corruption mixed with joy

So I was thinking if I ever need a back up job, I'll just be like one of the policemen here: stand by the side of the road and collect 50 shilling from every matatu that passes as bribe money. At that rate after an hour or so I could take the rest of the day off. Okay, maybe this isn't funny to joke about. but it's starting to irritate me a bit that this always happens every time i go to the juvenile. how can people do this and get away with it? i saw on the news the other day that kenya is the 16th most corrupt country in africa and the 33rd most corrupt out of 180 countries in the world. so it could be worse, but they're still staying pretty high in the race.

here's another corruption story for you--pirates are real. yes, true. this kenyan cargo boat just got hijacked by somali pirates a few days ago. and they're demanding a ransom of several million shillings. and this has happened many times before.

in good news, the last 2 days have been pretty fabulous. today has been the best day so far with the juvenile boys i think. they were such good listeners and i had a great time sitting and chatting with them before lunch and during art making. it broke my heart b/c one of the boys, denis, made this paper cube thing (very cool but hard to explain) for his mom. she was supposed to come visit him this weekend. victor let him use his phone to check and see when she was coming, but then it sounded like she wasn't.
i seriously just want to take this kid home with me. it's so unfair/unhealthy that they have no contact with the outside world. but i think maybe my mom talked with some of you about being penpals with these kids. please volunteer for this. it will be such a cool opportunity for them to have another perspective on life. and i think you will be blessed by them too.

another fun thing is that shinya, the japanese volunteer from juvenile, gave me a japanese fan as a gift today. people are so thoughtful here. also, one of the boys was talking to another volunteer and saying that he really enjoyed my English class and that it was giving him a different perspective/learning style. so that was a nice pick me up. please pray for javan, one of the boys there. his ankle is soooo swollen. and he hasn't been in class for over a week. i was able to talk to him outside his dorm. and the ankle is huge. they haven't taken him to the doctor yet. i wanted to ask today if i could just take him, but i wasn't sure if that was appropriate. maybe i should have?

yesterday, emma brought the clothes that she made for me to church. i tried them on right there and she was so happy that i liked them so well. i look very african now. i made her cookies, no bake (it's the only thing i can think of that doesn't require an oven). but they turned out really bad....too much milk maybe. and they were all sticky and melting together. but she seemed so happy about it anyway. and she kept saying "oh you're the nicest muzungu i've ever met" out of like 3 probably :) but in any case she was so full of joy that i felt blessed too.

saturday we made more of those paper bag trees (thank you claudia) and talked about the fruits of the spirit with the blue house kids. did i mention that now that all the good singer msts are gone, it's up to me to lead songs. and it can be quite atrocious at times. we gave them all oranges to go along with the lesson. poor victor carried 60 oranges all the way across town for me. i feel just like i did at home always carrying a huge bag and a cart. i'm also hauling around massive amounts of stuff.

and one lovely last story...i used the bathrooms in kibera for the first time. wow! how do you describe it? the grossest experience ever. there's just everyone's business all over everywhere, mix that with flies, and a putrid stench. good times.