Sunday morning we set our alarm for 8:00 o clock in order to arrive on time to the 8:30 church service held in the rescue center's dining hall. We must have still been jet lagged, because once again, we woke up to the girls calling to us, "Abigail! Shira! It's time for church! Come! Don't miss church! Come! Don't be late for church!" We could tell that this was Vivian, because for some reason, she has a mixture of a british and swahili accent (of all the girls, she speaks the best english although she's only nine years old). We jumped out of bed and threw on the first clothes we could find. We were worried that we would be in trouble, so we speed-locked the five padlocks (which we're getting very efficient at), and sprinted to the dining hall. Forty-six girls joyously singing and dancing in Swahili was very different from what we had expected. After their services, while we were waiting for some visitors from a local church to come, the girls put on a spontaneous talent show for us. It was mostly singing and dancing, and we were amazed by how talented they all were. One girl, Catherine, who coincidentally reminds us of our friend Kathryn (shout out to our girl), was an exceptionally good dancer. It was heartwarming to see how excited the girls all were to perform for us.
Today Francis, the Rescue Center's "preacher" who's been so helpful to us during our stay, accompanied us into Machakos town where we met his cousin Lucy. Every single person we've met here in Kenya so far has been exceptionally friendly and loving towards us, even just random people that we will only meet once. However, we immediately felt a strong connection to Lucy. She founded an NGO that supports Kenyan orphaned children living with HIV/AIDS. She started the NGO because she lost her sister to AIDS and it pained her to see the hardships that her nieces and nephews experienced after they lost their mother. It turns out that she got a scholarship to Harvard University and will most likely be going there for three years in the fall of next year. When she found out that we are from Massachusetts, she was so excited to know at least two people in the states. Both of us were struck by her strong drive to help people and how welcomed and comfortable she made us feel.
This afternoon we decided to pull out some of the supplies that people generously donated for us to bring for the girls. We brought all the girls into one of the classrooms and gave each one piece of paper and colored pencils. For the first half an hour, we couldn't even hear our own thoughts. Every which way the girls were calling our names to ask for more pencils, excitedly showing us their drawings, and bringing carrying in more chairs from other classrooms. Once one of us drew a "maua" (flower) on Felista's paper, all the other younger girls kept rushing up to us, asking us to draw houses, flowers, or "love" (a heart) on their papers. Some of the girls who cannot tell us apart would tug on our sleeves saying, "inzungu!" and proudly display their drawings.
Have you played the guitar for them yet?
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