Our group (sadly missing Diana) out on the town

So it became kind of tradition to go to this restaurant to "go out to eat." It was Indian and Italian, i think. It was soooooo good. This time we took the boys with us. They are Calob and Horace and are friends of Judith, the lady who runs the orphanage. They lived in our house and were supposed to help the volunteers. We would all really hang out and they helped A LOT with the orphanage with teaching and helping the kids. They were SOO great with the kids. They told us stories of when they lived through the post election war, which were devastating. These guys are such great, sweet, intelligent, and driven guys. The pictures after our dinner are at this bar nightclub next to the restaurant where some bad things went down the last time a big group was there so we were a bit nervous. But we danced our butts off once the music got going. The funny thing is that they don't drink so they tried to take these gansta pictures but then they realized that they needed alcohol in the pictures to look tougher so they borrowed our drinks but my camera wouldn't focus so I at least posted this one. Then we got them to try these "like shimrnoff ice" drinks and they liked them. The funniest thing is this poster in the bar/nightclub is of "50 cent" which looks more like another rapper but Mel and I loved being reminded of home. We had a great last night out night with the boys. I will miss the guys and hope they do succeed in all of their hopes and dreams!

ma-ma-malaria! but not me...

So I was sitting in on one of the classes exams the other day and the other girl working with the orphanage too, Melanie, came in to say that one of the little girls has signs of malaria and she was going to the hospital with them. We both wanted to go and see what the hopital looked like, since we had a teacher go to get a cyst removed from some doctor and they only removed half the cyst and left it open and wrapped some gauze around it and the gauze stuck to the open wound. SOOOO we definitly wanted to see what was going on with the medical scene here in Africa. So we carried Teresa to the private doctor office as it was said it would be faster (but more expensive)....i mean we took a taxi and then carried her in we didn't carry her on our back to the office like a bunch of donkeys. Well the office was interesting. They have no bandaids and there is limisted sterilization. THe needles are in a package although the garbage is just an open tin. They drew blood to test her and she did have malaria so she got treated with a shot that day int he butt and she was so out of it she had no idea what was going on. Then she was told to come back tomorrow for another shot and then three days of pills. She was MUCH better and back to herslef after the second shot. THey have a list of procedures and prices on the board above the check in desk that i took a picture of but have not uploaded yet. The prices were interesting and i will have to check the picture and update you with the prices....they are so unbelievably cheep but we decided that all the infections you get from them will probabaly raise the cost. It was an interesting experince to spend time at the clinic. The doctor also used the biggest needle to inject the medicine and Melanie and I were like, "Is that really neccassary?" The doctor just laughed although he was a good doctor. So our expereince was interesting and Teresa is back to her normal silly self!

*** here is a picture of the poster. our favorite price is how condoms are a "varied" price...what exactly does that mean?!?!

Tara with the Kids!

This was as always the best part...just hanging out and laughing with the kids and adults at the orphanage. We all had so much fun and there was so much love there. Me and the sweatshirt hooded kid is my favorite kid, Johnas, and this is our hooded picture....it is probably my favorite. It was taken the night before our last day and he was all about me this day and it made me even more sad to have to leave. Even though i am wearing the same outfit and so are some of the kids don't take for granted that it was the same day. I mean when you are switching between only like 3 outfits you tend to wear the same one a few times.

Random Photos

The first picture is just me playing in the water with the kids...i was showing them how to use the water to write on the dirt. Then Revin (Mel's favorite kid) who we took to our house to so him and Guidein could have some juice and crackers with us. That was the visor I brought as a donation and they used them as the end of the semester gifts for the little kids. Then there is a picture of me and Stella (who sadly has AIDS) and she made me this beautiful beaded bracelet/necklace which was my first one and i loved the thought she put into giving it to me. She called me aside and said "Teacher I made this for you can I put it on you." I said sure and we will take a picture to remember such a kind gesture. Then there is the picture of Penina, who is the mother of these two and i believe 2-3 others. She is so funny and a tough woman. She makes a mean meal too (by "mean meal" that means a "VERY good meal"). Then there is a picture of the boys at PE.

Silly kids!

When I brought some toys up to put in the office for them to play with they decided to have a little fun with them first and they were almost peeing in their pants when they saw pictures of themselves after i would take the picture. They thought they were possibly the funniest things and it was great to see them laugh and have such fun. We all had a good time with the toys before they were even properly used. Then there are two random pictures of the girls and of Reagan over his cup giving us his crazy smile.

Guidein... just big enough to fit in my suitcase to take home!

Yes he is another one of my favorites...i mean can you blame me? he is the cutest. oddly he is not eating in any of these pictures because generally he is ALWAYS eating. One day my cell phone rang (yes an international cell phone worked there...weird i know. It was the guy who was booking Mel and my safari for the next week so i answered and argued with him for a bit over price. All the sudden under my feet you hear "ello, ello" and that is when the picture where Guidein is in his red shirt holding a block up to his ear and talking on it. While i was on the phone he just pretened to hold the phone like me and was just saying "hello" or his version "ello" over and over. So when we took him to our house we had him pretend to call Mel's parents and talk to them and the video of this is SOOOO cute but that is where the other phone pictures came from. He is just pinchable!

Love of the Library!

For some reason no one really let the children in to see the library. I think the adults were loving it so much that they didn't want the kids to harm it at all. Mel and I had a different idea as the library was built for the children, which we had to remind ourselves of regularly as we were spending a great deal of money. So we let all the kids in one day, as they for some reason were keeping it locked. We told the kids before they went in that a library is a quiet place where people read and when you are done with a book you have to put it back where you got it from as they are in order. The children agreed and we were off to the races. They took out books and sat down and looked at them and helped eachother put them back and they were LOVING it! These were only some of 40 pictures of them showing us books and really looking at the pictures and the older children were reading to us. It was so great to see them enjoy this building and the resources as much as we hoped. I am a huge book person at home as people who know me as a teacher and I LOVE books and think they can do so much for children (eventhough i just started to enjoy reading myself). Mel and I enjoyed every moment of these children's joy.

making a "Thank You" poster

We decided that if we were going to have an opening of the library we needed the people that were actaully going to benefit from the library to thank all who donated money and time. So we took this poster around and had all the kids write their names or whatever they wanted on it. Mel now has it in the UK and says it makes her so happy to see all of their signatures and hands. They LOVED doing it as you can see them all crowd around and are SOOO thankful for the library.

Library FINISHED!

YEAHHHHHH! The library is finished and they even made us tables, well don't fool yourself we paid for them. But the place looks so good! They made window covers so that rain won't get in on the books and we went in and decorated the empty wall with all stickers and things i brought. Calob and Horace helped and organized all the books in the library into sections. They also helped us put up the stickers and make sure the alphabet was in order. The chairs were all in there for the last day of school for the semester and there are more pictures of that to come. We all had a ribbon cutting ceremony for the library when the parents were visiting to pick up their kids....i know "WHAT?!?! It's an orphanage aren't these kids supposed to be parentless?!?!" Well yes the people that pick them up might be like aunts or uncles or realtives of a different kid and take another kid for a grandparent or something. Some also have one parent left but that parent can't or doesn't want to take care of them and they would have a far better life in the orphanage. I know that is a little bit of a twist but you learn in Africa anything goes you just have to accept it is a different culture...and one with rich history and traditions.

Library progress...

So the concrete sign near the ground says "Library Construction by: Mel Robins and Tara Fischer" Mel and i were so proud to be remembered at the orphanage. We took about 400-500 pictures in front of our sign after the three times it took them to spell my name right that was written for them on a piece of paper. It was so sweet of them to do that for us. This was the library shelf less and shelved. They asked us for an insane amount of money for the 2 million shelves and Mel and I said "no because all you have to do is put in hardware and then rest the wood shelf on it." The construction man stated that "this was a much more labor intensive job." I told him then Mel and I will do it our way that is not so intense and is cheaper....he came down in his price. WELL when we saw how they built the shelves we were like "no wonder he wanted more money!" They seriously almost built a box for each shelf area and it was the most intense shelving i have ever seen...not that it needed to be as it is all just attached to a pole and a ply wood sheet but i guess that is just how you make shelves in Kenya. The guys did do a great job!

Oh my CUTE-NESS

Okay so we found this little kitten running by us and of course i picked it up to smoosh it but as i was doing that cows started walking past me on both sides and the little kitten was hissing at the cows walking by and it was the funniest thing. The hiss was like a little horse throat hiss and it was so cute! But i let it go even though it most likely will have a pretty poor life because i know zoe and chloe at home will be mad at me if i come back with another kitten. And as Diana, the other girl that was here siad "they all have rabbies so be scared."

Help with Library Donations, PLEASE!

The library is getting there. There are walls and a ceiling now. We really need help on donations if anyone would like to donate some money to help us keep this project alive and make sure we finish the Library out here that would be SOOOOO helpful. Any dollar will help out here. We wanted to see it done before we leave so hopefully that will happen but we are going to need help from family and friends to finish it off. I hope anyone can help. But it is moving along and we are SO excited. The children are so very excited as they have never had anything like this before. Here are some more pictures of the library and two pictures of our food and toy donations.