Trying desperately to maintain objectivity

I spent some time today doing administrative work at the Cura Home... tracking details like birthdates and spelling and photo records and whatnot. And the process was emotionally grueling. The applications for the children to be accepted at the home were humbling to say the least: the most challenging were the barely literate expressions of such pleas for help as "She is orphan. Please help." The waiting list file was almost too much to bear.



We distributed the collages Quinn's class created today, and there was one collage for every two children in the home. They now have the art work hanging in their rooms, and they created their own reciprocal art project involving tracing and coloring their hands. One girl, Grace, colored the tracing of MY hand and spent the day interested in my veins, my ring, my tattoo... She took this photo.



The girls were more interested in stories and songs and showing me the pre-primary school (where English-to-Swahili translations were written on the insides of corn meal bags and hung on the walls---which is more than the primary school classrooms have by way of visual aides)----but the boys kept Greg very active on the football pitch and playing separate-the-bald-guy-from-his-hat!

We had a lovely dinner with Jeff, Courtenay and Apollo at the end of the day (checked out Nairobi's swankiest new hotel---Tribe---too). Loved that--but nothing beats Cura. Can't wait to get back.

We fly to the Mara tomorrow morning and will be out of touch for at least four days after that... more when we get wired again!