Jambo! Our host "brother", Brian, is turning 19 so Steph and I decided to have a celebration last night since Grace told us they typically do not celebrate birthdays. We bought a cake with "Happy Birthday Brian!" written on it, candles, Coke, Sprite and an Ocean's 11 DVD (Brian loves to watch DVDs). After we ate dinner, we went into our room, lit the candles and walked out singing. When we told him to make a wish, he sat there for a good 5 ...

Jambo! I am back from the weekend safari! We had a fantastic time. On Friday Steph, 4 other volunteers and I left Nairobi and drove the 6 hours southwest through the Great Rift Valley to Maasai Mara where the annual wildebeest migration is taking place. The Great Rift Valley is quite barren, very dry and dusty, and sparsely dotted with trees and bushes. We passed through tiny Maasai villages where the adults would stare and the children would wave. We often...

Hello all! Since the kids are not in school right now (they are on "holiday"), they have way too much free time and are a bit bored during the day. School begins on September 1 so we decided to purchase some games to keep them entertained until then. Steph, Antony and I took a matatu (which was blaring rap music...my ear drums were not happy) to Karen, a more developed town 15 minutes away from Ngong where Steph and I purchased Twister, Memory, Battl...

Jambo!Last night Steph and I did a lot of reflecting and absorbing all of the information we took in during the day. It's so nice to have someone to talk with...I cannot imagine doing this alone like a lot of the other volunteers. After we ate dinner, we both felt a little ill, and when we woke up this morning Steph had a cold. I'm determined not to catch it. I feel ok at the moment. Today at the orphanage we learned that Alison is also sick, so we only spen...

Last night Steph and I did our laundry by hand for the first time. As we sat side by side outside our house, scrubbing our clothes in our individual basins, Steph looked up at me after we were half way through and said, "I'm bored." I laughed so hard! Thank goodness for our washing machines and dryers at home. This morning we walked to the orphanage and I soon took out my digital camera and began taking pictures of the kids. They absolutely love th...