I would like to dedicate the first part of this entry to the chex mix that my wonderful aunt judy sent with mom. it was a smashing hit on thursday night. so fantastic, i'm not sure how i neglected to mention it during the last post. we decided to share it with everyone before we went to maria's on saturday. everyone was a bit skeptical at first b/c it looked a bit strange to them. mom made them close their eyes and smell it before she put some in their mouths. everyone loved it. we had to hide some back for peter and milham so everyone wouldn't eat it all. when milham came he finished his share and started eating some of peter's. then peter came and amie said, "now in a marriage 2 become one and we have to share everything" and then she started eating his. she tried convincing him she didn't have any. before this we got out the christmas cd mom brought and we were all dancing around the house to "grandma got run over by a reindeer." we think we remember grandma franzman saying it was such a nice song. there was not a crumb of chex mix left and lyonne begged to have the container (the gladware) b/c it's very nice compared to most plastic containers people have.
on a sad note, last night mom and i were going home and were waiting for the bus. it was 7:30 p.m. suddenly this little voice says,"hi amy." i turn around and one of my juvenile boys is standing here in downtown nairobi by himself. my first thought was maybe he escaped. but then i found out that his parents had put him on a bus the night before. he'd been in town since 8 a.m. completely lost. he looked so scared, hadn't eaten since the day before, and had no money. his english was making it difficult to communicate. i called victor and had him come over b/c it was too dark and not safe for my mom and i to take him to the matatu stop where he needed to go. we gave him some cookies we had while we waited and he gulped them down. mom said his whole body was just shaking with fright. i'm sure he was freezing and he looked pitiful with buttons falling off his clothes. victor and jane came and got him some food and gave the conductor of the matatu directions where to drop him. what kind of parents dump their kids on a bus headed for a huge city they know nothing about? i'm guessing he's about 14. none of those boys have been to nairobi. they're from rural areas. it took me a month to learn the city. he said people kept telling him where to go in really vague directions and he just kept wondering around. this is probably one of the things that's bothered me the most since being here. but it's totally a God thing that we found him when we did. it had been such a long day but everything worked out for a reason.
i found out yesterday that when my phone was stolen the place in naivasha where my mom and i were going to stay tried to call to confirm my reservation. but since i had no phone and didn't answer they cancelled my reservation. so ruth spent a long time yesterday and this morning calling around for a new place to stay. what a disaster. i've been dealing with the dumb visa too. not going to happen. i did find someone to help me that lyonne knows from immigration but i'd have to pay another $150 and i've already payed $200. so i just decided oh, well i'm not going to tanzania. i'm just getting really frustrated with not being able to trust people and being ripped off.
on a positive note we had the christmas party at bolm today. we made lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. the kids were picking the bread apart and only eating one side at a time. mom did her bubble stuff, we acted out the christmas story, and everyone got presents (lots of former Back girl beanie babies in there). i think they enjoyed it a lot.
yesterday we went to juvenile and did lots of teambuilding stuff and a lesson. and we had mom try ethopian food. she said this was the food everyone was making fun of in the pictures but she liked it a lot. our stomachs seemed to be fine, so praise God i think we're through whatever we had. until yesterday we've mostly just eaten chicken noodle soup and sprite. mom's getting a kick out of all the hand washing in the sink. but she's enjoying the hot showers at maria's. she even had to walk to the supermarket herself when i was sick to get me medicine. we're breaking her in fast. we're all going to a movie as a big group. this is a treat for everyone. most of them have only been to the cinema once in their lives.
baraka is super sick, similar symptoms as us. they think it might be malaria. i'm skeptical.
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