December Update!

Wowza has this month been busy! As i mentioned in my last post the 'Circumcision Process' was about to start. I have moved into Neema House with 11 teenage boys and it has been Christmas and is now New Years Eve! Moving into Neema house has been great, all though i am not officially running the home until i Permanent work visa comes through!

The Circumcision Process lasted three weeks, with the Circumcision happening on the first night and then the boys (now men) were in seclusion for one month, meaning no women or boys allowed. It was so hectic, we had six of our boys and then ten boys from the community who also came. I was with them 24 hours a day 7 days a week! For 3 weeks! Tired much, i think so! Here is a picture of the Mothers welcoming us back into the village after the seclusion led my Mama Amani!

It was an interesting process but i'm glad it is two years until it is done again!!!

This year we had our staff party at our village. Me and a few others organised it and on the day Me and Dan hosted the party! People had a great time and said it was great! It made us laugh as we had been running round like headless chickens at the last minute!

It was interesting having Christmas in Kenya! Did not feel like Christmas whatsoever but at the same time it was great! It was sad to be away from family but it was also exciting to be with my new family! Christmas no matter where you are, is always better with kids around! The boys just would not go to sleep and then woke up around 4!!! Yes 4!!!!! I publicly apologise to by parents for always making them get up so early on Christmas! Here is us on Christmas Day! They were all happy, honestly, even though some of their faces say, "Stop taking my picture and let me go open presents!'

Also here is a picture of Tumaini Jipya Home, it is our newest Co-Ed home and it has grown so quickly in the past year!

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year, God Bless You!

November Update!

As i said in my last update i had some family and friends over, the rest of the team left earlier and then i had some holiday time with Mum. We chose to go to Naivasha which is one of the Great lakes of Kenya. It was a beautiful resort, with monkeys, horses, waterbuck and giraffe all around!!!! Only problem was.....it rained....for almost the whole time we were there!!!! But at least there was a gym! SO i managed to gain some of my lost weight!!! Which i have now lost again! But more of that in a bit!!!!

The day after i got back the children had a sports day! Here are some the pics,

Joseph and Caleb on their photo finish! Seconds after this Joseph ran straight into me and we both ended up on the floor!

 Caleb and Danson, they are best friends and it really showed during their team work in the three legged race! 

A great action shot of the Basketball game!

As i mentioned before, i managed to gain some weight in Naivasha but then promptly lost it! This is because the day after the fun day i got extremely sick! We are still not completely sure what i was ill with, but i was down for about 2 weeks! It was a real struggle for me and i missed my boys like crazy! I am now well again however i am still weak and get tired easy however i will be back to full restoration very soon!

Now that i have been feeling better i have been working with the boys to make Home 6, Neema house completely ready!  Neema is the house that the big boys will be moving into very soon!

These are all of the boys who are moving! On the top row, (Left to right), Danson, Ezekiel, Isaac, Kelvin (K.K), Joseph and on the bottom row, Martin, Abram, Collins, Ken, Caleb and Me!

Half the boys will be going through their traditional right of passage this coming month, the older half have all ready been through it! This involves circumcision and then a month of seclusion, where they are not aloud to see a single woman (not even their Mother), they also have teachings daily on how to act as a man. As Open Arms we will be doing this with a christian basis instead of the traditional rituals. All though in the west circumcision at the age of thirteen to sixteen seems a bit cruel, it is Kenyan culture and i respect that, and all of the boys do it by their own choice. They really do want to do it!

And now for some more introductions....

This is Kelvin...

He has two nick names, K.K and Toby. K.K because his full name is Kelvin Kipkemei and Toby because apparently it is some footballer? He is a great kid who loves and i mean LOVES Football! He is great in class and is usually in Position one or two out of his whole year. He has one biological brother called Ian. K.K also loves cars, he likes to wash, and the even more so to drive them, he can all ready drive an automatic car by himself!

And meet Danson...

Danson is also a great guy! The amount that he has grown and matured in the last two years is quite phenomenal! He used to be an extremely shy and subdued boy but now he is so outgoing and responsible! He is still very very quiet if you don't know him, but for people that he knows, like me, eish you cant keep him quiet! He has no biological siblings at the village but he is so close to all of his new brothers, its great to see!!!


That is all for this month! Please keep praying for this month as i continue to heal and reagin strength, for my work visa to come through and as my work schedule is potentially growing in a big way!!

Thanks guys!!!


Ell

October Update!

This month has just flown, as i sit here i cant even think what has been going on!!!

Unfortunately one of the Kittens i was raising passed away from some kind of sickness bug. So it has now gone to Kitty Heaven, aka a shoe box about 1 ft deep! All jokes aside it was a bit traumatic. I had gone to pick up the kitten, as i was told it would be well, i went into the 'Cat Ward' with a vet tech as the  Vet was not around, we searched through all the cages, and thats when the Vet broke the news, mid kitty search, very traumatised!! lol

This month i have had visitors......and a very drastic hair cut!!!

On the 19th Mzungu's descended on the OAI village, Mum, Mike, Jen, Andy, Sue and Sally have come over for a few weeks.

Mum and Mike have been doing Prayer ministry for the kids, staff and the village.

Andy, Sue and Sally have been working in the School.

And Jen has been our resident (amazing) chef! Also Jen has been getting to know the village and the OAI projects as this was her first time!

It has been so great to have them here! The group goes home on Thursday but Mum and I are going to Naivasha for a weeks holiday before she goes home!

Most of my work is done with the 'Big Boys' (12 and up). We meet once per week for a devotion, and spend most of our time together in preparation for their move to Home 6. For this reason i wanted to, bit by bit, introduce you to them all....

Here is Isaac..

He is a great boy, he is 15 years old. He has two biological sisters, who are younger than him and live with us here at the village. He is in class 7 at school. He has not had the best start in life, including a period of time living on the street! He lives with Caleb, Danson, Ken and Victor. He is the third oldest boy in his home. He is excellent at the card game 'Spoons' and is an absolute Maths Wiz!!!

And this is Collins....

Collins is such a cool kid, he is 13 and is a big joker, he is surprisingly shy at times though! He is in class 6 and has one biological brother at OAI. He loves to play around and his favourite subject is also maths. He lives with Kelvin and Martin, and he is the the third oldest in his home!

Until next month!

September Update!

It seems like just yesterday i was writing my last monthly update! I do not know where this month has gone!!!

One of my projects this month has been getting our cats organised. Each children's home has two cats. The house parent that was managing them left about 6 months ago and left them in a bit of a mess in regards to vaccinations and records etc. This month i have been trying to get them sorted so we have proof of vaccinations! The kittens for home 6 are really growing now! I have named them Tank and Tyson! The Vet commented on the names and said "Wow, those are very strong names for Cats" i just gave him a look that obviously said "Well yeah, i wanted Dogs!"

This month we also had a boys day at my friends Dave and Linda's house! They had such fun and it was great bonding experience!! (Read more about that day on my previous blog, 'Work Hard Play Hard!"

And this is what we had been doing all morning...Landscaping Home 6!!!

I also preached on one Sunday this week, everyone seemed to like it! And i have been told by the boys and the parents i'll be doing it again soon!!!! I was teaching on Joseph, my points were, Be wise with your gifting, Sometimes we all get dragged through the desert and God will never forget you!

David and Rachel Gallagher will be away fundraising for the next 4 weeks so i will be / have been looking after the Girls (Belle and Diana) every weekend! They are both thrilled by this....

People have often compared me to Abraham, but the thing about Abraham is that he had many SONS!!! I love the girls to bits, but i pray i will become the Father of many sons, don't think i could cope with daughters!

One of our sons was really sick this month, but he is now home and doing well!

I have requested a missionary visa through a partner organisation. This can take some time! But i'm praying it comes soon!!!! Please can you pray too!!!

Until next month!

Ell

Work Hard, Play Hard!!!

The boys really put this phrase into practice on Saturday. Soon all the big boys will be moving into house 6, called Neema (Grace). We have started to landscape the front of it! Which is really hard work due to the amount of HUGE rocks in Neema's compound. 

As you can see these are no pebbles!!!!

Sometimes you just have to get your hands dirty!!!!

Kelvin laid a big part of the path, all by himself!

Daddy Tom helped out too, as you can see in the back ground the workforce began to start slacking! 

And then all twelve of us, got in my five seater and drove to Dave and Linda's House to pick some fruit, the boys thought it was a great idea when we left, but 35 minutes and several bumps later, they were singing a different tune!!!! 

Dave and Linda Munsie have been on a 6 month break and they have some fruit trees in their yard that needed to be harvested, they boys and their bellies were more than happy to help! They climbed up those trees before you had time to turn the engine off! 

Spot the child!!! I was very clear that they could eat them, but they had to collect enough to take back to their brothers and sisters!!!!

The Lumquats are so tasty!!! Caleb's smile confirms this fact!!! 

Its amazing what, boys can do when they put their mind to it!!!

And of course they had to play football, very carefully however! We weren't in the village any more!!!! 

It was so nice, just to see the boys being boys! Whilst watching the boys play it almost brought a tear to my eye. Through work and play, these boys were no longer, orphans, street kids or abuse victims, they were just boys, having fun, being brothers and being sons! They are all so special, in their strengths and in their weaknesses i love them all! 

And if you are ever sat with your teenage boys and cant seem to make them lift a finger, send them over here! We'll sought them out, with a small charge that is!!!! 

Thanks for reading!!!! 

Ell in Africa, August!

This month has been so busy, I had the month of July off for Rob’s wedding, but then I don’t think I have had a day off since I arrived! The school has been out for the month of August which means we have had 74 kids to entertain 24/7! A Full Time Job!!!! There has been lots of activities going on! We Also had our last team here, which was a work team. It was really great to see the kids getting involved with this team and trying to help maintain their own home! 

One thing we did was take 30 of our kids to downtown to help clean up the streets, we did this with many other children’s homes!!! 

At the end of each term the school has a closing ceremony, they celebrate the terms success announce the exam positions and get encouraged for the next term. I thought i better had make an effort!!! 

Something else we did this month with a number of other children’s homes was to have a big sports day! It was a great day! They had a staff race too; I was the only ‘Mzungu’…white participant! I didn’t win, but i tried! Hehe!! The boys have been praying for me to love football, and I think their prayers have worked, any one will learn to love football when it is their kids playing against other peoples kids!! Here is a picture of Phyllis in one of her races!

This is Belle, i can't believe how quick the kids are growing up!! She was only about 3 months old when i first came!!!!! 

                                                     Speaking of 3 months old, meet our new twins Christine and Dan!!!

 

It was so great to see Asha turn one this month! Asha came to us when she was 1 month old and she weighed 2.2 Kg. She is now a huge chunk!!!! As you can see!!!!

On the work team we had a karate instructor, we thought it was a great opportunity to teach our older kids some self defence!

You may remember me saying that we were going to transition two babies out of the baby home and into the other children's homes. This was Leon and Grace, the transition went extremely well, Grace moved into Amani home with Paul and Sarah and Leon moved into Ushindi with Tom and Emy, here is Leon with two of his new sisters, Rachel and Agnes...

This week as a finale for the kids being out of school we held the 2nd OAI annual Talents day! It was a real success!!! The events varied form an eating competition to singing to a fashion show!! Here is Danson in his traditional attire for the fashion show!!! 

And here is Gladys doing her solo song, she did so well, the voice of an Angel!!

Last week we had a day of baking and fellowship with Mama Rachel, it was a great time for the boys. They loved learning how to bake, they loved the very 'flattering' aprons, and were thrilled as they were congratulated on being perfectly tidy and welcomed back anytime!!!

It truly has been an epic month!!! But i wouldn't change a thing!!!

Frantic Moment's, Friends and Fund Raising!

For over a year i had been planning a fund raising dinner to raise support for whilst i am in Kenya! I decided early on in the planning stages on the venue and i booked the whole room in 'faith' that it would be filled, but with very little 'belief' that it actually would be! However the room was packed we had 225 paying guests all who cared enough about what i was doing to take time out of their schedule's to come and hear about me! The amount we raised was probably about triple my expectation (i'm still overwhelmed by peoples generosity!) But with pictures like this, how could people not fall in love and donate!

It is a very strange feeling going from having a dream, too achieving a dream! Now i not only know i have a vision but i also know the vision can be achieved! I was not only touched by how people were so generous with the finances but also how kind they were with their words!!
It was so touching to hear people say things from, 'you should run for Kenyan president' and 'you should have your own t.v. show' too people saying how changed they were going to be after the evening!

Also this month has been so crazy due to all the press pick up, the press release went out in the morning and then the mayhem started that week i was on the front of two newspapers, one web article and live radio... all within three days!!! I always said i wanted to be on the cover of magazines... but i guess the Westmorland Gazette will do!


This month has been crazy but it's been crazily good! I am stirring from my dream and waking up too its reality! (has to be the most cheesy sentence ever, however its so true!)