WEWE

WEWE

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Fun Field Day

Recently we had a day full of games and fun for the kids. Fr. put on a day of football and track competitions for the kids. It is a lot of fun when the kids compete against each other, play the games they love to win, and when they succeed from their hard work. We were able to play with them a little today but they didn't want any "older people" playing because they wanted fair/even team matches. Here are some photos from the day.


Br. Mapesa talks to the kids before the matches begin with leading them in a prayer.

The girls getting prepared for their game.

Smile

Group smile

Intensity, passion, focus...Bosco Girls

Beautiful

Peter and his little buddy.

Emmaculatte and her friends.

A race around our track.

A break for some chai (tea).

The winners at the end of the day.

Fr. Seba and his pal.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Parents Meeting

A big part of the Bosco Boys program is reintegration back into normal Kenyan society. Every holiday time at Bosco Boys, which is a month period between a 3 month block of school, the children are sent home to put into use the skills, manners, and habits they have learned at Bosco Boys. Now many of the boys don't have places to go, so they stay here during holidays. Some kids may have a grandmother to go home to, an aunt, somebody. When they go home to this particular person/group of persons, we hope they don't resort back to the lifestyle they lived before coming to Bosco Boys.

When the next school term starts up, Fr. Sebastian asks each student to bring at least one person back with him for a Parents meeting. Here, Fr. Sebastian can tell, show, and explain to them what is being taught to their boy(s) and that the parents can also learn something for the betterment of the child. Now these pictures were taken at the beginning of this school term, but when we borrowed Fr.'s camera he had these pictures so we decided to put some up.


Fr. Sebastian talking to the parents that did attend in the library/tv room... When we think about it, having a library/tv room is kinda funny.

To the far left is Odijo, who is taking notes about the meeting. Mr. Steven (Odijo, which is a shang "slang" word for teacher) has been apart of Bosco Boys since the beginning. He is a social worker and deals individually with each of the kids and their families. He is a wonderful man.

One of the mothers speaking up.

A photo of most of the parents/guardians who came sitting in the DH (dining hall).

Some more of the families.

A grandmother of a Bosco Boy.

Achilles (a former Bosco Boy, now teacher/helper at Langata who is waiting to go to college) wears a White Sox jacket and serves lunch.

Everybody's hungry

Yummy!

smile

beans and rice and everything nice

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Downtown Nairobi

When Mark was here, we were talking about how the city of Nairobi is very similar to other "metropolitan" cities we have been to before but is still very different. These are some pictures of the city of Nairobi and adventures we have had exploring it. We feel pretty comfortable taking the public transportation there now and can find our way through the city to get to where we need to be.

This is the Nairobi City Street Market that we have been to a few times now.

Another picture of the market, some of the vendors remember us and laugh because they remember past encounters where Katie has bargained against them to get a fair price and not a Muzungu (white person) one.

This is a picture of the market from across the street. The tall, brown, circular building in the background is a governmental building.

This is us in the car with our friend Daniel driving through downtown. Notice we drive on the other side of the road here.

Katherine Anne

Local Nairobians, Nairobinites, Nairobons, Nairobolinos... We're not sure what they call locals here but here some are.

This is a picture of the old American embassy which was bombed back in the 90s.

This is the view from "Freedom Park" of the entire city.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Life at Bosco Boys

These are some photos of daily life at Bosco Boys. Our lives here become routine, like anywhere, and we sometimes forget how beautiful the scenery but mostly the people who make up our East African home.


A beautiful day in Nairobi with the children's playground.

Not a normal scene in Pico Rivera or Palos Verdes, but at Bosco Boys watching cows eat with children playing near by is a daily occurrence.

Every day the schedule is the same... Wake up, work, church, school, work, games, shower, dinner, night prayers... This is Peter filling up his bucket to do his afternoon chores.

This is another photo of a boy doing afternoon work, Carlos. But Carlos is taking the more "popular" job, being a watchman. He's watching Carlos fill up the bucket and wishing work was over so he can go play games.

These are local children from Kuwinda (the slum/neighborhood that surrounds Bosco Boys). They are all pulling their toy cars and racing down the street. Notice the street has bricks. This road is considered "THE NICEST" road in all of Kenya. Most roads here are dirt roads with huge pot holes. There are also black-top streets but those have huge pot holes, divots, and no dividers. But this road, the road that leads you from Langata Road to Bosco Boys is considered the nicest in all of the country. This is because, yes there is a slum in our neighborhood, but there are also many politicians. They passed the bill for the funding to have a nice road so when they drive home, it'll be smooth and enjoyable. Not only do we have paved bricks but we also have street lights, this is a luxury.

These are the kids toys. They are old juice boxes that they find in the trash, get some sort of wire from who knows where (probably trash too), get the tops of plastic bottles, connect everything together, and TA-DA! a toy car. This is a normal toy here in Nairobi, other toys of choice are footballs (soccer balls) made out of trash wrapped with a plastic grocery store bag and practically anything they can kick to play football (soccer) with.

As we were walking back on the road, we ran into Sister Mary Jane. She runs an orphanage directly across the street from Bosco Boys. She runs this place entirely by herself, funded through the good will of others, and she cares for over 20 children. She left her nun order to do the work she felt called to do. Some of her kids go to Don Bosco Primary School (Bosco Boys School) and others to surrounding primary/secondary (high school) schools. She has a huge heart and an even bigger smile.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Our little friends & Trophy presentation

Gabriel

Hussain

Anne

Kelvin

Peter

Odijo and Kevin

These two pictures are the boys holding the trophy that they won during the cultural competition back from August. Father presented the kids with the trophy recently and this was their photo shoot.

These boys/girls worked so hard to win. They put so much effort, time, and energy into multiple daily practices. Father Seba kept pointing out the fact that they can achieve what they want, if they put the effort into it

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Kenyan sky

The other night there was a beautiful sunset here. We then ran outside to take a picture and we realized we have done this a few times here. The sky is so beautiful in Kenya and it feels as if it goes on forever and it much much larger than the sky in Los Angeles. We realized it seems so much bigger because there's so many buildings everywhere and you can never really see how the sky can go on forever.


This is the picture we took the other night.

The rest of the pictures are of the sky since we've been here.






Here are a few more of the beautiful sky. These pictures were all taken at Bosco Boys.