Visiting our sponsor children

So last time we told you a bit about the life of travelling, now we'll tell you a bit more about the destinations:

We visited our two sponsor children, Mutugi in Eastern Kenya and Willproter in Western Kenya. Just for those who don't know what a sponsor child is: with about 30 euro's a month you can give a child education, food, clothes, (spiritual) empowerment and more. We do this through Compassion, who have offices in a lot of the developing third world countries. They look for the neediest children and through the church, they offer programs to help on educational, spiritual, physical and social level. They don't just take care of the child, but also try to help the family improve the situation themselves.

So on both days (for both sponsored chlildren) when we arrived at the project, we heard about how the project uses the money (and it's amazing what can be done with 3000 shillings!), the different programs they offer for the children on Saturday (skills&teaching on various subjects (according to age groups) (biblical) devotions, cleaning!, lunch etc.), how the child is doing and we were able to visit the house of our sponsored child. This was the most special part for sure. In both cases the family, and especially the mother, were really thankful and they made sure we didn't leave emtpy-handed. The Africans, who in general have little, always have something to offer. Mutugi's mom let us in on what she makes for a living (baskets called "kiondoo" and rope) and I even got to try a bit myself. That was fun. We gave Mutugi a soccerball and Nick played with him for a bit. It was fun when he opened up a bit (but we can imagine he was shy when two white people came to visit him and his family). His mom gave me a beautiful kiondoo that took her one-two weeks to make and Nick the rope.

When we visited Willproter (whom Nynke has been sponsoring for the past 5 years), she came running to us and gave Nynke a big hug. Then we realized this would be a different visit! Because she's quite a bit older (18 years old) and able to speak English, she was able to tell us about how she's doing in school, what she would like to do after high school and she showed us what she makes (tablecloths). We walked the hour to her home, because we wanted to see what she walks on Saturdays to the project and we don't mind the exercise. We went to fetch water with her and had lunch, met her family and exchanged prayers and gifts. We also brought some food items for the family and we left with some nice woven baskets and birdcages :)

Now we've been relaxing in Kisumu, as we're still not totally well and rested, we're trying to use our time, but not overdo it. So we've already discarded quite a few of our plans and are trying to hold on till our plane leaves in 7 days:)

yesterday we spent all day by a pool, relaxed, did a boat trip on Lake Victoria (Anne, don't worry, we didn't touch the water this time :)) and today we're just hanging around town. Hopefully we'll visit some tea plantations and animals on the way back to Nairobi this week....

p.s. sorry, no pictures until we return home. We don't want a virus, which a lot of Kenyan computers seem to have....