Farewells

Today I danced one last time with the children from Joska.  I was even able to spend some special time with the school’s worship team and teach them some additional songs.  These kids are the hardest to say goodbye to.  I have formed so many relationships, it is hard to say goodbye when you know you will probably never see that person ever again.  Many of the class eight students were begging me to come back before December (before they graduate and move on to high school).  It was so hard to say goodbye to them.

After departing Joska, I made one last stop at Pangani to meet my sponsored child.  The boy I have been sponsoring (Meshack) has moved to Uganda, so this was my first time meeting my new child.  His name is Paul, he is 7 years old, and in class 2.  He was very shy and not completely fluent in English yet, but he had the best smile and was just so precious.  I cannot wait to watch this child grow up.  It is so special to me that I actually get to know my sponsored child, he is not just a name and a picture, he is a little boy with a personality and opinions and I feel so privledged to get to know that part of him.  How many people actually get that                                                                chance?

I am now at the airport, waiting for my plane.  My heart is so torn at the moment.  I miss home and am ready to go back and see everything I have missed, but I also love the people here and I feel like I can do so much work here.  For now I have to be content with the fact that I will come back.  When God provides the means, I will be on the first flight back to see my Kenyan family.

Me and Moses (my dancing buddy)

Pastor Joseph

Joska Day 2

Today I woke up to hear multiple roosters crowing right outside my window.  The children were in class all morning, so I was left to entertain myself.  I walked to the other side of the compound to see the new construction.  There is always a new project here; I am always so impressed with the progress that they make in a year.  Since I was here last, they have started a new building that will be a recreation center and a chapel.  It is a large, gorgeous stone building that is such an improvement on their too small, aluminum chapel.  They are also continuing work on the dorm building, though progress has been halted since I was here last because they haven’t had the funds to continue.  After a nice walk around the compound, I spent the afternoon talking with Pastor Joseph.  Pastor Joseph is such an amazing man, the amount he does here amazes me, but he is so happy and loves all of his 900 kids.  He has a great story and it was fun to discuss culture and religion and so many topics with him (you’d be amazed all the things you can discuss and how well you can get to know a person in three hours when you take the time to just talk, no tv, nowhere to be, just talk).  After the children finished class, they took some recreation time and I brought out the football I had brought.  None of the kids had seen one before and I had to show them how to throw it.  My demonstration left much to be desired, but the boys understood the idea, and in no time they were throwing it like they had been raised in America.  Afterwards we tried kicking field goals over the soccer goal.  No one succeeded, but had any of them been wearing shoes I’m sure it would have been too easy for them.

Tonight we were planning on dancing again, but halfway through dinner the power went out.  The generator was out of fuel and the man who went to get some had not yet returned.  It’s hard to organized 900 kids with no light and no P.A. system, much less get them to dance, so the kids were sent to bed.  I was disappointed, feeling like I had wasted a day here, but then I saw the stars.  I have never seen the stars like this.  There are just so many more than I have ever seen; at least 10 times more than what I see at home.  It was so amazing and beautiful it brought me to tears.  God’s paintbrush was right here.  There may be a lot of trouble in Kenya, but God is right here, painting the stars to remind everyone how marvelous He is.  The fact that He created the stars has always baffled me….that the giant fireballs in the sky were just a day project for Him…but this was something new.  He didn’t just create these things, He arranged them into a beautiful masterpiece that shows us only the smallest fraction of His glory.  I wish I could capture these stars so I could always look and remember, but this beauty cannot be captured in a photograph.  God’s creation is so marvelous that the only way you can see it is to come to Him everyday.  No man-made thing can capture His brillance.

Joska Day 1

Today I packed up yet again and headed back out to the Joska boarding school, where I will spend the remainder of my time here.  I spent the afternoon with the kids listening to a health presentation a couple of the interns are presenting.  In the evening, we had a Wednesday night service.  I led worship and we all had such a blast singing and dancing together.  After every song the kids would clap and yell for the longest time.  It was great seeing them enjoying themselves so much and praising with all their hearts.

Kimiko and Huruma/Madoya

This morning I went to the Kiamiko school.  I have never been to this school, so I did not know what to expect.  I was met with an entergetic staff and children that were so happy and energetic that it increased my energy exponentially.  The children were so excited to learn the songs and they put all of their energy into dancing.  Funny thing is, the Kiamiko students were pretty tone deaf.  The could not carry any of the melodies I gave them, but they didn’t care; they sang with all of their might for the Lord.  Even when they couldn’t remember the words, they would sing their own words to their own tune.  To human ears, it sounded like quite a ruckus at times, but I could not help from smiling at their spirit.  At that moment, I could hear it as God did, and it was beautiful.

In the afternoon, I walked over to the Huruma/Madoya school.  When you are driving everything seems so far apart…all the jams and the fact that you have to drive around the slums instead of through really increases travel time.  I was surprised how close Huruma/Madoya was to Kiamiko when we were able to walk through.  The Huruma/Madoya children were great..  We were crammed into a small little hall and I was on a table that was on a pretty steep incline, but it didn’t matter.  Though they were elbowing each other, and stepping on toes, they had a blast and wanted to keep learning more.

This evening I stayed again with the Kamaus.  Mary has been gone since I’ve been here, doing some speaking in the U.S.  but tonight she (and little David) came home.  It was great to see them, and David was just as much energy as ever.  After everyone went to bed, David and I stayed up and played.  Jet lag has not yet caught up to his little 4 year-old body.

More strings to my heart

Today I was able to visit some more of the special needs children with Isabella.  All these children just pull at my heart; I want to bring them all back with me so they can get the care they need.  After visiting a few homes, Isabella and I headed back to Pangani and I showed her a few things she can do with the children.  I feel like there is so much more I can teach her and help her with, but we are so pressed for time.  I hope that the little I have been able to give will be enough to help these children and to keep them busy until I am able to return.  These children are so wonderfully created and deserve so much more than they have been given.  I know there is a special place in heaven for each of these beautiful children.

Meet the children:

Susan

Susan was 3 years old when she fell from her mother’s back (women here carry their children on their backs with a piece of fabric that is just tied in a knot in front….so scary!).  She now has very poor muscle control and has trouble focusing her eyes and walking.  Because everything is done for her, Susan is also very uncooperative and was kicked out of school because she refused to tell them when she needed to go to the bathroom.  In the little time we had, I was able to teach Isabella how to teach Susan to comply.  I was also able to talk to Mary, who leads the sewing workshop, and get her to make a harness to help Susan walk.  Hopefully I can see great progress here next time I come!

Ian

Ian is 6 years old and is one of the happiest kids I have ever met.  He would just giggle at everything…so sweet coming from a child that has no toys to entertain him.  Ian has cerebal paulsy and cannot walk or stand.  While I visited him I was able to get him to hand me different objects, a hard task for someone with poor muscle control.  But, he worked hard because he quickly learned that I would give him tickles every time he did it.  Ian will be such a great worker because he is so motivated for giggles.  I am sure he will learn so quickly…I cannot wait to see what he learns!

Kenyan Sun

Today I packed up my things and headed to the Joska boarding school.  Halfway there, Pastor Stanlas allowed me to drive his car =).  Driving on the right side of the car and the left side of the road was not as difficult as I had expected it to be.  The thing that was difficult was trying to avoid all the potholes and speed bumps.  At one point we were driving on a dirt road and there were huge tire ruts ahead.  I started to go around them but Stanlas told me not to go around, just go through.  We made it halfway through the ruts then got stuck.  Some men from the village had to push us out.  It was a great first driving experience, though I do not take full credit for being stuck =)

At Joska, I attended church with the students.  Near the end of the service, Pastor Joseph leaned over to me and asked if I had a presentation prepared, which I did not.  He asked me to do something anyways, so I got up to do some songs with the kids.  When I got up all the children remembered my name from last year and all of the dances I had taught them.  We did a few songs from last year and even from the year before.  It is such fun worshipping at Joska.  The kids have such energy and such passion that you cannot help but be affected by it.

After church I headed back towards Nairobi to Wallace and Mary Kamau’s home.  (The Kamaus are the directors of the Hope Schools.)  I will be staying with them for the next few days until I head back to Joska.  After getting back to the house, I was able to relax with a couple of the interns that are also staying with the Kamaus.  We went to the pool and just enjoyed the Kenyan sun then headed to “the village” for ice cream and shopping.  It was a nice, relaxing day to recharge for the busy week ahead.

Mabatini

Today I went to the Mabatini school.  This school is without a doubt the best dancers and singers of the schools I have visited.  The teachers and students wanted to perfect every word and movement before moving on to another song.  They wanted me to stay all day and were so eager to learn as many dances as they could.  Even the teachers got up and did all the dances with us.  It was a blast to dance and worship all morning…I was sad to leave them.

This evening I checked out of the hotel and went to stay with Pastor Stanlas and his family.  He lives a little outside Nairobi with his wife and 6 girls.  He dropped me off at the house then had to run to the church so I had some time to get to know the girls.  They were all so sweet and the little ones were so curious about my hair and my skin.  I painted all the girls nails which they really enjoyed (though they are more well off than most in Nairobi, things like nail polish are luxuries they don’t usually enjoy).  We spent the evening talking and once their mother came home, the girls made dinner.  They had to make everything for dinner (no frozen meals here) so we didn’t eat until 11pm.  Even the 3-yr old stayed up that late for dinner.  It was interesting to see how a Kenyan family operates.  The father was completely served and didn’t so much as lift a finger to get the tv remote and the late dinner seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary to them…so different than the way I was raised.

Area 2

Today I visited the Area 2 school.  We had lots of fun dancing, though we were having some CD issues.  In the afternoon I went to the Huruma school.  They didn’t have power, but it came back on as we were eating lunch.  Then, the amplifier they had borrowed was not working and they were having trouble getting the working one.  By the time we fixed all these technical difficulties it was late in the day, so we decided to reschedule for next week.

As I was waiting for all the issues to be sorted out, I wandered outside to watch some of the people in the area.  Five little girls from the slums walked over to me and all wanted to shake my hand…they are all so curious as to what white skin feels like.  After they giggled a little, one of them walked behind me and very quickly ran her hands through my hair then ran off.  It was so sweet and innocent…I am so different to them and they were just honestly curious.  Sometimes I forget how privileged I am to have seen so much of the world and how not much seems different to me.  I forget how small the world is to these children, how much is out there that they don’t even know exists.

Sick

Woke up this morning with an awful cough and not feeling well.  We rescheduled my teaching today for next week and I went to the clinic to get some medication then stayed at the hotel and rested.  Kenyan cough syrup tastes just as awful as American cough syrup =P

Mathare North

Very busy day today.  I visited the Mathare North school and spent the morning with  Amos, the school’s social worker.  We walked all morning long…from Mathare North to Mathare 4A and back again.  I went with him on a few home visits (it is his job to check up on children when they are absent from school and to just check up on families).  During the visits he would talk in Swahili to the parents since most of them don’t speak English, so I was left to my own mind.  At one house (by house I mean aluminum shanty) in particular they were talking and I was watching a little kitten giving himself a bath in the corner of the room when all of a sudden everyone started laughing and Amos pointed up at the rafters then at the cat.  I was very confused, so he explained to me that there was a rat up there and they were all laughing because the cat was ignoring it.  Needless to say the joke was not so funny to me.  I was very busy for the remainder of our visit surveying the room for anything that could possibly come at me. Eeeek!  Amos also took me to see a new project the school is funding.  They are building a washhouse in the Mathare 4A area.  The washhouse will have toilets, places to wash clothes, and a community center.  Doesn’t seem like much to us, but having a public toilet is a big deal in this area…it is a huge improvement over the “flying toilet”.  (In the slums many people use a plastic bag as a toilet, tie it up, and throw it out wherever….always be careful to watch out for flying bags!) 

In the afternoon I taught some dances to the children.  They were a blast!  Some of the preschoolers came out and watched…such sad little faces that wanted to join in.  There were even quite a few people that stopped while walking by to watch.  Seems like a little thing, but any outreach that these schools can get into the community may bring these people to church on Sunday.  I pray that the people of the community can see the Hope Schools as a place of hope, refuge, and a place to find God.

I have not been able to take pictures in the communities as I have been walking because it is too dangerous, but these are some shots from a window of areas I have been walking and visiting…

Pulling at my heart...

Wow!  What an awesome day!  Today has been my absolute favorite day since I have arrived.  I was able to walk around the slums with Isabella, the school's CHE in charge of children with disabilities.  She has about twenty children that she checks up on.  Both mental and physical disabilities are not culturally accepted or understood…it is widely believed that these children are a curse from God.  As a result these children are often hidden in their homes or abandoned.  Isabella does her best to educate and encourage the parents and community about these children and to show them that this is not a punishment and that God still loves them.

Today I was able to meet four of the children…and I fell in love with them all!  These children receive OT from a nearby hospital once a month or not at all….not nearly the help they need.  Isabella expressed a desire to do therapy with these children herself, but said “but I just don’t know what to do with them.”  She is such a willing person, it is disheartening that she does not have access to resources that she could flourish from.  After hearing this and meeting the children, I felt an immediate pull at my heart.  Though I don’t have all the education she could benefit from, I do have quite a bit of experience working with this population and can help her get something started.  So, I changed my plans for next week and I'm going to spend a couple days training her in some programs to practice with these children.  I was excited about spending the entire week next week at Joska (the boarding school), but I am even more excited about this.  I will still get to spend a few days at Joska and do some dancing there, but this will leave a lasting impact.  This really could be life and death for these children…they can so easily be abandoned or neglected…the door is wide open for God to do some work here.

Meet the children...

Adan -

Adan is 7 years old and has Cerebral Palsy.  He was so sweet...he would just giggle and giggle every time I sang to him.  Adan lays on his back and pushes with his feet to transport himself.  This would be very effective except his house is only 4ft x 4ft so there is no room for him to move and get stronger.

Helping Adan stand...he loved being on his feet!

"If you're happy and you know it..."

Maria -

Maria is 10 years old.  She was abandoned and is being raised by someone else in the community.  Maria was 5 years old when she contracted Malaria.  The doctors made huge incisions along her hip and back.  It appears as though the doctors hit her spinal cord because after the surgery Maria was left paralyzed from the waist down.  She has very little mobility in her upper body.  I could not get Maria to respond to sound or light, but whenever I would touch her cheek she would give a little smile and lean her head towards my hand.

Simon -  

Simon is 10 years old and also has Cerebral Palsy.  Two years ago he got a sore on his mouth that has spread and is eating his lips and tongue.  Simon couldn't see me, but he tried very hard to talk to me, and was very close in repeating "How are you?".  Feeding is very difficult for Simon because his mother does not have the proper tools.  I played some music on my iphone for him and Simon kept smiling and grabbing for the music.  When I held him and danced with him I saw his mother smile for the first time.  It was a smile I will never forget...she seemed relieved that she was not being judged for having a disabled child, and happy that someone could love him and hold him, and give her even a moment of relief from the neverending task of caring for her child.

Helping Simon get a drink of water

Simon had very little core control and needed constant help holding his torso up

Baba Ndogo

Today I taught at the Baba Ndogo school.  It was a little rough – the children were young and didn’t understand much English and partway through teaching I completely lost my voice, but we made it work and had fun with it.  The real highlight of my day was spending the morning with Robert.  Robert is the CHE (Community Health Expert) from the Baba Ndogo school.  His job is to educate the community on how to live healthy lives.  I was able to attend the group that he is training.  I found it fascinating the basic concepts that needed to be taught.  Things like boiling water and washing utensils…so simple to my American mindset.  The group he led was great…8-10 young adults that were very interested in learning.  I asked him how he motivated them to come and his only response was that “God motivates them.  There is nothing that I can do to motivate them.”  His teaching was great and I thoroughly enjoyed his class.  Health, he taught, is fourfold.  It is harmony in the four relationships of a person’s life: God, self, others, and environment.  How true this is, yet how often I forget about all those relationships except self.  Health is not just a physical condition; it is mental as well as spiritual.  How much healthier would we be if this is how we taught in America?

Sunday

Sundays are always fun days in Kenya.  In the morning, we went to church and it was the shortest church service I’ve ever experienced in Kenya – only 2 hours!  Every service I have previously attended has been 4 hours…a little too long for my American attention span =)  After church we went to the Masi market and bartered for our souvenirs.  I must say, I have gotten much better at this over my past few visits =)  This evening we were able to relax a bit at the hotel and tonight my parents left to go back home.  It was great to spend the evening relaxing and preparing for the busy week to come.  For this week, please pray for my health.  I have been developing a cough over the past couple days and it has gotten really bad tonight.  I’m not sure how I am going to be able to teach and dance tomorrow (every time I move I start a huge coughing fit) and am not sure if there is anywhere I can get any good medicine.  I am praying that the medicine I do have will be enough and that tonight’s sleep will be healing.

Monkey Park

There was no school today, so I had the day off.  My mom and I went to the mall this morning and did a little souvenir shopping.  After we got back to the hotel, we had some time to rest before the men were done with their training.  During my nap I woke to what I thought to be firecrackers, but as I began to think clearly I realized that firecrackers are not a normal thing around here.  I jumped out of bed to look out the window and saw people running in their homes and closing the doors.  Later, we confirmed that this was gunfire – only blocks away – very scary!

This afternoon our entire group was able to relax and visit “Monkey Park”.  It was quite an experience.  The monkeys were very determined to get at the corn and peanuts we had any way they could.  Can’t say I’ve ever had a monkey on my shoulder, much less multiple monkeys climbing all over me!  All in all, we had a great time.  It was wonderful to enjoy some more of this beautiful country.  It is always refreshing to see that Kenya is not all slums and gunfire…there are so many beautiful things here too if you take the time to look.

Pangani

Whew…what a wonderfully exhausting day!  I spent the day at Pangani, the largest of the schools and the headquarters for all the other Missions of Hope schools.  Originally they had me scheduled to teach two sessions today, but things are never written in stone over here and I ended up teaching four sessions…920 students in total!  The Pangani children were great…many of them remembered the songs from last year, and even a couple of them from two years ago!  The fourth group I taught today was the school’s music club.  These students were especially great, trying to soak up every lyric and movement I gave them.  It was so much fun to worship and celebrate with these children.  People ask me how I have enough energy to dance and jump so much when it is so hot out.  My response: don’t hold back.  Use every ounce of energy for the moment and don’t worry about what is to come next.  Enjoy the moment you are in.  Worshipping with these kids, you will never run out of energy.

Bondeni

So, after all the preparations and planning, today I was finally able to start teaching!  Today I traveled to the Bondeni school.  This school has 491 students and they are expecting 300 more in the next 3 weeks.  I am not sure where they are going to put them all, but God always provides them with space when they need it.  With the exception of a very near fainting incident, it was a great and productive day.  I was able to teach all 491 students in three groups.  Halfway through the second group the school lost all electricity (a common occurrence in Kenya) and we lost the ability to use the cd player.  So, we made do without.  The children’s singing voices are so sweet…God probably shut off the power so He could hear them more clearly.

Me and Alice (Bondeni Head Teacher)

Planning

Today was a lot of logistical planning for the next couple weeks: figuring out drivers, sound systems, etc.  Not the most fun part of my trip, but something that needed to be done so that the rest can run smoothly.  After morning meetings, I was able to walk around the school and see some changes that have been made.  I am always surprised at the amount of progress that they are able to make in just one year.  They have demolished part of the building and are in the process of building 70 new classrooms.  It will be a great building when it is completed.  They have also moved and been able to expand their adult program (they teach the women of the community to sew so that they can have an income).  Later in the day, I was able to walk around the slum area with two of the school’s social workers.  All the slum children wanted to hold my hand…they don’t have many visitors and I stick out quite a bit =).  As usual there were chants of “mzungu” (white person) and “how are you” (the only English phrase many of the slum children know) as I walked by.  The slums were worse than I remembered.  It has rained for the past three days, so the trash on the street has mixed with the mud to make one big swamp.  There is no sewer system so the water on the streets does not drain anywhere.  Everything sits and stews in the hot Kenyan sun.  There is no way for me to describe the smell that garbage, urine, and rainwater make while boiling in the sun.  It’s funny how things like this make you appreciate the little thinks in life like a sewer system.

Relaxing Day

Not a very eventful day today.  We spent the majority of the day at the hotel.  I was able to finish up some last minute things to begin teaching in the next couple of days.  It was nice to be able to relax and catch up on a little sleep…I finally feel like I have adjusted to the time change.  I am excited and anxious to get working tomorrow and to see some of the people I haven’t seen in the last year.  And of course, I can't wait to see all the children tomorrow!

Safari Day 3

Today we got up for an early morning safari.  We were just late to see a lion hunting, but were able to see 4 adult lions and about 6 lion cubs going to eat their morning kill.

After the safari we headed back to Nairobi, stopping at a few shops on the way.  We spent a majority of the day in the bumper to bumper Nairobi traffic, and are all glad to be back in the city where there is a lot less traveling.

Safari Day 2

Another great day viewing God’s creation.  The variety of animals He created continues to astound me.  Each so unique and so beautiful in it’s own way. 

We also visited a Masi tribe.  The boys had a jumping competition (the high jumping is supposed to impress the girls so that they can "win many girlfriends"...boy do they know what I look for in a man!!!

They did a few dances for us then showed us around their camp.  They did a fire starting demonstration in which it took them less than a minute to start the fire.  All the boys at the camp were interested in my iphone.  They wanted to see how it could be both a camera and a phone…really funny coming from a culture that doesn’t have toilets.

Back at our lodge a man offered my parents 9 cows for me (this is the traditional dowry given to parents).  It was quite the self-esteem booster to know that I am only worth 9 dirty animals  =)

Right foot: Tanzania

Left foot:  Kenya

Safari Day 1

Today we drove 5 hours south of Nairobi to the Masi Mara Reserve.  We will be spending two nights here, doing safaris during the day.  The trip here was awfully bumpy…many, many potholes.  So many, in fact, that our driver many times would drive next to the road instead of on it.  Despite a little carsickness, we all made it here fine and were able to enjoy our first evening safari.  For me, this was a great way to start off the trip.  Seeing all these wonderfully unique animals just reminds me how powerful, how humorous, and how wonderful our God is.  It’s amazing to me the creativity God put into making each animal, each one so different from the next.  You can truly see the beauty of His creation, landscapes and animals uninterrupted by “civilized” culture.  This is creation the way it was meant to be seen.

This guy made me miss my little lion at home...