"You are smelling very nicely."

There are so many personal things I could write about today. The excitement of getting out in the sun this morning and being ready to go or even surprising myself with the amount of information I collected during the day, but the thing I think everyone will relate to and enjoy the most were the school children.

Today, Cindy Ault and I (Beth) went along with the Village Hopecore Public Health Team to St. Augustine School. There the team would be teaching the students about how to wash their hands, the importance of a nutritious diet and the symptoms of malaria, typhoid, TB and AIDS.

As soon as I stepped out of the land rover, a group of kids was standing near by to greet us. I raised my camera and smiled to ask to take their picture and they all shuffled to be in the frame. Some smiled, others were very serious, but they were not afraid of the camera. The real fun started when I bent down to show them the pictures of themselves. I was swarmed with small warm bodies, all pushing to see the screen. Eventually I had to stand up and pull away.

All day, children would catch my eye and pose. I tried to take as many good pictures as possible, but the delight they got from the click of my camera and the brightness of the flash prompted me to take many mediocore photos. More to sort through I suppose.

It was so fun to realize that children are children everywhere you go. This school was a group of buildings that were very run down and poorly taken care of. The children were served food out of a hut and the cement floors had many holes, yet, the children and teachers were proud to show me their school, tell me about what they learned and pose for many pictures. I understood so very little of what was said today, but it is so very true that a smile is universal and people responded very warmly to me when I smiled.

So many small hands stroked my skin, comparing it to their own. They pet my arm hair and the taller ones pet my face and my ponytail.

Some girls who were in Class 8 (13-14 years) came up to me during lunch to touch my face. They told me I was beautiful and lovely. One girl was trying to think of what to say and came up with, " You are smelling very nicely." Compliments on my smell are my favorite to get. :)

I knew children in Africa would be a joy, but I had no idea how overwhelming they can be. So many hands and smiling faces.

One cheeky little boy came to shake my hand good bye when he had to go back to class. He looked up at me and raised his eyebrows and then he kissed my hand and ran off giggling. This instigated a full ten minutes of hand kissing and rubbing my hand on their face. As the crowd of younger primary children dispersed, one small girl stayed until it was just me and her and then she grabbed my arm and hugged and kissed it.

I brought very little value to these children's day except distracting them from their classes, but the smiles and laughter made me feel like today was worth it.


Below is Jacie's blog, which is quite lengthy (they experienced a lot today! ). Posted soon will be an article I wrote about Village Hopecore International's public health efforts. HOPEFULLY, pictures will also come tomorrow, but I am waitng to see how much data I have left on my Safaricom modem before I start that process.

Much love goes home and continue thinking of us on our journey!