a fun weekend for the kids!

Last weekend we had a really fun weekend with some of the kids. On Saturday there was a fundraiser at a local international school and all of the proceeds went to Mogra. So we took the choir to the school and they performed beautiful singing and dancing, while there was a carnival type activity happening all around. The kids had a blast performing and seeing all the different people at this international school. It was unlike anything they have really seen before. And when parents found out who the kids were they were so generous to support them. They bought everyone lunch including coke (very exciting!) and gave them tickets to play games. It turned out a win win, because the kids had so much fun playing and people saw them having fun and more people came to play and spend money. They even had a few good laughs watching me and Alix jump rope, I don’t know why they don’t think we know how! It was really fun to be apart of that and see the community respond so well and support Mogra. My biggest complaint is always that the community here does not support their own people who are poor- and granted many of these people were westerners- but some were Kenyans and they were supporting the poor children. It was a nice afternoon.

On Sunday we had a BBQ for our college scholarship students. We were looking forward to this because most of our time with the students is strictly business and giving them policies and regulations, so this was an afternoon for us to have fun and relax together. We ended up grilling hamburgers and corn on the cob, a good old American treat! The kids were great, I don’t think most of them had ever had hamburgers, at one point they asked if the meat was “Ham” so we began calling them beer burgers instead! We also had to show them how to put the meat on the bun, and eat them together, not separate- with all the works of ketchup, mustard, onions and tomatoes! But they loved them in the end. I pounded the meat into paddies with one of the students, while Alix and a couple other students did the grilling. There were certain things that would have been nice but we didn’t think to buy like a flipper and nonstick spray, but it went well.
After we ate, Forrest, the head of Change Lives Now played music on the guitar and we did some dancing. I have gotten used to being the laughing stock of Kenya, and my reputation stood strong while dancing with them. I attempted swing dancing with a few of the students, which is not like anything they know how to do. It was quite the sight, but they had a good time!
The whole day was just a lot of fun, with a lot new experiences for the kids. We are really proud of them, as college students here study and spend way more time at school than any college students in the US. I am excited to see how they do and how they are able to change their lives for the better after this program.