NicolesLetters.org

Hi everyone,

Today was very exciting. After only getting a few hours of sleep due to a party in town and yelping cats in the middle of the night, I was able to be “with it”. It was my first night sleeping under a mosquito net and every time I felt it touch me, I’d wake up. I was up from about 2:30 - 6:00. Finally slept for a couple more hours. Went over the the home for church.

It was an amazing experience. There must have been a few hundred adults there not including all of the kids from the home. They come from all over town. They introduced us to everyone and explained why we were there. They have been praying for us during our preparation to come here. I could see the kids in the back and spotted Angel right away. I waved to her far in the back as we made it back to our seats. Pastor Steven spoke and delivered a great message of

basically “letting things go” and that “you have never do anything you have never thought about”. People were singing and dancing like nothing I have ever seen! Church lasted for about three hours but felt like about 20 minutes. There were a bunch of little kids coming to check us out, see what we were about. I started waving to them and they’d approach me while I was in my seat. I started reaching out to them to hold their hands and dance when we were singing. Some agreed, some took some warming up to. The wouldn’t leave, they just needed to make sure I was okay. I

ended up with a child on each side of me and one on my lap. They are so sweet and in need of attention.

From there we went to the grounds, just outside of the church which is the same area shared by the school and boarding rooms. All of the kids are warming up now so they all want to be around us. They LOVE to have their pictures taken and shown to them on the viewing screen of the digital camera. It’s a sure way to make a friend and get them to giggle now matter how hard

their exterior. Andy had the pictures from last year on his laptop still. He pulled up the picture of the girls playing jump rope, the one I have in my house.

I showed it to Angel. It IS her!!!! She was so excited and started pointing at herself. I got Pastor

Steven’s son, Richard, to translate. Angel’s English is okay but I wanted her to get the full story. I explained to him that the picture that Jim Ochi took last year, they put in a big frame and I bought it and have it in my kitchen and I look at her everyday. He explained to her. She got down on her knee and put her head on my hands. Of course she had been holding my had since after church. I was so happy and she was too. It was as if I was reunited with a distant relative. I just knew it was her!

I know, everyone dab your tears, it’s really sweet. We left a short while after that and went to lunch at another hotel in town. The food has been pretty good, fish and chips today for lunch. Pretty much the same for dinner, buffet at our hotel tonight. We went to the chicken farm that the ministry has to support the home. It’s really amazing the work that has made all of this happen with the school and home. They have farms where they grow rice and beans, cows and

chicken farms. What they are lacking are wells to support the water need. I had to stop over at a shop and buy some short sleeved shirts, it’s so hot here but I thought I’d have to keep the bugs off. Nothing out of the normal from a camping trip at home with the friendly mosquitoes at dusk. We came back to the hotel and decided as a group of the 6 of us to walk around town. Most of the people were friendly, I could tell that the farther away from the main road we got, people were more suspicious of us. One of the girls got yelled at for trying to take a picture of the butcher stand. There was an entire herd of cattle walking down a side road with what looked like, no

leader. Most people would say hello in response to my hello. “How are you” they’d say. Their standard response is “Fine” in a friendly way. One lady said, where are you from? Can I go with you? Michele, one of the girls with us, met her sponsor child at the school, he’s about 7, Henry. She said he asked her if she was going to take him home with her? I guess his mother recently died of AIDS and now he lives at the home. He also told her that he needs shoes. I

said she could choose from the ones I brought. Then the guy at the hotel asked Steve, from our group, if he could take him back to the states. Pretty intense. Tomorrow we start getting the stories from the kids. Should be great and a lot of emotional effort also.

Hope you all enjoy the stories.

Nicole

P.S. Mom, can you please forward to Heather, Monique and June? Thanks

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