Monday!

After 10 hours on the road, the Southside team arrived in good spirits at our project in Western Kenya.  Once they arrived they instantly made friends with the kids  so everyone had a hand to hold as they toured the property.  They also got to hear an amazing performance by the kids that make up the choir, if it hadn't set in yet that they were in Kenya, it certainly would set in then.  After touring Rehema (the children's home and school), they quickly went by Chekulo church.  This is the site that they helped put in a well and will be helping to create a drip irrigation system at this week.   Yesterday the stop was installed in the well, so clean water is now flowing!  After a quick visit to Chekulo, they split up into pairs to go to their host homes for the night.  By now they are getting to know their host families and getting ready to eat a delicious meal that will likely include a chicken stew, sakuma wiki (kale), chapati (flatbread), and ugali (their staple, its cornmeal that looks like a really thick clump of grits :).  You can pray for them tonight as they are really immersed in the culture for the first time.
Today the camp staff was plugging into a ministry in Nairobi called Made in the Streets, which cares for street kids.  Our connection to that organization is a family that has always been dear friends of our full time team.  They have been on the field for many years and are a joy to be around, just being around them was a  huge blessing to our college students today.  Half of the team went to "the farm," a residential home outside of the slums where some of the kids stay.  The ran a full day camp program for teenagers there.  The other half of the team went into the Eastleigh slum and spent a half day running a camp for 1-8 year olds and in the afternoon they ran one for 9-17 year olds.  Tonight they are back at our team house in Nairobi, packing and preparing to head to Mt. Suswa for the rest of the week.  During their first few weeks in Kenya, they have really not gotten to see very much outside of camp so they are so excited to be getting out and seeing much more of Kenya this week.
*Just to let you know, we will not be able to post as many pictures this week as we were able to during camp.  Both teams will have little internet access and when they do have it, it will be slower than it is at camp.  We'll definitely post them as often as we are able but it won't be quite as often.