Saturday, January 18, 2014

House of Hope Home Outreach Day

This past Saturday, we had the joy of visiting House of Hope Home in Naivasha. It was Outreach Day at RVA, so we were not the only ones traveling. We had over 300 students involved in various service projects - painting, building, collecting firewood, sports outreach, visiting orphanages, and encouraging people in our community.
Our particular group had 20 students, plus our family. We enjoyed a morning at the home, playing with the kids and helping the "mamas" in the kitchen.


The "mamas" at the home work so tirelessly and cheerfully - handwashing clothes and sheets, peeling and chopping fruit and vegetables, and loving the children. We helped to sort and pick the maize (corn) while we were there. 


We brought some foam noodles to play with and the kids loved them. :) They loved chasing after Jeff!



Our students played noodle war, frisbee, and a game with the stretchy lycra tube (purple thing in the background) with the kids.


Megan brought nail polish along and the girls loved having a spa day on the porch


Some of the kids painted our students' nails too - one girl ended up with about 7 layers of nail polish on her fingernails!


The kids were sweet and helpful. After we cleaned up the games, we served juice and mandazi (African donuts) that we had brought from school.



Friday, January 10, 2014

Term Two...some things old, and some things new

We just finished the first week of term two. So far, we are off to a great start! We are in our "summer season" right now, which I know drives all of you in the US crazy. We hear tales of snow days and blizzards and we are wearing tank tops and shorts right now. I know....it doesn't seem fair!






This term we have some of our "old" responsibilities - dean of students (Jeff), elementary student support (me) but we have a few new things too. I handed over the high school art class to another teacher this term. It was bittersweet - but with the addition of coaching Varsity field hockey in the afternoons, it was a good move. We are both going to be teaching  Sunday School this term as well.





Since I am up in "Titchie-Land" (the elementary school) I help out with the weekend activities as well. Tonight, we had a bunch of kids over for crafts and cupcake decorating. It was a fun evening. We sent the kids home all sugared up (I am sure their parents were pleased!)





Tomorrow we head out to House of Hope Orphanage for our outreach day. We'll be sure to take pictures and keep you posted!