Welcome Home Lynn

We are delighted to welcome Lynn McCluskey back home to the Happy House. Lynn arrived bearing gifts from sponsors and many of the other much needed items. We have decided to keep the presents until each child celebrates their birthday, to save the situation of some having presents and others not. It is difficult to explain why to these children who have had so little in their short lives already.

 

This is what Lynn had to say about being back with the children:-

 

Although I was still feeling tired after my long journey back, that all magically vanished when I walked through the Happy House doors !! My first port of call was the banada, there they were, all the beautiful babies I'd seen on the blog were playing and sleeping. Ahhh to finally get to cuddle these new little ones was a dream come true for me. Then as if things couldn't get better, it was time for the older children to come home from school, 13 of  whom I'd made friends with on my last visit. Nothing could have prepared me for the looks of sheer delight on their faces as they leapt from the tut tut's and recognised me......... Priceless!!!!!! The piece of my heart that I left behind at the Happy House was definaltley now back in place. I shall remember that feeling for the rest of my days. It just feels so good to be back..........

Baby Love

 

 

Children at Devonshire Primary School, Blackpool,  have become a part of baby Brian's sponsor family after raising £210 with a non-uniform day.
I went into school last year to talk to them about the Happy House and they made a promise to help, and they have. They have been following our progress through the blog and with updates from Elizabeth Gomm in Blackpool, so by the time they had their fundraiser they already knew all about baby Brian's arrival at the Happy House. When Elizabeth went in to talk to a  school assembly and receive to their cheque, he was the little one they all wanted to know about. Thank you so much Devonshire School for helping us. Baby Brian is so lucky to have you all as his sponsor brothers and sisters!

 

 

Do we have a Picasso or Lowry?

I asked Kamango a local artist to come to the Happy House and teach our children how to draw and paint. He was delighted. At first he had the children just colouring in and painting the pictures we had, next lesson they will be drawing their own pictures and painting them. When Kamango was leaving he told me how much he had enjoyed being at the Happy House with the children, and would be back on Sunday. We might have a brilliant artist in our midst, but we will never find out unless he/she is given the opportunity to shine.

 

So many people are all so kind and generous asking what we need.

If anyone is coming could we please ask for paper, paints, brushes, colouring books, coloured pencils etc. We also need girls socks for school aged 2 to 5 years.

 

 

 

Jedijah is 7

Another birthday party this week, Jedijah was 7 on Wednesday. Hadijah our cook made a lovely cake, the kids just love it, all saying when is it my birthday. We gave presents of a big teddy and some new clothes, as always everything had been donated by so many of you.

Bringing in the crops

Today Gideon our gardener brought the in first crop of maize. Hadeja, the cook roasted the maize and the children devoured it. It really was so delicious. The children have asked if they can have it every day when they come home from school. We are now eating lots of our own crops, bananas, cucumbers, kale, spinach, and passion fruit . The tomatoes will be ready in a couple of weeks and the carrots maybe next week along with the peppers. Galiano and water melons are also growing well.  It is so exciting to see the food being brought into the kitchen every morning.  The house Mums are giving the babies mashed potaoes and fresh greens with mashed bananas and juice made from the passion fruit.

 

 Dreams really do come true.

The Aspinall Family help the Happy House Kids

 

Michelle Aspinall , her husband, Ed, and there three young children will be visiting the Happy House this summer - after coming the long way to get here, around the world!
Michelle and Ed along with  Billy,10, Jack, eight,  and Maddie, four,  set off from the UK's north west on June 26 with their first stop, New York, they are then going on to LA before heading to Australia, followed by Vietnam and Cambodia, India ( for a week's rest in Goa)  before heading "home" to help us at the Happy House.
The family sponsor Samson and so looking forward to meeting him (the children have been learning a few Swahili words). They have also been working so hard to raise money for the Happy House children and we do wish them well as they set of on an amazing journey. We promise them a big Happy House welcome when they get here!
Amongst their fundraising efforts was a real physical trial for Michelle and Ed - the Wilmslow triathalon.
Here Michelle tells us all about it: "On the Sunday,  May 9, me and my husband , Ed, completed the Wilmslow Triathlon in aid of Children of Watamu.
We have been raising lots of money before we reachWatamu in August to help out  there for a couple of weeks. We are a family of five  and are setting off round the world trip on June 26, finishing in Watamu. We wanted to have a charity 'slant' on the trip and once I had read about Sue's amazing work I was hooked! The triathlon was a 400m swim, 24km bike ride and a 7km run, all reasonable distances on their own but put together....bit more demanding. Anyhow, we finished it in 2hrs 13mins, not bad for two novices, hubbie could have done it quicker but was the true gentleman and we did it together. Many many times throughout the gruelling event I thought of the children in the Happy House and the money we were raising and it did keep me going,
I thought to myself, what am I moaning about being out of breath, limbs aching, chest hurting.....it's all going to go away when I finish.  It's a different story for  the abandoned and orphaned children of Watamu and all those 'lost' children who have yet to find the Happy House.
We need to raise as much money as possible to help them and to help Sue and her ever supportive husband, Dave, to continue the work of this fantastic charity which has changed the lives of so many people, not just those in Kenya but also those people involved in the charity who have found an opportunity to be part an amazing journey.
I feel very very privileged.
To date we have raised £500 through my JustGiving page, www.justgiving/Michelle-Aspinall.com and our children and their school, Markland Hill, Bolton, have had numerous events and are still organising more events and are not far off the £1000 mark themselves alone. I would like to thank them all for helping us make our dream someone elses dream as well."'
 Michelle, Ed, Billy, Jack and Maddie. xxxxx
We will be following the Aspinall family's trip via their website www.aspinallsworldroundtrip.com What an georgraphy lesson for us all it will be! Good luck to you all.

 

 

Safe and sound

On Thursday as we arrived in Timboni on the way home from the hospital with Steve, Nancy the Children's Officer called  to ask if we could come to the office and take two children who had been brought in by the Chairman of their school. a girl,who is 9 years old, was being continually raped by her Father while  her brother aged 6 watched on. It only came to light when the boy's saw him behaving very strangely, when asked what he was doing he said it is what Dad does to my sister. The sister when gently questioned by the teacher told everything. The police were called and the children went to the home of the school chairman, the girl had been raped that very morning before she went to school.

The Father was arrested on Wednesday. After court yesterday Dave  Billy had to take the children to the police station to be interviewed and to make statements. The sister had to go to the hospital to be examined,so that a certain form could be issued, for the case against the Father.  Mama Preshca went to the Children's office with us to collect the children. As good a Billy is with the children we worried that she  would be frightened of men. Preshca told the children how lovely the Happy House is and that lots of children were there waiting for them, to play football and watch television. When we leave collect children we do not always know if we have boys or girls or indeed the ages. When we do we call home so the Mums can get clothes ready and a bed, so that there is already a place for the child. When we are nearly home with new children, we call to say 5 minutes, it is fantastic, everyone is waiting to say hello and welcome the new family members. We always tell the children you have a new brother and sister today. The kids are great they take the children and show them their place in the Happy House help them to get showered and changed. The older ones remember when they were the one arriving frightened and confused. I have not taken photographs of of these children as it would not be at all appropriate.