Let's Go Fly A Kite!!

So a little more about this past Sunday--- after I took Malaika to the bus station and the kids had finished their church service, Me, Rachelle, and Jordan took the kids down to the big feild to go and play games. We brought jump ropes, frisbees, bubbles, and a soccer ball. We had a BLAST!. Jordan and Rachelle taught the kids some fun rump rope songs and games and the kids loved it. As usual, the kids are beyond adorable with bubbles--- below are some pictures of little Derricki with his bubbles-- as each bubble floated away, he screamed "BYEEEE!!!" and waved to all of them. It was such a beautiful day outside. I wish there was like a real park with a swing seat or something here. When we were out playing games the other day, I couldn't stop thinking about when my mom and dad used to take me and my older brother, Justin, to parks in Houston-- the pumpkin/cinderella park, the one in Meyerland with the long balance beam looking thing made out of logs and when you tried to walk across it, it wiggled and shook and you had to balance... Then there was the other park with the really high red tower thing that you had to climb up-- if you are reading this and you are from Houston, you KNOW what I'm talking about! I told the kids about these parks and how when we used to swing, my mom used to sing to us. I would sit in her lap and she would sing "Lets go fly a kite up to the highest height and send it soaring up to the atmosphere, up where the air is clear... " Sunday brought back a lot of childhood memories. After the park, I went on my adventure with the kids-- here are pictures! Click on the pictures to make them bigger!!!

Left: Jackie and me 

Right: Jonas and me 

Derricki screaming "bye!" at the bubbles

Jackie and me playing and doing cartwheels! 

Top left: Abdalla, Amani, Baracka, and Me

Bottom left: Baracka and me

Right: Freddie and me

Left: Shedrack "touching the sky" as part of the jump rope game-- song goes "teddy bear teddy bear turn around, teddy bear teddy bear touch the ground, teddy bear teddy bear look up high, teddy bear teddy bear touch the sky!" and the jumper is supposed to do each action as it is said

Right: Rachelle, Jordan and me twirling the rope for the kids

left: Pendo and me walking down our bumpy African road

Top right: Me pretending to be Rafiki from Lion King and holding Pendo up like Simba

Bottom right: me being goofy with little peanut

THE BOYS!!! Here are some pictures of my beautiful, wild and crazy children on our adventure last Sunday-- Shedrack, Jonas, Lucky, Dominique, Baracka, Abdalla, Amani, James, and Tumaini!

Top left: me, thigh deep and in my clothes, in the freezing cold river holding the fishing net...

Bottom left: one of the Tuleeni dogs, Chapati, laying in the grass watching all of us in case anyone fell in-- being a loyal dog as all dogs should be :)

Right: MY FAVORITE PICTURE I HAVE TAKEN THIS WHOLE TRIP... ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED WITH THIS SHOT. THE BOYS LOOK GREAT AND IT REMINDS ME SO MUCH OF ONE OF THESE "LITTLE RASCAL" TYPE MOVIES... THE BOYS AND THE DOG ON AN ADVENTURE

Every couple of days, a cow is slaughtered at the little stake behind the orphanage-- after dinner one night, I walked behind the house and the cow was already there to be slaughtered in the morning-- which breaks my heart but the kids and families around here HAVE to eat... anyways, here is me petting the cow and loving him before his not so lovely fate in the morning...

This picture was taken at Mama Jacobo's little restaurant which I eat at daily. starting on the left is Baba Juma, then Mama Jacobo, then me, then Mama mdogo, and then Robati-- his name is Robert but everyone calls him Robati. They have been teaching me to cook Tanzanian food and here, I am rolling out dough to make chapati. 

 Here we all are again together. They are like another family to me here besides Tuleeni-- and they look out for me and Pendo all the time. I love them.