New Year's Eve

Monday, December 31st
Still no electricity this morning when we woke up. And with no water truck coming today or tomorrow showers and toilet flushing needed to be severely limited. We heard from Staci that there was trouble last night by the hotel in Ngata from Staci. And we heard some of the workers had homes burned near them. We painted the upper railing today as well as the windows on the upper level. The men went into town using an alternate route as the main highway bridge was blocked by stones. They found one store open and it was very busy. Margie followed them into town as she was hoping to get some work done today. While the men were gone, Dana and I brought out all of the clothes, plastic pants, etc. that we brought from the people back home. It was fun organizing all of the little clothes. Staci came in to help us decide what was needed right now and what should go into storage. The item that she and the caregivers were most excited about were the plastic pants as they are not available here in Kenya. They were almost completely out of them because the frequent laundering wears them out quickly. Lucy and little Moses came over to check out the new clothes and held them up to themselves and said "Auntie - Smart!" (Smart is another word for pretty or handsome.) Some of the things future teams could bring are plastic pants, socks, vaseline and zip-up jackets. They will also need some bigger clothes as the babies are rapidly outgrowing the current sizes! The country is still in a media blackout, so most of the information we are getting is first hand from Kenyans or other missionaries. We also have some information from the states as they are slowly starting to cover what is happening here. Our families back home are starting to be concerned about us as they have heard some of the stories on the news. We decided not to go into town for New Year's Eve. The church also canceled their traditional New Year's Eve Service. After homemade pizza for supper, the girls (and Carson) made up a game using the dice from Yahtzee. You had three rolls to get a yahtzee. But before you roll you need to name what would happen to another player if you rolled a yahtzee. Michelle was the first to lose when Monica rolled a yahtzee. She had to paint her entire arm the next day when we were painting. Fortunately for her they changed the rules mid-game so Michelle was able to cancel hers because she later rolled a yahtzee. Some of the other players weren't so lucky though. It's amazing how creative you can be without TV! Since tomorrow was a holiday we decided to "sleep in" and then decide on a plan for the day. Everything was different now and our plans for the week were changing daily.