Sorry everything is out of order in this!

This is Chayla, from the Nest Orphanage which we visited on Saturday. She was soo cute, and she held my hand a lot. She was very shy at first, but then I would smile at her, and I could see her smile too and look down. When I was taking a video, I would see her light up whenever I pointed it at her. Even when I was looking away, I could see her looking at me from the corner of my eye, so I tried to get to know her a little better. As you spend more time with each kid, they become more attached to you, even if it's only a few minutes. Because there's so many kids, they don't get the same attention as if they were with their own family. The kids crave and love it when you just smile or wave at them. This makes their day, which just amazes me.

Saying goodbye to all the children at the Nest Orphanage. They sang us songs and it made me smile a lot.

This is from the Kwa-Njenga slum. As I was walking along the path, I was trying to avoid all of the muddy spots, and trying not to fall into the stream of poop-sludge. Even though I already knew it, I was thinking about how sad it was so dirty everywhere and that people have to live in all this filth all the time. As I'm thinking about the dirt, I turn the corner just to find this boy SITTING IN IT. And I guess I saw this often, but it didn't really hit me until I saw him just sitting there, playing with these small sticks. He was just sticking them upright in the mud, making a rectangular shape. This honestly doesn't sound very fun to me, but this is his life. The people don't really have toys like we do in America, or things to entertain them in the ways we imagine. Seeing this boy playing with the sticks just made a lot of things in America to seem really extravagant, and kind of flamboyant.

Outside of the school some kids were dancing which was really cute!

This is Lillian. She didn't belong to the Comido school, but she was very very sweet and loved getting her picture taken. She was really shy at first but then opened up.

Okay so this was kind of awkward. We were watching a kind of rewards ceremony at the Comido school since it was their last day, and this little girl came up to us and would sit in our lap. She was very very cute, but then she went back to her mom and when she came back, she started making this face at us. I laughed, but it kind of made of feel awkward since I didn't know what to do...
As we were walking out of the slum I saw this little kid. A lot of the kids have this expression on their face, and I don't really know how to describe it quite yet.


This is Clinton who has been at the Farm for about 7 months. He was in my small group when we were talking and he was very easy going and sweet. I thought he only looked about 14 but he's actually 17. I noticed that pretty much all the kids look a lot younger than they are, and I asked Erika why that was, and she said it was because of malnutrition. That just made me really sad. To think how they would look so young and be smaller because of the food they didn't have. And all of them have stories. I didn't get to hear as many as I would've liked, but I'm glad for the ones I did. They tell their stories with such a calm voice like they were just telling something from a story book. But their stories are almost unbelievable. And you just wonder how so much could have so much happen to them in such a short span of years. And how could they be treated like that by their own parents? It is a culture I don't think I will ever understand, but I'm just so glad for the kids who are at the Farm, and I just pray that none of them will run away. It's difficult to imagine that someone would run away from the Farm after such a hard life, but the street life can be so imprinted and comfortable in their minds that they just have to go back. This breaks my heart, because all of them have such potential and potential blessings. Even though we only knew them for about a day and half, I would consider these kids my friends who I care for, worry about and love.



This is Fatima. She is really really sweet and she gave me a head massage.

This is a lot of people's favorite, named Frank. He's about 12 and is really good with cameras! He's really friendly and brave.

This is Ian! He liked Kaili's camera a lot.

Sorry this will be out of order again, but here is a picture from the Mcedo school in the Mathare slum. They were so welcoming and loving and it was just so nice to be there. Even though it is a pretty dangerous slum and it's "worse" I still really felt good about being there. It was amazing to see all these kids absolutely joyful to be there in school. I know a lot of people who hate school and think it's a waste of their time, but these kids love it. It is a privaledge in which they don't take for granted. Even though they have to carry desks up stairs everyday and everything is cramped, they are there to learn. They have so much responsibility as a student in their daily schedule but they always smile and respect their teachers. We were greeted with dances and songs, and I guess it was just like "Wow, they're doing all this just for visitors?" They have so little for themselves, yet so much inside their hearts.


The school provides a meal for all their students! I was looking at the food, and I will admit that it didn't look the most appetizing but the kids here just ate it up. There was so much of it too! They eat about twice as much as I do in a meal, and they eat till the very last bite.

This is a boy in the Kwa-Njenge slum. He didn't go to the school, but he saw us walking and just followed us all the way there. He was really cute, but didn't smile when I took pictures of him. (Sorry this belongs at the top, but it's hard to organize your photos and words on this blog thing).

God is showing me a lot of things this trip. And I know He's working in all of us.