school news

Hello everyone!

Lots has happened since our last post. We have two new volunteers at the house - Lin from Vietnam/USA, and Yvonne from Scotland. Kyle and I spoke in Nairobi about outreach to the new group of volunteers. We also visited Kibera - Africa's largest slum. It was huge - like a maze of little shanty houses, each no larger than a small bedroom, and each housed 6-10 people. We were invited into a few of them and spoke with the people living there. It was surprising to see how large the whole place was, but since being at the garbage slum - we didn't feel as shocked by the living conditions as we would have if we had come there straight from Canada.

In other HUGE news, on Monday we took the sponsored kids to their new boarding school - Rockhurst Academy. Last year - three students were able to go. This year, we had fourteen! The three that had been there before, Philip, James, and Winnie were all ready in their uniforms at the slum waiting to get back to the boarding school. They were excited and had the biggest smiles on their faces. The others were excited too, but nervous and not sure what to expect. They got there in a bus with their parent and that's where we gave them all their new things for school - a mattress, bedding, uniform, socks, shoes, soap, mosquito net, study books, pencils... and everything else they will need. The headmaster also had sodas and biscuits for them - this is when they decided they really like school - after getting sweets. The kids from the slum went to the boarding school one day early, so that they could get used their new surroundings and get familiar with their teachers before the other students came. They officially started classes yesterday! Pictures:

Philip, James, and Winnie

Everyone with their parent at the new school!

Me and Mercy

Even in the short time that we were there, we could see that the slum was affecting Mercy's bright personality. We saw her less and less and were told that she starting hanging out with some of the older kids at the slum. It was great to see Mercy at the boarding school - out of the environment of the garbage slum. Her bright smile has returned. Mercy's mother, Elizabeth couldn't come with her to the boarding school because of her arthritis. Elizabeth was diagnosed in 1985, and it has gotten worse since then. She is now barely able to walk. Mercy takes care of her mother, but Elizabeth insisted that Mercy go to the boarding school to try and give her daughter a better life. Mercy was sponsored by the parents of one of the volunteers we met here, Tori. Thanks Tori' Family!

Lucy and Samwell - siblings

Lucy and Samwell were two of the 11 newly sponsored children. Pastor Antony decided to make it his top priority to find them a sponsor to get them away from the slum. Their mother passed away last year from HIV (Gioto has a 45% HIV positive rate) and they have since been living with their aunt in the slum. Their aunt is an alcoholic who beats Lucy and Samwell. As a result, they are both very timid and shy - But it was great to see them at the school, laughing and talking to their new friends. Our friend Erin's parents sponsored both Lucy and Samwell. Our Thanks to Erin's Family!


The money from their sponsorship pays for all of their necessities as well as their school tuition and food while they are at the boarding school. Because some of the things can be reused year after year - like their mattress and bedding, the cost of sponsorship goes down every year. Sponsoring a child for boarding school costs 730 US dollars - there are programs for sponsoring children for cheaper than this but we wanted the kids from the garbage slum to be able to go to a school that has a good record and high standards. This way - we know that they will be given the top quality education that they deserve. The next year of sponsorship - if you would like to be a continuing donor for the child (year after year until that child finishes school) the cost of sponsorship will go down - to about  600 US dollars. This is less than two dollars a day - for an entire year of education, food, and shelter for these children. If you are interested, please visit www.garbageslum.org  . You can also donate for the other projects in the garbage slum (clean drinking water, medical camps...) on Andrew's Website - www.helpingkidsinkenya.webs.com .  There is a PayPal on Andrew's site so you can donate any amount - no matter how small, everything helps. We realize that not everyone can afford to send a child to school. If you choose to donate, and want it to go to a certain place - towards sponsoring a child, towards a feeding program in the slum, towards clean drinking water, or towards medical camps - you can make a memo of that on the PayPal on Andrew's site.

We also started classes at Gioto Sunrise Academy - the school that we have for the children who cannot afford even to go to the cheapest of public primary day schools. Most of the children from the slum that can afford to go to day school go to Prison primary school - the cheapest school in the area. The class sizes are immense, and we worry that many of the kids from the garbage slum are ignored.

Issak, Paris, and Helen - Paris and Helen are in uniforms for Prison Primary day school.

abc's, counting, games, stories, and coloring. The middle range will work of learning reading, writing and math. The more advanced range will be doing creative writing - Today Kyle had them write stories about themselves, and one boy was finished so quickly that he had him write a story about Kyle. It will be interesting to read that one tonight. All of these students will also benefit from the feeding program that is due to start Monday of next week.

Doing storytime with some of the younger kids at our school

Kyle teaching a writing in English lesson as some of the other volunteers provide one on one help.

We are loving it here. It is good to see the kids finally in school, and we are feeling more positive about their future. Education is the key to their success in life.

Our plans for this month are to focus on the school here and establish the feeding program. We have at least two groups of outreach coming - one is this Saturday. We also will go and do another talk to prospective volunteers on the 15th. There is a medical camp scheduled for the 18th. There is also a possibility of an orphanage starting that will take 30 children away from the slum and give them food, clothing, shelter. We will be meeting with Matt, a volunteer who now lives in Kenya, to help him set this up and make sure everything goes through so that the Gioto kids can be taken care of there. The orphanage is being built right now, and will be ready to accept children at the end of February.
Kyle and I also hope to go to Kilimanjaro this month. It is so busy, but hopefully we will be able to after the medical camp at the end of the month.

We love you and miss you all. Thanks for following our blog while we are here. Also, we thank you for all of the messages of support and prayers while we are away.
-Kate and Kyle

just a picture post.

Here are a couple of pictures of us and some of the kids from Gioto.

Balloons!

walking through the garbage to the classroom.

Ryan giving out food at the slum for Christmas - They got beans, flour, and lard.

Hanging on the classroom walls.

Kyle and Charles being silly.

Helen and I - every day, Helen will come shake my hand. She is a good person. 

Some of the kids lined up sitting on the fence.

Thats all for today - we are off to Nairobi to meet the new volunteers and talk about the projects we have going here at the garbage slum.

Hope everything is good back home. Love and Peace.
-Kyle and Kate.

how we spent the holidays.

On Christmas eve, we (the five volunteers staying with Pastor) went out for a fancy meal at one of the restaurants in Nakuru, called the Magic Carpet. It was mostly east Indian food, and I had some awesome palak paneer. Kyle had a chicken dish that was also quite good. It was nice to get away and have a meal together where we were washed and clean.  The boys even ironed their shirts! It was also our first time being out of the house after dark - and everything turned out okay! We have since been out at night twice - again, we are safe!

On Christmas, Pastor asked us if we wanted to go to the national park here - Lake Nakuru. It was beautiful! The lake is famous for having thousands of flamingo and also a few groups of both kinds of rhino. We saw one of each. We also saw zebras, giraffe, lots of different deer/antelope/gazelle, some water buffalo, monkeys, and even a LION! super cool.
Here are some pictures. None of the lion, sorry. We were actually out of the car for when we saw the lion. We were pushing our car which had broken down. Hahaha bad timing. The lion wasn't interested in us though, she was stalking an antelope.

looking over the lake

Giraffe in the wild!

Fixing the tire right after we saw the lion. Andrew and Jeremy are supervising.

Soooo many flamingos!

Their Christmas was a bit different from our traditions. We didnt have a big meal, and we were the only ones who gave gifts. Joy (Pastor's daughter) loved her little shoes that we gave, and Pastor Antony and his wife liked their coffee maker (from Emily) and coffee beans (from us). I was telling my mom about it on the phone and she couldn't believe that they didn't have one. Well, now they do! We will probably have coffee one of these mornings soon - but we usually leave for the slum before everyone in the house is up.

On boxing day, Kyle and myself and Jeremy (another volunteer) went to Menegai Crater. A dormant volcanic crater that was simply amazing. It was so high - we were one the ridge of the crater - and its expanse was huge! A guy who has a shop there told us that the crater has one of the largest calderas in the world. He showed us the volcanic rock, ash gravel, and obsidian that make up much of the crater. We could even see the black area that was the lava flow!  Its last eruption was in 6050 BC. (roughly estimated)

Jeremy pushing me into the crater. Haha

 It was a very cool way to spend the morning. Then we went back home and boxed things up - boxing day! Because the next day, we moved!

We used the skipping rope that we play with at the slum to lower things from our balcony to the moving truck. Haha. Here are some pictures of the moving truck - we were surprised that everything made it there in one piece.  The moving truck guys actually tied everything down with the skipping rope that we use at the slum with the kids.

Our moving system - Andrew and Kyle.

Ready to go!

The new house is quite a bit bigger, and it is in the same compound as a hotel, so we can use their restaurant  - a coke is only 50 shillings, and ice cold!- and their pool. We have yet to go swimming, but maybe today. At our new house we also have a hot shower. It had been exactly one month since our last hot shower, and it felt great! On the sad side of things - Kyle and I have both had upset tummies the last few days, and my sunburn ontop of sunburn is now peeling. ewwww.

January will be a busy month for us. We are going to Nairobi to meet the new batch of volunteers and talk about the projects we have going on at the garbage slum. We will be starting classes Monday - Saturday. A feeding program 3 days a week (to start, it might be five days a week in Feb.) And Kyle and I will be working on another project for the slum. We hope to get a clean water program in place that is more sustainable than paying for a water truck every other week. We want something more permanent - and we both wish we knew more about water filtration right now.


Hope everything is well with you back home, Thanks for keeping up with us while we are away.
Have a happy New Year.
- Kate and Kyle

merry Christmas.

Happy holidays everyone!

Today we gave out sweets at the slum, and it was awesome! The kids were very happy, and very hyper - lots of sugar! We also gave out some biscuits too. (cookies) Andrew, another of the volunteers thought it would be funny to give them candies that were hot chili candies. It was pretty funny to see them stuff them in their mouth and then start freaking out and spitting. One of the girls - Milka even started trying to scrape the spicy candy residue off her tongue. Hahaha They'll never trust us giving them candy again.


Okay, not much else to say, we want to get going so we can wash the smell of the slum off of ourselves.

Oh! there is some new news.... Pastor Antony is moving next week! So, were going from the 3 bedroom apartment that his family and the volunteers live in to... a HOUSE!

That's it for now. Happy holidays. Miss you and Love you all.

christmas week.

Welcome to Christmas week at Gioto Garbage Slum.

Today, we began our week by bringing a clean drinking water truck to the slum. Kyle and I bought it for the people with some of the extra money that we were able to fundraiser before we left. So to everyone who gave, Thank you. Please know that you made an entire community happy.  Here is some pictures:

Joseph guarding a hole in the hose for him and his brothers and sister.

Charles, Joseph's brother, had just gotten a shower from the hole in the hose. He was so happy.

Giving out the water. Everyone walks to the truck with barrels and jugs - anything that can hold water.

Some of the kids will see a small pinhole in the hose that pumps the water from the truck to the barrels and pounce on it. It makes them so happy. They suck on it for mouthfuls of water, and try to wash the garbage dirt from their hands and faces. We definitly take clean drinking water for granted in North America. I will never forget the kids sucking on a hose just to get a taste of something that I have every day.

We also have planned another water truck for the 24th, so they will have clean water right through Christmas. We will also be bringing some flour and oil for the families to make chapati, and also some candy for the kids, as a surprise, and a treat. I can't wait. They will be so happy. 

Sometimes the kids will take your camera and take approximately 2045 pictures! Here is one of the pictures the kids took: I love it. It shows a boy from behind, looking at his world, the Gioto Garbage slum.

Merry Christmas Everyone. We are thinking of you and sending our long distance love to family and friends.
Peace.


Also. Hello to Tom from Poland. It was great to meet you, and we are wishing you a Merry Christmas also.