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