Today was LONDON! Our plane arrived about 7:30 am, and by the time we got through immigration, got our bags, changed some money, found the bus stop, and took the bus to our hotel, it was about 9:30. We quickly changed our shirts and grabbed some breakfast, and then it was off to the “tube” (the train) to central London.
We had so much fun seeing an overview of the cities of London and Westminster. We took a bus tour that had live commentary and you could get on and off the bus all day. There was also a river cruise on the River Thames. We saw so many cool things. What an amazing city, and it has so much history. It was fascinating. We saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, had tea with the Queen (we wish!), and the Tower of London - just to name a few. After the busses quit running in the evening, we took the train to Covent Garden, where there are several restaurants. We found a quaint Italian restaurant for dinner and ate outside with people everywhere. It was really fun. We didn’t get back to our hotel until almost 11pm. We were amazed at God’s grace to give us the energy for the day when we had had so little sleep the night before, and on our time schedule from Kenya it was actually 2 hours later. A couple of us “petered out” on the train on the way home (pic above).
It is such a diverse city, and it was so much fun to just rub shoulders with people from all over the world. We loved the signs and sayings in London: for example; “way out” means exit, “mind the gap” means watch your step, they have “flats to let” instead of apartments for rent. We all decided that if we ever lived in a big city, London would be the one to live in. I think we were almost asleep before our heads hit the pillow, but we had a very full and satisfying day.
Tomorrow we get to go see our families, and we are very, very excited about that. This missions trip has been perfect, even including our extra adventure due to the airline strike on the way home. God has gone before us every step of the way and our hearts are overflowing with all we’ve seen and heard. We have definitely seen Jesus and some of His work in Kenya, and our prayer is that we are different because of it.

Today has been an exercise in patience. The Bechtels say that they have a saying in Mombasa, “if it drizzles in the morning, nothing goes well”. Well, it drizzled as we were waiting for our ride to the airport, and our experience was that the saying is true. When we got to the airport, we were informed that they had oversold our flight to Nairobi, and we were being bumped. No amount of pleading changed their mind, even though it meant we were not going to make our connection to London.
Right after our flight left for Nairobi (the one we weren’t on), the airline went on strike. The flight we had been put on (at 10:15) was now in question. Finally, after a “breakfast/light refreshment” (which was our compensation from Kenyan Airways - picture above w/coke - great breakfast!) and much waiting with many people who were very upset, a plane came into Mombasa that actually had a partial flight crew, so we could fly to Nairobi. Once we got to Nairobi, we were informed by “passport control” that we would not be flying to London. However, the airline wouldn’t change us to another flight because they didn’t have confirmation about whether our evening flight at midnight was going to go or not.
We spent many hours in the airport waiting to see if we would be able to fly through the night or not. We were a little sad, since we had a non-refundable hotel and bus tour awaiting us in London, and we only had one day to see all of London in the first place. After watching many people wait for their flights only to have them cancelled, it was our turn to begin the check-in process. We went through the final security check, and then sat and watched our plane being readied. The only problem was that there was no crew. We almost did the happy dance (if we hadn’t been so tired) when we saw pilots arrive. Our plane did finally take off around 1:30am. It was not the day we had planned, but it certainly wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

This is a very sad day for all of us. Our last day with the children of Tumaini. As difficult as it was to say good-by to them all, it was a really good day with the kids. We got lots of time with all three babies, and the preschoolers, and some time with the school kids. Salma, the 14 month old, has actually learned to walk while we’ve been here. We’re pretty sure it’s from all the walking we’ve done with her these past two weeks (smile). We got to hold Michelle for 2 ½ hours today - which has never happened before. When she fell asleep we asked (begged) to keep holding her instead of them whisking her away immediately to her bed. Lillian doesn’t seem very healthy or happy, but today we got to spend a couple hours with her too, and she seemed the best we’ve seen. The preschoolers were their regular rowdy selves, and the rest of the kids were in happy spirits. Our hearts are full with emotion from getting to know and love all these precious children. If we could, we would be coming home with 31 kids to share with all of you

Last night was bible study at Crossroads Fellowship from 6-8pm. Afterwards, we went out for dinner with the Bechtels to an Italian restaurant. It was nice to eat something different than the buffet that we eat for breakfast and supper everyday. It was nice to get to know them a little better too. The adorable baby (Michelle) whose pic is above is 2 months old and the Bechtels are praying about possibly adopting her. The really good news yesterday was that Michelle tested negative for HIV. We think they retest her again in 6 months, and if she tests negative again, she’s in the clear. Yay, God!
Today we were back at Tumaini again. It was not a good sign when we passsed their van chock full of children (21 to be exact) going the other direction on our way to the orphanage. They were taking those kids for some routine HIV testing at the Free Hospital. It was a slow day at the orphanage, since they didn’t come back again until after 1. There were lots of volunteers there today, and so for the morning, the ratio of volunteers to children was 11 to 3. We were happy when the kids came back!
If running an orphanage is in anyone’s future, we do feel like we’ve learned a few things over the past week and a half about what we’d do. It’s been interesting to observe and learn about why they do things the way they do. Of course, some things we still don’t understand why they do them the way they do, but we have only been here a week and a half. I’m sure we have much more to learn.

70,000 orphans in Mombasa
60% unemployment in the city of Mombasa
80% unemployment in the rural areas of Mombasa
EVERYONE here is very proud of Obama - we even saw Barak Obama Road yesterday. Even the Maisi worriers asked us how he is doing.
You look all around this city everywhere we go, and it is overwhelming to figure out how to help. You watch women walking along carrying 10 gallon containers of water on their heads, for long distances. Or women walking with firewood on their head or back so they can make dinner. Most live without electricity, and right now; because they have not had enough rain which they use as power, they are cutting off the power in sections of the city for a day at a time to conserve energy.
Just some random facts we thought we’d share. J J J
P.S. The first picture of the little boy on the trike is a pic of Mwangi, the story we told in yesterday’s post. . .

It has been a long day, and all four of us feel exhausted. It’s not because we worked so hard, we guess it’s just simply the emotional exhaustion of what we’re taking in. We spent the day at Dickson Children’s Center and also got a tour of Onesiemus Center for Boys. The Children’s Center is an orphanage with 33 kids. Their newest child, Mwangi, is a three year old street boy. His mom had a baby 2 weeks ago or so, and while she was in the hospital, he was on the street by himself - literally. His new baby sister is also under the care of the orphanage, but the director is keeping her at her home, so we didn’t meet her (doggone it!). Today Mwangi’s mom (who lives on the streets and is addicted to glue and other drugs) came to see where he was living. She was very happy to see him being well fed and cared for. It was very sad for us to watch the whole experience. There was another older boy who lives on the streets who came with Mwangi’s mom, Apparently a lot of the street people are worried about little Mwangi, and they wanted to have someone else see him as well, so they can both assure the others on the streets that he is well. It seemed that they were very wise in how they handled the situation, as they want to have strong relationships with these street folks. Hopefully Mwangi’s mom will get some help herself, so she can get free of her addictions and live a productive, joy filled life.
The Onesiemus Center for Boys is a center for street boys from 13 - 20 or so. They are taken off the streets and are taught to be responsible citizens who will contribute to their community someday. It’s a great ministry. While we were getting our tour, a boy came into the office. He had been taken off the streets about 2 weeks ago, and then after a few days of very little freedom, he returned to the streets again. Usually they come back after about a week, and that’s exactly what happened with him. The staff was rejoicing to have him back.
Tomorrow it’s back to our kiddos at Tumaini. We’re looking forward to a great sleep between now and then. Blessings!

Kangas and Camels!
This afternoon we spent time down on the beach with all the people trying to sell their wares. As you can imagine, this is quite intimidating to Sue and Betsy. We did a little advance reconnaissance yesterday, and found Alice; who was willing to sell us some “kangas” for “very cheap” as long as we kept it a secret. A kanga is a large piece of fabric that you can use as a skirt, dress, turban, scarf, or - in Sue’s case - tablecloth! People wear them all over Mombasa, and they sell them down on the beach on racks. They look absolutely beautiful against the white sand and blue water. They sell them in shops too, but Katie Sue wanted to buy hers on the beach. There are also multitudes of people selling other souvenirs, but they are all the same at every place. However, you must look at every “shop” because “looking is free”. You must not point or show interest in ANY item, or it will be in your hands immediately. We just say No Thank You a lot, and try to keep walking. We also bargained with the camel man for a ride on the camel along the beach. He would write a number in the sand with his stick, and then you would bargain by writing a number next to his. He started out at 1500 shillings for one person, and we bargained him down to 1200 shillings for all four of us to ride. So in the end, Kelly and Katie Sue rode “Bob” the camel, and Sue and Betsy rode “Jamal”. Not really something we had dreamed of doing, but quite the experience nonetheless. We’re looking forward to meeting the children of Dickson Children’s Center in the morning.