July 20, 2007

Today we got up, had breakfast, and headed to the orphanage (that turned out to be about 3 hours away). On the way we stopped in this small village that had a “soap stone” craft market. Apparently Kisii is the only place you can find soap stone and they are known worldwide for it. We saw rock quarries where they were digging it out. It is hard but still soft enough to carve really easily. Needless to say there was tons of really cool stuff and I bought a lot of it (it was really cheap), so much in fact that I am kicking myself for it. I have no idea how I will manage to carry it around Kenya, much less all the way home. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was enthralled by it all. Whoops. Lesson learned. Buy all heavy things at the end of the trip-not at the beginning.

Afterwards we continued on our journey to the orphanage. It was a long drive. The roads here are rocky and uneven (unlike in Uganda where it is just muddy and uneven) so it makes for a harder trip.  

Once we got there we got a tour of the place. It was actually really nice. They had started with just mud huts, but now they have permanent cement really nice and clean boys and girls dormitories. They are still are trying to raise funds to build a permanent dining hall, office, kitchen, ect. The kids were super fun, they couldn’t play for very long because they were taking their exams. But we still had time to sing, dance, and play some games. They taught me a confusing clapping game that was similar to what we used to do in grade school. It was a lot of fun. We ate lunch and then we had to leave. On the way we stopped at this Seventh Day Adventist Secondary School and College where Festus went for school. He was born in Uganda but his sponsors sent him to Kenya during Eddiamen's time. After that we came back to the house and are trying to get ready to leave for Nairobi tomorrow morning. It is a 6 hour taxi ride. I’m not really looking forward to it - especially not hauling around those stones.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSIE!!!!!