The kids didn't get to do this very often so they were excited even if the water was going to be freezing! Driving down to the pool felt like forever! I get car sick really easily, and that is without 3 kids sitting on me while we drive on a bumpy Kenyan highway. It took us a little over an hour to get to the pool. The pool was very nice! It looked like a public pool here in the US.
They split all of the kids up by age and split our group up according to where they needed us. I got to go with the little toddlers! They had a little playground that we played with them on. We taught them how to go down the slide, and pushed them on the swings. Next they moved us to a big field area to just play with the kids. We had brought little balls for them to throw and kick around.
In one of the pictures below is a little girl on my shoulders named Mercy. Throughout our whole stay at Naomi's Village she was always one of the first little kids to come grab my hand. She has the sweetest heart! While we were playing with the balls someone stole the ball away and she just sat there and cried. When I saw her crying I ran over to see whats wrong and tried to cheer her up. The only way I could get her to stop crying was to put her on my shoulders. She thought it was the best thing ever! It cheered her up pretty fast.
Next we finally got to go in the pool with everyone else. It's funny because in Kenya, you are never allowed to show anything above your knee, except when swimming apparently. So all of the women wore very covered one-pieces with longer shorts to make sure we looked appropriate.
So by the time I get ready to get in the pool I am sweating. I have been running around with the kids for about an hour and a half. I get in the water and it is FREEZING!! It turned out that it was around 65 degrees that day. When I got in the pool all of the kids were so happy to be swimming but you could tell that they were freezing. After we had been swimming for an hour, I would have little toddlers come over to me and ask if I could wrap them up and make them warm. So I would just wrap them up in their towel and hold them until they stopped shivering. It was the sweetest thing.
We had lunch and headed home. On the way home I sat with Mercy and Richie. Richie was the youngest toddler at NV at the time. He fell asleep right when we got on the bus. The bus ride back seemed a lot faster than the bus ride to the pool. On our way back we are driving down the highway and see giraffes! It was so cool!
We went back to Naomi's Village, had dinner, then played ultimate frisbee with the older kids. When it was almost time for the kids to go to bed I went down to the baby room to help the aunties feed them and put them to bed. The babies are the cutest!! We went back to the guest house and went straight to bed.
What I learned and realized from this day was that I saw it as just going to the pool. In our 'perfect world' here in America, we would of not liked the pool because it was too cold, or too crowded. These kids just loved that they had the opportunity to be in water! On the bus ride back I sat with Mercy. Right when we left the pool she reached over and grabbed my hand. For the whole 50 minute drive back she held my hand. She didn't talk to me at all. She just looked out the window and would rub my hand every so often. Holding her hand so long made me realize how much she has been through. This four year old, who is one of the calmest, sweetest four year old's I have ever met, has been through more hurt in her four years of life than I will my whole lifetime. Yet she still is so joyful and wants to make you happy. That was a big day for me to realize and think about what all of these small kids have gone through. But what an amazing transformation it was to see these kids lives changed because of the work Jesus has done in their heart.
My heart will sing, no other name, Jesus, Jesus.
Mckinley Tyler :-)
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