Happy Birthday Carissa!

Hello everyone! First of all Happy Birthday to Carissa! Yesterday we spent the morning at Nyumbani Orphanage and it was wonderful. The orphanage takes in abandoned and orphaned children who are HIV+ and fully supports them to provide holistic services including: education, nutrition, medication, counseling, and housing. All of the children were so adorable and it was really a beautiful center. We were able to spend time talking to Sister Mary, who helped found the center, and she was really great at answering all of our questions and sharing her vision with us. It was amazing to see how far the treatment of HIV and AIDS has come for the children in Kenya, but yet to see how much more there is that can be done. Then we headed off to lunch at Karen Blixen Tea Garden with Dr. Wambugu, the dentist at the Kikuyu Dental Clinic. After lunch we headed to the giraffe center and it was so awesome! We got to feed the giraffes and even get giraffe kisses if we put food in between our lips. We all thoroughly enjoyed being up close and personal with the giraffes and we learned a lot about the different types of giraffes in Kensy, which will come in handy this weekend at the Masai Mara! Today was another busy day that started at the Kikuyu Hospital. Sharon took us to see the Dental Clinic that was supported by the work of Sharon Secor and her Presbytery partners, and it is now fully supported by the Kikuyu Hospital staff. The tour of the hospital was great and we were able to see our first ICU and ventilator. It was good to learn more about the differences between rural and urban health care settings. Next we headed off to the Dagoretti Children's Centre and we were all in awe of the work they were doing there. The centre is a part of Feed the Children, and they serve the mentally, physically and developmentally challenged children along with HIV+ children. They also serve children who are not being taken care of at home, while also educating the parents to help provide better care. The centre was beautiful and all of the children welcomed us with open arms. It was really neat that the therapy center provides free services to the community twice a week and the program also provides food to all of the schools in Nariobi and the surrounding area that do not have food programs. All of the children were wearing TOMS shoes because every time a pair of TOMS are bought, a pair is donated to children like these! Tonight we celebrated Carissa's birthday by surprising her with a delicious cake from a local bakery! It was a good way to spend our last night in Nairobi! Thanks for reading! We won't be able to update while we are at the Masai Mara! We will see you all soon!