Birthday Post

Happy Birthday to me!

I remember telling Atara last week that all I wanted for my birthday was a homestay and an internship and amazingly I got that and much more.

So here’s the run down:

Internship: A week and half ago, I just started searching the internet for children’s homes in the area where Atara lives. My plan was to set out and locate one of the organizations and ask them if I could work there. I ran the list past Atara’s host mom Nkita and she actually recognized one of the homes( it‘s associated with her church). She was kind enough to take us out last Sunday night and show us where it was. So last Monday Atara and I set out to visit the home. The organization is Sidai Children Rehabilitation Centre and it’s in Ngong. The center is right next door to a large slum area. Sidai provides food, clothing, education, and shelter to children that would otherwise be on the streets. Not all of the children are orphans. Many of children have parents they see, but the parents can not afford to feed, house or educate them.

I still have a lot to learn about Sidai. I’m going to be helping teach the kids (and there‘s few other things I‘ll probably help out with). There are four classes at Sidia. When I visited last week I helped with what they call the baby class which is 2 to 5 year olds. There’s a lot of challenges teaching and working at Sidai. These are at risk kids and most of them are extremely behind. One six year old little boy I was working with can’t recognize his numbers or letters at all. It doesn’t help that my Swahili is horrible. It’s going to take some creativity and work to teach these kids, but I can already tell I’m going to love working there. I start officially Tuesday.
Homestay: Lucy is the founder and mama of Sidai. She started the home in 2000. She has three grown children who help run Sidai. I’m going to be living with her daughter Milka. Milka and her husband David have two boys, a 10 year old and a 9 month old. Eric, the baby is so cute! The family is great and Milka is so kind and funny. I’m excited to be living there. Their house is really close to Sidai which is nice. The only thing is, it’s a top this huge hill! I’ll be fit for sure after three months of walking that hill everyday. I move in tomorrow!
Birthday: My birthday has been great. It’s been a whole weekend thing. Atara and her family are incredibly kind and generous and I’m so lucky to have them. On Friday Sue took us to get our nails done. A pedicure and manicure. It was amazing. My feet were definitely disgusting, but now they are beautiful. Well, see how long that last!

Friday night we went out on the town with a Atara’s host brother and his friends. It was a lot of fun.

Today we went to church and came home and had a great lunch. After lunch Atara and her parents surprised me with chocolate cake! It was so good. And Atara’s dad brought me plain chocolate m+m’s from South Africa! He was there last week for a pastor conference.
Looking forward to…
I’m excited to finally have a sense of purpose and be busy! The last month gone by so quick and I’ve barely done anything so I know the next few months will go by super fast.

On Thursday Atara, and I are going to Mombasa! For four days of beach and sun. There’s a lady from Atara’s church that has a beautiful house that she is going to let us stay in. I’m super
excited to see the coast and the beach. I'm not looking forward to Atara leaving in a month though. I will miss her so much.

So that’s my life. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to update before we leave but there will definitely be an update next week.