The life the children have is so very different. There are no electronic gadgets to be entertained with, tv, or after school activities. There are no choices in what you can eat or what you want to wear. There are no movies or stories before you go to bed and no mother to comfort you when you wake up in the middle of the night. But despite the differences there are also similarities and boys will be boys.

There are 7 boys here all around 7-8. They get up at the same time, get dressed in their school uniforms and wait upstairs in their rooms until called down for breakfast

Breakfast may be a bit different then what your children eat for breakfast. Here they have chai tea and a root vegtable. They get some crakers as a snack but most of them are eating it on their way to school.

The children wear uniforms to school. Standard is a button down shirt, sweater and pants for the boys. It is the same for the girls but they wear a skirt. There is only one uniform for children so it is kept as clean as possible.

I was asked to walk them to school giving the Aunties a little head start on the day chores. The school is only up the street and as you can see running in the gutter is fun anywhere it is.

They get home for lunch and as many young boys need to do is nap before the afternoon play time. Even laying on a blanket on the floor they were fast asleep.

The nap gave Tom and I the chance to continue working on tiling without interruption from the kids but that did not last too long as one by one they came and found us and wanted to be part of the action. They just wanted to play with that mud!

As the crowd grew it signaled to me to take the boys upstairs to the play room and out of Mr. Tom’s hair. Books, coloring and making a car out of an old suitcase was the activity of the afternoon. I downloaded some music and had a sing-a-long to the Lion King.

Even here the boys have their chores. This little guy made sure the steps were cleared before dinner.

After dinner of rice and chipati for everyone there is more time for cheza and what little boy doesn’t use his imagination to make a rocket out of an old box.

The night ends with all the children gathering in one room to sing praises to the Lord and thank him for the blessing of all the wonderful things they have in their life and the people that love and care for them.

I will be doing the same tonight.

And now an update on Mr. Tom — or should I say my hero. For he worked on the shower head and we have warm water for the first time since getting here. In addition to tiling the floor he also serves as great entertainment to the children. Once a papa always a papa.