Kenya {Day 10} - Goodbye Mattaw

Waking up on Wednesday was bittersweet. We were so excited to get back to Mattaw to spend time with the kids after not seeing them on Tuesday, but we were also not looking forward to a sad goodbye at the end of the day. This was our last day in Kitale and at Mattaw before venturing back to Nairobi for some sightseeing at the end of our trip.

 

It may seem silly to warn of a picture heavy post because, at this point, they all are, but this one really is. We were picture happy on normal days and knowing that it was our last one made it even more so (especially because we did some fun and unique activities this day).

 

 

I'll start with a few pictures taken around Mattaw that morning...

 

House 3

Me with House 3 Mom (Grace) and "Auntie" (Elizabeth)

More laundry with Elizabeth

 

A final shot of the end of the wall, or at least the end of the portion we helped complete



 
This is what you see when you first come through the Mattaw gate

Lots of crocs outside House 4 meant...

 ...all the children were inside for CRAFT TIME!

Even though there were a lot of kids all doing crafts at one time and there was a wide range of ages, they all were extremely well behaved and got along great. I do not remember any fighting over crayons or who got which sticker or how much better a craft looked than his or her sibling's. It was the best organized chaos I have seen.

   

Georgie was fascinated by his mask

Bud & Kim's second born enjoying craft time as well

J led the charge when it came to craft time. She did an amazing job coming up with craft ideas and then assisting all the children as they worked on them. On top of it all, she carried a sleepy Blessing on her hip as she organized and directed...

Me and Kelvin

Kelvin was one of the few older kids that I spent a fair amount of time talking to on a couple of different occasions. The day that I was on the swing with Moses, Kelvin came up and just sat beside me and chatted for a long while. Somehow our conversation led us to talking about me taking German in school and him wanting me to teach him something in German. Of course, I have hardly used it so it's not exactly fresh in my memory. I taught him a few phrases that I do still remember and he kept trying to write the words on his skin (with a stick or his fingernails) so that he could learn and remember the German phrases. I was very intrigued by this interest of his. He was such a kind boy.

  

 The young girls hard at work on meal prep again

After our indoor activities in the morning, we spent much of the rest of the day outside playing and hanging out. Seeing as this was our last day, I wanted to get as much Emmanuel time as possible. Thankfully, he was very cuddly and let me hold him for as long as I could, which ended up being much of the day.

Our fearless leader enjoyed any moment he could tease or mess with me. I was unfazed because I was so content holding this sweet one.

One of the spontaneous projects of the week was fixing/putting up a basketball hoop for the kids. Some of the pictures below were from prior days but I thought I'd include them all together to show the progression of the project.

Ted checking out the situation with lots of assistants on hand...

 

Here Jordan, another friend of Mattaw from the states who happened to be visiting/helping while we were there, is digging dirt out of the hole by hand. You have to get creative when you do not have all of the necessary tools...

Some of the guys found a generator on the property to use some power tools to fix the backboard. This is when I was grateful there were some resourceful men on the team!

Making progress...the hoop is up but a little crooked

The hoop upright and the pole cemented. The project was finally complete and the boys could enjoy some ball...

Much of the team stood on the sidelines to enjoy the entertainment.

And many of us onlookers had sleeping babies in our arms.

The only thing better than holding a cuddly baby is holding a sleeping one!

One guess what happened here...

 All of a sudden I felt something warm on my leg and quickly reacted knowing that a sleeping Emmanuel did not have a diaper on and was going to the bathroom on me. One of my teammates caught the moment above when I realized it. Of course, this was nothing new (I've had a lot worse happen to me) so I found it more amusing than gross.

I was sad to have to give up Emmanuel after his accident so that he could be cleaned and changed. I was relieved when he was quickly back by my side.

Two of the precious little ones sitting on the floor eating their lunch. It cracks me up that Blessing, the sweet and quiet little girl, is shown here taking food out of Johnny's bowl...  

 

In the afternoon, all of the ladies from our team met with all of the Moms and Aunties in the church. The guys held down the fort so that we could do so. We wanted to have a time of fellowship and sharing with these wonderful women who serve everyday at Mattaw to thank them for their wonderful hospitality while we were visiting. We also had brought some gifts to give to them as well.

It was a very special time of sharing how God has worked in our lives and much appreciation was expressed from us to them and them to us for the others' openness to serving the Lord by ministering to our sisters in Christ. These ladies' sweet and gentle spirits were such an encouragement to us. I was humbled by their grateful attitudes and willingness to give their lives to this ministry.

As we sat in a circle side by side and each woman shared, I became more and more overwhelmed with how God had brought this group of women together thousands of miles apart and bonded us in Christ. My gratefulness for this time and gift from God turned into tears streaming down my face. The woman who was sitting next to me and didn't speak much English noticed and squeezed my hand. Her touch spoke more than words every could. 

We gave tote bags to the women and we also gave them hats for their husbands. We were amused by how much they liked the hats for themselves and immediately put them on.

 

In addition to the games and crafts we had planned with the children, we also brought some gifts along to pass out on the last day. We asked the children to line up so that we could distribute the gifts and they quickly listened.

 In Africa, any space between two people in a line is an invitation for someone to jump in. Therefore, the children lined up like this when they knew it was time for us to hand out gifts...



All of the older kids received books and bracelets. I was amazed how interested all of them were in this small gesture regardless of age. It was neat to see them immediately open and start reading as soon as the books were placed in their hands.

Soaking up more time with this one while I watched the big kids enjoy their gifts

Beanie babies for the little ones

After we handed out the individual gifts, we brought out some brand new soccer balls for the kids to play with.

The boys were quite interested to see photos and watch videos of our time at Mattaw on Ted's phone.

More hang out time... 

Volleyball with Kelvin

Bubbles

Finally...a picture of the twins together



All of the children started migrating to the church and we knew that it was that time. The time we had tried not to think about. Time to say goodbye...for now. When we entered the church, the children were already singing and dancing...and I was already trying to push down the emotions welling up inside. There's just something about their voices that stirs my heart. And at this point, I knew that my heart was breaking and longing not to leave.

Some of our group mixed in with the singing and dancing, but I stood on the outside holding Emmanuel and taking it all in. I was crying before they even made it through the first song. J & Spencer were also having a hard time with the goodbye so they were standing right beside me with their arms full of precious ones as well. I could have stood there and watched the singing and dancing all day.

Georgie had the moves and I just couldn't get enough of him

A video of the dancing/singing action...

(forgive the poor video...hard to record with a baby in my arms!)

After a number of songs, the children and parents began to form a circle. I realized at this point that they were going to send us off in the same fashion that they welcomed us. One child from Mattaw would pick someone from our team and pull us into the middle of the circle to then imitate the dance they were doing. It really is too bad that we don't have moves like them! As a special gift for the ladies, the Mattaw child would wrap the women/girls on our team in an African scarf before our send off dance in the circle. The dancing/embarrassment was a good way to lighten the mood!

 

Once all 14 of us had our time in the circle, a few words were said by the leaders of Mattaw and they asked to pray for us. Our team gathered in a small circle and all of the Moms, Dads, and children surrounded us and laid their hands on us to pray. And this was one of those indescribable moments...maybe one of the most impressionable times where God has touched me. I could feel hands on me from my shoulders all the way down to my legs. The children and adults were lifting up prayers out loud for us all at the same time, some in English and some in Swahili. The tears fell down my face as if someone had turned on a faucet. This moment was powerful, touching, and amazing.

 

After the sweet fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ who were now connected to my heart forever on the other side of the world, I headed outside to try to get myself together and to start saying individual goodbyes to the kiddos. Finally, I just had to get in the van because I knew that it wasn't going to get any easier. One of the most heart-wrenching parts of the goodbye was watching our kids say goodbye to their new friends at Mattaw. Their tear-stained faces were evidence of God's work in their hearts and lives as well.

 

Two of my most favorite photos from the trip... 

Spencer with his sweet Faith who he just did not want to let go of on the last day. He was one of the last ones to say goodbye and get into the van. I was having enough of a hard time myself and this just made my heart ache.

After leaving Mattaw, it was a nice distraction to go back into town to pick up our African clothes from the fabric shop. I was immediately impressed with my custom skirt complete with lining and a zipper.

 

More sights along the way...

The local pharmacy

No surprise that the electricity is spotty!

Roadside market. 

(This picture was taken out of the van window.)

I made sure to shower outside my last night at Karibuni to soak up the sounds and smells one last time. Knowing that we were leaving at the crack of dawn the next morning, we spent some time before dinner that evening packing up our room. After another enjoyable meal together that night (how amusing that hamburgers and french fries were our last dinner treat at the lodge) and some more card playing, we tried to get at least a few hours of sleep before our big adventure through Kenya the next day.