I think that I may have mentioned in nearly every post I have written how lonely we are here, it’s a place we have come to call “the communication black hole” not only is there extremely high prices on phone calls but the internet café’s are more often disconnected than connected and on the off chance they are connected you better be ready to wait at least 5 minutes for each email to load, and 10 or more to send one. So when a group of South African’s show up on your doorstep asking if you need help with anything you say YES! Absolutely yes!

That is what happened to us last month and it was a gift from God. They were with a group called Global Challenge and we were one of the stops along the way on their trip from the top of Africa to the bottom. There were 7 of them in all and we instantly made good friends, and I don’t mean just shake hands and smile type of friends I mean, keep in touch for years kind of friends. They were planning on staying 10 days but ended up staying an entire month and just about single handedly built the new addition on the Orphanage. They poured concrete painted, plumbed, cleaned and did just about every other thing you can imagine and did it with a spring in their step. I know this all sounds mushy and exaggerated but when you are in a place like this and people who you feel you have known your whole life, who furthermore you were not expecting show up its like heaven opened up and made the earth stop spinning on its axis just for you.

They also brought with them a big box of child development tools for the kids and we had a chance to test each of the children and see where they were at developmentally. We were relieved that despite the situation these kids were pulled from they are all on track and doing very well. They all tested right at their age level for motor skills, sensory development and many other things. They had gotten the box as a gift from a Doctor in South Africa who heard of the children and wanted to help out.

We at times feel so lonely over here. I know there are a ton of you reading this Blog and following along on the journey but when we can not talk to you or see you it makes life tough at times.

I cannot thank enough the group from Global Challenge and all they did for us.

If you guys get to an Internet café somewhere in Kenya (their next stop) I want to say thank you! We are forever grateful and the kids will enjoy eating off of a beautiful concrete countertop because of you.

Levi