The internet in Kenya STINKS!

Hello everyone! It's Saturday night here. The internet at the hotel has taken a turn for the worst. We were already having to pay 450 shillings an hour at the hotel. Today NO ONE could get on the internet. We came to an internet cafe so we could send word out to our family/friends that they might not be hearing from us for a while. The internet is SOOOO slow (as was the hotel's internet) but luckily we're only having to pay 90 shillings an hour here.

Today was very relaxing. We went to the shops in downtown Mombasa this morning. It was a very neat experience as everything we bought we negotiated prices for. We all got some pretty neat stuff. You might wonder how we're getting it all home? Well, each of us have our extra suitcase that we used to bring our supplies. Not that we gave all the supplies away, we each have an empty suitcase!

While we were downtown, we did little things to spread the good news. We passed out braclets that say "Jesus Loves Me." We took some of our left over "goodie bags" and passed them out to children we saw on the streets. We went back to the hotel for lunch and then some of our group was going to a different area of town to do some more shopping. It was SO hot here today that I decided to just relax at the hotel. It was the first non-hectic day in the last week so I jumped on the opportunity to spend some quality "me time" with myself.

Tomorrow we are going to head back to Mtepani for their church service. They've made tomorrow a big deal as we are their honored guests. They're expecting 750-1000 people for the church service tomorrow in a church that will fit around 100. We will participate in the beginning of the service, but when it's time for the sermon, we will leave with the children and entertain them in the three small classrooms. Around 500 kids in three TINY classrooms. I'm in a group of 5 people that will be with the oldest group of kids (10-12 year olds). We are going to do a skit about Daniel and the Lions Den. I think it will be cute. Also, Vicki is in my group (the one who saved my LIFE when I was sick on the way down here). She works with deaf children in schools in San Antonio so she's planning on teaching the song "Jesus Loves Me" to the kids in sign language. It should be really neat.

After the service, the church is preparing lunch for EVERYONE that attends. They will be working through the night tonight to prepare. They bought a cow the other day for around $200 American dollars. Today, they slaughtered it for the meal tomorrow. Our leader told us that the food tomorrow is okay to eat, but I plan on taking a protein bar because I do NOT want to get sick on this trip AGAIN!

We will be done tomorrow in the village around 3:00pm. Tomorrow night we have to pack our things up. We will be leaving our suitcases in a room at the hotel while we go on the safari Monday/Tuesday. We're only allowed to bring our bookbag on the safari so I will have to pack and change of clothes, etc. for the night we will not be at the hotel. Tuesday we will return to the hotel and they are giving us two rooms to shower and change in before we head for the airport on Tuesday night. We fly out around 7:00pm Tuesday night and I will be home by 3:45pm on Wednesday.

This might be the last time I post until we are at the airport in Amsterdam. The internet has become such a pain and is too slow to get most things accomplished on the computer. I will update when I can! To everyone that's been reading so far and sending me sweet messages, "asante sana (thanks)!"