Bowling for Joy

Today Victor and I took some of the kids that he sponsors to go to school on an outing today. He has a ministry called Rafiki Foundation that is still in preliminary stages but basically what it does is helps pay for kids school fees. most of primary (grades 1-8) is free, but there are still small fees. and then in high school you have to pay, so many kids never go to high school. victor has almost 10 kids mostly from kibera that he helps supports. he wanted to do an end of the year party for them, so i suggested we take them bowling. we all had a lot of fun. only one of the guys, sam, had ever bowled. the rest were totally green, so we had to explain how to hold the ball and the object of the game. i bowled one of my best games ever, 143...where did that come from? they play lots of venga boys music (makes me think of you kelsey) and we were all dancing around. one of the girls told me i could really dance...i think they just assume mzungus can't or something :) sam was showing me how to do this kangaroo move and i think everyone in the whole place was staring at me, but whatev. this bowling alley is at village market, probably the most posh place i've been in nairobi. so seeing as all these people lived in kibera, i think it was quite a change of scenery for them. we finished by giving out christmas cards, candy, and ice cream. i laughed a lot today...the joy of the lord is my strength (nehemiah 8:10)

amie came home last night with another live chicken, or at least i thought it was just another chicken. nothing unsual since we had one here for the first 2 months i was around. but i quickly discovered when i heard crowing this morning that it's actually a rooster. let's just say i woke up before 6 a.m. b/c it's right below my window. i told victor and milham that i propose we kill it soon. victor said, "oh no, it'll be around until christmas dinner." oh brother

so praise God...i should have mentioned earlier that i am getting well! i finally figured out about 2 weeks ago after i was still feeling bad that the new anti-malarial medicine i was taking was making me really sick. the doctor gave this handout on some of the side effects...here's what it says...patients "had tingling dizziness, loss of balance, vertigo, motion sickness" "mental disturbances including anxiety, insomnia, nightmares, and unreasonable fears." "one...sustained fractures when he jumped off a cliff to escape an imagined attack." yeah, it's a crazy medicine and basically had me feeling like crap for 2 months. i've been instructed not to take any more malaria medicine. i've spent so much time being sick here, it's crazy...every week it's something. me and Cipro have become good friends. i've heard people talk about spiritual attacks, but i never really could relate to this or understand it until now. but i think this has definitely been a spirtual attack. during matt's time here he was talking about how satan uses your weakness against you...and how his weakness was lack of sleep. i think sickness is one of my biggest weaknesses b/c it makes me grumpy and ineffective at serving. but despite all of that, i'm feeling a lot better. i appreciate all your prayers for my health.

all of those protests yesterday over the media bill and MPs taxes thing seems to have helped. there's a lot of international attention being given to the proposed media bill which is awaiting the president's signature. everyone is opposed to it, so it might not pass. they were showing clips on t.v. of a few years ago when the government burned newspapers and invaded media houses destroying things b/c the stations were reporting government corruption.

i forgot to explain tabasamu. this is a swahili word for smile. it's a big christmas party we're holding on wednesday where we give out shoes and a meal to about 500 kids in kibera. the office was filled with shoes today. our organization is starting to become more well known now after peter got airtime on the christian radio station this week for an interview to talk about tabasamu and get locals to support us.