Harvest Festival

Tonight we celebrated a Harvest Festival with the missionary community here at Tenwek.  The MKs wore costumes, there was a pumpkin carving contest, we went trick-or-treating around the compound, some kids bobbed for apples, and everyone ate hot dogs and s'mores afterwards.  It was a lot of fun!  Plus, the air cooled down after it rained so it even felt a bit like an autumn evening.

In anticipation of the Harvest Festival, we carved pumpkins over the weekend.  Most of the pumpkins here are green, but they carved well and still fit a candle inside!  Caleb wanted a mad face, and Kai opted for a happy face.  Eli is great at carving pumpkins so I left him to it while I took pictures.

The only costumes we have here are superheroes, which is great since the boys love wearing their capes!  So we had Batman and a couple of Supermans for the occasion.  There are a ton of kids at Tenwek right now so it was fun to have them all together and see them dressed up like they'd do at home.

And then there were the pumpkins.  So many creative carvings!  A chameleon, Darth Vader, the Tenwek motto, a rhino, the Tenwek Orthopedic symbol, Walker (the favorite pet dog among the missionaries)...  It was great fun!

Eating hot dogs and s'mores around a campfire was a fabulous way to end the evening.  It's such an American thing to do and it reminded us of home.  Doing things like this are an important way to connect with each other and remember that even though we live in Kenya, a part of us is still in America as we think of the holidays and seasons that aren't a part of the culture here.  We're so thankful for the Harvest Festival at Tenwek!