HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMIE!!!!
Hi!!
I wrote this this morning to a friend...who asked for a brief update!"

"Government forced to shut down 5 corrupt orphanages on the safari route, set up as businesses by evil directors who jam sick and poor children into cramped quarters to lure in wealthy tourists whose drivers get a percentage of the stash!!
Majengo Orphanage (ours) asked to take in 67 new kids from these orphanages!!
Majengo setting up two new homes, staff, furnishings.
Shutdown will be within a month.(all going well).
Key orphanage director, killed in car accident on bumpy road to Handeni reportdly to visit local witch doctor to combat recent rape charges with orphanage children.
Burial: 600 local people, and me!!"

There is book in here, I know...
and as i lie in my drugged state of shingles...images float forth, and back, words,paragraphs, ideas, brilliant, but that will never surface again....

But one thing I want to write about today as I'm remembering Jamie over there this time just a few weeks ago...and today is her birthday...
It looks like a lot is happening over there, and it is!
It is huge, monumental, a first!!! a huge honour for Majengo to be chosen by the government as the orphanage they have picked to take on the kids, wonderful!!

..and, on the other hand, day by very hot and long day, things crawl along slowly...no matter what you try to do.
I flew over in two days notice!! Back in September.
WE were on the verge of a huge government shut down.
I had to be there!!
The government assured me. Charles assured me.
"WE are together", they say...or "are we together?" but in this case, YES, WE ARE TOGETHER....Majengo Warren is committed to taking on new kids; the government too, in shutting down corruption on main street! Yes!!
Okay. so, let's go!!!!

Well...that was 10 weeks ago, and guess what!
It hasn't happened. Yet.

I have come, gotten shingles and come home.
Elia and Jackson moved into Pambazuko, after three years on the main road. They are now home with their friends, their family.

And still. We wait...
We've secured two houses behind Majengo to rent and renovate.
We've built 19 bunk beds. We've bought sheets,mosquito nets,matresses with plastic. Towels for 50 new kids.

Jamie came from Warren Pennsylvania Oct. 19th.
For 3 weeks. And she says, nothing happened.
But it did.
All the while I was laying in bed she was over there every morning.
Checking out the houses. Meeting the tenents. Arranging for new digs as we moved them out. Understanding budgets, logistics. Challenges. Problems. Big problems.

Working in Africa, is not always easy. Or fun.
Things NEVER happen the way they are 'supposed' to.
Things are NEVER on time. African time.
People are NEVER there when the promise to be.
They NEVER have whatever you need with them there.It is in the office.or at home. Or back at the room. NEVER there.

You wait.and wait and wait.
You sit. You wander. and you go back and stand. or sit.
They are speaking Swahili, you sit.
And don't understand.
You watch faces; you wonder; you try to imagine what they are talking about: the priest who won't leave house number two? the two boys, house one tenents, who are out selling beads, not packing their clothes? Not leaving.
No. More than that, the election.
You offer ideas.
You wonder if you are being heard. And then again, why should they listen?

Jamie was there for three weeks.
Alot did happen during that time.
House one got emptied and renovated. Walls came down, windows enlarged. Rooms made. Painted. Beds moved in....
Waiting.
But more important.
Her smile lit up Majengo each time you came.
The kids ran to you. The staff got close, could see, know, that you cared.
You visited Witness when she was sick.You brought her gifts.
You gave presents to the others.
You asked questions, you listened to their answers.
You cared.

You took time with everyone.
You did what you could.
When you could. With a smile.
You cooked for me.
You checked in everyday.
You brought wine at night.
You made me smile!

thank you...
What i guess i have learned from all of this...is WAIT!!!
Keep your expectations to a minimum and miracles will happen.
You can't push...ever...
It does't work, it won't work!
The river has its flow. Stand by and watch the ebb....
As they said: it will happen.

Just not when we were there.
So know you did what you could, what anyone could have, but with a bigger smile, a bigger shine....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
xx