SAFARI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So i don't have pictures to post YET but they are AMAZING so be ready. I will have to post them in little bits as the posts can't upload many pictures at a time, and when i say not many i mean it can upload only one. So Mel and I left 3 days ago in the morning and embarked on what we knew would be fun but had NO IDEA what we were doing Safari to the Masi Mara Game park. We stayed in the most amazing campground (kinda fake camping) and we spent three days looking at the most awe inspiring animals. I think the one that I was most stunned by was the Zebra but actaully all of them...i just thought the zebra looked so different then it does when you see it in any zoo or anything. The game drives were amazing and then we stopped by the Masi Warriors Village and wow, what an expereince. I will post a later post just on that. I just wanted to update you all onto where I am now and soon i will post pictures and give more details. I am off tomorrow to Zimbabwe to start my work on the Black Rhino and Elephant Reserve. Apparently i need good luck while trying to survive in Zimbabwe these days. Thanks for reading the blog and I hope this finds everyone well.

The Last Day...sooooo sad!

So we left on sunday eventhough the friday before they had a parents day, which was very interesting to expereince and they had the social services district head and the pastor head come to visit and open the Library for us. They cut a string thing that they taped across the door. The Library turned out AMAZING (although Mel and I are now broke)! So we went back up and visited the children saturday adn sunday but on sunday we had to say goodbye. We had to get in a cab at 3:30am monday morning for the 4 hour drive to the airport and the flight to Nairobi where we were going to take our 3 day safari. So we said goodbyes and it was extremely sad. My two favorite kids (Johna and Franko) were giving me so much attention taht day that it made it even HARDER to say goodbye. We finally had to leave them and they were so sweet and said they would miss us so much. They are wonderful children and I will miss them sooooo much!

Final Goodbyes on Friday

Me, Bridget, and Stacey saying goodbye.
Mel and her team saying goodbye.
Judith, the head of the orphanage, the Pastor, and the Head of Social Services
Guidein eating of course while all the other kids eye his food. He is a good sharer though.
Guidein and Revin at the house because they helped us bring our presents home.

Waiting during the Pastor's talk

So the parents went inside to get snacks and listen to the Pastor (who is supposedly a big pastor and he even has a driver) The rest of us hung out outside and waited till we could go in and enjoy the library too. That is me and Johnas...well before he smacked my camera. The first picture is of Calob and Horace the guys who hung out with us and Horace is holding on to Calob, a kid that they found in the street almost about to die and they took him in. So i called it the "double Calob Horace" picture. I love the picture of the two kids inspecting the Pastor's car license plate it just looks like they are saying "if you come to our hood we are going to check you out."

Cutting of the Library Ribbon

The girls and then all of us held up the "thank you" sign that they made and then we stood around and the head of child services cut the ribbon to the library. It was so fun. Then inside the pastor gave a talk to the parents on their involvement. It was great to see how many people were excited for the library because Mel and I were SOOO excited and we were even going to get to use it. But I have now collected books at home (as this post is backdated) and so we will fill up that library!

Celebration Underway!

At the end of the semester celebrations the top two children in the class get a prize and then the youngest class everyone gets a prize. I was so pleased to see that most of the prizes came from things I brought to donate. It made me happy to see that the children were getting them and loving them. That is a picture of them posing behind my donations. There is a picture of the teacher awarding one of the students. The other pictures are of all the kids sitting for the celebration in one of the classrooms. Since this was mel and my almost last day and the kids were all together they did a "goodbye" celebration for us too. They sang and said nice things about us and gave us some gifts and their notes which i still and will always cherish!

Last Day celebration

So this was Friday and we were heading out at 4:30 AM or something crazy like that on Monday morning. We came around Sat and Sun to hang out with the kids but a lot of kids and adults were leaving this day, Friday, because it was the end of the school semester. I know this is confusing because it is an orphanage and they are supposed to not have anywhere else to go but some children have one parent who can't take care of them or a relative or friend takes them for their little holiday break so that the kids can have a change of scenery. The last picture is of a dad who came (only like 10 dads a a couple moms and a grandmother came not nearly matching the number of children) but some dads are dads and uncles to other children as well and grandfathers to other children so you never really know the family tree situation you just pray that each child is loved. These are pictures of the bustle to set up for the families coming and then also us posing for pictures with the teachers.