Today is Sunday and it is a very honored day in Kenya and at Rehema home. Every child from 4 on up – or who can walk – puts on the one outfit saved for this day and goes to church. For those that donated clothes you might recognize some of the outfits.

Yes, that is me with the 12 children I will be walking about 1.5 miles down the road – and yes back. The two little ones in the front row will be taken by motorcycle. I continue to be amazed at these children, how they behave and treat each others and elders.

It was a hot long walk for all of them – especially the 5 and 6 year olds, but not a complaint or cry. The children go to their classes out in the field next door and the adults go into the church for service (for the first hour) until the children join us (for the second hour).

When the pastor asked if there was anyone visiting, I had a feeling that the color of my skin was going to give me away. The pastor asked Lauren to bring me up on to the front and introduce me so I could tell who I was, where I came from and why I was there. There was someone to interpret for me and with a big round of applause I felt welcomed and blessed.

After church each child takes their outfits off, changes and gives those outfits to Lauren for safe keeping until next week. THEN, each of the kids and me grabbed one of the 9 babies, plopped down on the floor and fed them. Rice and vegetables with a spoon and milk from a cup — infants remember. After lunch and while the babies slept, me and the other kids decided to break out some of the coloring pages and books that you all gave me to bring. It was nice to be still and quiet and see them enjoy the time.

The fun continued — can you guess what Mr. Tom brought?

Well, I won’t drone on about it….(that one was for Paul A) – but I am sure you can tell. Will share some of the footage tomorrow if they don’t crash. When the rains came, we headed in for a movie. I decided to bring a projector and treat the kids to a movie they can see on a wall instead of all 20 of them crowded around a monitor. The children see movies on special occasions and I was given permission to show them one today. Of course the power went out but have no fear, we had alternate entertainment. My Mom and Dan gave me a whole box of beanie babies to bring. We played a “name that animal” game with the kids and when they pronounced the name of the animal in english they received that baby. It was a big hit and brought such joy to each of them.

Donations needed

Now that we are at Rehema Home Bukura, we fully understand what is needed to make the home more comfortable for the kids. The first project we will be working on is tiling the dining room floor, it is currently fully cement and gets very hard to clean, the hard cement floor is also not safe for the kids. We would also like to tile the two nursery rooms and girls rooms. We will not be able to get to those and would like to buy the tile and supplies for them before we leave. We have measured the rooms and figured out the cost of the tiles and materials. We need to raise $1500 to completely tile the dining room floor, plus the nursery and girls rooms. We are asking for support to pay for the costs of materials to complete our mission. 100% of your donation goes to this project and the betterment of the children’s and caretakers’ lives.

Please visit https://www.rehemahome.org/maziwa to help if you can.