300 pairs of underwear, and more

I had written the other day about the children's excitement about having a toy of their own. After our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, we were priviledged to hand each boy a matchbox car and each girl a little stuffed animal. The boys have been playing with their cars whenever they could, but the girls have tucked their treasures away, probably too afraid that they will get dirty. You see, it rains a lot in Kenya, and even though it is the dry season right now, we still had lots of rain in Eldoret. All around the children's home is red, clayish soil which I can only imagine how hard it must be to wash the stains from their clothes. So, the girls are probably wise to play with their toys indoors.

Cleaning House
You'd be amazed how clean their little huts are! Danette and I stopped by their room early in the morning on a couple of occasions, and you'll find the girls totally stripping their little bunk beds and making them up from scratch. Some of the boys just straighten their bedding... Nevertheless, the dorms are VERY clean. The kids each have one drawer under the bottom bunk bed, and one shelf for their school bags. One smallish drawer is enough for all their clothing!

Counting Clothes
While Pat and Lori were doing leadership training, Danette and I sorted through all the clothing once again so the ELI staff could log exactly how many dresses, pants etc they received. I wish you could be there to see Angeline Rono's face. Angeline and her husband Laban are the directors of the children's home, and as the mountain of clothing just grew before her eyes, she wiped tears from her eyes. And while Danette and I were counting all the panties and boys' underwear, Angeline started praying, thanking God for providing for them. She told us that many of the children don't have underwear at all (and most likely have never owned a pair in their entire life!). She explained that just the previous week, some of the dorm parents were asking her if they could purchase underwear for the children. The problem is, they had no money for this purchase, but Angeline said yes, they'll get some. And then we showed up with almost 300 pairs!

It was such fun to see the kids in their new clothes! What saddens me, however, is the fact that the children also sleep in their clothes. Very few of them have pajamas. Next time we come, I think we'll have to bring some children's pajamas!

Showing off
On Friday night, the ELI staff gathered for a farewell service for us. Before they started sharing, the children marched in, dressed to the nines. Under Danette's direction (with the help of our Swahili translators), the children recited John 3:16 in English and sang "Jesus Loves Me" as well as "Hallelu-hallelu-hallelu-hallelujah" at the top of their lungs. It was such a joy seeing them perform. Even the seven kids that were just brought into the home that day tried to keep up with their little brothers and sisters!

Hugging, shaking hands, and saying goodbye
Saying goodbye to the children was hard. It had taken a couple of days to win their trust, but for the last 3 days of our visit, the little ones would run to Danette and I whenever we walked over to their homes. They'd hug us, though some were still a little shy. Others would just throw their little bodies onto us and hug us tightly.

When we went to greet the children, every one of them came up and either hugged us or shook our hands very politely. The African way of showing respect while shaking hands is to hold your right arm with the left hand, just below the elbow, while shaking hands.

Every house is different as their dorm parents are very different. We both fought back the tears as we greated Nelson and Dorca's dorm. They called all the boys and girls into one hut, formed a circle, and sang a song of blessing to us. One boy, Vincent, thanked us for coming, wished us a good journey home and asked us to please come back soon... Then we prayed for them. Wow. Keep in mind that these kids range from age 3 to 9. We're not talking about teenagers. Yet you watch even the littlest ones looking out for each other, making beds, cleaning up... It's a world very different from ours!

As you can tell, the kids truly crept into our hearts. As a team, we had to wonder, though, how hard it must be for the children to see teams coming and going... Since ours was the very first team ever to work with these children, the ELI staff will now evaluate the effects of such a visit on the children and decide whether or not it is good for the children to have visiting teams.

Future possibilities
I believe we had mentioned a number of times that we have been invited back for more leadership teachings. The Kenyans truly are hungry for more. Insofar as the children's work, it all depends on whether the staff think it is harder for the children to keep dealing with seperation whenever they grew to trust people... Whatever's best for the kids! But future teams can also come and build a playground for the children and even a basketball court or a soccer field! They LOVE soccer (which they call football).

Anyway, we can only pray for wisdom for future trips. We all know, however, that we'd love to come back and bring some of you with us... Are you ready for it?