Rift Valley Academy and Good Shepherd

What a fabulous Saturday spent at the orphanage!!!  A group of 12 students from the Rift Valley Academy (RVA) in Kijabe came to Good Shepherd to help finish the sack gardens, plant some additional seedlings, move the boys to the dormitory and generally have fun with the kids.  We had a great introduction first of songs, skits and "hellos".  Every time we do this the kids always have new song to present and this day we even had a song competition.   Picture is included.  Sorry RVA students, the winner was Good Shepherd.  It's pretty hard to beat 18 screaming kids at the song they love the best.  From there we broke RVA into three groups.  One was to retrofit the old classroom to a boys dormitory.  The second group worked on planting the last 3 rows of drip feed.  And the last group worked on additional 4 sack gardens. 

One of the pressing issues at Good Shepherd was that all 18 children from ages 3 to 12 slept in the same 6 bunk beds.  Now this might not be such a big problem but it's a combination of boys and girls.  And as you can imagine there have been some problems with boys and girls being well.....boys and girls.  So we took a seldom used classroom and went to work.  First, we put up plywood siding on the obvious gaps in the walls so that the wind did not come through.  Second, we replaced 6 metal sheets on the roof with new ones to stop leaks when it rains.  Lastly, some small additions like a new lock and concrete to cover big gaps in the floor.  The group of 4 boys who helped did an amazing job.  Working tirelessly to fit the siding, lay the concrete and get the room prepared/cleaned.  I have included a pictures of the roof off and all the boys in their bunk beds.  Precious!!!!  Funny, the really young ones you can see on the right side of the picture were a bit scared.  Trying to figure out the new digs and get their minds around the a sudden change in their home.  The older boys seemed pretty excited to have a new "boys club".  I think over the next few weeks they will settle in nicely and Really like the space.  We did not have enough money to do this project but it was important to me.  So I funded it to make sure it was done immediately.  But there are still some needs.  We need to finish the siding and paint the room so it looks more homely.  That will come and if anyone out there is interested in helping it should not be much, not more that $100.  So let me know if you feel the calling.

The second major area was to complete the drip feed systems and get even more sack gardens set up.  This is a great impact to the orphanage. It increases the productivity of the garden and allows them to be more self sustained.    The RVA kids had never seen this technology and were all excited to learn and jumped right in completing the job that would have taken Rocky and I many days.  They did it in one..  I have included some pics of the garden as it stands now, the sack gardens and the children helping.  It still amazes me how they always WANT to help.  They like working along side us, learning and just being shown that someone really cares for them.   Again, a huge thank you goes out to RVA.  You did a great job!!!!!

And we did also have some art time and the RVA group worked with the children to make a bunch of educational photos.   We tried to focus them this time on hygiene.  This seems very simple but they are lessons that most of these children have never been exposed to as no one has taken the time to show them.  Lessons like how to wash hands before eating, brush your teeth, wash every day and keep your area clean.   Simple examples but so integral to daily life.  These will also keep the children from getting sick so often and keep the facility cleaner.  I included a pic of the children working at some art.  I also included a picture of Cyrus.  Of course once the children get markers the paper is not the only canvas.  Many had drawn on their own faces.  (that is not blood on his face it's red marker).    We even had boys coming up to us and lifting up their shirts to show entire drawings on their bellies.   So hilarious!!!!!!

Thanks again for RVA, Rocky, Ken, Mwaniki and Alison for good days work.  Without you it would have never been possible.