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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

The Situation!!!

Things are going well here and the longer I am here the more I realize that this experience is not going to last just this month, but it will turn into a life long mission for me. Today we had a meeting with the family that runs the orphanage. We sat and talked for about an hour and we discovered so much more need than we were even aware of. A couple months ago a volunteer came from the states and was placed at the orphanage. Within the week she was there she moved them to a larger home and has been paying their rent. She promised them that she would raise money so that they could own the house. Just this past week this volunteer said she was unable to help them anymore, so now they are stuck. When they moved into the larger home they doubled their amount of kids just within a month. They are at 50 now and are having trouble accommodating all of them. Many of them sleep four to a bed. What is sad is that there are an endless amount of orphans here and if they had room and food they could double their number again just within the month. The most important thing now is helping them own the home so that they can build more classrooms and start a school so that they can earn some income from class fees. The schools here are overcrowded so they would have no problem gathering students to attend their school. These kids that would come to the school have parents and can afford school fees. then they could generate income to hire teachers and staff, plus the orphans will benefit from the better teachers and interacting with other kids because they are at the orphanage all day everyday and never get to go anywhere. Some kids try to run away because they aren't used to being "trapped" in one place all the time. We hope to take them on a couple filed trips soon. Anyway, the orphanage is in danger of shutting down, they may soon be evicted because they cant afford rent. The family works, but they can't make enough money to make rent. I hope to raise enough money to help them with rent for a few months and then work on getting them a loan to buy the home and land, it is only about $1200 a month rent and the home is selling for $112,000. The home owners are listing the house soon and the family is praying constantly for a miracle. I came here not only for the experience but I know I was put here for a reason, I felt it before I left and its been confirmed to me day after day here. I need to help save these kings and queens so that they have the chance for a brighter future. I was organizing all their files today and I read their brief histories. It was painful to read, to see the death certificates of some of their parents, to read about how many of their parents have died from HIV, some as recent as last month. Some of the children have been abused, locked in a room with no food for days and then beaten. Little king Bensen came to the orphanage just a couple weeks ago and I believe he has some mental problems from the kind of torture he endured from his previous guardian....he is such a sweet sweet boy and I have a very difficult time understanding why someone would hurt such a small child. Young death here is so common and it brakes my heart that these children watch their parents die or have their parent leave them or abandon them on the street because they can't care for them any longer. I can see the pain in their eyes at times, but for the most part they are happy children who work hard, all having their roles and responsibilities in the home. they study and play and thanks God a number of times a day for all they have and I have not seen a tear or complaint from them yet. I love their strength and courage. I love their laughs and their never ending hugs. I love listening to them sing and watching them dance. I love hearing their prayers and songs of praise. I have only been here a week and already they are a part of me now and I sense they always will be. My heart is heavy knowing what I know about their pasts. Knowing that they don't have birthdays because they don't know them...some of them don't even know how many years old they are, the family has to guess. Some of these kids have no history because they were dropped off with no information. I don't mean to sadden any one, its just the reality and it gives me more reason to focus my energy on helping them. We are off to give them ice cream now, some have never had it, so gotta run before it melts! Love to you all!

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You can call us!! (for a price) =)

We do have a cell phone here that accepts calls from anywhere and it doesn't cost me any minutes (but it will cost you a bit obviously)! So if you would like to say a quick hello that would be awesome!
0734174927
don't know how to do it but Jordan has called before so he can tell you!
Thanks,
Carly

Jaimie's updates

Hey you guys!!!! how are you?!just a few details about what it's like here:it is COLD! it's their winter here so it's overcast until about 1everyday and then it starts to warm up, but i'm wearing pants and myfleece right now w/ my feet tucked in under me b/c they arecold...which many of you know is pretty normal even in warm weather :)locals have terrible kaoroke voices, painfully terriblethere are mutatus (public buses) everywhere and even the locals callthem crazy means of transport-they usually are blaring loud music,some have lights around them like in a party bus, and some EVEN haveindividual tv screens on the backs of their seats playing musicvideos...crazy! they are fun, uncomfortable, and cheap cheap cheapwe don't have running water, so when we need to flush the toilet (byneed i mean when there's something other than pee in there) we dump aload of water from the well into thetank and then flush, we take ourshowers in a bath tub w/ a orange "home depot" sized bucket, splashspalsh, rub on some soap, rinse, and you're done! shaving legs hasbecome unimportant and unecessary and i can't bring myself to make theeffort necessary to wash my hair yet-so the last couple days i've justput it up in a bun w/ a head scarf-it makes denying the need to washit much easier :) mmmmwe gave the kids jump ropes yesterday and they loved them so that wasreally fun, i tried jumping rope w/ a bunch of them w/ a big jump ropeand got winded after a few rounds aand felt my joints hurting and bodyfat jiggling w/ every jump, hahahaha! i'm getting ooooooold!the kids are really fun, only the older ones speak english, they workso hard, never complain, play hard, and one thing that stands out tome so much here is how well they take care of each other andespecially the younger ones. i absolutely love love love the othergirls/women that work at teh orphanage. so much fun, we laugh a lottogether, they make fun of me for always whistling, they are alwaysteaching me new words in swahili and i'm always forgetting them andasking htem five hundred more times, they are patient in tecahing menew things and they are strong strong women w/ a lot of love. thereis so much that i can leanr from them.we went to 14 falls yesterday, a beautiful waterfall park and weretaken across the falls by these boys that live there and take peopleacross for a living, they new the exact path to take and the exactplaces to step so that we wouldn't slip and fall, they were so carefulw/ us and their balance was astounding. some of them would jump off ofthe waterfalls, like 50 feeet...AAAAAAAA! scary. it was so much fun,really beautiful, i loved it.got to go, hope everyone is having a great week and is so happy!so much love and hugs to you guys!!
jaimieOn 7/2/08, Jaimie Shorten <jaymeekay@gmail.com> wrote:> hi! so we've been in kenya for a few days now and parts are still abit> overwhelming. i'm a really impatient person and can't wait to be over the> anxious feeling of beeing in a new place and just feel comfortable here and> know my way around. the other volunteers are really great, lots of fun, i> really love meeting new people that are from all over. there are a few> australians, a few americans, some from ireland, one from cananda and one> from italy, everyone really sweet. carly and i got our assignment at an> orphanage here that has about 40 plus kids at it. it's called the neema> land kings and queens orphanage so everyone is queens and kings and are> addressed as such. it's really sweet. yesterday we bought a lot of food> for the orphanage w/ some of the donation money. it couldn't have come at a> better time for them. they had run our of food and hadn't eaten all day so> their first meal was dinner around 8:00pm. when we pulled up w/ the truck> load of food, grace, the head of the orphanage put one hand on the truck,> fell to her knees, and w/ the other hand over her eyes immediately began> thanking God and Jesus. i looked over and my sister and she was crying> too. the donation money was much needed and well spent. it was an> unforgettable moment and i'm so happy to be here.>> we are living at the orphanage also. we were woken up aroun 6 this morning> by the kids singing their morning prayers and it was so beautiful i didn't> even mind being awake before the sun :) i was holding king david this> morning who is seven months old, he's the son of one of the workers there,> and i suddenlt felt this warmth on my stomach which spread to my hand which> was underhis bum. so i was peed on today....and am still wearing the same> shirt, once it dried i didn't really feel a need to change it.>> we're going to falls today, a waterfall place, maybe keoreoke night tonight,> the massai market saturday, and the animal orphanage sunday afternoon. i'm> so excited about the animal orphanage, we get to pet leopards and hold a> baby lion, i worry that i'll follow suit after baby david and pee my pants> w/ excitement.>> hope all are happy and dointg SO well! lots of love and many many hugs>> love,> jaimie

A Warm Welcome!

Things are going well so far. Yesterday we were able to buy a whole truck load of food. Our “mom” Grace was so overwhelmed when she saw the loads of food that she fell to her knees in prayer and that just got me crying. All the children gathered around the truck excited that they were going to get a meal. We handed out bananas and they all got in a line and curtsied and they thanked us for the fruit. I feel as though we got there just in time, for they didn’t know where
to turn to for food next and were just trying to live day to day.

It was an emotional first night; major sensory overload. And oh how we just stand out out here!! But we got the best welcome ever, they sang for us and danced for us and expressed their love and gratitude for us through song. And yes I was crying through that too. There are about 40 orphans 10 of those being boys. They are sweet kids but seem a bit apprehensive toward us which is hard because we want to interact with them. I think they will loosen up with time. We have our own room each with a bed, I am glad I brought a pad and a sleeping bag because those beds are like sleeping on just the frame itself. There is no running water in the house so we bathe out of a bucket in the tub. There is a well out back where we get water and we can heat some up
with a kettle. The weather is cold today (60’s), it is their winter so it seems to stay in the 70’s...which is a bummer cuz we were hoping for a bit warmer! There is plenty nearby and the volunteer office isn’t too far either which is nice.

There are other volunteers at many different project locations. They are all involved in either teaching, aids work, or orphanage work. We have 2 or 3 other volunteers at the Queens home, but Jaimie and I are the only volunteers living there. All the children are called queens and all the boys are called kings. We are known as Queen Jaimie and Queen Carly, its so cute. I have a lot of pictures but I keep forgetting my adapter. But I will try and send some pics and video tomorrow. As far as what we need, I think we are fine. They really just need more money to purchase things they need, and those items are cheaper over here. We are going to set up an office and food storage while we are here so we can organize the orphanage. We will help them keep inventory and we will organize and file all the children’s paperwork so that when the next set of volunteers come there will be a sort of system in place. We are going to spend some of our funds on getting an office together...a desk and chair, filing cabinet and maybe a computer if we can raise a couple hundred dollars to get that. This way they will be able to keep track of all the children, their medical records, school information, etc.

I read some of the girls’ files and I can’t believe the things they have been through. Some were found on the side of the road abandoned, many of their parents have died in
different ways and I can’t imagine the suffering they have had to endure in just a short amount of years. Yet they sing and dance and thank God daily for all they have. This will be quite the journey, and I am still trying to adjust, but I am sure that will take some
time. Today we will take a little trip to a place called 14 Falls, its supposed to be beautiful, full of different waterfalls and tonight we will go to Karaoke night with some of the other volunteers.
Normally we would be working all day, but we are getting together to say goodbye to a couple other volunteers so they wanted us to join them. I am glad we have others to show us the ropes! They come from all over...a few from Australia, Ireland, Canada, California, UK etc.

They are great people! Jaimie and I are having a great time together,
laughing and being crazy as always and I only almost peed my pants
once=) Its going to be a great growing experience for both of us and I am glad I get to share that with her. It will be great when we get into more of a routine and we can’t wait until Jordan comes and we can show him around. Anyway, I hope all is well with everyone! We miss you already!

First Few Days in Kenya

Things are going well so far. Yesterday we were able to buy a whole
truck load of food. Our "mom" Grace was so overwhelmed when she saw
the loads of food that she fell to her knees in prayer and that just
got me crying. All the children gathered around the truck excited
that they were going to get a meal. We handed out bananas and they
all got in a line and curtsied and they thanked us for the fruit. I
feel as though we got there just in time, for they didn't know where
to turn to for food next and were just trying to live day to day. It
was an emotional first night; major sensory overload. And oh how we
just stand out out here!! But we got the best welcome ever, they sang
for us and danced for us and expressed their love and gratitude for us
through song. And yes I was crying through that too. There are about
40 orphans 10 of those being boys. They are sweet kids but seem a bit
apprehensive toward us which is hard because we want to interact with
them. I think they will loosen up with time. We have our own room
each with a bed, I am glad I brought a pad and a sleeping bag because
those beds are like sleeping on just the frame itself. There is no
running water in the house so we bathe out of a bucket in the tub.
There is a well out back where we get water and we can heat some up
with a kettle. The weather is cold today (60's), it is their winter
so it seems to stay in the 70's...which is a bummer cuz we were hoping
for a bit warmer! There is plenty nearby and the volunteer office
isn't too far either which is nice. There are other volunteers at many
different project locations. They are all involved in either
teaching, aids work, or orphanage work. We have 2 or 3 other
volunteers at the Queens home, but Jaimie and I are the only
volunteers living there. All the children are called queens (Queen Dalphine, Queen Jenna etc) and all the boys are called kings. We are known as Queen Jaimie and Queen
Carly, its so cute. I have a lot of pictures but I keep forgetting my
adapter. But I will try and send some pics and video tomorrow. As far
as what we need, I think we are fine. They really just need more
money to purchase things they need, and those items are cheaper over
here. We are going to set up an office and food storage while we are
here so we can organize the orphanage. We will help them keep
inventory and we will organize and file all the children's paperwork
so that when the next set of volunteers come there will be a sort of
system in place. We are going to spend some of our funds on getting
an office together...a desk and chair, filing cabinet and maybe a
computer if we can raise a couple hundred dollars to get that. This
way they will be able to keep track of all the children, their medical
records, school information, etc. I read some of the girls' files and
I can't believe the things they have been through. Some were found on
the side of the road abandoned, many of their parents have died in
different ways and I can't imagine the suffering they have had to
endure in just a short amount of years. Yet they sing and dance and
thank God daily for all they have. This will be quite the journey,
and I am still trying to adjust, but I am sure that will take some
time. Today we will take a little trip to a place called 14 Falls,
its supposed to be beautiful, full of different waterfalls and tonight
we will go to Karaoke night with some of the other volunteers.
Normally we would be working all day, but we are getting together to
say goodbye to a couple other volunteers so they wanted us to join
them. I am glad we have others to show us the ropes! They come from
all over...a few from Australia, Ireland, Canada, California, D.C, New York, UK etc.
They are great people! Jaimie and I are having a good time together,
laughing and being crazy as always and I only almost peed my pants
once so far=) Its going to be a great growing experience for both of us and
I am glad I get to share that with her. It will be better when we get
into more of a routine and we can't wait until Jordan comes and we can
show him around. He'll be the whitest guy around that's for sure!!=)
Anyway, I hope all is well with everyone!

Hello from Africa!

We are here and everything is great! The flights went well and we got all our luggage and were picked up by someone from the organization. We stayed one night with a host family in a nice house in a slum area and then we got picked up this morning for orientation. Jaimie and I are placed in an orphanage with about 50 girls from age 3 to 15. We will be living there at the orphanage and it seems as though we came just in time. The kids have not eaten since yesterday and it is now tuesday evening. We are going to get about a month supply of food tonight with some of our funds that we raised so that the children won’t go hungry anymore, well at least while we are here they won’t, I hope to be able to raise more money to continue to feed these little ones. I am excited to meet the children and to be able to offer them some things that they have never gotten the chance to see or do. We will be teaching, cleaning cooking, playing, singing etc with the girls and | hear they are a lively bunch, always singing and dancing...starting at 5am=) We are told they are pretty religious too, praying about 5 times a day. The orphanage is called Neema Land Queen’s Home. There won’t be any showers and there will be just breakfast (bread and tea) and dinner (some sort of a mush) so thank goodness for our costco pack of protein bars! Anyway, we gotta run, but we are close to the office so we will be able to check in more often.

Wish us Luck!!!

Carly and Jaimie