The Small Gulls

In the children's homes, the rooms are separated into "small girls, small boys, big girls, big boys". They roll their "R's" here though, and with the Kenyan accent, small girls sounds more like "small gulls." Makes me laugh every time I hear it! While I laugh at some of their English words, they have way more opportunities to laugh at my pronunciation of Swahili words. I am learning Swahili "pole pole" (poll-eh poll-eh, means slowly slowly!) Here's some pictures of the small girls from Tumaini:

Mary - being silly! She ran up to me and said "take my picture" and this was the face I got! Sometimes Mary is really shy, but in small groups, especially when we are home at Tumaini, that is not the case! 

Deborah and Gracie (biological daughters of Tumaini house parents Tom and Emmy). They are both very sweet girls. They are usually the first to greet me in the mornings and we have started a bedtime ritual also - it mostly involves me laying them on their beds and saying "lala salama" (sleep well!). They pretend to sleep for about 10 seconds and then are jumping up ready to "go to bed" again! I have also learned how to say "close your eyes!" (funga macho). You can imagine how quiet, calming, and relaxing this bedtime ritual is...but somehow I haven't been thrown out of the house just yet!

Beaty is NOT shy. She is the wildest, craziest, spunkiest of them all. She constantly amazes me with how strong she is. She will run at me, leap into the air and latch on with her arms and legs and hang there without me holding her at all. Sitting on me lap, she can lean backwards until her head touches the floor and then sit back up again with hardly any help from me. I am also in love with her loud raspy singing voice.
The four of them together make for some fun times in Tumaini house!!