Monday, June 13

Bad news/Good news

Well, the bad news is that our team is dropping like flies with this stomach bug that seems to be going around.  I won't even bother listing who all is sick because it is mostly everyone...and if they're not sick yet, they will be by this evening.  The good news is that it seems to be very short lived and most are up and around again by the next day.   And we are fortunate to have Dr. Voelker, who has been great checking in on people and making sure nobody is dehydrated...plus he has all kinds of great medicine with him.  He somehow has not been sick yet, but I have a feeling he is doomed as well.   We are just thankful that this has gone through the group BEFORE we send half the team off to Kajaido, which is a much more remote location with less "facilities." 

Yesterday, half the group had a great time hiking up the hills behind Scott and interacting with the locals.  The other half got to go to the Woodcarvers village and shop a little bit.  It was a relaxing Sunday and all enjoyed visiting the various churches and seeing how the Kenyans worship.

So, those who are feeling well have been working this morning.  They are clearing a field next to the new preschool site that will be their playground area.  I have uploaded some photos in an album on here so you should see a couple of the foundation site and the field they are working on.  We helped this same little preschool one of the first years we came.  Some TCA teachers generously donated lots of classroom decorations and supplies.  You can see in one of the photos that they still had them hanging in the exact spot where we put them, and they are all tattered and well-loved by now.  We have brought some fresh supplies along so hopefully once the new building is up it will be a much better place for them.  The headmaster here at Scott said that most of the Scott students and faculty don't send their own children to this school right now because they are so overcrowded and the current facilities are so run down.  This new building site will be a great blessing for them to have their kids closer by.

For this afternoon, Brian Millet and Mark Dyer have organized a 5K race for the locals at 4:30.  We all know that these Kenyans are going to run the socks off of us Americans, but it should be fun anyway.  They even brought some medals to hand out at the end to the winners.  We will let you know what happens.

The VBS team is also preparing for the second day with some local kids which will be arriving at 4:00.  I have to brag on these kids some because they have just been fabulous!   I put Lauren Wright in charge because she was so helpful and organized last year helping with VBS.  Today especially, I am SO glad she is here because I am staying back with my sick Marshall.   I know she will handle things and everything will run smoothly.  Another small thing to overcome...we packed a sound system to use at VBS where we could play a video of the music in the background with lyrics and all sorts of great stuff.   It was one of the things lost with the luggage so we were all excited when it arrived the other day.  But, as we like to say - This is Kenya - and our fearless leader, Jon just accidentally plugged the system into a plug with the wrong voltage and blew a fuse or something....SIGH!  So, luckily, we have our talented son, Max with us to play guitar and lead the music along with Lizzie Dockery.  And Scott Vance has  a small drum so they are doing a great job leading the music without any American technology whatsoever.   Will, Tobias, Lauren, Lizzie and Gunnar are doing a great job with the skits and are hilarious with their antics. 

Oh, by the way, a group of 12 got up in the middle of the night last night to go to the cafeteria, where we can get wifi to watch the MAVS WIN the finals.  Gotta' love Wifi! 

Thank you for your continuing prayers.  Please pray specifically for the health issues here, so that we can get on with the work we came to do.  Tomorrow we will be sending a few people to the School for Disabled and the Orphanage as well so we want to make sure we are all recovered!

In Christ alone

Jenni Millet for the group