Trip to Kenya with Yellow Rhino Minitries

My phone/computer were NOT cooperating with me last night, and after a very long day I decided to just combine days. You'll forgive me, right? We have approximately 20 kids ages 7-16 attending each day. We serve them tea (light breakfast) when they arrive, then games, crafts, bible lessons, a sweet treat (today was Jell-O) and a hearty/warm lunch. After camp is mandatory rest time for the house - and we use it! In the evenings we prepare for the next day and spend time together, sometimes a game or activity with the young ones who are with us full time. I can't believe there's only 3 more days before I head home! It's been a great trip and I'll be sad to leave my new friends.

Sunday morning brought rain that conveniently stopped right before we had to leave for church. It was a bit cooler today (but still warmer than home!), but ended sunny. Mercy Church Nairobi was planted by the home church of Chris and Michael (YRM leaders) and made all of use feel like home. The service was in English with the exception of a few of the worship songs, though they also had the English translation on the screen. After church/lunch/rest time came the marathon finishing up of VBS decorating, preparing, and clearing away. There's a little bit left tomorrow morning, but we are ready! It's going to be a busy week but the Spirit will move in mighty ways!

We had started yesterday, but today was spent continuing to unpack and lots of play and fun time. There were a few fundi (generic term for workers - contractor, plumber, welder) here today getting the house in tip-top shape.  We played popcorn, Sorry!, football (soccer) and everyone's favorite game...climb on Miss Carrie 😂. Even though it's a little late, we celebrated Aisha's birthday (my big little is now nine!) with cake and a favorite Kenyan tradition: watering! Her first time being watered, we went gentle and used bowls of water instead of giant buckets. The first watering at the new house, too!  Church tomorrow and more prep for VBS. I promise I'll show you the decorations tomorrow!

I mentioned the other day that we've been doing a lot of pivoting.  To explain a bit further: The house that would become the permanent home for YRM was available right away, and while the previous house would have worked for camp, we made the decision on Wednesday morning to move camp to the new house, then come back and sleep at the old one. Cooking would be done at the old house as well, since the new one didn't have appliances yet. Well, after a lot of stress the decision was made to actually pack up the old house entirely and move to the new one. So appliances and essential furniture (namely mattresses) were purchased and delivered (mattresses yesterday afternoon, appliances this morning). We spent yesterday packing everything in the house and a truck (arranged by the new landlord) + our new driver + the rental car got everything out and over to the new house. No appliances meant takeout for dinner, and even though we don't have a dining table, chairs, or couches yet t...

We've been pivoting plans and re-pivoting plans all day (more on that to come) but spent time on some art therapy and lots of play therapy. #wafflewednesday quickly became a breakfast favorite! This evening brought the first monkey spotting of the year and a walk with the littles (3 now, Salma and Aisha plus their friend Abby) around the neighborhood. All three were convinced they wanted to come back home to America with me until they learned that American schools aren't on summer vacation right now! A long day which will be even longer tomorrow. Prayers for stress-free camp (VBS) preparation as we also work on moving everything to the new YRM house a bit sooner than planned. The devil is doing his best to block our plans, which just shows us how much we need to push through!

To be fair, Sunday didn't really exist  for me. My flight took off at 5pm Saturday, landed 6am Sunday in Germany (got my Pringles! And Apfel Saft! And also a charging block because both my block and European adapter was in my luggage and my phone had fully died). Second flight 11am Sunday, landed 10pm Sunday Kenya time and basically went to bed as soon as I got to the house. So I technically missed two days of posts, but really just 1 because Sunday doesn't count. Monday was spent figuring out a few things around the house and hanging out with my two favorite littles (who aren't so little anymore!) while Mama and Papa picked up a some of our other students and did a few other errands, like checking out the new house. Plans changed a few times, and an Uber strike meant Papa had to drive, which is no easy feat for an experienced Kenyan driver, let alone someone driving for the first time on the "wrong" side of the road! A long but fun day ended with pizza and playin...