One big birthday party and a story about fainting

David Wednesday December 23,2009
First of all happy birthday to Nancy yesterday ! She was very excited to get her cards and Candice gave her a giraffe and I gave her a rhino. But today we weren’t just celebrating Nancy’s birthday but we were celebrating the birthdays of all the kids at Mercy home with party. The night before we had popped a hundred plastic bags worth of popcorn and put 5 candies in each one. Trudy and Candice had also spent a while putting together gift bags personalized for each child. Most of the toys and gifts were stuff from Canada so thank you to all the people who donated those gifts. We left for Mercy Home around 10:30 and the first part of the party was a talent show. Most of the kids would get into groups and do a choreographed song and dance while Joseph the guy in charge of the boy’s dorm accompanied them on the keyboard. They also recited poems and did some skits. My favorite skit was one that all the big boys from college did. There was also the fastest food-eating contest, which was hilarious because after the kids competed they had the manager Gershom and two other board members of Mercy home also take part. I had never seen the kids so enthused. Another highlight was a dance competition between some of the younger boys. They certainly bring it on when they are competeting. After the talent show all the kids received jelly sandwiches and juice, which was a real treat. Once all the kids had received one of each Trudy allowed them to have seconds only if they could repeat a verse from the bible from memory.

Then it was time running races the part where this day got interesting. Apong one of the big boys organized that I race against all the other big boys I agreed very excited to try my best against the highly talked about Kenyan runners. We were to run two laps around the soccer field. After many false starts we were off. I ran with all my might and began to take a good lead on the first lap, then I realized I had just sprinted it and had very little energy for the second. Half way around the second lap I was being passed by everyone I was just about to finish last when big Samuel totally face planted and I finished the race ahead of him. I had ran so hard I felt like my lungs were bleeding and I was going to throw up. I paced around for a good ten minutes not feeling any better and every time I breathed I felt a sharp pain. I then really felt the need to throw up so I went for the boy’s washroom and immediately started to dry heave. After that I felt a little bit better but then all of a sudden I become extremely light headed and lost all vision and some hearing, I could only see white light and felt as though the ground underneath me was spinning. This had happened to me once before and I knew I was just about to faint and if I didn’t get out of the washroom and drink some water then I could fall and hurt my self in there and nobody would have known. I staggered out clinging to the walls murmuring for some water when a girl named Howa saw me and got water and help. As soon as I drank some water my vision started to return and I felt more conscious. Andrew one of the big boys and vincent helped me to a bed in the boy’s dorm to lie down. My body was just soaked in sweat so they helped me cool down by unbuttoning my shirt and opening some windows. After a few minutes of resting I felt back to normal and I ate some food and drank ALOT of water. Nancy hung out with me the entire time, which I was very grateful for and she gave me extra water from her bottle. After all that I went back outside to join the party again. They were handing out the gift bags and popcorn and the kids were smiling from ear to ear.

So the moral of this story is, don’t try and outrun Kenyan’s

Merry Christmas everyone!

David