Last Day in Machakos...

Hi all,

Sorry- I texted my mom last night and told her I'd post by the time you got up this morning. Unfortunately, this is Kenyan time and our day of "oh, we are ONLY doing the work project" quickly turned into that plus two quote-unquote VBS's, another school visit, and aaaaaaghhhhhhh now it is almost 8 p.m. and I have finally sat down at a computer. I am about to miss our super important group meeting but I got permission from the boss since this may be our last post for awhile... well, in person, that is. Jenni and MJ should be keeping you up to date even if we can't.

In keeping with tradition, I'd like to start by telling you the funny story of the day. At one of my two visits to the Mumbuni school (a nearby primary school, a.k.a. grades 1-8), the teachers were asking questions to make sure that the students had understood us completely. Here is the last interchange:

TEACHER: And if you ask Jesus to be your Savior, WHERE will you go?

STUDENTS: TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uh, no. :) But funny all the same. I believe the term EPIC FAIL applies here.

Here is a recap of the last 36-48 hours since my last post:

• Saturday evening: Movie night with Scott community. Prince Caspian was a major hit, as were the Cokes and Cadbury's chocolate. :)

• Sunday morning church services: Wonderful at all three churches- Bomani, Kataloni, and Kitituni... see below for an explanation of why I'm not writing more.

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG POST TO BRING YOU BAD NEWS...

Well, it is only bad if you are me, the blog author. Gentle readers, I had written about two pages past this point, full of great and wonderful information. But, I have decided that the internet is my own personal enemy tonight. To make a long story short, I was using the FACULTY computer lab thinking it would be faster, but I should have known better. The internet shut down in that lab just at the point mentioned above, and everything I wrote was not auto-saving onto Blogger. ARGH. So, being the quick thinker I am, I saved my post to a Word doc. Then I came over to the library, and once I arrived there, I found out that there are VERY few computers who have internet at the moment. The sweet Scott students gave me a spot (seriously, they completely moved over and gave me one of the working ones even though they have exams) because that is the polite type of people they have here.

So I thought I was on the road to being finished when... I opened up the disk and it says my doc has a VIRUS. OY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All that work is now gone down the drain..... argh.

Needless to say, I am tiiiiiiiiiiiiired after all this calamity so I am going to leave a much shorter version of what I had before. I apologize in advance... but here are today's activities in retrospect:

• WORK PROJECT: Today, the group almost completed the work project, and the Scott maintenance staff is going to complete what we haven't finished (which is very little). I think they got video of the final product. Way to go team!
• SCHOOL VISITS: There were three today: 2 to the Mumbuni school (where our friends David, Momo, Faith, Panina, and Love all attend), and one to an engineering school. More on the Mumbuni visit below.
• ORPHANAGE: Frances R. and her crew completed the "mural" (which is actually a border around one room with the animals from Noah's Ark). And Jennifer S. shot footage for a video she is planning to put together for the LakePointe Church about the ministry there at Springs of Hope.
• CLOTHING, ETC DONATIONS: Amber M. and Michelle T. organized and sorted the last of the clothing donations into men's/women's/childrens' sections, and we had the most needy of the married faculty/staff/students come to get your donated clothing, toys, shoes, etc. It was greatly appreciated- I have been stopped several times on my way to the library by people wishing to express their gratitude. Thanks so much for all you donated!

About the Mumbuni visits... I will tell you about this morning's visit to the 8th graders. We intended to stay long enough to do our regular Gospel presentation, but instead, we stayed two hours BEYOND THAT answering the students' questions about America and our lives as Americans. It was really interesting, because these young people had VERY thoughtful and specific questions. In fact, they even asked us to sing the National Anthem, and we obliged! And you will be so proud of Natalie N.: she did a cheer for that entire group (about 100ish teenagers) BY HERSELF so that she could demonstrate what "cheerleading" is. It was so great! GO NATALIE!

Oh, goodness... they are closing the library so I need to wrap this up...

In case you weren't aware, we are leaving early in the morning for Amboseli National Park. James N. told me yesterday that we were going to drive there via the Tanzania border so that we can get our passports stamped. I will believe it when I see it but maybe he is not pulling my leg. He likes to do that (maybe because I fall for his shenanigans pretty much every time). We will go on a game drive in the afternoon and hopefully I will be able to write you from our hotel.

By the way, please pray for poor Lauren H. She woke up at 4 a.m. VERY sick. She is doing a lot better now (thanks to little packets of powdered Gatorade... who knew?!) but she is still feeling queasy, and the drive tomorrow won't be much fun for her if she is still ill. At this point, we do not feel like it is a virus or anything contagious, so that is good. But what a trooper she is. She told me today she was planning to read her CRP book while she was resting. I told her she was not allowed! NO HOMEWORK WHILE SICK!!! It's my rule. Okay, not really. But I definitely don't think anyone should be forced to do homework AND be sick.

Sorry this post wasn't more informative... I am falling asleeeeeeeep at this desssssssssssskkkkk.... OH, and one more thing. Thank you a million, billion times for the comments you've left. You would not believe how much we look forward to getting those! Keep 'em coming, don't be shy!

Love to all,

Jill