My days at Tumaini

We arrived in Nairobi late on the 1st of March and stayed in a B&B in town and left on the 2nd to drive to the Tumaini Home about an hour away. We unloaded, unpacked our own stuff into our huts, and began to sort out the school supplies from the medical supplies. This took all afternoon mostly due to jet lag but also to a new found  time known as Africa time. While we had a mission to accomplish, life took on a simplicity here that is hard to find in the US.
The Tumaini Home is in the mountainous region of Kenya so the air was different than NC, it was not as heavy with oxygen or humidity. With those of us with a touch of new found asthma this made the climbing a little difficult but not undoable. Tumaini was free of pollution from the city so the air was clean and sweet smelling, if you like to smell a farm. I missed the smell of horses though, which I did not see any of while here.
The children here were different from the children in the schools we visited. The children here were mostly healthy and well fed. These children had on clothing that was clean and fairly well fitting. These children were loved on. That was not always the case in the schools we visited or the public institutions we saw. This is why Tumaini is special. These children have a chance to grow up to be health adults in a country of gross poverty. They will have an education and know that people love them and care that they survive.
The children did not always look "happy", they are in an orphanage, but they are in one that allows them to be children as best they can. It felt good to be among the children and "mothers" here. You sensed God's lovingkindness, gentleness, and hope. It was good to be here and a good place to just be.