Cows and Bulls

At Dago village, they named this calf after me. Meet Linda the Cow. Don't laugh. Anyone else have a treasured animal in a foreign country named after them? So there.



At Oronkai village, Emmanuel has a bull named Balala, after a Kenyan politician. He didn't name it - I think a child of a friend named it.

My kids

Like reading the definition of autism from a textbook and then meeting a child with autism, I hadn't fully understood what it's like to experience the midnight sun. It's freakin me out, actually, that it's 12am and it's twilight. About 10 people are still up and very active (I'd include me cept I'm falling asleep at the keyboard) at this hostel. And yes, of the 10 of us, there's only one other girl (but have you heard the saying, "The odds are good, but the goods are odd."?)

Anyway, I have been perpetually exhausted since Kenya and trying to catch up with this life so I will make this post short, and just introduce you all to my kids.


This is Brian Tajeuo. He is a rambunctious 5-year-old in the nursery class who loves to volunteer even if he doesn't know what he's volunteering for. Loves attention yet shy at the same time. Cute, sweet, and happens to have a cleft palate.





Lerionka Ololgisoi is in class 2. I began sponsoring him last year without having met him yet. Among my options, I chose him almost purely because I liked his name. It's fun to say (it's a Maasai name). Very shy.





They are $365 each to sponsor, which clothes, feeds, shelters, and educates them for an entire year.

A dollar a day, to give a child a chance at life.

Fairbanks, AK

Arrived safely, finally, after 20 hours travel from Kenya-London-Seattle, a 3 day ferry ride from Washington, and 13 hour drive north through the Yukon Territory... to start work at my new short-term assignment at a private SLP & OT clinic in Fairbanks. Yes, they had me start the moment I arrived at 11am today, all my belongings still in my car! So again I must apologize for not updating - I've been internet and cell phone deprived for over a month! If you're mildly interested, utterly bored, or dutifully procrastinating, I'll put more details with pictures about my northernly adventures in my private blog.

For now, at least you can enjoy a couple videos. The first is of a typical scene where 23 bodies crammed into Emmanuel's car (which was named after me last year, as you can see pasted on the back window). He doesn't drop them all home, but gives 19 children rides on the way to his own home after Sirua Aulo school lets out, so it saves these kids 30-45 minutes of walking.



This second is another that makes me smile. I am telling 12 year old Susan Adiambo (which means "born in the evening" in the Luo language. They nicknamed me "Akinyi", which means "born early in the morning"), who is an orphan but adopted informally by my host family, that she will get to be sponsored from now on. The thing is, as you watch, you may wonder what the big deal is to sponsor an orphan. Yes, Susan is currently fed and sheltered, and is going to school. But with sponsorship, she can go to a boarding school to get quality education and be able to focus on that as her priority, rather than the constant chores of daily living at the home (I've another video of her showing me around the compound, talking about her life; I still need to caption it though, so again please be patient!). She will also be able to go to secondary school (i.e., high school), which is currently still expensive for families to afford.

Some notes before you watch: Patrick and Edwin are the natural sons of Pamela. They both live in Nairobi now, so you see them in city clothes (I made fun of Edwin that when he put on his sunglasses in that outfit he looks like a 'player'... a term he has never heard and tried to find in the dictionary but couldn't...)



Currently working on captioning the video of Pamela explaining Susan's background. I'll load it in the next post, along with information about other children who need sponsorships-- all children with disabilities.