Progress?

I'm never sure if things that i think are really positive news are actually going to pan out, but perhaps some positive things have happened in the last few days.  let us thank God for these blessings: First, the street women are continuing to show up on time and listen much better.  We made necklaces with them this week and discussed trust and they seemed to enjoy.  one woman named naomi made me a necklace and bracelet.  people make things for rach and i all the time.  i joke with her that we should see who can wear the most bling at once. 

another exciting thing is that shaniza, the young girl we found on the streets and took home, finally called alex.  she is staying with her brother and found somewhere to go to school.  so i'm hoping that this will pan out and work.  also yesterday i talked with a street boy who i hadn't seen much.  he's only been on the streets for 2 weeks and hasn't done any drugs.  he was living w/ his grandmother and ran away b/c there was no food and no one could pay for his school fees.  alex again took him to live with his brother and told him if he's still there on monday that he'll take him home.  the boy kept saying, "you're going to pay for me to go to school?"  and i said, yes as long as you hold up your end of the deal: no drugs, no running away.  he was super excited, but we'll see.  we didn't risk buying him any new clothes this time like we did w/ francis.  perhaps if he's still there monday we can get him some then.

peter is having surgery today, which is a good thing b/c we've been waiting forever.  they took the vacuum off his leg and part of the skin has healed back together.  but they are doing a skin graft for the other part.  the wound is very clean now but you can practically see down to the bone.  the hosptial has been overwhelmingly frustrating.  i still can't get answers and am being charged ridiculous amounts of money every day.  they don't communicate at all.  they called tall this morning to tell him someone had to come to the hospital immediately to sign release papers before surgery.  why they didn't tell me this yesterday or thursday when i begged for information, i don't know.  i was sooooo furious and mad this morning.  it was all i could do to keep from either crying or screaming.  how would jesus react in this situation i wonder?  Rachel was there for hours earlier in the week with Tall trying desperately to get information (they made her cry).  and i was there on thursday with edwin for almost 4 hours.  i think they finally understood my frustration b/c evenutally there were 3 orthopedic susurgeons by Peter's bed trying to talk with me.  there was much discussion and conflicting views about whether or not his bone had an active infection.  b/c if it did they need to work on fixing it or the wound won't properly heal.  everyone has a different view, and no one is sure it is even fixable if there is an infection.  and by the way, he has compensated for the pain of his leg by walking on the ball of his foot, which has permanently misshaped his foot, and i'm not sure it will ever be right.  i do hope after all this that he is at least somewhat better and able to walk.  this problem is so much bigger than me and completely out of my control.  so just pray that God would work through this and i would trust Him.

Another awesome thing is that Popo graduated from college on Thursday.  he said it was the best day of his life and kept saying thank you so much for sending him to school.  he was saying how much of a role model he had become for people in kibera and that his mom was so proud.  i went with him to the ceremony, which was so ridiculous that you have to laugh.  we left at 6 a.m.  after several buses and matatus we arrived at 8 something.  popo went inside and we proceeded to stand in a very long line for nearly 2 hours.  just as we were starting to get nearer to the entrance a part of the line we had already stood in that was looping around completely turned around and went the other direction so that there were now 2 lines.  so we basically wasted an hour and a half in that part of the line.  then when we got to the entrance they took our tickets, and we went in, and there were no seats.  anywhere.  people were sitting far from the tent on the grass and you couldn't hear or see anything.  and it was hot and eric was with us and went to find a shady place for popo's mom to sit.  that place happened to be the sidewalk far away where you couldn't see the tent at all.  i sat on the sidewalk reading for 30 minutes before popo walked out.  all the graduates were walking around and no one of them sat in their seats to listen for long.  apparently being present at the graduation or listening is optional.  i left after not long to go to the hosptial, but at least i was there for moral support i guess.  popo even walked me 20 minutes out to the road to put me on a matatu before going back into the graduation.  and there were vendors selling all kinds of funny graduation signs and tinsel and flowers.  it felt like a fair in some sense.  TIA.