Beans

   I walked to Smile Africa in a hurry yesterday, but I'm not sure why. When I was only about a half mile away from Smile, my little friends from the slums came to meet me again. I looked up as my name was being screamed from behind a bunch of mud houses. Then they came running up to me. I hugged them all and held their hands as we walked to Smile together.

   Once I arrived at Smile I put my bag down in the babies room and then went around all of Smile to greet all of the teachers. As I was walking I heard little foot steps running up behind me. When I turned around to see who it was, Bogere jumped up into my arms. We laughed as I spun him around. Then Betty came running out of her room to give me a hug. It was really a great morning.

   Pastor Ruth finally got to Smile and I was so excited to show her the new babies room. Mama Ruth had not seen the room painted yet, so as soon as she arrived, I ran over to her and took her to the new room. She looked around and was so happy! Ruth thanked me and Bogere for all our hard work. Once I finished showing her everything, we had lunch and then we went to town. We had to shop for lunch items for the women's conference that my mom is doing. It was great being apart of the whole set up.

   We pulled into a market to buy beans. Mama Ruth was picking out the beans as well as other items that she wanted to purchase. I stayed in the van and watched what Ruth was doing. Then I heard 2 guys talking about me. They thought that because they were speaking Swahili that I would not understand them...Oh how wrong they are. Pastor Ruth told me they were talking about me, but I already knew. 1 of the boys came up to the window where I was sitting and I said, in Swahili,

"Sadly, I understand Swahili and I could hear what you were saying."

   That boy was so embarrassed! It was so funny. The people here assume that because I am white, that I don't speak the language, so it's fun to surprise them sometimes and catch them saying funny things. :)

   While we were out getting beans for the conference, our van was hit. The driver hit our van, which knocked off our head light, and he left. I was shocked. Mama Ruth paid for the groceries and then we went to go find the driver. Lucky enough we found him and he apologized and gave us his number. It was an eventful shopping trip to say the least.

"Thank you Jesus for this amazing day! Thank you for the chance to shop for the conference. Thank you for allowing me to learn Swahili and for giving me the patience to not stop learning. I pray for my mom and Shunna's safety and they travel this morning! Please Jesus, I pray that ALL of their bags make it! I am so excited! I love you! Amen."