seasons. Moises taught Science again today to the Std II student (only one student in that class - Lawrance).
The classes are split up according to "grades" by which they call B/C, Nursery, Std I, II, III, and IV. The younger kids and two of the newest orphans all compose the B/C and nursery classes (Maruine, Nicholas, John, Frederick, Alphonce, Lucy, Ephy, Sheila). Std I currently has no students, Std II has Lawrance as mentioned, and Std III has Pauline, Mike, Felix, and Christine. Finally, Std IV has Evans, Mike, Japheth, Sarah, Erick, Stephen, Kevin, and Leah.
Internet right now at this cafe is too slow. We will upload pictures hopefully later today for you all to view!
God bless!
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