Summer Camp! Summer Camp! Oi!

Last week it was Summer Camp for lots of kids with albinism! This was our camp shout: SUMMER CAMP! SUMMER CAMP! And everyone shouts "OI!" A team of volunteers came to run the camp. It was sad that Amisadai was sick a lot of the week, but I went every day from Tuesday to Sunday and really enjoyed it! The volunteers and Vicky and Esther made it really fun for all the kids - they were all very patient and kind! I got to go to a camp in Kenya the week before, but these kids don't get to do things like this, so this was a really exciting treat! Also it is their school holiday but a lot of them don't have a safe or happy home to go to which is really sad for them, so this made everyone very happy!

I went round the different stations joining in with different groups. I also helped with the little children in day care a few times. Here are some of the things we did ...


Art class with Maria (Mama Penina's daughter)

With Mama Laurensia

Emmanuel Festo has been through a very hard life. When he was 7 years old,  his left arm and the fingers on his right hand were cut off. Later on, he went to America where doctors used his toe to make a thumb so that he could grip with his right hand.  I don't know how they did this. But having only two "fingers" it is still very hard to hold a pencil. I was so surprised to see how he drew this amazing tree with the stubs on his hand wedged against chin! I could not do that!


Emmanuel drawing

 



I enjoyed going to the science class! We were learning about what we can do to avoid getting burned by the sun. People with albinism don't have pigment to protect their skin, so they can easily get skin damage and cancer from the sun rays. So one of the things the teachers did was give out these bead bracelets, which are really cool! When you stand in the sun, (mainly between 11am and 4pm when the sun rays are strongest), the beads change colour from white to purple, going darker purple as the sun rays get stronger. They draw energy from the sun which later makes them glow green in the dark! This helped us all week to see when we needed to get out of the sun!

Here we are all trying out our bracelets!

This kid needs to get out of the sun! Her beads have gone purple!

Ashley and Brady, young people from Canada, were leading the sports station! We played hockey and other games. That was a little hard with my sore hand, but they made it loads of fun.

Playing hockey!

The Upenda wa Mama group were selling necklaces, earrings, lip balms, lots of different types of body balms, lots of different types of soap, candles and hand sewn cards. Here I am helping them to set up the stall and help with selling. Lots of the team wanted to buy things and all the kids liked to look at it all!

This cute little girl is Mama Zuena's daughter, Mariam. I enjoyed looking after her!

At the end of every day, everyone came together for chapel. We sang worship songs and we can all dance at the front! Then some of the kids would perform a song and then there was a talk to do with our theme "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13) We also had a theme song which was really fun to sing and a really good thing for the kids who have had bad things said to them saying that they are not important or that they are a curse, to remember. It says, "I know who I am!" So you can see, it was very good camp.

Dancing in chapel

Loving a Kids Life as an "Overseas Missionary"

Louisa and I just got back from an amazing camp in Kenya which we can’t wait to tell you all about! Also Louisa has lots to say about the awesome Summer Camp this week for Kids with Albinism. But we haven’t had time to write anything yet. So in the meantime, we thought you might like to read a short article we wrote for our Church magazine in England. We were asked to write about what it is like as kids growing up as “overseas missionaries.”

All Christians, young and old, wherever they live, can be missionaries. A missionary is someone who shares Jesus and the Bible with others, lives as a light and helps people practically and spiritually.

For us, being overseas missionaries (in a different country to where we were born) is fun and exciting, but can also sometimes be a little sad or hard at times ... and it can be pretty normal too.

Living Overseas

We love that we see get to see amazing places like the Serengeti, speak different languages (Swahili and tribal languages) and have different experiences. We have adventures that might scare people in England such accidently standing on a crocodile’s head in the river and just getting off in time or finding a spitting cobra living in our garden. We eat food that is really different to Canadians, like green slime with sour milk, hairy goats and cow intestine soup.

The green slime with rice

Learning Kimasai in Magozi

Snake kill

As well as being adventurous, it can be a little hard at times. We often miss our family and friends in England and Canada. Amisadai misses Taste Youth and corner yogurts and Louisa misses English shops and McDonalds. But then when we come back to England we really miss our friends and life in Tanzania and we feel so behind because everyone is talking about new things that just came out, and we have NO clue what they are talking about. Tanzania is home to us, and we feel normal here!

In many ways normal life for us isn’t so different! We get up at 6:20am and leave for school at 7:15am. School starts at 7:55am. We go to an international school (taught in English). We really like it there, and it isn’t that different to UK schools. Amisadai’s favourite subjects are PE, History and Drama and Louisa’s favourites are art and science. We have loads of monkeys at our school, and they are a nuisance! They tip over the bins, steal lunches and break into students’ backpacks. Once a friend walked into the bathroom and found a monkey sitting on the toilet! After school, sometimes we have swimming or other clubs, or we go home and do homework and music practise. We like to do normal things like riding our bikes, going for runs, climbing trees (and playing in our treehouse), listening to music, sketching and emailing friends.

Singing in the school choir

Fun in our treehouse

 

How are we as kids involved in “Mission?”

Sometimes people think only adults can be missionaries. But we all can. Most of our time is at school now, so we can talk to friends about Jesus and what it means to be a Christian. When we go to villages, the main thing is to be with people. They love to see our faces and we love to help out! When we were doing the stoves project, we would sit with the groups and make miniature versions of clay stoves! We can sit and make beads or weave mats with mamas and play games with kids. When mum and dad go to teach about nutrition or SODIS (a way of getting clean water to drink using sunlight) or keeping bees, we can talk too and act out dramas to help deliver the message.


Teaching how to get clean water using SODIS

Teaching the importance of washing hands!

Hanging out with the Mamas Group

Teaching on protective bee-gear

Louisa loves to read the Swahili Bible and lead the singing. And we get to see that God is always at work! God has always been there for us, to help and encourage us, getting us out of danger and healing us from sicknesses such as malaria and amoebiasis. Once when we got lost in a baobab forest with a friend, after wandering round in circles and making our parents rather anxious, He brought us all back to the path. We have seen God heal people who have evil spirits and He has given Louisa the words to pray for people.  He always has a special job for all of us to do!

How have you seen God at work around you?