First days at Mercy Care!

Man, where do I even start....the more I travel the more I realize just how incredible Mercy Care Centre School is. There is nothing like it! The people are beautiful and the atmosphere is awesome.

It was SO good to be able to see everyone again!! Lots of reunion it was awesome. We caught the crazy matatus on the way and they went through a bit of the slum. It's always overwhelming the first day or two even though I've been here twice before. The bus was stuck in traffic in part of the slum and everyone suddenly turned around to the back, so I looked out the back window and saw a woman roughly pushing a man. The man fought back; I thought they were going to have a big fight on the street because a whole crowd started to form. But then the matatu moved on.

One thing I have noticed in Africa is that people can be very violent. All the awful stories of the children involve so much violence. In the slum there is also a lot of violence, and it hit me when I saw that incident.

We got off at the top of the hill and walked down the main street to the slum into the very familiar buildings of Mercy Care where I met Lillian and all the other teachers. Lillian took us through all the classes on the way to the staff room. At every class she stopped and the kids saw us and gasped. Lillian said "You remember who this is?"
"Anni!" they all said. It was awesome to see so many familiar faces and for them to remember me too.

I saw the three buildings that we bought! I'll take pics of them to put on the blog so everyone can see what their money went to.

It was so good to catch up with all the kids, play some soccer, watch the choir etc. Today I handed out all the letters that Phil and Carla wrote (almost 600 of them!). They wrote enough for every child in the school to get one along with a sticker. The kids received them with very big smiles. They remembered the letters Phil and Carla wrote last year and were so touched by them. Everyone is asking me if they are coming on this trip. Also everyone is asking whether Aunty Betsy and Axi are coming too; they looked very disappointed when I said no! People coming to Mercy Care means so much to them.

Me and Kate are quite exhausted and really looking forward to joining up with the American team on Sunday for the next two weeks.

I will start doing some more filming again. Today we brainstormed some ideas for the next two weeks that we could do to help raise more support for the school, so we're excited.

The science labs are almost done being built; looks really cool!
Mercy Care is definitely a ministry that is making a huge impact in the lives of Mathare's children. You can see it; not only in the fact that they are receiving education and food and medical care, but also in the love the teachers have for the children. There is a real calmness at the school; a beautiful atmosphere. The older kids are so gentle with the younger kids, which is something I didn't see much of in Uganda. And all the children are striving hard in class. Even when I went to the preschool classes, they were all soo well behaved and so respectful. It's awesome! So keep up the awesome support because it is so, so worth it. Thanks to everyone who sends emails/comments. It's encouraging and means a lot! Especially being away for 6 weeks now.

We have an early start tomorrow but then the weekend off.