Mombasa

Our team was headed to Mombasa for  a little rest and relaxation.  We took a short flight and a drive thru the city to our all inclusive resort.  Mombasa is a port city on the Indian Ocean.  It's busy and their is a large Muslim population.  You can see the some of the cultural influences in the architecture.  When we got there I spotted a friend. 

 

 

 

Camel rides on the beach in Africa.  How cool is that!  I put that on my agenda for tomorrow.  His name is Jamaal.

 

 

 

 

 

Ahhhhh.....

A Celebration

And so we had a Unity Celebration.  Each class sang and danced for us - with drum music of course.

 

We sang and danced and  clapped and cheered and even cried.

 

Here is William with the drum.  Since I was probably the only person he had ever seen with purple glasses, I took this as a compliment.

 

 

The fundis and the women all got World of Difference  t shirts which they put on immediately - with pride.

 

 

Frank gathered us specifically for this picture.  He wanted all of us to put our hand on the new classroom. 

 

With Frank, our favorite fundi.

Asante sana, Rafiki,  Thank you, my friend.

 

The Warmest Welcome

Before we went to say goodbye to our friends at Unity Center School, we made a stop at Little Giants.  This is a school that our driver George opened on his own.  Right now he only has very young children  They are lucky to be there - where they  can grow strong. 

 

 

The school is bright and even has a play yard.

 

Rosie and Chyrese  enjoy Little Giants.

 

And of course, the children adore George!

 

Now it was time to say goodbye.  When our van rounded the corner to Unity Center School, we were greeted with the warmest welcome ever!

 

 

Al the desks and all the children had moved outside and were waiting for us.  I have never heard such a warm heartfelt cheer.  It brought tears to our eyes.  We were rockstars !  It was something none of the World of Difference team will ever forget. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Job Well Done

The last full day of the project (Thursday)  was very successful.  Bonnie painted "I am kind", "I am strong", "I am loved" ( with a momma and baby elephant and "We believe in you" with the map of Africa.  The rooms look very bright and positive!

 

 

 

 

 

A friend of the team, Justus also has a  small school.  We went there to visit.   He has 2 teachers, and they "don't talk about salary"  ( which means they don't get paid)  The kids there had never seen a muzungu ( white person) and they were afraid.  We brought Justus several service bags filled with school supplies but he asked that we not unload them from the van.  If any people were to  see us, they would get stolen.  He asked if we could bring the supplies to his house instead.  Justus is a good man and helped us a lot with the project as well as study and work toward his own career.  His school is on the list of school projects in Kenya for the World of Difference team.  Our whole team would love to help Justus.  He is loved and respected by us all.

 

I gave away the donated clothes I bought - shirts and old soccer uniforms from my friend Dawn's school in Wisconsin.  I even gave away my shoes to one of the women that needed them and my well worn work gloves to one of the fundis,

Thank you Adams Friendship!

 

Here is a before picture of one of the classrooms.  We made World of Difference!

 

 

Sammy, the chief fundi in front of our replastered school. Tomorrow we would say goodbye. 

 

Painting

The painting was going very well.  We used bright happy colors and we even invented some colors of our own.  We were fortunate to have a very talented artist on our team, and Bonnie led the way with her creativity.

 

 

Here the children added to the painting with their handprints.

 

Josephat gave me a thank you letter for the drum.  It brought tears to my eyes.  At the end of the day, the children asked us to join in their dancing.  It was like a spontaneous dance party and it was fun!

The Drum

On Tuesday, I gave Josepat ( the music teacher) and the children the drum and a shaker for their music.  They were so happy!   I was very happy too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All afternoon as we painted we listened to the children singing and dancing.  I

 

was so happy that we could share music together.

 

The woman who did her sewing here enjoyed the music, too

 

With my friend, Josephat Kilungu. 

Back To Work

It was sad to leave the Maasai Mara, but we were refreshed and ready to get back to work.  We missed the fundis and the women and all our new friends and were anxious to check out the progress they had made while we were away.

 

Unity Center school was awesome.   Our classroom now had a window and a skylight and so did the kitchen.  We were ready to begin painting. 

 

We also took a little time to visit some other schools. 

 

Yes, these are schools, and we brought them some much needed school supplies.  A soccer ball was included in every service bag. 

 

George was teaching them to play basketball.

 

This is not a school. It is the Lucky Star Hotel that we passed every day.  Amenities not included. 

 

 

Maasi Village

Before we left the Mara on Sunday, I had some more questions for Richard.  "Which is your favorite park?" " The Mara because there is a wide variety of animals." 
"Do you think this ecosystem is healthy"   "Yes. There is  basically no poaching on the Mara.  There is more poaching in some of the other parks.  The Chinese seem to be feeding the poaching activity." 
"Is this ecosystem in balance?"    " I think there is balance.  There is enough food for all the animals  and they are healthy."
"How  come we didn't see any rhinos?"  "If you do not see all the animals then you will have to come back." 
I hated to leave this  incredible beautiful place.  Thanks, God for Nature.  Amen


                 We had  one more important  stop to make. The Maasai Village. 

 

These young Maasi warriors danced for us.  Very cool.  They also showed off their  jumping skills.

 

The Maasai men take  care of cows. They believe the more cows your village has, the richer you are.  The men must  marry women from another village to get more cows. 

 

 

The women build the huts and do the  work.  The village is built in a circle and the cows are herded into the center of the circle at night for protection against  wild animals.  The huts are made of cow dung. 

This is a very interesting and colorful African tribe. 

 

Twigas

We had one more game drive at sunset and we had yet to see any twigas.  Twiga is the Swahili word for giraffe and for some reason it stuck.  Even a long painting pole became the "twiga stick".  We were on a mission.

I found it difficult to photograph a wildebeest - they run away.  Maybe not accustomed to visitors with cameras.  Richard says wildebeest are made up of parts left over from other animals.  That about sums it up. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard's safari sense did find two male lions but they were not to be disturbed while sleeping. Finally, we saw them.  We counted eighteen total.. The sun was setting. It was quiet and serene

and we just watched.

 

 

This little guy had to bend a long way down to get some water. 

 

 

 

And having finished their grazing, the twigas  walked quietly into the sunset.

Maisha ni mzuri.  Life is good.