Volunteer of the Year!

 

 

Five years ago, I travelled to Africa for my first time, with a volunteer company called IVHQ. Over 26,000 volunteers, from around the world,  have travelled with them, over the past 5 years. I have been nominated one of the TOP 10 Finalist's for "Volunteer of the Year" ! Whoo Hoo, so exciting! The winner will receive $5000.00 US to go towards their project!

Go to this link  www.volunteerhq.org/lindakinnell  and PLEASE vote for Mama Linda!!  Thank you

Mama Lori & Tayler

Mama Lori, Tayler & Mama Linda

 

I said goodbye today, to two amazing ladies and my new friends, Mama Lori and her daughter, Tayler. While we spent 2 weeks together in the Rafiki House, we painted, we cleaned, we did laundry, we played, we sang, we danced, we cleaned more, we killed spiders together, we laughed and we cried! Lori and her family and friends funded the tile and paint projects for the dining room, and the girl's and boy's bedrooms. THANK YOU! What I know for sure, is that they both have huge hearts and they will be in the hearts of these children forever! Tayler is one amazing young, 19 year old woman, with a beautiful infectious smile, who I know will continue to inspire young people her age. And I LOVE the fact that the people here thought she was my sister!! 

 

Have a safe Safari!

 

 

Girl's with BIG Hearts!

I have inspired some young hearts, again! A young girl, by the name of Nicole Rice, from Ontario just celebrated her 9th Birthday at the end of January. She invited 7 of her best friends and asked that they not bring her birthday gifts and instead make a donation so that she could buy something special for the children of Karim Orphanage! WOW, what an amazing girl! On the day of the birthday party, Nicole and her 7 amazing friends 'Megan, Tiana, Brianna, Amelia, Eden, Hailey and Samantha watched the video's I made of the Karim, read the blog, checked out pictures of the children, made a special craft for each of the children and wrote letters to all of them. This truly makes my heart smile big, knowing I have inspired someone so young! I surprised the girls by skyping in on the birthday party. I needed to meet this wonderful girl, Nicole, with the Big Heart and all her friends, so I could say Happy Birthday and Thank you from the bottom of my heart.



A special painted graffiti wall at Karim for my special young friends!

Hasani

Onesmo

Sabrina



 Happy Birthday, Nicole, and Thank you from the bottom of our Hearts!













I'm so cute and I know it!!

Little Alex, loves loves to pose for the camera.... can you tell??

The Karim Family

The Karim Children!

A beautiful Mama

The pretty girls!

The handsome boys!

*Missing is Dada and Ibra, as they have been away for the past 3 weeks. Dada's sister is very sick and in the hospital so she has gone to her village to help out with the 7 children.

Three Little Monkey's

Three little monkey's, climbing a tire wall...
 

struggling to get to the top...

 

so fun could be had by all!!

New work gloves for my Little workers!

Alex and Ibra are home all day with me, following me around and wanting to do what ever I am doing, while the others are off at school. When I work, they work, when I sit, they sit! And of course, when I put on the work gloves...they need some too! Usually mine are too big but that just doesn't matter. Well, thanks to Lana Shearer, they now have their very own work gloves and are loving them! Thanks Lana!

 

 

 

New Barbie's for the girl's!

A fellow 'OwnAmbassador', from Georgia, shipped some Barbie's to me, for my girl's! These Barbie's travelled from Chicago, to Lethbridge, to Calgary, to Amsterdam to Tanzania! A loooong way to put a BIG smile on these girl's faces! Their very own, first Barbie ~ they were so excited!





Antonia

 




Sabrina and Saumu

Sabrina





Neema



Maggie

 

 

Hawa, having a nap with her new Ballerina Barbie!

              

               THANK YOU,  Towinga, for our new Barbie's!

A New Look for Karim

Karim has a new look, complete with new rainbow colored paint for all the rooms and finished with white tile and new curtains for every room!  What a difference it makes! It looks fresh and bright ~ just like the faces of the children of Karim.  Three years ago, when the house was complete, the entire house was painted, what they call cream and what I call pale yellow! Add 17 pairs of childrens hands, well, you must know what it would look like after 3 years. The floors were never tiled, only concrete floors. So, it was time!



The hallway before....



The hallway after~with bright orange walls and white tile!



The dining room before.....



The dining room after ~ bright orange walls, white tile, lime green curtains!





Girls bedroom before...



The girls room after ~ pink walls, white tile, purple curtains!

The boy's bedroom ~ bight blue, white tile, lime green curtains!

So, you can see, we have been hard at work! It looks amazing and the children love it! I owe a big thank you, to Dan, Twyla and Glen. They have been here the past week, helping me with the painting, cleaning and organizing!

Thank you,  from all the children of Karim, Rehema and from Mama Linda! Couldn't have done it without you!