Feelin' Groovy

This house is full of projects the past few days!  

Yesterday, Chris and Tammy repaired their friends' tuk tuk before the family's return from the US.

Why pay to have new windows put in, when we have contact paper?!

Chris driving the tuk tuk to the repair shop.

Everyone's shoes

Today, we tie dyed sheets from Agape.  Due to some of the boys traumatic backgrounds, many of them struggle with chronic bed wetting.  We're tie dying the sheets make stains less visible.

 Here, Caleb is starting a fire under one of the sufrias (big metal pots).

Step 1:  Tie rags around the sheets in places to create the pattern.

Hannah and Mama May tying sheets...

The smoke was really suffocating.  Connor was smart enough to come up with a solution.

Lyla and Rachel are working on their smiles.

Step 2:  Place half of the tied sheets into the heated dye.

Step 3:  Ring out the excess liquid and hang to dry.

Jonathan was really bothered by the smoke, but he toughened up throughout the day.

These sheets are dripping until they're flipped to be dipped into another color.

You may remember the Pages blog referring to beef pilau (rice and beef).  We kept referring to this as "sheet pilau".

Protective gear for the smoke, hot water, and dye.  I kept singing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" over and over again in my head.

Caleb, Jonathan, and Jonathan Sr. ringing out the excess liquid

JJ peeking under our clothesline

Sheets and Sufrias

Sutton squeezing the sheets

Dripping Sheets right before this line broke...ooops!!

Random Beautiful flower

Lyla, our little helper

Samuel stirring the sheets...we got lazy and dyed them solid colors.

Hannah is wearing Mrs. Tammy's apron while she and Connor made everyone lunch.

Tammy is working so hard to get new reading programs in place before this school term begins.  

The girls helped her cut out flash cards for a little while.

The gloved crew

Sutton

A praying mantis

The first sheets out of 100 drying in the sun...

We were feeling groovy with all of this tie dye hanging around!

Part of the tie dye crew

The rest of the tie dye crew...thank you to Mama Gladys, Mama May, and Caleb for all of your help!

Besties

My hubby worked hard all day.  We are all pretty drained after this job...

This is one of my favorite designs from the day.

Stained hands

My Redneck <3

Tomorrow we will be rinsing the excess dye off of the sheets, drying them again, and taking them up to Agape.  We have activity period tomorrow afternoon with the boys.  This will probably be our last because school term starts at the beginning of next week and we fly out on Tuesday.

Please continue to pray for all of us.  We are already starting to experience some emotion about leaving.  As you can imagine, we've built pretty strong attachments to these boys, the staff, other missionaries, Kisumu, and of course the Page family!  While we are looking forward to seeing everyone back home, these last few days are going to be difficult and travel home will be exhausting.  Thank you so much for following our journey and praying for us!  We're looking forward to sharing more when we get home.  I'm sure we'll be absorbing experiences from these past few weeks for years to come.  Love to you all! 

Riding on a Piki

Jonathan and I took a ride together on a piki (a motorcyle) today.  That's three people total on one bike.  Here's part of our ride up Ring Road.  I have to say, I may like this better than a tuk tuk!

I am so grateful for this experience...

Photos from the past two days...

Yesterday, I stopped by Agape with Tammy.  It took me a while to find my husband, who'd spent the morning there tutoring boys.  I came around the corner to find him playing volleyball.  This just made me smile!

Evidently his team won, because they were so excited.

Jonathan finally spotted me and came over to find Daniel and I giving our best Luo stares.

LOL  Here is Charles doing his best impersonation of a baboon!!  He thought our story from the safari was so funny.  Can't wait to show him the video tomorrow...

Chore time

Lego time

This is the most intense I've seen the boys.  They love legos.

We love legos tooooooo...

Buddies...Samson and Daniel

RAT attack!!!

We've heard some squeaking from the attic the past few weeks, so the guys set traps.  This is the closest Jonathan will come to hunting in Kenya! ha

They found four dead rats total.  Again, they are our heroes!

Bedtime Monday night...all of Samuel's teeth are still intact.  

Today, I took the older kids for a walk up Ring Road.

Hannah greeting some kids

They were so delighted to see their photo with the our kids.

A Beautiful Boda

We decided to walk all the way to the Nakumatt.  I bought the kids sodas and we took a tuk tuk home.  It was a fun adventure!

Michael's craft store donated model car kits for the boys.  This was a huge surprise for them today, and they did a great job.

Steve and boys following instructions

This activity took almost two hours and the boys enjoyed every minute.

I can't wait to show these photos to the manager at Michael's in Garner that donated all of these cars.

Of course a make shift ramp was constructed!

All of the boys with their model cars...

The boys on break will be returning to Agape this weekend.  These cars will go into the toy storage for  Agape so that all the boys can enjoy the model cars.

Our kids watching Tom and Jerry

All of the boys watching Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry crosses all cultural lines.  It was so fun to watch the boys watch this cartoon!

Love that smile

Rachel...just a swingin

Seth playin in the dirt

Sut chillin by the basketball goal

Jonathan and Sut climbed the b-ball goal.

Jonathan posed for a pic with his friend Daniel that made him this ring.

Brian, Jonathan, and JJ

Story time with Daddy

Will tonight be the night??

Samuel lost his first tooth in Kisumu, Kenya on May 1, 2012!!!

Look at that bloody smile!  His Daddy promised him 500 shillings.  That's big money!  The way we were screaming, the Pages probably thought we'd seen another baboon!

Today, while chatting with David, the guard on duty at Agape, he asked several questions about the US.  He was really interested to know why most Americans own bibles that they do not read and also why our money states "In God We Trust" if some Americans do not put their faith in God.  Those were really good questions.  He said at one point, "Come what may, I know I will always have Jesus.  Even in death, I am His".  I am really glad I chose to greet him and stand to listen rather than just saying hello as I passed by. 

Tomorrow, Tammy and I will be tie dying sheets for the boys dorms at Agape.  I'm sure I'll have pictures of the process to share.  We'll let you know if we catch any more rats too!