A Life Of Giving

So this last week has been a blur of crazy amazing experiences-it has made the whole trip here worth it!

I have spent the last three days of my life working in an orphanage/school in a slum called Sowetto. There I learned from greatest family in Kenya how to really live a life of giving, and how happy we are when we do! There is no way possible for me to share the things I have experienced and learned while staying with Steve Kyalo and his beautiful family. Not only where they great hosts, but they have shaped my future with the unforgettable experiences of their lives, which they graciously allowed us to be apart of!

  Steven Kyalo is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint and has a school and orphanage, which he started and runs mainly buy himself! His wife is a teacher there and he is the principal. Most of the teachers donate there time because they get paid very little. And let me tell you they are great teachers full of patients and a love for teaching! which is rare here!!! The orphanage and school are mainly funded by a small business which Steven started. It is the selling of hand carved works like the nativity, Noah's Ark, and Africa sets. They are gorgeous and 100% of the profit goes to the 60 orphans in the small orphanage. go find him on facebook @ Africarver. You can really see some of the specific kids he is helping, like Florance who has just under gone nose surgery because she had a big infection.Steven once use to support himself through school and college with his astounding carving skills. Now he designs and employs those of his tribe with carving skills that  need a  job in order to take care of their own families. We had an amazing first day just being with the kids and seeing how they lived and helping the older ones prepare for their final exams before they enter high school! My throat was so soar after a full day of lecturing! ha ha and singing and dancing too! 

We visited the orphanage and saw how the kids lived in extremely poor circumstances (1 room for all the boys and another for the girls...and these are rooms just big enough for 4 bunk beds..yep that means they sleep about 3 to a bed and many more on the floor or under the bed!)   They have so very very little and eat the same thing for almost all 3 meals! i started to cry when i saw how they lived...but i wasn't sure if i was  crying because of the things they don't have or because despite their hard conditions they love life and wore the biggest smiles on their faces! We are all so blessed and really have nothing to complain about! Life in America is good!

Day two was spent with Steven, as he showed us many places in Kenya that related with his life! including the new orphanage he is working hard to secure for the kids (it may be arranged as soon as 2 months :)) and also his dream of getting a land plot for over 1000 orphans in the country side. His dreams are unreal...the cool thing is, i know he will achieve these dreams and i hope to have a part in it! He gave us a huge honor of taking us to his tribes carving station by Nairobi. He rarely takes guests there and few people know about the process of making ...rather carving everything out of wood! It was amazing to see and they treated us with so much respect and we all laughed so much! They gave us a few nice gifts for our families. We toured a lot of special places in Kenya and felt like we got a real experience of the lives of these people!Just to see how talented the natives are and if they could find a real market for their things, and Taylor them a bit for their customers they could have a real successful and strong business in artwork, woodwork, and even music! After talking to Steven we have some new ideas to explore when i get home and hope to increase his little business and support these orphans better! Again I am astounded and Stevens generosity and willingness to give all he has to others. He took us to the only stake center in Kenya and taught me an important lesson which we learn in the scriptures and that is that if we give all that we have to the lord he will make great things happen and will also take care of your own family and material needs. I hope one day that i can have as pure as heart as he does!

The third day was the real treat! We had prepared over 110 hygiene kits for each teacher and students!We brough 30 with us which came from family and community members (who we greatly thank!) and used some of our donation money (also from the community, which we again thank with all our hearts for their contributions) and  bought all the other materials we needed so no child would be left out! IT was so fun to organize and create these kits. We could have never done it with out your help and without the help of the Kyalo family. We had a big gathering and we sang songs then they treated us with some special traditional and modern dance numbers and even made us get up and dance several with them...they all laughed so hard at us, we simply cant move like they do! They are all excellent dancers, especially when it comes to moving their butts! I couldn't even come close to follow them. They loved it and so did we! We then handed each student a kit and explained how to use them. Their smiles were bigger than I have ever seen. The room was dark and all you could see where big bright smiles and hear the sound of thank you and laughter!!! the feeling was incredible! We took lots of pictures and the kids would would continue to tug on my shorts and say thank you. It was so touching! We then gave them all a lollipop (suckers is a bad word here ha ha ) they loved us even more! and if possible their smiles got bigger! Oh boy I was running all over chasing the kids and Alexis was right their with me. we played and played and everyone had lots of sweets and it was like heaven!

The whole experience has left me feeling so close to Christ and so happy to be a volunteer here. It makes all the hard times worth it! I will never forget their sweet laughter and the big white smiles on their black little faces! It was...uh...it was absolutely life changing in  a very personal way!

I hope that I can live A Life of Giving and that we all can live A life of Giving. Find someway to help and give and change the life of one person today. It doesn't have to be something big, it only has to be something that comes from your heart!


*pictures coming soon*