.
July 31, 2015
We have several volunteers right now. Pepe, who comes each August, and Kara, who is is part of the Princeton in Africa Program, are both volunteering in the village. This week we had a volunteer come for the village. Richelle has been volunteering at the village for the past two months left to continue her studies in Ireland.
I spent a lot of time this week helping to prepare our 21 Children to go to Ireland. Sr. Emily and I worked to get all their bags packed and Protus spoke with them about their passports and travel. Before dinner on Thursday, the children met with Protus, Helen, and myself for a final review and then with Sr. Mary for their final blessing. After dinner we boarded the bus and arrived at the airport at 7 P.M. Sr. Emily, Mungai, and I watched from outside as they got through the ticket line and checked their baggage. By 8 P.M. all was done and we thought they were ready to go but the British Airline (BA) person said she needed to check to see if they needed transit visas to go through the London airport. At 9:30 P.M. she confirmed that they did and they since didn’t have them, they couldn’t fly to London. BA could do nothing to help since it was UK law. We couldn’t believe it since Protus had checked early in the week and had been told they did not. I’d already notified Protus and he was on his way to see what he could do. In the meantime, we got the children back on the bus so they could sleep and Helen, Knight, and I waited outside the terminal for Protus. He arrived, worked for hours, and was able—by hard work and some kind of miracle—to get the visas. However, the gates were closed so the children couldn’t get on the plane. They were very disappointed but we prayed when we got on the bus to go home and knew that they would go eventually—just didn’t know when. To cheer the kids up, Protus gave me money to get food on the way home. We stopped at Pizza Inn for pizza and soda. There was a 250 shilling special and we just had enough money to cover the kids. They woke up to the smell of individual chicken and beef pizzas and loved them. We arrived home at 1:30 AM. The next day Protus went to BA to see about the tickets and we are now waiting to see when they can fly to Ireland.
August 10, 2015
Terrific news! After a lot of hard work, we were able to get our children off to Ireland. The first group of 12 led by Helen and Knight left on Sunday evening and the second group of 12 led by Peter and Brigit left on Monday. Say a special prayer for Geraldine, Dermot, and all those who made this trip possible. The children will return home on August 20.On Friday night the Adoration Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament had the children pray for me and on Saturday morning they had Mass celebrated for my intention. Saturday evening Srs. Ann, Little, Emily, Teresa, and Elizabeth--who is closely associated with the sisters--had a special jubilee dinner for me. Sr. Mary and Protus also joined in the celebration. The sisters decorated, prepared lots of good food, baked a delicious cake, and gave me a beautifully wrapped present and a bouquet of roses. What more could anyone want! They are so sisterly towards me. I deeply appreciated all they did to make this such a great celebration. I loved being able to celebrate with my Nyumbani family. I am still working on two more jubilee celebrations—one with the Nyumbani children and one with the staff!
Sr. Julie celebrated her 50th jubilee with the sisters with whom she works.
Sr. Julie shows off the gift and flowers she received from the sisters.
Our primary School children finished school today and our high school students are returning home. The kids will be free to relax this weekend. Our Holiday Program will begin on Monday. This should also be a relaxing time for them. They will have library, computer, and art classes, a little time for service, and time to play outdoor games. Pray that the weather gets a little bit warmer. It is winter here and it has been pretty chilly most of the week.
I took Mungai to Dr. Serah to check out how well he is hearing with his CI. That young man knows everything he needs to know about how to program it. He clearly answered any question the audiologist asked him. I’m so proud of him and I am sure Tomi and Jeff would be too. The only sad news is that since his CI is so old we might not be able to get replacement rechargeable batteries. The rechargeable ones are expensive but they actually save us a lot of money. Let’s hope Doctor Serah comes up with some good news.
Week 1 of our Holiday Program ended with an Olympic Basketball Team Game in the afternoon. We had two teams: Blue and Green. Collins and Paulo, two of our Kenyan University students, got our teams together. Thomas captained the Blue Team and Christine G the Green Team. Sr. Mary was our head cheerleader. Aoife from Ireland was our score keeper. The Blue Team won and got their medals and candy and the Green Team got their Olympic rings and candy. There was some complaining about the officiating but I thought I did a great job! On Friday we will have our Nyumbani's Got Talent Show! I’ll let you know how it goes.
John and Sam are working on shading with the art group. Some of our students, like Canary and Nicholas, have real artistic talent. Ivan is introducing some new information on computers and is testing the class. The students keep telling me about the percentage they got right. They love learning new things about the computers. In the library we have been working on reading and learning how to write brief book reports. We have also done a little work on letter writing and some grammar. Jackie and her friends are doing well with the high school students, especially Form 4s. The teenagers seem anxious to learn and to get help with the assignments they need to complete while on break. In Self-Reliance Training the topic is preparing budgets. It’s is an important topic, not just in helping to set up a business but also in budgeting for their daily lives.
This week Laura P. will be traveling to Switzerland to meet her relatives. Her father was Swiss and she’s excited about meeting her family. Our former volunteer and long-time friend Alex helped to arrange this and will travel with her.
Before they left for Switzerland, Laura (right) and Alex attended the Swiss National Day Celebration and Laura meet people who knew her father.
Please continue to pray for us as we pray for you!
Sr. Julie
