Tuesday, July 6th -- Joining of Nations

This morning I woke up went for a run and then went to 7:15 am mass. After mass, I made myself a cup of chai tea and then went to the market with Father Kevin and Julia. This market was just outside of town. Earlier in the week, I walked to the market in Kiboswa to buy vegetables with Julia, Benta (one of the cooks at the school), and Sister. It was a 25 minute walk in each direction. Kiboswa is higher is higher on the hill than the school so we walked uphill along the highway first. Both markets are quite an experience. Today was different though. As we were driving in the Dominican van about 100 yards away from the house, 9 little children under the age of 6 who live down the street ran in front of the van. We opened the side door and all 9 of them piled in. We now had eight of us squeezed into the back seat. The children were laughing uncontrollably and waving their arms in the air as if they were on a roller coaster for the first time. Their ride in the van for the short 100 yards made their day, maybe even their week. Although this was the first time I experienced this with them, Father Kevin said they do this at every chance they get.

Back at school, I helped teach Form 4 English with Madame Dorothy. Every example the students gave in class of different sentence structures somehow involved "Patricia and Julia." After school, we interviewed a handful of the secondary students who are not sponsored. They were able to give us more biographical information than the primary students. Listening to each of their stories has given me even more admiration for them. The courage that they have for sharing their stories and confiding in us.

Tonight at dinner, the Arch Bishop along with 26 others of the Dominican community in Kenya came for dinner. The motive behind this dinner was to introduce the sisters who are new at OLG to the Arch Bishop. I enjoyed talking to some of the Sisters from the Philippines who are not stationed by Mount Kilamanjaro but were visiting along with a few of the Franciscan sisters from Kenya. The sisters by Mount Kilamanjaro run an AIDs clinic that offers free testing and counseling. They work with many Peace Corps volunteers from the United States. Dinner with people from Mozambique, Angola, Kenya, the Philippines, Uganda, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and New York was an awesome experience. People from all parts of the world joined together in Kisumu to fulfill their mission. Now that everyone here including the children know that we leave in 5 days, they are all trying to convince us to stay here for at least another year!