The end is near: Finale, Openings and Goodbye

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Ok its been a while since I've given you an update. So much has happened in the past two weeks. We finished our goat farm, opened the farm and the children's center, said goodbye to Odede and went on Safari.
The last week was to be a busy week. On the Monday we split in two groups, half heading down to the goat farm to try to get as much done towards finishing it, the other group (with me in it) went up to the Child Rescue Center (now called the Child Development Center) to paint the kids dorm rooms and make them a little more homely.
Other groups went on later days and we painted alphabets, number lines, flowers and ladybugs for counting, a tree with a monkey, elephants, giraffes and flowers. It was amazing to see how much of a difference the paintings made. They went from really boring blank rooms with bunk beds (although there were wonderful colourful sheets and mozzie nets) to really fun and bright rooms that encourage learning and imagination.
The goat farm was not quite finished by the end of Monday so we had the last few parts o the fence to finish on Tuesday but I went back into Kisumu with Hannah and Alysha to organise some supplies for creating Blackboards for the local school. The school teacher has 100 kids at 3 different year levels and teaches them all from 2 old style blackboards that are probably no bigger than a metre square. There are about 60 chairs but no tables so its hard for them to do any pencil and paper work, even when they do have books and pencils to work with. My idea was to get 100 individual blackboards made, one for each student, so that she could have each child working on something even when they dont have stationary. We manages to find wooden clipboards that would be perfect to paint with blackboard paint. We managed to get blackboard paint, brushes, the 100 clipboards and 1500pcs of chalk for less than AUS $90.
After we got back from Kisumu we were straight back to the worksite, no rest for the wicked, but there were only the last few finishing touches. The Opening was due for the next day so we had to get it finished. We worked up until 6.30 (2hrs longer than normal) but it was worth it because we finally finished it!! It is the largest single goat farm in all Kenya! We were so proud!
Wednesday we had the opening. We had a number of other people come, some of whom had come across for the opening of the children's center, who had all donated money or goats to the project. Most of the people were from B1G1 (look it up people its a fantastic concept, you will hear about it from me non stop when i get back!).
The opening was filled with joy and happiness. The women came down with the goats singing and dancing and chanting. They danced around all the pens and were singing praises and thanks to God. There were a few speeches made which were really good they recognised all the work everyone had put in and really acknowledging the impact the farm with have on the community in years to some. Some were really touching and i had quite a few tears in my eyes.
After the opening we headed over to the ECD (the school) to worm all the kids and to give them the blackboards that we had painted up. Beryl (the teacher) was very appreciative of the blackboards, she joked she would never need to use the main board for the kids again, she would make them write everything on their own!
That night we went up to the children's center to socialise with the rest of the 'white folk' who were in town and to talk more with Masumi Sato and Paul Dunn, the co-founders of B1G1. They were fantastic and very inspirational.
Thursday was another big day, we were up super early (5am) to visit the Rangala Children's Home, a home for children who had been abandoned or whose families are unable to look after them. Some of the children were so little and all of them were craving attention, but i was really glad to hear that most of the children are returned to their families before the children turn 3. Most of the 50 children that are in the house had lost their mothers during their birth and their fathers were unable to raise them. There are around 18 children there that had been abandoned by their families who were in the home until they could be fostered out to another family.
It was pretty emotional knowing that there weren't enough people really working in the home, the children were not at risk, but the workers and employees couldn't really give them all the love and affection that children normally receive. One of our group is working there right now for the next 2 mths as an OSP volunteer for WYI.
Friday was the BIG day, and our last day in Odede. The Children's Development Center opening was a large and official opening with lots of speeches. It really wasnt as colourful, or as joyful as our opening but they had invited many important people in the area and it had been a project that had been ongoing for almost 2 years so it was expected to be formal. There was entertainment from some of the kids singing and the women dancing but mostly the day was about the speeches.
We really tried to make the day last as long as possible because once we left the center we would have to say our goodbyes. It was really hard to say goodbye to many of the people in the village, Nancy, the social worker had done so much for us, Fred our in-country manager was incredible and Grace, who was the most beautiful person and best cook in Odede!
Ok i think im going to leave it there, i know that there is so much more to tell you but this post is long already, so i might wait until i get to Knoxville to update you for the last bit of Kenya and the US so far.

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