Update

Dear friends and family,

Hey there! I am e-mailing you to ask if you would like to be part of our lifelong mission to help this orphanage and cure hunger in this area. We are hoping to start up a website and I have no idea how to go about doing so. I would like it to have paypal, pictures, videos etc.on the site. I need to know if you or anyone you know would be willing to help us with that and to help with managing the site. Everyone here would appreciate it so so much, they got so excited when I told them I was going to try and produce a website for the orphanage. Eventually it would have links to the feeding program here, other orphanages and sponsorship programs.Let me know if anyone has any ideas or are able to offer their services. I understand there will be a fee to purchase an address, so I would probably be able to cover that cost. I appreciate any advice!! Thanks a million!

As far as an update goes, this week seems to be going by so much quicker than last! Sunday we went to church which was just a 5minute walk. everyone there was so great and welcoming. We talked to the Bishop and may go volunteer at his medical clinic in one of the largest slums here in Nairobi next week. He spoke proudly of his ultrasound machine and how he has the opportunity to show woman their babies before they are born...obviously ultra sound machines are super uncommon in the clinics here. We may attempt to view a birth if we start gearing ourselves up for it now! We shall see!! After church we went to the monkey park with some other volunteers. You buy little bags of peanuts to feed them and they climb all over you. They will stay perched on your shoulder as long as you are feeding them and if you aren't careful they will snatch the bad right out of your hands! They are so quick! If my pictures uploaded correctly (the computers are so old and slow here) you can see the different shots of us at the monkey park on our blog. Everyday we wake up at about 7ish. The children start their day with songs and prayer at about 6:00, so I suppose that is when we actually wakeup, but we finally get out of bed at 7. They eat breakfast (porridge) after prayer time and then we help with all the dishes while they go to class. Sometimes we help teach, usually English (grammar, reading, etc) and then we do some office work which involves typing letters for Grace (the owner/mom) to send to different churches and organizations for donations, we also are organizing all the children's files which will hold their exams and their history or any medical information.

We are close to some of the other volunteers and so we try to hang out with them a couple times a week. Some of them have been here for months so it is awesome to learn the ropes from them. They take us into town and show us the best places to eat, tell us how much things should cost so we don’t get ripped off, etc. On Monday night they have Monday Madness at the Cinema which is a movie, soda, popcorn, candy and a hot dog all for 380 schillings, which is like 2 bucks. So we went and saw the movie Hancock. It was a lot of fun! I am glad that we have some great volunteers here to hang out with so that I don’t start speaking in slow choppy English to everyone because that is what I am used to. I wish the little ones could understand us better! We are trying to learn Swahili and we know some basic words, but its hard!

I started not feeling well at the start of the week and it progressively got worse. On Wednesday morning I woke up with an awful stomach ache and threw up all that I had in me. The rest of the day was spent either in bed or in the bathroom…so gross. I got a fever and when things worsened I called the missionaries for a blessing. They are really great, one is from Las Vegas and the other is from Canada. It was so frustrating to be in so much pain and to hear the children outside and not be able to be with them! I felt comforted after my blessing and knew that my illness wouldn’t last much longer. When I told Grace that my stomach might be able to handle a little bread and maybe some fruit she went out and came back with tons of fruit and some wheat bread. She then whips out this blender from who knows where and made me tons of this fruit drink that lasted me the whole next day. She sat on my bed and said she was staying until I finished my smoothie...I didn’t succeed and made her drink the rest. I took some medicine and a sleeping pill and went to bed early. Jaimie said that the queens were asking about me and praying for me, which was so sweet. I am still a bit nauseous and am not eating much, but I am not in any pain any more which is great!! I don’t think my body is agreeing with the food here unfortunately. Not sure if I will start eating what they cook again or not. I may just stick to some bland basic things to be safe. The food is alright, it’s usually just rice with beans or peas in some sort of stew and cabbage. It is just basically the same stuff every day for lunch and dinner so you get sick of it fast. They eat a ton of Ugali (corn mais) which is quite bland but will defiantly fill you up fast. We bought ice cream for the kids the other day and they absolutely love it! They took over 30 minutes to finish their two small scoops because they were trying to savor it and make it last as long as possible. Some of these kids have never had ice cream before! They were so appreciative and even prayed over it thanking God for their ice cream. I want to take some of these little ones home with me!!! They are so awesome, not to mention adorable!

We would like to thank Andy and Wendy for donating money for the chickens! We are going to be able to build a chicken coupe and buy about a dozen laying chickens as well as a good supply of chicken feed. We will name it the Neemaland Rice Chicken Coupe (or if you think of a better name, which I am sure you can, just let me know) =) We hope everyone is doing well and if you haven’t checked out the blog yet, that is where you can find updates and pictures! (www.volunteerkenyaafrica.blogspot.com)

Love,

Jaimie and Carly

Update 7/12/08
Today we went to town to the Masai Market to buy some things and I HATE bargaining! They are nice but so overwhelming! I got a few things, one of them including a very large wooden Giraffe which I love! I spoke too soon when I said I was feeling better. Friday night we (about 10 volunteers from the same organization) went to an American cafe to have dinner and I finally got my appetite back and was so excited to eat! Well just minutes after Jaimie and I polished off a Sunday I felt so ill. I can't seem to eat anything without my stomach killing me, hopefully I will figure out what is wrong with me soon! Jordan flies out soon and I am so excited to see him and have him here with us!!! Tomorrow we will go to church again and hopefully to the animal orphanage where they let you hold baby tigers and take pictures of you petting a cheetah (after feeding time of course) =) Touch base later!
Love,
C&J