Wonderful Donations!

I am continuously blown away by the generosity of everyone supporting not only me but all the people I am working with for. Being in a place like Kenya, and especially the orphanage here I am able to identify so many needs. It can be incredibly overwhelming, so I have found the best way to avoid feeling so helpless is to work on 1 project at a time- brilliant right!?
The first need I identified here at Mogra was that the 140 children did not have a single table to study on or eat supper at. If they wanted to they would sit in chairs and hunch over another chair to study, or they would study on their beds. Being the teacher that I was trained as I knew this was awful for them to learn. And when they ate they did the same, going to their beds or just sitting on the ground. It is not conducive for any family setting or community building, it bring isolation. I really hated seeing them eat and study every night and I briefly mentioned it to my mom. Before I knew it my aunt was generously donating enough money for us to buy tables for the kids. When I announced it one night that we would be getting tables all the children erupted into cheers, and were so excited. They were thanking me all night before they even had the tables. The night the tables arrived the children sat down immediately after seeing them and didn't move until we forced them to go to bed! When we measured the tables we figured 6 kids could sit at a table comfortably. But the Kenyan culture is such that you share everything, and you don't have anything to yourself. So these kids were sitting 8-12 kids at a table so they could be together. It is such a beautiful site to see them sitting together during dinner and talking rather than sitting isolated. The tables came just in time for the seniors to take their HUGE exam, and they couldn't be happier studying sitting up straight up. It's so exciting!

The other donation that transformed these kids was simple: socks and underwear! Mom and Dad brought over tons of donations (THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR THEM!!) and they went CRAZY when I brought them in 2 by 2 to receive 1 single pair of socks and 1 pair of underwear (check out those smiles in the pictures!) You could hear the girls screaming a mile away and showing off their new pants! The socks will last them a whole year, wearing them to school 6 days a week, washing them every night after school. Insane. All of their current socks have holes in the toes and heals and are so worn they look uncomfortable. The next day they were all strutting to school excited to look nice in their new socks!

It puts everything into perspective for me when I see these kids being so thankful for 1 pair of sock. I toss around my belongings like it is no big deal but they carefully take notice to every one of their belongings. They are so grateful for all of the donations they have received. Thank you for all of your generosity and donations, from pencils (which they treasure almost more than socks i think!)to clothes, shoes, toys, everything is recognized. Asante Sana (thank you so much!)