Monday, Monday

Our alarm clock (Carly) gets us up most mornings at 7am. We are all out of the house usually by 7:45 for the short 5 min. walk to the hospital. I told the kids they should be eating more porridge for breakfast as a box of cereal here can cost $6 and they can almost eat a whole box for breakfast by themselves!!
We left the hospital early today, so that we could go to the library at RVA while it was still open between 10 and 12 noon. What a great library they have!! I was so impressed! They had some neat stuffed animals and African items all around the library (almost like a museum). THe kids loaded up on books and we were well over our limit, but they let us take them all anyway since school isn't in session right now. Carly has already finished 2 books and is on her 3rd(7 hours after signing them out!) Adam has read 4 of his books, Brett has read 5. I guess it was a profitable afternoon for reading!
At the staff meeting this afternoon, I learned about the plane crash here that killed about 6-8 (I'm not sure how many exactly) MP's on their way to some peace talks. The people here are very concerned for the Northern Tribes especially as they have already been fighting over animals and now with the MP's killed, are afraid that more war will break out. They spent alot of time praying for the families of those killed and for peace amongst the people that are killing each other.
Kijabe means "place of the winds" and today that was very true. I find the breeze refreshing and it certainly helps the laundry dry quickly.
I bought some ice cream today. I won't tell you how much I spent on a 4L tub of vanilla ice cream!!!! Gary thought it was still cheaper than if we all went to Dairy Queen though. I'm not so sure. I think we will save the ice cream for company.
There were a number of new children today at the hospital for us to look after. There were two Somali refugee families from different tribes. They could not even communicate with each other. I felt sorry for them as the language barrier was noticeable in the play room. The kids were initially unsure about the toys, but I got a few smiles out of Mama by the end of the morning.
We have two regulars. Two orphan boys who live with a Catholic priest. They are not brothers. Their names are Richard and Nicholas. Richard is well enough to go back, but the Father only wants to make one trip to pick them up so will wait until Nicholas is ready to be discharged too. Richard does not want to leave the hospital and go back to the Father.
The kids have fun imitating our speech and actions. They think it is so funny to do that. They have picked up alot of English and like to surprise us with a new phrase or response. There is the odd squabble over a toy, but usually there is a parent there to set things right. The kids are really, really good and very content to play with whatever is put in front of them for extended periods of time.
Some of their favourite things to do are, blowing bubbles, blowing up balloons(especially with the pump)and playing with play doh. THere are some mini hockey sticks that the boys like to play with there and of course the TV is a BIG attraction.
We found a number of centipedes in the house today along with the usual spiders and the largest beetle I've seen surprised me in the laundry basket today. We saw a GIGANTIC locust? or grasshopper or whatever it was on the road today. It would have been a meal of its own. Lots of moths, a few mosquitoes, but thankfully, I haven't seen any mice or snakes!!
Lori