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Piles of rubbish everywhere

So no hot water seems to be a regular occurrence… I have not had a warm shower since the weekend, and the cold showers are starting to lose their shine!! 🙂 I have also managed to lose my voice, but besides that, I love being here and seeing these kids every day, and the big smiles and waves. They are just amazing.

Yesterday I decided to tackle a HUGE job. There was a store room at the Childrens’ Home that I just can’t describe. Trying to open the door was a challenge. There were 2000+ books on the floor in different boxes that just hadn’t been distributed to the different children’s homes. I took it upon myself to make sure it was done, and by the end of yesterday 700 books went to Siswe, the Massai Mara girls home, 700 to Mashimoni, the school where we teach every morning, and 700 distributed between the 9 houses at the children’s home.

It was so amazing, as there are two boys at the home that have got difficulty with hand-eye co-ordination, and I had them help me clean the room and distribute the books. They were so helpful, and just wonderful. I love seeing how they develop and grow. These kids are just so great, with such brilliant personalities and so bright.

the rubbish dump
the rubbish dump

This morning things felt different as we were driving into the slum. We crossed a river where we could see a dead dog lying in the water. There were kids on the bridge waving at us, and underneath there was just mountains of rubbish, and the stench that came from them was shocking. On our way out of the slum, we always pass another huge pile of rubbish next to the road. Surprisingly, there were vegetable patches all around this rubbish pile, and people were selling the vegetables. Can you imagine having to eat that? On the rubbish pile, there lives a man. Every day we see him there, and all that goes through my mind is what happened so that this is your life? This is where you live? It breaks my heart.

On Tuesday at Mashimoni school we made ID cards for fun, where the kids put their thumb prints on and then had to write a little bit about themselves. We asked them to write their name, age, birthday, class and do their signature. I made an example that I left at the front of the class. All the 5 and 6 year old kids suddenly were called Natalie Coles, had birthdays on the 10th of November, and were 27!! I told them to write their own birthdays, and most of them had no idea what I was talking about. The teacher told me that most of them don’t know when their birthdays are, or how old they actually are. How sad! I think about the kids that I know and how birthdays are such a big deal! Even myself! I love birthdays, so I ended up drawing love hearts next to age and birthday on all their ID cards.

One of the boys, Abel, is about 12 and can’t see properly. He looks like he is always squinting at you, and at first I thought it was because he was trying to be funny. I found out this week when I gave him a word search and he pressed it up to his eyes, that he has got a sight problem. He is so bright, but he can’t see the teachers, and glasses will cost him about 60 pounds!! I wish I could help him. He is so amazing, and it’s frustrating to think that if no one takes that step to do something, his sight will just get worse and worse. I don’t know what to do!

Only two more days of camp to go. Can’t believe it is almost over. The kids have completely crawled in my heart.

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