First Working Day!

Monday was our first real work day. We went to a local school in the Dunga area of Kisumu. It was a short drive, but on some really rough roads. The roads in the area, other than the main roads are all dirt, but they are not well cared for and so they are littered with rocks. Our transportation while we are here when we are going to the schools is a local "matata" which is kind of like a taxi/bus. It is about the size of a minivan, but seats 14! The one we are using is highly decorated - painted pink and adorned with pictures (on the outside) of the concorde (I guess to indicate how fast it goes) and on the inside by pictures of rap stars. Very interesting.

The school is a small compound. There are three main buildings each about 20' by 40' masonry with metal roofs. Two buildings are split into two classrooms each and one is one large room. The rooms have windows on either side which are just openings with bars over them. The weather in Kisumu is such that you don't have to enclose buildings completely. I didn't see anything electrical that I recall, so there probably is not any electricity at the school. Bathrooms are "squatters" if you know what I mean...

We met with the 12-17 year old classes which was about 100 students, in the building that was all one room. In the morning we sang songs, played games and had teaching. Most of these students understand English fairly well, but we still had translators so that some of the difficult concepts could be understood. We took some questions in the morning, and they posed some interesting ones! How about - if a girl's parents send a girl through an area that is known to be rough and she gets raped are the parents at fault or the girl?


In the afternoon we broke up into smaller groups and did some activities with the students. Then had question/answer sessions. This was also interesting, and we could see by the questions what some of the students had been studying. Is our president the leader over all of North and South America? What minerals does America export? What is the weather like in California? If you are here to help us will you be paying school fees for us to go to college?


As we broke up after that for individual prayer with the students some other interesting things came up - one thing we discussed a bit later... It seems that one area that Americans and Kenyans are really opposite is in receiving help. Where Americans are proud and have a hard time accepting help (or blessings) from God and others, Kenyans expect to receive help, both from God and others. Think of the homeless in America - LA Mission and Orange County Mission serve many people, but many more refuse there help. Here if there is help available like that it is over utilized. Christ's Hope International can only serve so many AIDS patients at any time, so they have a waiting list and now have started "graduating" some patients from their care. Many of the patients they serve when they first start are unable to walk or do anything productive as the disease has weakened them so much, but when CHI gets them the medical help they need, combined with a healthy diet, many of them recover to the point of being able to fend for themselves again. At that point CHI moves on to assist another patient. They may be a drop in the ocean, but they are taking God's love to these people one at a time.


At the end of the day it was had to leave the Dunga school, but we will return again next Monday and will see the kids one more time before we leave. I have a list of four of the kids that I will be praying for specifically and I am anticipating God giving me a word of encouragement for each of them by then. Please pray for Eliud, Felix, and Frederick for God's provision - they are all orphans, but would love the opportunity to further their education beyond Dunga school; and pray for Evarlyn that she would be strong and continue to choose to wait until marriage. All the kids also want prayer that they will do well on their exams this week, as if they don't pass exams they will not be able to continue in the school.

Continue to pray for the health of the team, we are doing very well, but there are still some minor irritating health problems to deal with. We miss you all, but are incredibly blessed to be here.