The girls are loving ultimate frisbee, although they do ocassionally use the frisbees to carry pumpkin guts. This is the field that we play in-the view from it is absolutely beautiful. You can see all the Machakos farmland below.

In the past couple days we've had a lot of long conversations with the manager and guidance counselors of the rescue center about the case history of certain girls. The girls come from three different backgrounds. Some have been either seperated from their parents or their parents have died. Others have been abused by family members and taken away by the police, or neglected and abandoned by their parents. A few were victims of forced early marriage (these girls are only 11, 13, and 14 years old). Finding out many of the girls' pasts has been really hard for us, but definitely necessary to understand them better. It's amazing to see that they can still be so cheerful and loving despite their extremely difficult pasts. We've also been learning about where the girls go from here. This Rescue Center is somewhat temporary because its main purpose is to locate any family members and reunite the girls with them. When family is located, it's still hard to determine whether they'll treat the girls well and be able to support them. If the center is unable to locate family members, the future of the girls is very uncertain. Sometimes girls have had to stay here until they get married. As Francis has told us, the Kenyan government doesn't value girls education and therefore makes it expensive for them to pay for schooling. Two girls, whose grandmother has been located, have expressed their worry to us that if they go to live with her, they won't be able to get a proper education because she can't afford it.
Tonight we're eating dinner with the girls for the first time because they're serving rice. Everyone's really excited to eat something different from beans and corn mashed together!