It Speaks For Itself

I would love to hear your captions for this photo.  I just can't decide on one!

My List

As we have just passed the official day of Thanksgiving, and I am chomping on my fourth plate of leftovers, I thought I would make a short list of things for which I'm thankful.  These are in no particular order of weightiness or importance.

1. I'm thankful I could video-Skype with my 90-something year-old grandmother on Thanksgiving who said, "Kate, honey, you're clear on the other side of the world!  I don't believe it!"  That being told, I'm thankful for Skype for allowing us to talk with family and friends at all!

2.  I'm thankful I didn't step on this in the dark, with my bare feet like I almost did last week.  Ugh squared.

3. I'm thankful for my hubby and for his good preaching, even when the sound system goes kaput in the middle of his sermon.

4. I'm thankful we don't have these running around our village.  Tarantulas are enough.

5. I'm thankful for the kids here.  Mary slipped me a scrap of paper last week that read: "Dear Miss Brueck I love you very much I hope you have a good time thank you"  We're still working on punctuation, but she's got the sweetness covered.  And even those days when I have to discipline and be tough, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.  I love these kids.

6. I'm thankful for the butcher shop run by Indians who capitalized on the Americans here and sold fresh turkeys for Thanksgiving, even though we ordered a 14 lb. turkey and cooked a 19 lb one.  Have I mentioned leftovers?

7.  I'm thankful that Richard recognized a girl I graduated from Furman with at lunch today and had the gumption to talk with her and her husband.  New friends!  That leads me to be thankful that this really isn't such an impossibly large world after all.

8. I'm thankful that Christmas isn't about snow.  If so, we'd be sunk.  I'm typing this wearing capris and watching the banana trees sway in the wind. 

9. I'm most thankful that Christmas is about God becoming man so that He could redeem and restore us to Him. I'm thankful that God loves us more than we can imagine, so much so, that He gives salvation for free, even to someone like me.

10.  I'm also most thankful that God has called us here, to Kenya, at this time, to work in this place, with these kids and fellow workers (for whom I'm very thankful!), and for all of you who have made that possible through your prayers and love and other support.  It makes me cry in a happy way.

Burned Out

I know it's natural for everyone to complain of being burned out every once in a while.  But whoever owned this car has a legitmate excuse.  It was completely roasted. 

These guys were salvaging what they could when we drove by, although I can't imagine what was worth keeping.  Who knows?!  Maybe I'll find amazing earrings made of funny looking metal at a market one day and everyone will ask me where I got them and of what they are made.  One man's trash is another man's treasure, as they say!

Hot Breakfast

Imagine having 97 kids and their moms over for breakfast on a Saturday morning.  What do you cook?

Our kids usually eat things like bread and jelly, mandazies or boiled, cold sweet potatoes.  Apparently the sweet potato thing for breakfast is normal.  Anyway, the higher-ups have been wanting to spice things up on the weekends and have introduced hot breakfast items like egg casserole and baked oatmeal.  I submitted my faithful pancake recipe and the kitchen staff have put them in the rotation.

Next question: Who in their right mind doles out enough pancake batter by hand to feed 97 kids and their moms?

Answer: No one.  Enter the dispenser.

It releases batter at the touch of a spring loaded button and dries up instantly when released.  This way you can actually fill up the griddle before you need to start flipping.  Just so:

Aaaahhh....the conveniences of modern life.  I think I want a Kate-sized one.



Penance

I don't believe in penance, but I do want to apologize for falling off the face of my blog for so long.  And I do believe in forgiveness.  Please?  Thanks!

As retribution, I would like to offer the following photos I took yesterday.  The child care director here asked me to take photos of all 97 kids for their sponsor reports and I was more than happy to oblige.  I promise I won't post all 97 kids.  Today, anyway.

In the process of getting all of these photos together, I also organized all of my other pictures into appropriate folders.  This has reminded me of all things I want to share with you.  See you next time!

Ps.  Yes, Steven in the last picture is playing with a dead frog.



Pot of Gold

A Cutting Report

This is Richard's game face.  He is taking an ordinary kitchen knife (that I accidentally used upside down because I couldn't tell which side was supposed to be sharp) and putting a nice edge on it.  As in, count your fingers when you're done chopping tomatoes.

The handy-dandy sharpening kit was his birthday gift from my parents (thanks, y'all!) and it was slipped into our shipment a while back. 

Fast-forward to working in the big orphanage kitchen one afternoon and having more success at hitting my food into pieces than cutting it with any of these knives.

Richard to the rescue!  The ladies in the kitchen seemed a bit skeptical, but were happy for him to "try" to sharpen their workhorses.

A very pleased kitchen staff holds her new weapon of mass destruction.

Admiring the fine new edge and modeling the knife.

This dear one came running across the kitchen asking for her picture with the new masterpiece.  All three were most grateful and said God had sent us at the right time to sharpen their knives.  Mission accomplished!

My Favourite Quote

"Hey look!  Twins!"

"I mean, I know they all look alike, those two just looked more alike!"

Wowsers!

Amboseli is known for its elephants.  We saw tons, and quite close.

I know it's hard to see, but can you make out Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background?

The little birds were always with their elephants.  I wonder what it's like to be best friends with something so much bigger than yourself.

I feel like there should be an "elephants' crossing" sign here. 

They divided and went around the safari van like water around a rock.

See you next time!