Shoes, Soap, and Legumes

Today was probably the most fun day yet! We took ACC's sponsored kids at Bondini out to lunch at KFC and visited a giraffe park!! I had the pleasure of taking the Veteto's girl Silvia to both of those things. She is a wonderful little girl and you will hear more about her later! We also took them to one of those bounce house slides which was so much fun!! (Thank you Mark!)

The children came to pick us up on the bus and as we got on, our individual kids came to sit with us. At first Silvia was (understandably) a little uncomfortable with me, but we got to be good friends by the end of the day. After a little bit of the normal get-to-know-you chit-chat, she asked if I liked to sing and I said I do and asked if she did/if she had a favorite song. She then offered to sing her favorite song to me!! It was very hard to hear with all of the road noise, but the song talked about God loving her and taking care of her.

When we got to the giraffe park, we spent some time in their education room hearing about the conservation efforts of giraffes in Kenya (did you know there's three different kinds of giraffes? I didn't!) while we were in there, the little girl sitting behind me was playing with my hair and "boinging" my curls :)

Then we took the kids through the walkway to feed the giraffes. We were given alfalfa pellets in coconut shells, so a little different than at our zoo back home and you got slimed a lot more with these. At first a lot of the kids were scared to feed them, but by the end, they were running to any adult they could find to get more pellets!

There was one giraffe that apparently hates children and we had to run past it so it wouldn't headbang us 😆

Legumes

After the giraffe park, as we were on our way to lunch, Silvia got out a small piece of paper that had something wrapped in it. She opened it up and dumped the contents into her hand — five little green beans. I think they were mung beans. She popped one in her mouth and I asked her what it was. She told me her mom had packed legumes for a snack for her today since she was going on a field trip.

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After the park, we went to KFC with the kids. We sat outside in this lovely little shopping mall area in the suburbs of Nairobi — a completely different environment than earlier days. The kids were very excited to get black currant soda and chicken and chips (fries). A lot of the older kids only ate half their meal and the missionary said they were probably bringing the other half home to share with their families.

Shoes

We then gave them the gifts their sponsors had sent with us — the amount of joy on their faces was indescribable so I'll just show you:

I don't know if you could hear her, but the reason she is hugging her bag so tightly and smiling so big is because she opened it and found shoes. Other things that made her screech with joy included a notebook, socks, and shirts. Items that we may roll our eyes at in the states.

I always hear stories from people on trips about how excited kids get for seemingly mundane gifts, and it makes sense why, but I was really hit with emotion and this heaviness when I saw it with my own eyes today.

So happy for such a basic need. She knew that she wouldn't have to cut her feet walking around her community anymore. She knew how important this item was and she was so incredibly excited to receive such a gift.

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Then we went to an inflatable slide with the kids and I'll just let this video speak for itself :))

Becky

Becky is one of the Bondini children that a family at ACC sponsors and she deserves her own post with the stories she generated today!

The whole bus ride there and walking around the giraffe park, Becky stayed right next to us and was very calm. At the end of the tour, however, things ✨changed✨

There was a hand washing station after petting the giraffes and so all the kids were guided in that direction. Becky instantly found the automatic soap and water dispensers to be far more entertaining than the giraffes and warthogs. She was mezmorized by the soap and kept grabbing more and more to wash with — so much so that a line started forming behind her! So we told her it was time to finish and she kept saying no! Still dirty!! Eventually we pulled her away but she would not give up on her mission for soap!! One time she ran back to the giraffes thinking that if she pet them again, she would have to wash her hands again. Another time she told another team member that she needed to go to the bathroom (where there was SOAP!) in the bathroom she also discovered the endless amounts of paper towels that could be dispensed! Oh this place was a treasure trove of fun items!!!

Then she wanted to touch the cars driving on the street outside.

...and that random guy standing over there

...and the tree

Then my camera, which ended up being a great distraction! I looped it around her neck and mine so we were connected and showed her where to press. She LOVED taking photos of everything — the tree, us, again, more strangers, and her friends. Those friend photos turned out really cute because they would strike a pose and make silly faces for their friend that they were too shy to do for me :)

But Becky couldn't run around anymore because she was connected to me by the camera strap so we were able to tide her over until we got back on the bus.

She still had a lot of energy by the time we got to lunch though and learned that if you shake a soda and then open the lid, you can make a fountain!! How fun!! (Said no one except Becky)

But the sticky hands meant another trip to you guessed it, the bathroom. Unfortunately, there was a queue to the sink. Undeterred, Becky pushed her way to the soap depenser and started double-handing it (left hand in, right hand in, into the water for a second, and then soap again for both hands).

Near the end of the day, we took them to a blow-up slide to get rid of some of the energy, which Becky definitely took advantage of and by the time we were out of the parking lot on the bus, she was fast asleep, probably having dreams of dancing soap despensors and endless piles of paper towels.

Although she was a handful, she was a precious child who we all fell in love with instantly. But her fascination with things that we have come to expect paints a vivid picture of the disparities in resources between our lives.