We sent them some t-shirts which were color coded because the Deaf orphans saw that the other "normal hearing students" from other schools had uniforms and they wanted to feel normal. This is one of the many ways we are trying to "empower" the orphans- We also sent them some jumping ropes and soccer balls!!

Late September of 2008, Lavenda had gotten Malaria. She spent 2 weeks in the hopital and the illness caused her kidney to fail and she died early Oct. When I was there July, 2008- She was a true orphan, coming to me after Peter said to the kids that they could call me their "Father", and she signed....(see below)

"Me ugly" her hands moved in the air. I blinked.

"Me stupid" continued her hands and I started to kneel down to look her in the face.

"Love me still father?"

I responded by giving her a hug and taking her outside to spin her around and around watching her laugh...

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be doing this three months later....

But my heartfelt gratitude goes out to you who supported and donated, because we were able to give her a decent burial and even got her a nice coffin-

Had LDO not been able to help, the medical staff(morgue) would have discarded her body in a mass grave.

I begged God to help me try to prevent this from happening again and thanks to donations, I was able to buy 20 cots and 20 mosquito nets for the orphans.

The relatives of Lavenda also used the cots to sleep on that night... and I forewent the hotel and slept with them as well. *note to self... bring my own blanket- this was a chemical coated mosquito net*

Here's a picture of the kids sleeping on the floor....in 50-60 degree weather. For the Kisii's that's pretty cold.

We also brought medicine for Vivian who was suffering from a nasty fungus that would not be cured in Kenya.

(they didn't have the right meds)

(Showing them the dosage level)

This is one of my favorite pictures- just look at that trusting eyes of Vivian....

BEFORE and AFTER pictures

CURED!!!

More issues came up as well....

The Ministry of public health had contacted the orphange and said that they needed to make a change in order to keep their "site" running.

Click below for PROJECTS PART TWO- (too many pictures on this page as it is which is a great problem to have!)

(click this picture to go to part two)