Please keep in mind that our camera was well... far less than amazing and that a lot of these pictures were taken while in the car and on the move. They are blurry and you can see the reflection of the window in most of them but you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. Right? (I know... Im a dork)
This picture was taken on our very first day there. My parents had taken us on a drive to see the Changombe Chapel (which is the branch we eventually ended up attending and when I say "chapel" I actually mean run down apartment building that we met in for church) On our way back we came across this young man. He had been pulling a very heavy cart, much like the ones I will show pics of later, it was very hot and he passed out. There were quite a few people down the road watching him but no one seemed concerned. We stopped and my mom and Andrew got out to help. My mom splashed some water on his face and when he woke up to a white women hovering over him his eyes about popped out of his head. They moved him to the shade, gave him a bottle of water and we carried on.
This is the main part of the city
and this is the fish market. This place was so funny. We would go in there and we wouldn't even have to barter for ourselves. We would have so many people fighting over us they would barter with each other and the prices would get unbelievably low. I hated bartering so this was perfect for me.
this is what the main roads look like. (When the traffic was good. If we are being honest this is a very unrealistic picture. The roads were rarely this empty. Usually it was bumper to bumper and hours to travel more then a couple of miles. Ridiculous, thats what it was)
This is what the roads through the neighborhoods looked like. Imagine some of the roughest mountain roads you have ever been on... although this road doesn't seem too bad.. again, unrealistic for the most part.
Girls going to school...
A big sister playing mom with baby brother or sister...
We saw this EVERYWHERE. These guys would go around and pick up all the empty water bottles that everyone else would throw on the ground, stuff them in a huge bag and carry them on their heads to be recycled. I can't imagine this brought in loads of cash but at least it was something I suppose.
One of the ridiculously heavy carts I mentioned earlier
More recyclable stuff. I can't believe the loads these people would carry on bikes
This is what a lot of the houses in the city looked like
And this is what a lot of the more rural homes looked like
So when the traffic was bad (aka always) guys would walk up and down between the cars and try to sale you anything and everything under the sun.
Please pretend not to see my face in this one... So this ditch was right outside our compound and it had about an inch of scummy water running down it. I mean... it was really really gross water. These little boys made some nets and they would spend all day trying to catch the little minnows that were in the water. I like to tell myself that they didn't take them home to eat.... it was just something fun to do.
Some Maasi Mamas sitting on the side of the road making jewelry to sale
Yes, they really do carry just about everything on their heads. Seems painful.
Duka La Dawa... a drug addicts paradise. This is what we would call a pharmacy. Except there are no laws for any drugs there so... have a headache? How about some Lortab?
This picture is specifically for Brett. And yes... the ONLY reason we took it is because of his marvelous shirt.
This is the Happiness House of Cake. Need I say more?
Every where you look there are little shops like this selling all the crap that we americans like to send over there, thinking we are being so charitable. We even saw BYU and Jazz shirts quite a few times.
These are our primary kids
This was our baptismal font. (it may or may not be a dumpster they cleaned out and painted) It was quite humorous watching them try to get in and out of that thing, especially the chick that was trying to be modest.
These pics are more blurry than usual. This is because they are taken on a very old phone while trying to be extra sneaky. No pictures were allowed in the orphanage but we had to get a couple of these babies. This is were we spent a lot of our time.
Andrew and Agnus. We fell in love with this little lady. If there was any way in this world that we could have brought her home with us... we would have in a heart beat.
Im thinking the orphanage deserves its very own post, so be looking for these pics again with more details.
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