Kenya 2011: The People

This post won't do it justice, here's some pictures of da peeps.

My team!

R to L: Me, Melissa, Elle, Andrew Perkins, Andrew Aberg

Elle, Perkins and Aberg are here with me from the INN at UW. I knew all three of them vaguely before our dep meetings this winter, so it's been cool to get closer, even over these past two weeks. Melissa is a "mini-missionary" from Virginia who is tutoring at Rafiki and also lives with us at Wageni (over our two months we will have about 10 others come through and live with us).

The permanent staff here are awesome. Yeen-lan, the volunteer coordinator, is fantastic. She's from Singapore, has a quick wit, and makes me laugh alot. I wish you all could meet her. Geoffrey is a native Kenyan and oversees the daily grind of Rafiki--he is always smiling and is one of our favorites, for sure. All the Kenyan staff is very friendly and love to laugh with us. Janet is our housekeeper and is the sweetest person I may have ever met. Not to mention the 9 Mommas--we sit at their table each meal and they have so many stories to tell. Really amazing, sacrificing women.

Then, the kiddies. Hands down the most precious children I've ever met. Cute. Hilarious. Kind Hearted. Sassy. Well behaved (for the most part). Each week I come to love them more. And the soundbites! I'm taking as many mental movies as I can. I hope to get some real good footage for you sometime.

Our work at Rafiki for these next few weeks revolves around leading the kids in their winter break activities-- GAMES: Games, Art, Music, Enrichment, and Sports. Think leading LBC Family Camp VBS mixed with being program assistant for jr/sr girls, and you will get a sense of our mornings and early afternoons. It's great fun, thanks to the kids. We also hang with them after dinner. Here's some footage from week 1 and 2.

K and grade 1 lining up for games (just look at those faces..)

Candy tongues!!

Dancy dance

Clint!! Age five. Such an adorable kid.

Little Morris

Kirk, Victor, and Johnson (i.e. Mr Trouble)

Hang out time after dinner

More pics and stories to come...sometime. Here's a link to my team mate Andrew Perkin's blogpost for the INN....   http://theinnseattle.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/post-safari-update-from-rafiki/