Lakeside Christian Children's Home Orphanage Field Trip

Okay, pack 75 kids and adults into vans designed to hold 10 safely and drive them all over Kenya to take them on a field trip. A field trip that hardly any of them have ever gone on. That was our mission today...help the kids to enjoy a day off that is focused on them...no work, just play. All kids should be able to enjoy a day like that, am I right?

The church team from Renovo on this adventure decided that they wanted to take all the kids on this special day...funded by their members. The kids were giddy with excitement when they found out. The Impala Park is a National Park in Kenya, and is the site of many schools field trips. Our children don't have the luxury of having extra funds for such an extravagant day.

The 3 matatus came buzzing into the hotel parking lot about 1 hour late...normal time for Kenya. They were hoping we would ride with them to the park...uh, nope. Two of our team, Nich and Amy were game and piled in...I noticed they didn't get back in on the ride back to our hotel! Watching everyone pile out of the matatu reminded me of circus clowns and their never-ending group coming out of a mini car. As we waited for the entrance tickets to be purchased, I noticed an ice cream man just outside the gate. I took one of the older boys with me and haggled a good price per cone, KSH 20 (or about $0.33) each. I told him it would be at least 60...he agreed and started dishing out while he and I kept count. We stopped at 75...when I went to pay him, he started howling that we had agreed at KSH 25! We got into it, but when I started to think about it, it wasn't worth it...and I paid the extra $0.085 each. I also told him that he should be ashamed, taking advantage of orphans like that. I noticed he did not stick around after we got out of the park. I hope it was out of shame...because we gave him a week's worth of sales.

Anyway, back to the field trip. Many of the children had never had a taste of ice cream before, and of course, all loved it. How many of us hate ice cream? The park we come to find out is a sorry zoo...only a few animals. We did see wild Impalas in the park as we walked on a trail. We ended up at a large picnic grove with a big covered gazebo. We started singing songs, and then Thomas got up and started playing song and dance games that the kids love. It calls people out and makes them dance with him. It was fun to see the kids laughing at us and the teachers as we made fools of ourselves. At one point, one of the teen girls called out a teen boy, and the singing got louder, snickering and laughing erupted...teens are the same everywhere...must have been some romance going on there. I believe that was the most fun part of the day. Seeing the kids having fun. No responsibilities, no work, no worries...just a day of fun. All kids deserve that, and these kids more than most.

After the field trip, we piled them back into the matatus to head to Ringroad for a special lunch. They would be getting beef, chicken and greens for lunch instead of just rice and beans...This is special to the kids! Oh, and a soda! Wow, are they grateful. They also had a special reuniting with the kids from Ringroad...they hardly get to see their "brothers and sisters", so when they do, it is like a homecoming. With lunch finished, the Ringroad kids wanted to sing for us again. They thought they had been shown up by the Lakeside kids the day before...Jared must have said something to them about the quality of the Lakeside kids singing. Not to be outdone, the Ringroad group sang song after song for us. Then they requested songs to be lead by their favorite teachers...Ms. Audi and Mr. Dino. Again, it was fun to see them having fun. We each said our goodbyes to the group, and they sent up representatives to wish us safe travels. They did request some help with Choir uniforms if anyone is interested.

Back to rest after a long day...the Le Savanna hotel is a sanctuary for us. Clean, air-conditioned and with wifi! It is luxurious. We clean up and head to dinner with Jared, Thomas, James, Collins and Dino and their wives. The best restaurant in Kisumu is the Oriental Chinese Restaurant Restaurant...I thought Oriental and Chinese were redundant. haha. I was still feeling queasy up until the hot and sour soup arrived...oh, so heavenly! Let me back up...we were seated out in the hallway because we didn't make a reservation for 20...haha. The owners were apologetic, but they had a large contingent of Chinese dining tonight and they booked the private party room. I had Chinese words with the owner and he gave us a discount for sitting in the hallway with the lights flickering off and on due to power brown-outs and listening to the burglar alarm go off at the business downstairs every time the power kicked off. Two of us ordered Won Ton soup, but were told by the African waiter that because of the large Chinese group, they always get the soup and never leave any for the other customers. Again, speaking their language, I asked what the deal was...he denied saving the soup for the Chinese customers and sent two bowls of hot and sour soup complimentary to our table. Keven told me to argue AFTER the food comes, not before. I never thought of that...

The food was really good for Kisumu, for anywhere really. It was our best meal yet. Now I am back at the hotel catching up on e-mail and Facebook instead of sleeping. Being in a sickness induced coma over the past 24 hours caught me up on sleep, and now I am just energized...so the blog gets a new entry! Feeling good and getting ready for worship tomorrow. Should be a good one with over 200 guest expected for lunch. Guess who has another bandaid on?

Chow!!