Mini Update

Sorry for the silence this past week and a half. I guess there is just not too much excitement going on around here to blog about.

My days have been filled with lots of cleaning and organizing of our new apartment. We are getting our first visitors come this week and next. I am trying to keep up with all the dust that flies in. The down side of the beautiful breezes that flow through the house is that they bring in lots and lots of dust. However, I will chose dust over a hot and stuffy house any day especially considering how hot Mombasa is getting now. I take two cold showers a day just to cool down my overheated body and rid my skin of all the sweat.

Kelvin is currently directing a week long youth camp for our church. I opted to stay home for a few days and get some work done. I will head out there on Wednesday morning for the last 3 days of the camp. I am looking forward to connecting with the youth as we have just joined this church and are still making friends.

I had my last ladies meeting for the year on Saturday. We started planning and brainstorming for next year. I want to change the structure of our meetings and try some new things. They also have some ideas that they would like to do next year like volunteer in the community and start a small income generating project so that they can earn a little bit of pocket money. I am really looking forward to spending another year with these lovely ladies.

Well, it's time for me to mop my floors and wash some clothes. See you next week!

We are in!

We are in our new apartment! And I couldn't be more in love with our house.

The moving process wasn't easy for me. I like to do things my way and be more in control but I let Kelvin and the boys take over and get all our stuff in our place. I didn't sleep the night before because I was just so anxious to move. So by 10am, I was pooped. We had all our stuff in our new place around 11 and I got to relax for a bit before I had to meet with my girls in the afternoon.

We still aren't completely settled. It's taking a bit of work to adjust to a new house and neighbourhood. It's much quieter here but we get very loud mosque calls at 5am that go alongside the rooster that starts crowing. Our bedroom is the hottest room in the house. It doesn't get the breezes that the rest of our house gets but we are used to sleeping in the heat. We also live in the back of an estate which has it's perks (like its away from the road so we don't get the noise from the traffic) but it also has its downfalls (like its away from the road which is where all the shops are). Kelvin went out to get bread this morning. 25 minutes later he came back explaining that he had to walk quite far just to find brown bread. I decided that I need to go to the supermarket and buy brown bread for a while and 'long life' milk (milk with preservatives). It may cost us a little more but it will make things a little bit easier for us.

Right now, I am watching a fuzzy Oprah since we are having troubles finding the perfect spot for our arial (which is ok since her topic today is about menopause-something that doesn't concern me yet) But as I am watching TV, I can feel the breezes and see the palm leaves right outside my window rustle around in the wind. So lovely...

It's disturbing me...

Kenyans love the word "disturbing".

"Teacher, he is disturbing me." "My kid has been disturbing me for a new phone." "These issues with my families have been disturbing me." "This pain in my stomach is really disturbing me." 


But for the last few days, something has been disturbing me.

We got news on Monday that one of our boys was really sick in bed. We knew this boy has been sick and I had started getting worried. He had been losing weight and missing practice. But when Kelvin heard he was in bed, he said enough is enough, and decided to take him to the hospital.

Kelvin went to the boys house only to be completely horrified upon entering. The house was disgusting. It was in terrible shape and incredibly dirty. He walked up to the door of the boy's room and refused to go in because his room was so filthy. Kelvin said there was nothing to cook with - no plates, cooker, food, cutlery, nothing. There was no water so all the clothes were dirty. And the mattress the boy and his brother slept on was paper thin. It really startled Kelvin.

This particular boy is one that we have sponsored. We also pay his rent because we realized that he couldn't afford to live if he was in school full time. So we offered to pay his rent and agreed with his sister that she will feed him. This boy has also caused us no end of problems. He has skipped school, been caught smoking, has lied to our faces, and been kicked off the team several times.

So Kelvin got him out of bed and took him to the doctor. The doctor said he has a severe case of scabies.  He has wounds all over his body. I mean all over his body. The poor boy.

The doctor gave him medicines and instructions to clean himself, his stuff and his place. The thing with scabies is that they are extremely contagious. His whole house is probably infested with them. It takes some thorough cleaning to make sure they go away. Trust me, I've had scabies.

As Kelvin was telling me the whole story, I was totally disturbed. Not because it was gross, but because we had no idea he lived like this. In our minds, we thought we had done something great for him only to realize he still had so much need. I can't blame the boy too much. Yes, he is older and should start taking responsibility for his cleanliness and living space. But the boy has no parents. And the ones he had weren't the greatest parents. He is one of 14 kids so naturally some of them get neglected. My mother was the one who taught me how to take care of my stuff, keep clean, and organize my life. Now if i didn't have her, I can't imagine the life I would be living. Same for this boy. No one has taught him. And no one is there to look out for him. He doesn't have a penny to his name. Thats why he couldn't get himself to the hospital. He can't even afford water (which is roughly 4cents for like 20 litres) to bath, wash his clothes, clean his house.

So it's been disturbing me the last few days.

Kelvin and I talked about taking a more holistic approach to sponsoring someone. A lot of the youth we sponsor end up having other issues that go alongside. Some of them can't afford to get to school, some can't eat or pay rent because they are not working, some have babies who need them and can't find someone to look after them while they go to school. So we are praying and brainstorming ideas about to take a more holistic approach to helping them.

One of our ideas involves housing. I thought of originally renting out a big room, filling it with nice stuff, and putting all the boys who need a little helping with their living situation in there. That way they are accountable to one another, they are accountable to us, and at least we know they are taken care of for a while. Kelvin even thought of one day opening a youth home for young people to live in. One of our boys once said to us, "I don't need a sponsorship or a loan for business. I can hustle for my food. The best thing you could help me with is to help with my living expenses." What if these young people (mostly boys) didn't have the pressure of their living expenses, and could work to put themselves through school or save up money to buy their own house or open their own business? All they need is a little help.

It's just an idea/vision right now but who knows, one day it might be a reality. At least for now we know that one of our boys is on his way to become scabies free.

Varnishing Queen

Ok, so it took me a week to get it finished. Things just kept popping up and days passed without me even realizing. However, today my little wooden stand is finally finished. 

I know this is a minor job but it is the first time I have ever done varnishing (or any sort of handy work like this). Kelvin kept giggling at me as all I could think about was getting home to varnish. I just love to learn new things. 

As I suspected, I didn't use half the varnish that I was told to buy. So I saved myself $1.50 and half a can of varnish. However, I am still scraping varnish off my skin and had to do a minor haircut after I dipped the tips of my hair into the can of varnish. Whoops! 

My house is getting closer to being mould free!

Oh how I miss the luxuries of home....

It's days like today when I miss Canada. Maybe not so much the country, but the luxuries that I am so accustomed too. Things like vacuum cleaners, microwaves, deep freezers, dish washers, and washing machines and tumble dryers. I miss clean water, swiffers, good electrical plugs, toilets that flush properly and don't leak, hot water, cleaning agents, and windows that close properly.  I miss quality things. Things that are quality made, that don't break or rip or tear easily. Things that don't need to be replaced every few months.

Today I woke up to ants eating every tiny crumb I didn't clean up last night. I found cockroaches on the floor and spiders on the wall. My water filter is broken and I am not sure if it is actually doing it's job. My freezer only freezes half of my things and the other have is thawed plus the door of it doesn't even open because it has collected so much ice. My bathroom stunk for no reason at all. I cleaned it last night but it had some sewer smell plus the toilet handle keep leaking water. My new couches are slowly being torn up because they are cheap and not made very well plus there are termites eating the wood inside the couch and leaving little wood chips all over the floor. I spent the afternoon wiping all the windows that collect a thick layer of dust every few days. My light in the kitchen doesn't work after the light in my bedroom blew up a few days ago. There is a large crack in the middle of my front door because it was so poorly made and it is now letting in all the mosquitoes. I found all the mosquitoes hiding in  my clothes. I don't understand where they come from as we have netting on all the windows in our house. It must be the crack in the door that is letting them in. My roommate's bed broke the other night; the wood literally snapped in half. And this was only today!!

Oy, I am craving some luxuries of home right about now.

I am off to cook my half frozen meat in the dark....