The following is the third in a series of journals written by members of the SRU Athletes for Forgotten Angels service group chronicling their trip to the Hekima Place orphanage in Kenya. All entries in the journal can be viewed at the Forgotten Angels page.

Day 3: Written by Freddie (Nicole Krueger), Brooke Edwards, and Shannon Mahoney

Today, Sunday, is definitely the most action-packed day so far. We started the day by attending the Deliverance Church down the road. This was quite the experience for all of us. As we walked into the church, we were greeted by the sounds of jubilant preaching, singing, clapping, and foot stomping. This went on for over an hour (about half of the service).

The rest of the girls and I all got into the music by clapping and dancing around. After all of the singing and dancing, the pastor went into an hour long sermon. It was very interesting to learn how important religion is in this culture. The pastor also recognized that we were "first timers" to the church and made us stand up and honored us. He asked one of us to come up and talk about why we were here, so Dana went up and spoke on the behalf of the group. It was very touching and inspiring to see the mass and to be welcomed with open arms. We were also blessed by the pastor and were told to have a wonderful year. 

Once we returned from mass it was decided we were going to the water park for the day. This is a luxury for the girls and some of them have never been to the park before. The water park was in Nairobi and took about an hour to get to from the compound. Once we got there the girls were immediately in the pool. There was a small pool, a deeper pool and a few slides. The girls were splashing around and so excited. They all had so much energy! Seeing the smiles on their faces was an amazing site to see. We ran around with them at the park for hours. It was quite the workout! The favorite for the older girls at the park was the closed slide. There were no rules or waiting in line. It was mass chaos at the top of the slide before each ride. The girls were champions of it though, as they pushed their way through. I don't think we would have ever been able to get down on our own without them. I (Nicole) rode down the slide each time with one of the girls, Ester. She screamed and laughed each ride down. After we popped out the bottom, it was a race back to the top, where we did it all over again…over and over and over again.

On our ride home from the park, the bus was dead silent, as most all of the girls passed out asleep. When we got back, we had spaghetti for dinner, a lucky surprise for us Americans. We are now all hanging out together, as tomorrow promises to be another day filled with work, laughter, and new experiences.

Today's shoutout goes to SRU Division of Student Affairs and International Initiatives for their support.


- Freddie, Brooke and Shannon