We're going on a bus trip

When we told the kids on Thursday that we would be going on a bus trip the reaction was something I have never seen before. The kids and teachers were overjoyed at the fact that they would be leaving the Elma Barnet Children's Centre and going to the biggest volcanic crater in Kenya and the second biggest in Africa, Menengai Crater.

After getting up at 6:00 and collecting the soda and mandazi we waited for the bus. Once it came we drove to the Children's Centre and the children's faces were so happy to see and get on a bus. when the doors opened, the kids piled in and fought for seats on the bus. On the drive to the crater we sang so many songs and the kids were fixated on what was outside the bus.

The team and the children and their teachers getting on the bus

Once we got to the crater we were all amazed at what we saw. Menengai Crater went on for miles! We got a tour of the crater and we were surprised to find out that it is called Menengai Crater because lots of Maasai people had died by falling down it. David gave us a talk on how the volcano was created and then we ate our mandazi and soda as morning tea.

Gillian, some children and our guide Daisy looking out over Menengai Crater
(steam from the main vent can be seen in the background in the centre of the caldera)

Abbey, Lena (teacher) and children walk to our morning tea location

David then talked about rocks and how it is a sticky rock volcano. He talked about the difference between the rocks with air injected into them and the ones with no air in them.

Standing at the top of the crater and looking at the sheer escarpment of andesite pumice

We began the bus trip back to the Children's Centre and had lunch with the kids. We told them that we would not be working with them next week and they were quite sad about that, but they were happy that we would see them when we worked with the high school.

We came back to Sunrise Acres momentarily, before everyone except David went to the church to either go to Mums In Prayer or to have some fun and play basketball. Playing basketball was fun but it was a little bit harder for me because I was the shortest by quite a bit, so I would jump my highest and still not reach the high passes. It was still good fun. Rodney, Max, and Jesse played very well but Max got injured, a finger to the eye, and Rodney was out of breath so it was just Jesse left playing.
Mums in prayer had finished so all except Jesse and David went to town to get some money and food. Jesse also got injured, a knee to the thigh, so he was finished and we all went back to Sunrise Acres where David had started to make pumpkin soup for dinner. This is somewhat more difficult without a whizz-stick, so it was more like a vegetable soup.

We discussed some things regarding our Sunday Service and then had banana splits for dessert made by Abbey & Ariana.