Preparing for an exciting week!!

On the schedule for this week it says "Touring the City" we were all pretty excited about this because we thought it would be a good transition after the Restricks had left.Well all this to say we have only left the campus once.. to paint a church. Elvido met us yesterday morning to take us to the church. Well he told us that it would be a short walk, but it ended up being a two mile walk in really deep sand and on really busy streets. Not my definition of touring the city, but we will take what we can get. When we arrived we sanded the cement building with a group of other men, and then we began painting. When we were finished they of course had a meal prepared for us. This is one of the biggest worries of our ministry is what we are going to have to eat. They served us salad, bread, and tea. I am sure you thinking, "That's not too bad!" You're right, it wouldn't be bad if the lettuce wasn't contaminated from their water. We always get a little worried when they serve us anything that is raw, and of course they stare at you as you eat. The Restricks really encouraged us to try to avoid eating too much of their vegetables so we try to make it look like we are eating a lot, but it does get a bit tiring always being watched.

Besides that, this week we have really been preparing for the next two weeks. We are preparing a "after-school program" for the kids here on the seminary. Since we really cannot talk to them we are going to be doing music, games, crafts, and we will have a snack for them at the end of the day!! We are really looking forward to putting ourselves to work. We plan to do this for two weeks except on Wednesdays of both weeks. On these days we have different assignments on our schedules. On the very last day we plan to have a birthday party for all the kids! They do not get to celebrate their birthdays, and usually don't even know when theirs is, so it will be so great to experience this with them! These past couple of days we have also been sewing dresses and we hope to sew shorts for the boys to give to them on their "birthdays." The sewing machine is giving us problems so we are really hoping that it will be able to last for all of the outfits!

Today we sewed some clothes, and then we baked some cookies and invited the kids over to watch a movie in our living room! They absolutely loved this even though Chicken Run (the movie) was in English. We also pulled out some mattresses that were not being used for them to lay on. They loved it, and it was really a fun thing to do for them.

This week has seemed a little slow, but we are really looking forward to the next couple of weeks. I pray that God will use us to minister to these sweet children through our love for them. I cannot believe I have less than 4 weeks here. I definitely miss home, but I pray that I will enjoy every day while I am here.

Thank you all for your prayers!
Kaylee