Live.Laugh.Love.

Jambo sana!

How is everyone doing?? It is just hitting me that I have only a little over a week left here in Kisii and I have so many things to do and so many people to say goodbye to and thank them for their hospitality. The hardest part of this entire trip is going to be saying goodbye to the family that we are living with. The 6 year old, Allan, calls me his girlfriend and wants me to wait for 15 years to come back and marry him which is adorable. He follows me around the house and anytime I’m not around he is asking where I am. I tear up everytime I think about saying goodbye because these people are truely family and to leave is going to be extremely hard. They have all promised us that they will not forget us and they have asked for us to send back pictures of ourselves with our families and they are going to put them up in the sitting room for everyone to look at. Our host father, Reuben, leaves tomorrow morning for Arusha, Tanzania for a meeting and we will not see him before we leave so we have just one more day left with him which is sad. He is an incredible human being and I feel so fortunate to know such a man. We have met so many wonderful people here in the town of Kisii and at the hospital that we will have life long relationships with. All the students and nurses at the hospital have already expressed to us how much they are going to miss us and today we brought our contact information for everyone to have as we will be collecting theirs as well. Also the people that own this cyber cafe that we go to everytime mean a lot to us and it will be sad to say goodbye. There is also a man that works near the office of our host family and I think he might have the hardest time with me leaving. He expressed to me yesterday that he loves me and wants to marry me. Our driver, Mauti, was the one that said this boy over here asks about you all the time and he has told me that he loves you and wants to marry you. Mauti said, ‘you are now a true Kisii woman’, which I would be proud to be! =) I will be sure to not break his heart too hard…

The other big news is that I delivered my first baby last Friday!! It was such a crazy experience and such a beautiful moment. It was the woman’s second child, which helps with the vaginal birth process, and it was quite an easy delivery. It was a baby girl that weighed 3.95 kg which is about 8.7 lbs so she was a pretty big girl. The experience of encouraging the mama to push and saying ‘Sukuma mami Sukuma’. Which means ‘Push, mami push!’ in Kiswahili. It was so amazing to help the mama give birth and help her bring her child into this world. It was quite the experience that I will never forget.

The weekend was nice and relaxing and we just spend time at the house with the boys since we don’t have that much time left with them. We watched the movie The Net with the boys which was nice because we have yet to watch a movie and I was having withdrawal symptoms because that is one thing that I love to do.

Yesterday we went to visit a tea factory near Kisii but when we got there they told us that we would not be able to have a tour because Mondays are their maintanence days and to come back another day so we are hoping that we will get a chance to do that before we leave. Tea is a huge cash crop here in West Kenya and it would be a shame to leave here not seeing how it is all done. Tea is extremely popular here in Kenya and there is not a day that you go without it. I am now taking my tea with milk, which is so delicious.

Well that is all for now and I will get a chance at the end of this week to update you all again. I hope you all are doing well and I miss you all soooo much!! I am going to need a girls night immediately so get ready girls!! =)

I love you.

Ashley