Saturday 4.15 6:06 pm Sitting with the girls with power! Ahh, writing early. I awoke without a Tylenol pm hangover today. Nice way to start the day. My mosquito netting was vastly improved from the night before. Hence my dreams were a bit less entangled. My evening ritual is generally the same. I say goodnight to the kids and make my netting stretch over my bed. I take my “African bath”..mind you, all of this in the dark or by Candlelight/headlamp. I then climb into bed, take the headlamp and journel. When I am done writing I read from the book Kim recommended. Love in the driest season…a moving story about adopting in Zimbabwe. It’s quite the ritual. I rather like it. The last two nights some guard dogs get in a fight nearby. Last night it was awful, I only imagine what was happening. The stillness tonight is nice. The nights are quite chilly so I sleep in long pants and a long shirt…occasionally adding the jacket that I wore on the plane. I did expect a slower pace here than in the US. But actually it is equal to if not greater than the US. Since everything takes so much time, from drawing water, boiling water, road construction….patience. This morning we expected to leave early to head to a Compassion International project site. The plan was to be there from 9-12. The man that was supposed to meet Chantal was over an hour late. The kids and I played until he came. This morning 3 of the girls were all dressed alike in their new clothes. Thank you Erika for getting me to head out an buy some more things for the girls after you assessed the inventory. They looked stunning. The dresses along with the socks and tennis shoes from Mpls looked like they were ready for Easter Sunday. One of the workers carefully washed the edges of the tennis shoes to be sure they were spotless. The people here work around the clock ensuring all the beautiful ‘new things’ are well taken care of. The sweep the house endlesslessly. The children immediately sit at the plastic table when they are called for food or beverages. They clear their own plates…even the 2 year old. They take off their shoes before entering the main room of the Home where we spend all of our day. They sit neatly and orderly for the bible lessons. Repeating when asked. Tonight they learned the Our Father. So sweet. Chantal 2 (the Mom of the home…Chantal is the one is the woman who runs it…this is the only way I can blog about each of them for now). Chantal made each of them repeat the line until they had perfected it. 3+kids broke into song on their own. They are working on kumbaya…finally one that I might be able to sing with them . The time at the Compassion Project was really precious. More later…I am typing this at the Nairobi airport and need to head to the gate. To think that Heidi was just here 2 weeks ago is amazing. Hopefully more when I get to Amsterdam for my 10 hour layover.