Relaxing with the Dutch

The past two days have been really good.  I feel like God has really given me peace, strength, and encouragement that have been much needed.  A quick recap on what's been happening: Friday we met with the street boys and while we were waiting to start we taught them the macarena, which was quite funny.  Then we had a very serious discussion about AIDS and sex education.  After hearing the street boys talk on Monday, Alex was very alarmed, and we felt it was super important to talk about these things.  The guys did most of the talking, but then we split up the group into the smaller and bigger kids.  Some of the street boys are actually adults or late teens, so we took the smaller ones.  There was one boy in the group who is only 8 years old, and he is on so many drugs that he can barely stay awake during our sessions together.  Our talk with the smaller boys was pretty good.  They took things more seriously than the older ones, and we got them to really open up.  It's amazing that despite the very high infection rate of HIV in this country that these boys don't know much about how the disease is contracted.  Plus there are all sorts of crazy myths going around about ways to get rid of the disease.  Don't think I've mentioned this but Ashley really is a rock star of a teacher.  She's really great at asking questions and explaining things.  I already knew this, but I don't often get to see her teaching, so it's been good to have that experience.  She is leaving on Tuesday and I"m really going to miss her, and Rachel said the same thing.  We realized that this is the most time we've spent together since I was in high school.  i'm glad to have had this experience together this summer.

After the street boys we took Francis to get new clothes.  The plan was that Alex would take him to stay somewhere in Kibera for a few days and talk with him and mentally prepare him to go home.  we walked forever far away to the market (where we constantly get harrassed, "sister, tops, tops, these are nice, etc) to get him clothes and we were carrying heavy bags.  but we finally finished and once Francis changed he looked nice and no longer like a street boy.  Julius took him to Kibera and the rest of us went with Peter to the hospital.  The doctor there referred him to a plastic surgeon at Aga Khan hospital, which is apparently one of the best hospitals in the country and the best plastic surgeon in the country.  we go there on tuesday.  i feel like we're on a bit of a wild goose chase, and I hope that we can just get on with the surgery.  every doctors appointment involves at least 2-3 hours of waiting, and while I'm using that time to read a lot, it gets old. 

Back to Francis, unfortunately on Saturday when Alex's brother went to get him food he ran away, and now he is gone.  Partly this doesn't surprise me but rather breaks my heart, but partly I just can't fathom why someone would choose street life over going home.  I have 2 theories: either he is too afraid to go home or he recently has been using more drugs and he is addicted and he left to get drugs.  I can't really imagine any other scenarios.  Alex thinks we will find him again, although i'm not so sure. 

In good news, Saturday Rachel and I went to the big boys juvenile.  we did the flood skit (again, yes we do every skit about 4 times during the week) and sang songs before doing some arts and cooking.  julius and i took a group of kids and i taught them to make french toast.  the bakery classroom was locked and so we did this outside and i had them sit on this ledge of concrete (the headmaster came later and said, oh i had no idea you were coming.  alex had told them but the man is very flighty).  we only had one jiko (charcoal burner) and one frying pan, and we did this with about 60 kids, so you can imagine that this took several hours.  it was pretty smooth at first but crowd control became a big problem in the afternoon.  i expected this because it's always an issue.  doing things in an organized fashion is not Kenyan style, so you just make do.  there were a list of kids for the afternoon cooking session but many more tried to come too.  boys were shoving each other and yelling and kicking people out, and it was impossible to get their attention. i gave everyone one piece of bread and made them sit and wait.  it took so long that one boy, felix, correctly pointed out that the sun was making his bread stale.  i said don't worry, the milk will soften it up again.  meanwhile rachel was making picture frames with foam, and several boys used it as an opportunity to make love note pictures for her.  one note said "black guy featuring white girl."  i don't think they realize, even after telling them, that we're a lot older.  all in all, despite the chaos, i think the boys liked it and it was a good day.

we got home and ash had prepared snickerdoodle batter.  we went to our dutch friend's house in a nearby nicer neighborhood, and got to use their oven.  however, there are no temperature settings on it and i added too much flour i think and the altitude affects the baking, so they tasted a little different.  anyway the dutch people made us pancakes and we got to meet their adopted children (one from south africa and one from kenya).  they've been in kenya 8 months and are still waiting for their son's visa so that they can go home.  they help us with the street ministry, and it was a joy to hang around western people in a clean house where the roads outside are not dirt.  the roads outside our house are dirt and so dirt gets tracked all over our house.  it's just nice to be able to relate to people and clearly communicate with them.  and i think it's awesome that Erec, their 5-year-old, is getting exposure to so many different nationalities of people at such a young age. 

we came home last night and our key didn't work for the gate.  guess what?  the land lady changed the lock again!  but she came to the gate and gave us a new key (at 9:30 p.m.) um hello...isn't that something you should tell people about earlier in the day?  but we laughed it off.  I offered her one of our cookies and said, "oh we thought maybe we had the wrong gate."  she laughed and said, no, no.  i think she likes us now.  our toilet is leaking like 1 liter of water an hour by the way and it's created mold all over the back of the toilet.  we paid someone to fix it, and he fixed it by putting the handle on upside down so that you flush it up.  unfortunately this only worked for about 8 hours.  by night time it was leaking again.  i have been informed that this building where we're staying is brand new.  i don't think that's possible.  it is so poorly put together.  the counter top is unlevel and things roll off of it.  everything keeps breaking.  the sink leaks and we keep a pan underneath.  my underwear were covered in mold on friday from all the moisture in the room.  at least it keeps us laughing.  the other funny thing is this man, gitau, who works in the building.  he's always wearing this hat so we refer to him as the man with the hat.  whenever he sees us he asks how we are and then when we ask back he says he is very hungry.  we shared some food a few times, but even alex has gotten annoyed at the way he seems to take advantage (only he makes it into a funny story that he tells the kids about how the man acts when he sees the mzungu).  one day ashley said, "yes, we're really hungry too.  we haven't eaten yet." 

this morning we went back to juvenile for a devotion.  amazingly the kids were all sitting listening and ready to go, and alex had no problem getting them wound up with his funny stories.  we talked about the fruits of the spirit in galatians and talked a lot about patience and self-control, which is a huge struggle for them, and definitely me too.  it is awesome to see how much the kids look up to alex.  i think God is really using alex to influence them in positive ways and i'm glad for them to have him as a role model.

then we had tea and went to church 3 hours late again, and then were at church for about 3 hours.  we hung out dancing around the church afterward while everyone packed up.  our friend Tall (don't know if i've mentioned him.  he's someone new that i've met this time) took Rachel and I to the masai market today.  he is excellent at bargaining.  ash is at home getting her hair braided i think.  she went with popo to church in kibera today.

hope you're having a great weekend.  thanks for your prayers.  please continue to pray for peter and his situation and figuring out schooling for him.  the next school session begins in september.  also pray for francis that we might find him again and have wisdom about what to say to him.