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Published: February 16th 2009
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The gorgeous sky
This was taken in the Massai Mara Game Reserve. I’m finally sitting down to update, and hopefully put up some more pictures. It’s been a pretty eventful past couple weeks, I’ve been on my toes!
Michelle moved in Feb. 6th and I absolutely love her. She listens to Regina Spektor, (my absolute favorite artist), plays Set which is our long time family game, and loves the Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack which I also love. We are so similar in such unique ways! We work really well together and connect so well. She is wonderful.
So, when I moved back to Agape and Laura had just moved in. She volunteered here a little while ago and came back to help start up a new volunteer program. Margaret and Oliver want to start their own firm here so that volunteers can come straight here instead of going through a program with a bunch of registration fees. I was interested right away to help out, so we started visiting some potential placements that we could send volunteers to. One we went to visit is called Back to Eden and it is a rescue center for children who have been abandoned by their families. I knew right away that it would be
James and Me
This is James, he is one of the boys that live at the centre. He is such a sweetheart, and an amazing dancer! heartbreaking… The kids were beautiful, and all so little. I don’t think I saw one there who was over 6 or 7. The place was really nice, they all had rooms with their bunks and blankets. They were so quiet and sad looking, Laura and I just hung out with them for a little while and I just had such a hard time understanding how these kids were not wanted, how someone could possibly leave them to die somewhere… they were just incredible. I left there feeling pretty emotional, and am planning to go back and visit them a couple times for sure.
Another place we ended up visiting was a street family rehabilitation centre. The story how we ended up getting their in the first place is pretty crazy… This little girl named Teresea went missing from her house in November of last year, and her mother was pretty sure that her Aunt had taken her. She had no idea where or if she was okay and she hadn’t seen her since then. Teresea used to go to Agape, so that’s how we got involved. So Marg and Teresea’s mum found a lead as to where she was,
Kim's Afro
This is my host sister who is absolutely charming. so we took off to try and find her. We traveled way across Nairobi taking many different matatus and busses, asking all these different people if they had seen the aunt or the girl till FINALLY we end up at this rehabilitation centre where someone said she was. Thank God she was there, we were so happy to see her and she was incredibly happy to see us. This place was really interesting and also very sad. All the kids that were there had been found on the street and some of them were no older than 2. It was pretty unbelievable… We brought Teresea back home and now she is living with us because her home is not suitable for her to be living in. She is such a sweetheart, I can’t believe how wonderful she is! She helps out in the house an incredible amount, I told her the other day that I’ve never met a girl her age (13) who works so hard!
Other than working on the volunteer program, Michelle and I have been starting up a sponsorship program for the kids at Agape. We are trying to get up profiles online for each of
Beautiful Boy
This is taken at the street children rehabilitation centre. the orphans at the center and then after that we will put up profiles for the other children who need sponsors. So, if you’ve ever thought about sponsoring a child please let me know! I can send you pictures and tell you all about them. I also know that it’s a legitimate organization and that these kids really need the help.
We built a two room building at Agape! This was all thanks to the donations from everyone! The orphan boys now have a home to call their own and a safe place to sleep every night. I wish you could all be here and see it, it’s making a big difference and it’s so neat to see that.
There is a little girl at the Agape named Zippy and she is the most wonderful little girl I’ve met. She doesn’t go to school at the centre but her dad is the caretaker there so they live there. She is two years old and sadly, is not taken care of whatsoever. She is always filthy and her shoes are too small for her. Her mother works during the day so I haven’t met her, but apparently she is
Michelle and Me
Infront of the Rift Valley with my wonderful house mate. very mean hearted. Her father is just completely useless and doesn’t have any idea of how to take care of her. She is developing very slowly; I think I’ve only heard her speak a word or two the whole time I’ve known her. Everyday I get to the centre I see her across the compound and shout “Hey Baby!!!” and she totters over with this gorgeous smile on her face. I spend the day cuddling her and playing with her. You would never feel happier if you saw this little girl smile…
I had to take an unfortunate trip to the hospital on Friday night. I have been feeling sick lately, nothing too extreme, just a bit dizzy, lack of appetite sort of thing. But then Friday I started getting a really high fever and my neck was pretty achy, so off to the hospital we went! Michelle and Oliver came with me as well as another volunteer named Josh who is such a sweetheart. He’s been to the hospital with other people around 4 times so he knew the ropes. They were pretty good there, although I am not impressed with this whole healthcare costs money! We are
Lake Nakuru
A gorgeous view of Lake Nakuru so fortunate in Canada to have free healthcare, my goodness! Next time the wait takes forever in the hospital… just think, at least it’s free! So, they did a bunch of tests for malaria, typhoid and some other scary diseases but I didn’t come up positive for any of them. I was so relieved! They gave me some meds and I headed home. I’ve been feeling gradually better, which is good. I went up to Hell’s Gate this weekend and basically just spent the whole time in bed! It was still really nice to spend time with the other volunteers, and the sight I could see from the campsite was gorgeous.
I met a wonderful woman named Anena at Hell’s Gate who volunteered before and has come back to live here! She’s 32 and is starting up a really good HIV/AIDS volunteer placement. I think Michelle and I are going to give up living in Mombasa and go live with her mid March because it’s much more stable than the program they’ve got going on out on the coast, which I don’t really know enough about. It would be a blast to live with her, a bunch of other
Looking at the Lake
Another one of Micha and I, looking out at Lake Naivasha. awesome volunteers are moving in too so it will be a great way to end my time here. I can do a mix of AIDS work and there is an orphanage near by that I can work at too.
That’s all for now! I’ll try to be more frequent in the future, sorry about that.
Remember, if you’re interested in sponsoring let me know!
Much love and thanks,
Inki
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