Sadly not long left now (Day 17)

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  Nairobi, Kenya
Wednesday, August 9, 2006

Well hello again,
weve got another chance to go to the internet cafe so i thought i would add another entry.

Had a great few days since the last entry (monday), but there is the looming fact over our heads that we only have two days of work left in Kibera. In some ways it feels like weve been here ages because weve done so much, but in other ways it feels like its coming to an end so quickly. Some of you will already know im staying on in Kenya for an exra week of travelling. Angela and Rosemund are also staying on in Africa going and doing different things.

The one thing i still havn't got to grips with is the physcotic driving over here. Manguru, our humourous but also very patient driver (who seems to be unbelively tolerent of our literally constant lateness and undecisive decisions about where have to go next) said "you have to be a good driver here to get through a month with out getting a prang". That shocked me quite a bit at first but to be honest when you see how they drive it seems an optimistic statement. Angela said to me, "if you think the driving's bad here you shoud go to India!" i cant imagine anything worse than here, maybe once their horns break in india they resort to using their bumpers to indicate annoyance to one another...?

Yesterday (tues) we went to Machimony which is another area of Kibera, about 20 mins from Soweto (where we are working). Had to be up by 7.30 for breakfast like every morning, however i acidentally forgot to set the alarm and i have a room to myself so 7.40 had passed and Neal wasnt happy so i got quite an abrupt wakening. i, being used to these sort of awakenings at home was up, dressed and already at the table within seconds of Neal sitting down again which made everyone laugh quite abit.

We had pre organised to gather up all the soapbox sponsored children in and around Nairobi (about 120) and take photos of them all to send to their sponsors. Not all could make it but we were still seriously crammed into the little church for the service before hand. Some had travelled miles just to be there, some even from Mombasa. Rosemund's housegroup sponsor Nickson and Dickson, two children who live in Mombasa. They travelled by bus overnight from Mombasa, which takes around 8 hours with their mother, stayed for the service and photos and met Rosemund. That evening they were travelling back again on the same bumpy, sleepless, 8 hour journey home so the mother could work at 7.30 in the morning. She probably hadn't had a day off work for months.

after visiting machimony we traveled to the card shop we went to last week to pick up the cards we'd ordered. They invited us to stay for they week devotional service. It for me was the best worship ive joined in with all trip. No instruments just singing. we all really felt united with the card makers and it just awakened me to the amazing fact that being a member of gods family is so great. In no other faith can you can feel so welcome and as one with compolete strangers.



Today weve been continuing with our rather hit and miss carpentry, gradually plaining and piecing together desks for the classroom. And this afternoon we were running a short holiday club for the junior school kids. We had hoped to be doing it for the whole week but nothing is ever final when it comes to organising these things in Kenya it seems. which was a shame considering Catherine had hauled about three times her own body weight of craft stuff through customs at heathrow. We will be leaving most of this stuff behind for the underequipped teachers to make use of.


Please continue praying

Especially that we continue all the work we came to do on the classroom
and for safe travels home.
Particularly for me, Angela and Rosemund, for safe travels after the teams goes it separte ways.

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One of the women at the school chipping in-	Sarah S. with some of the sponsored children-	Taken on a tour of Kibera-	The sponsored kids from far and wide-

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