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!!!