In Nairobi day 6

Today was a long day full work and reward. We woke up early and headed down to New Life armed with a pen, notebook, and camera. We first reviewed Drew's psycho-social report according to age. So I went over the various check lists for 2 year olds for movement skills, language and cognitive skills, and social and emotional skills. The boy I chose is a spunky 1 and a half year old who's crazy independent and energetic- so we get along well. He's super ADD and he bounces from one activity to another really quickly. We have fun together :)

Rhoda (the Nairobi New Life Social Worker) and I rescheduled our interview for tomorrow at 10 am and in the mean time I wrote a bunch of questions for her to answer. Morgan and Kaitlyn went out to get a few scanners for the various homes ad we began scanning in previous medical and legal documents for the kids.

There's so much work to be done here and all the other homes!

I got to talk to a lot of workers today and tell them about why we're here at what our goals are. They are always very grateful at the end of the day, but after realizing we're here not just to play, the caretakers were willing to help in every way. I talked to them to find out back story and the personality of Ricky.
I basically feel like a mix between a private investigator (going through old medical and legal hard copies and files) and an advertiser and personal advocator because ultimately our goal is to get these kids adopted!

Everyday its amazing to wake up and know that the work that we are doing is really going to change the lives of these kids by getting them adopted quicker.

I have also looooved getting to know the New Life Staff and volunteers. It's so sweet to hear everyone's stories, where they've volunteered and visited, and what their views are on certain issues. Today I talked with a student from Uganda named Leah. She's also 20 so we got talking about everything from Facebook to International Business to Mother Tongue and Tribal languages. Everyone is very interested (including myself) to see how this documentary/info vid is going to turn out. I've gotten really fun footage of the kids at New Life School and the Ark, both older groups of kids. The screen is full of faces. So it will be a different feel when I film calm(ish) babies and toddlers.

I'm feeling random:

I love my guitar!! Such a great buy :)

The biggest challenge yet, not swallowing water when I'm in the shower!

I found gluten-free frosted flakes… yum…
Still lots of rice and beans and veggies for me :)

I can't wait for life story time- this is where a few of us will sit around and tell the entire stories of our lives… starting from when/where you were born and everything leading up to today. It's amazing to see where people have come from and what shapes and connects us.

PS I can't wait for our safari on Thursday!!!!

PSS I would love to stay for a few more weeks!