A Day of Music

The children came to Priscilla’s house yard to spend the day with us. There were to be no teachers, just us, teaching them and playing games.

We thought we would make the kids, about 125 at this point, something for lunch that they don’t normally have, something that is found in North America. As well, there is a little boy that was stung by a wasp in the forehead, and his eyelids swelled up so large that he couldn’t see. So we wanted to take him to the hospital. So, Scott, Matias and Monique went into the small town of Mbali, Scott on a mission to find lunch, and Monique and Matias to take the little boy to the hospital. As well, we wanted to outfit a bunch of the children in sandals as they were bare feet or their shoes were very old and worn, so Scott found a street vendor who agreed to bring a bunch of shoes to Priscilla’s to outfit the kids. The only thing Scott could find that was somewhat exotic from what they were used to was peanut butter and jam sandwiches, so he bought enough for all. Back at Priscilla’s, Nikki and I led a music class with the kids. They sang many of their own songs, very beautiful voices and energy. I wanted to teach them some songs, so we taught them Queen’s ‘e Are the Champions’ and ‘Hakuna Matata’ from the Lion King, which in itself is actual Kiswahili, so they got a kick out of that. It was very cute to hear the Kenyan children singing these songs. We spent an hour putting together so many sandwiches - the kids loved it! We did some games with the kids in the afternoon, and went back to the school after the Grade 8’s were finished their tests for the day, and played soccer with the kids. Nikki has been playing soccer for most of her life, and you can really see her skill when there are 40+ kids on the field and she can cross the ball through all the legs to land it in scoring position in front of the net - several times. She had a great time, and we spent an hour or so sitting in the field with the kids, while they braided Laurissa, Holly and Monique’s long blonde hair, something they were infatuated with.

It was a great day.

Paul