We are always to happy when we arrive and sad when we leave. Today Judy flies off to Paris, then to Montreal for her annual visit to her brother. So last night she organized her goodbye dinner, spaghetti Kenyan style, eaten with chopsticks. The chopsticks are becoming a tradition since she organized a Chinese dinner several years ago. The kids learned to eat with the chopsticks and every year they love doing it again—except Joseph (7) who couldn’t get it together.
David Mongai, who will soon leave for university to study public health had had no lunch. He was HUNGRY.
In fact we are always astonished at how much these children eat. Evans, who is about 5 inches around eats huge plates every day. He’s been tested for intestinal parasites and everything else they can think of, and is always clean, but he eats a lot.
Anyone expecting spaghetti would not recognize what was presented yesterday, a meat stew (very tasty) poured over huge mounds of pasta—which Judy supervised, so it wasn’t cooked until moosh. We’ve agreed that next year we will cook what we think of as spaghetti, complete with parmesan cheese, which we’ve recently found in the supermarket.
After everyone had eaten she brought out a bag of scarves, items that her friends had given her for the children here. Those kids had so much fund with the scarves!
Jecinta in foreground, Agnes (asst matron) behind blue scarf, Evelyn, David Kamau, Mary and Margaret.
Simon loves the purple, Tylon, Patrick and Josephat (with Judy). Kids love to clown the world around. Judy also distributed the pens and pencils she had schlepped here from Portland.
Part of the reason for the celebration was the completion of the new floor, financed and organized by Judy. The old concrete floor had more potholes than the road to West Pokot. She investigated and learned that the kind of floor installed in the dining hall of SFG will stand up to hard use very well. She also found someone who makes plugs from old tires for the metal chair legs, so they won’t chew up the floor. She also paid for painting the walls. It looks so good! Lucas wanted to add his bit of sprucing up, so he polished the windows.
Joseph, the pirate (below) is Lucas’ little brother. This morning Joseph sat with us (on my lap) at mass, but ¾ through, claimed he had to go to the bathroom. Judy wanted me to bet on whether he would come back, but I don’t bet against a 100% probability. He didn’t. After mass she wanted to give him a popcicle for taking his bath, but I demurred—no treats for mass cutters. (What a grouch!)
John, Tabitha, Leah and Grace
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