Well I have just returned from my second trip to this wonderful orphanage. I am very excited to share the children's progress and many wonderful pictures!
Tami and I left Canada on October 13th, 2010 and arrived in Kenya 2 days later on the 15th. We arrived in Embu later that afternoon. Ruth called quickly to see if we were in town! Children had not slept waiting our arrival.
When we arrived at the orphanage many familiar faces greeted Tami, Paul (our driver) and myself. It was such a joy to see everyone. The older children were still at school but the younger children were all over us, shaking our hands and giving us lots of hugs.
2 German volunteers, Melanie and Katja, were also now at the orphanage, they volunteer 5 days a week with the house hold needs. What a wonderful job and the children obviously love them too!
We spent the evening having dinner, handing out donations and visiting. It was good to be back.
Tami was given a Kenyan name which is Makena....means joyful. Derek was very adamant that she be named that as she was laughing so much!
The next day were arrived to take the kids shoe shopping at Bata. We purchased 16 pairs of shoes (leather school shoes for 13, 1 pair of sneakers for Sharon and Justin and new shoes for house mom Milkah). Grand total $250.
We made 3 trips in the van to do this! The kids were amazingly patient. Even the smallest ones like Sharon just sat there waiting to get new shoes. I have never seen so many well behaved children at one time!
After shoe shopping and a bit of visiting we left for dinner (Tami, Paul and I) as Sunday was going to be a big day.... Field trip with the kids!
On Sunday we picked up the kids, in 2 loads, and took them to GTI which is a Government training facility. We were using their field to play at since Toto Love doesn't have a large enough yard, or even grass.
We had picked up Fanta pop, chips, popcorn and cookies for the afternoon. We started with some soccer, using a Canadian blowup ball, then went onto a big game of duck, duck, goose. That was hilarious as even the adults were playing. We also had some races with the adults. Dodge ball, and a tug of war game. In between playing games we stopped for snacks.
We had over 20 children for this event and even some of the GTI worker's children who were at the facility joined us.
About 4 hours later we packed up and left for Toto Love. Children and adults all tired! I slept like a log.
On Monday the children were in school so we visited the St Michael's and took school supplies (pencils and notebooks) to the Toto Love children's classrooms. Teachers were very happy to have extra supplies to share amongst the students. We sang Oh Canada to the older classrooms. We were given a tour of the school grounds and found out that they are gardening and raising rabbits and Talapia fish which is a great skill. I also found out that there is a lunch program at the school so children have the option of bringing a lunch, buying a hot lunch or going home for lunch. Toto Love children do the latter.
Today the children were being visited by the medical staff at Toto Love for a check up so Paul drove the school children at lunch time for their appointment while we had tea and sandwiches with the headmaster, thanking him for his support.
We also found out that there are over 170 schools in Embu and St. Michael's is the only school to accept Toto Love children. These is all because they are HIV positive. Still such a stigma attached to this disease. We hope that when other's see us with them that they understand that you can't get HIV from touching someone with it, or even hugging or kissing. We also hope that they understand that these children did not do anything wrong to get HIV. They were born into it, due to their mother, except Edna who was raped by her HIV + father.
Ruth, Melanie, Katja, Tami and I went shopping for groceries, uniform pieces and then to the bank to leave the orphanage some money to cover rent for a few months.
We returned to Toto Love for our last visit, promising not to stay too long, but long enough to say good bye to each child and get letters, videos and hugs all done.
Bancy, who left the orphanage this year, returned for the medical check up and was surprised to see me. I had special gifts for her.
We left for the hotel, ate dinner, a big plate of french fries and talked about our wonderful whirlwind visit....shocked to believe it was already over. The next day we were ready to go first thing in the morning. Off to Voi Lodge.
