Hey Guys!

Well we've officially finished another week of school at Peace Matunda! The picture included in this post is of our class. We did a lot of arts and crafts this week, including face masks! Activities really seem to keep the kids focused and we can work more one on one as we go around the room, which has helped us to get to know the kids a lot better I think. Even some of the little ones are beginning to use more English around us now, which is really exciting. One little boy, Abdiel (I think there's a picture of him in a past post) hasn't said much besides "Teacher" followed by a lot of kiswahili in the past. Yesterday, Michael was in the middle of teaching and Abdiel screamed out, "Teacher, I love you!" and then today he would not stop giving me kisses on the cheek! Another little one, Sandy, we say is like a 25 year old trapped in a 2 year old's body, because she just does her own thing all the time and is probably more independent than I am. The only English she knows is "teacher" and she doesn't really like to be held or touched or anything. But today, she came over and grabbed my hand...doesn't sound like much, but keep in mind that these kids don't even know what a hug is! We're still working hard to get the kids to be able to identify the letters of the alphabet, but I think it's slowly going to start to sink in for a lot of them.

The other picture included in this post is from our trip to the waterfall that we mentioned last week. We were just finally able to get the picture to load! It doesn't really do it justice in terms of how pretty it is up here, but we thought we'd at least try to show you. If it doesn't rain in the next day or so, we're going to try to go back again this weekend. June marks the beginning of dry season here, so it will be nice to not deal with mud on a daily basis. Although, it has been nice to fall asleep to the sound of rain on the big banana leaves outside our house each night.

I know some of you have asked about the food situation, so I'll talk about that a little bit too! We eat a LOT of rice and potatoes here. Most things are cooked in a tomato and carrot base, but I personally don't think very much has flavor here. They don't eat really anything in terms of meat besides beef, which is normally in small amounts. I don't mind the beef, but Michael has become a vegetarian for the trip. I've learned to put ketchup on my rice, I know it sounds disgusting, but I need some flavor! Michael and Amanda learned how to make popcorn on the stove top the other night, and that has been a nice treat! We're definitely lucky where we are, because we have enough to eat every time we sit down at the table. We have toast each morning for breakfast (with peanut butter to get some protein) and then we have lunch around 1pm and dinner around 8pm. We also have tea and "biscuits" at 10:30am and 6pm. I just drink water, which is boiled each day and then frozen so that it is safe for us volunteers to drink. My favorite meal here has been "chips" which literally are home-made french fries, and I've also learned to eat mashed potatoes finally! Meals are definitely different here because the potatoes and rice are the main courses of the meals, rather than meat like we all are used to. Unfortunately, all the kids in the area aren't as lucky as our kids are, so it has become tradition for the volunteers to buy bananas every day to take to the kids for a snack. We get 40 bananas for a dollar and twenty cents! Ukrop's is ripping you guys off! And it cracks me up after we finish bananas, because we pile all the peels on to a big round metal plate, one of the kids sets it on their head, and heads down the path to feed the cows!

So, things are good here. We miss you all a lot, but we're having a really great time here! It's hard to believe we left the U.S. two weeks ago already! For now, we are just trying to make the most of every moment. If we sit still too long and let ourselves think about the situation that we will be leaving behind when we come home, it is hard not to get upset. But, the people up here all seem so happy and they all have so much hope, so we're trying to adopt that outlook as much as we can. People actually say "Hakuna Matata" here all the time!

Keep the kids at our house in your thoughts, 2 just got over a fever/bug, and 3 more have it today...it seems to pass really quickly, but that still leaves 4 kids to get it since they share just about everything. We know they're already in your thoughts and prayers though, and we really appreciate knowing you all are behind us!

Love,

Kasey