God's day! I always leave one day fully open to do whatever God calls us to do when we are there and today's that day! See what happens!

Tuesday April 3, 2012

We got up at 7 to run, our last run to the beach for this trip at least.   It was so, so nice to have found that spot.   It was the perfect distance for me at least and the nice relaxing walk on the beach and there were stairs and a hill to come back up from the beach.  

Rashid, our amazing driver, body guard, banker, secretary, and so many other jobs, organized our day today.  We had our list from Grace of Little Angel’s.  Our goal: to hit as many on the list as possible.  He studied it the night before so we could hit as many as possible.

The first one we went too was Upeindo and we didn't want to leave.  We found the largest baby orphanage right now in Mombasa.  There were13 babies in this orphanage.  It is run by Patrick and Tammy.  Tammy is an Austrailian and I think Patrick is Kenyan.  They just opened in October 2011. Their place is small but it does work for the number they have right now.  They are paying a lot for rent and on formula.  They have a ton of clothes, mostly girl clothes and not very much equipment.  They are in desperate need of bumbo chairs and exersaucers the babies spend so much time lying down they are way behind in sitting.  This is not to say they are not amazingly cared for because they are they just don't have the resources we do with our kids.

They take babies that need a lot of medical support – tube feedings, etc.  Tammy has been fighting the hospitals.  In that she spends time in the hospitals with their babies, she sees a lot of what is going on there.  The hospitals have been holding onto babies for up to 4-5 months and their weights are decreasing while they are there.  They are waiting for the best bribe they can get from the Children's Department and/or a Children's Home for them to release the baby to them.   I look forward to working with Tammy and Vicky (Kenyan lawyer) on getting this issue out in the open and stopping it so the babies go where they need to be immediately.  A lot of prayer over this is necessary.  Babies are dying during this process. 

Then we did a short stop at St. Paul's School, a school very close by.   The kids a very well behaved kids.  Very small classes but education looked good. 

Then we hit Furahah Boys Home - Joseph showed us around.  It's a home for street boys.  We were able to meet two boys:  Daniel - law student - University of Nairobi in Mombasa, and Nelson - works at Neptune in electrical maintenance.   Neptune, the hotel chain, that Fox River stays at while we are there in the summer supports this home.   This one was not on the list - Rashid found it and we found some amazing stories.   Later we stopped by Neptune to thank them for their work.

Then we hit the Good Life Center in Mwtapa, this place was amazing.   This is what I want our center to model after.  They live in seperate houses, each house has up to 12 kids of various ages with one mom and one aunt, (only 2 babies per house, three toddlers and the rest older).  Each house is independent they cook what they want, have chores for the kids etc. they are a family unit and it feels like it when you walk in.   It feels like private foster care.  They each have a kitchen and sitting room and I think one bedroom downstairs and then a bathroom and three bedrooms upstairs.  They have a really cool tower of rooms for guests to stay.  They also have the baby class classroom and library and a computer lab and a cool playground.  The next phase for them is to build a 15 and up building where teens are more independent, getting ready to move out of the center.  They also have an office and large storage room.  All of this is on one acre which has some middle area of green space.  They have great organized paperwork.  Mercy was in charge and was so helpful and George took us around on an at least 2 hour tour.  They do work toward adoption here.  Each house sponsored by a family in the UK and the house is named for that family.   Would like to know how much it costs to run a house per month. I am emailing them back and forth for more details.

That was all the time we had for visits.  Now on to the less fun stuff.  Having to say our good-byes.  We are leaving Mombasa tomorrow early morning.  First we said goodbye to George.  George is so amazing and helps the missionaries Jim and Susie Horne accomplish so much more in their ministry with his help.  He helped us so much and made us feel so at home.   Then we swam for 10 minutes because we were super hot and we needed to meet Penninah for a matatu ride downtown at 3:45.  We went for scarves and beaded flip flops to bring back home to sell to raise some funds.  It was rush hour and we were crossing crazy streets and were down in the street markets with Penninah haggling our prices for us.  We headed back in a full cab matatu (14 people) ride back home.

Then went to dinner and Liz and Penninah and it was great.  Hard good byes with Liz and Penninah.   Liz might want to be involved in the orphanage project.   We also got a chance to say goodbye to Lucy and Dickson - Rashid's family.