Someone brought us one of those variety boxes of different types of chips from the states. They were the kind of bags that you might have put in your lunchbox when you were a kid. It was a great thrill, and it became almost like a poker game. `I trade you two Doritos for one Cheetos.’ I think I could eat one of those bags in one gulp when I was a kid; we lingered over our bags and our trades for almost an hour.

Fritos can be FUN.

Each high school class works at raising money for all of their four years to go on their senior trip, and one of the ways that sophomores raise money is by selling helium balloons for Valentines Day. Helium is hard to find in Kenya; the poor guy in charge of finding it has horror stories to tell.

We noticed that there were more balloons delivered to the dorm than one would expect– eighth grade guys just don’t generally get lots of stuff on Valentines Day; if they get anything, it’s from an older sister whose motives are suspect because they know how much the guy will get teased. But we were getting lots and lots delivered, and finally found out why: they were buying them for themselves so they could inhale the helium and talk funny.

Love is SUCH an eighth grade thing.

Nancy has some books from the library that were old and outdated, and instead of throwing them away, we give them to the schools we work with. I took a box of about 12 books to a school last week. The school has almost 1,000 students, with 13 teachers.

(From the car going back to RVA)

We did get a report from another school that they were now requiring students to come to classes in the afternoon because the food enabled them to concentrate longer. Thank you for what you have done with this program.

And, we go “live” with the computer center this month. Sometimes things that are meaningful to me might not make sense to you because of the context, and I risk that by telling you that we experienced a true miracle with the computers. They got to our mission headquarters in NY on a Monday and they were in our house in Kenya by Friday.

The people who handle sending items to Africa from our mission headquarters have a pretty impossible job, and they do a remarkable work in spite of all the problems. For perspective’s sake, I have had things stay at headquarters for four months before I received them.

In addition, I had budgeted thousands of dollars for duty and customs, and it cost me less than the two fruitcakes a nice friend of ours sent to us. We are truly blessed, but continue to ask for your prayers; there is much that still needs to be worked out.

Today is a duo anniversary for us. The twins were legally adopted a year ago today. We are making progress on all the paperwork we need to get in order to return to the states in July, but it has proved to be as difficult and stressful as anything we have done in Africa.  They are worth it all, but every time we think we are getting close to being done, we find out something else we need. We just discovered that we will need to get British visas because we have a ten hour layover in England on the way home.

Whenever I feel stressed by it, Katie reminds me that in America, you can call someone nice on the phone and they will bring you a pizza. I can’t wait to introduce you to them.