"life without love is like tea without sugar"

Life here has been really interesting, hectic, sometimes frustrating, funny, serious, sad and everything else.
On Monday, the younger kids at Calvary got their measles shots from the government so there was a lot of consoling involved but they were running around an hour later.

Tuesday, Chloe and I went to Mwokoeni where we had a frustrating day because there really isn't anything set for us to do and we felt like we were just replacing the teachers instead of helping. But today, we actually taught a few classes and have decided just to focus on the kids and help them as much as possible.

As for smells, it really depends where you are. As we walk to Calvary, there are two trash piles that don't usually smell bad because there are always goats, cows and chickens who I assume eat anything that would be perishable. The road is very dusty and there aren't many houses around so there aren't many distinct smells. At Calvary, there isn't a washing machine so the clothes often smell a little of pee because of the younger ones who still wet themselves. When the older girls braid the younger girl's hair into lines (or what we usually call cornrows), they sometimes you a steamer to help straighten their hair and then coconut oil to smooth it out. The coconut oil has a very specific smell which fills the room.

Yesterday, three of the workers had to pump the sewage out of the tank at Calvary and the pipe burst so the smell of sewage was everywhere, but it is so hot here that everything evaporates and the smell was pretty much gone when we left for home a few hours later.

At Mwokoeni, there is no real kitchen because the last place the kitchen was is very rundown so now they cook everything in a shack behind of the buildings. The pots are huge so the fire is huge which causes there to be a lot of smoke everywhere.

In other news, Joli, a 7 or 8 year old girl who is both deaf and mute, has been more responsive to our presence and lets us play with her a little more. She was brought to Calvary a few months ago because she had been abandoned on the street and the police took her in for 3 months waiting for a relative to show up, when no one did, they took her to Calvary. I hope that she will be able to go to a special school because it is clear that she finds it very frustrating not to be able to communicate.

The two babies seem much better and are both much more attentive. They are still very small and weak because they probably never used their arms or legs when they were in the hospital. Destiny is eating real food and Kaleb gobbles milk down to the point where we have to stop him so that he takes a breath.

Tomorrow, Chloe Emma and I are heading to Wasini, an island one hour south of Mombasa that has a beautiful national park including a coral reef where we will go snorkeling. We may even see dolphins!

I haven't been able to upload pictures because the internet is too slow but I have been taking pictures and will upload them when I have the chance :) Got some great ones of the kids playing around with my Survivor buff and some closeups of the giraffes we got to feed at Haller park.

Hope all is well