Settling in at WWB - Week One

Hello to all our family and friends!!!
What a week...the plane rides were long but the kids did great. Geoffrey was at the airport in Nairobi to pick us up, and he was a welcome site after going through customs and visa checks. After spending the first night in Nairobi (a little scary :)) Geoffrey picked us up and took us to WWB.
On our way we stopped in Thika, the closest real town to WWB, it's about 40 minutes away. Here we picked up some supplies at a store and exhcanged some US money for Kenyan shillings. In the bank I saw the only other white person I had seen in Thika, and wouldn't you know he and his wife are volunteers from Portland.
When we finally arrived at WWB we were greeted by wonderful smiling children and a very helpful group of volunteers. Aaron and Kaitlin showed us our house, and it is pretty amazing compared to what most people have. A great room that serves as the kitchen, family room, and kids room with bunk beds...and the second room our room with a queen bed and a shower stall. No running water anywhere, but we are working on bringing in solar so we will have electricity in our house. No running water means we all go to the bathroom in a hole...check out the picture! Also laundry by hand, bucket/sponge showers, and carry all of your water!
The place has been amazing so far. We have a great cook named Grace who makes all our meals from things grown here at WWB. We also have three cows, five or six chickens, two goats, and two pigs. We use the milk from the cows and the eggs from the chickens.
The kids are adjusting well and are becoming used to being the focus of all the other children. When we walk the younger kids to school in the morning, we walk them to a school in Pundamillia village only 15-20 minutes away. With Naya and Kai being the only white children around they are quite a hit! The other village nearby is Makuyu Village, about a 30 minute walk. Makuyu has a few stores, fruit stands, small eateries, and a medical clinic...VERY BASICS only for everything. We are all adjusting to this way of life and Ann and I are excited to start doing more work this week. Ann has already accompanied our medical volunteers to an HIV meeting in Makuyu.
For my cop buddies, on our second day here a neighbor who borders WWB property stole our fan and IPOD dock out of our open window sill. Aaron and I were able to follow the footprints, and with the help of Geoffrey we recovered the property and got a full confession...still playing detective!
So far the experience is everything we have hoped for and more...electricity isn't completely reliable and the internet is slow but we will continue to email and update this blog. We will talk more about our upcoming needs and projects at WWB in the future posts! For more pics check out Ann's facebook album!
Thanks and love, Devin, Ann, Naya and Kai