Goodbyes

One if my favorite parts about Kenya is that I KNOW, forrrr sure, that anytime I say the word "fart" in swahili, kids will laugh. Hard. Guaranteed. The word is a little funny in America, semi lame slash juvinile, but here... holy cow. Guaranteed haaaard laughs every time. I'll miss that.

The thing about Kenya is it's easy to serve here, it's easy to spend time with God here, it's easy to be challenged spiritually here. The real challenge is to not look at America as any different than Kenya, in terms of how I live. School and jobs still need to happen, but the point remains the same: Jesus, God, loving people, caring about the poor.

It sucks to say bye to everyone. SUCKS. Especially because this time I can't leave with a "don't be sad, I'll see you next summer!" I know I'll be back, but I think it'll be a few years. Saying goodbye freaking blows.

Well, thanks for reading, thanks for praying, thanks for being apart of this summer. Love you guyssss. Tuonane! (see you soon)

Shimo

The past couple saturday's our team has been splitting up and walking through shimo la tewa, the slums near our house. It's crazy you literally walk half a mile down the road and go from huge gated compounds to mud houses. I feel surprisingly comfortable there. We've been attempting to make a map of this huge community; basically a more focused attempt at meeting and knowing every family in shimo. It's been pretty cool walking into these houses, hearing about the families that live there, talking about faith (or no faith), praying together, giving out bibles, and building relationships.

People are generally really welcoming. We know a lot of the kids that live there, because a bunch of them go to oasis during the week or school nearby. Last saturday I followed pastor steve right into this group of like 15 older guys sitting behind some houses drinking. It was 11am. It was scary and intimidating, walking back there not knowing what would happen or how they'd react. Steve is crazy.

My new favorite thing about shimo is baby peter: the youngest in a family of 7 that we know really well. They live in one room with their mom in a tiny mud house connected to other houses. Mama margret collects firewood from the forest and sells it in town for hopefully enough money for dinner at the end of the day. Her kids are all big personalities, so I assumed it would be pretty hard to make peter laugh. P.S. this kid is never wearing pants. Even when we buy him pants, he doesn't wear them. So all morning I ran around with him, carrying him in my arms, running after other kids and tossing him up in the air. He smiled the whole way through and I looooved it. Making kids laugh anywhere is fun, but in kenya its even better because it feels like you're apart of creating these sincere moments of childhood for kids that don't really get one. So yea, Peters the best.

Kyleigh and I on a shimo walk-through with little Mia, from the family that moved to kenya

Some shimo houses. Laundry day.

Dan and Augustus and sisters making funny faces

Mama Margret, Peter's mom

Peterrrrrr.

The shimo bridge, super pretty.

On the left is Peter's older sister Erica, the right is Esther (one of the girls that we just sent to school for the 1st time), and the middle is Esther's brother Chris.

Dan! This guy is sooo ticklish, he's really fun

I can never remember this kid's name, but he is one of the first houses we walk by.

A mama making beer

Elvino!

There are so many young young girls with babies on their hips. It's crazy.

Kevin! This guy has cerebral palsy or something with his leg. He always comes out to play when we walk through shimo. He asked me to take this picture. What a stud.

Mama Sarah

Two days a week I go to Sister Freda's Hospital, and what we do there looks different every time. The place is incredible, probably because Sister Freda is incredible. For the past couple weeks there has been a patient there named Sarah. She is super old, doesn't know or care how old she is. She's Turkana, a tribe known for its conflict and harshness. When she came to the hospital she was dying of malnutrition and dehydration, wasn't talking or really moving. This last week she has totally turned the corner.  Turns out she speaks english, loves to sing, make jokes, and gives us lots of attitude.  The video below is of this face she makes that CRACKS us all up, so she does it a lot. Hopefully you'll think its funny and not scary...

Discover

So discover-to-recover is a home for kids with AIDS whose parents have passed or families have outcast them. Some of the kids aren't infected, but are orphans of parents who were HIV positive or have siblings who stay there. It is now home to 48 kids. They sleep 3 to a bunk, but now thats not even enough, so the small ones sleep on top of rubbermade tubs. This week someone on our team bought 3 new set of bunk beds. The kids were pretty stoked. Here's some pics of kids who live there...

This is Derek, he's uber sweet and has really good english.

Here they are all watching TV.  From left to right its Meshach, Sammy, Churchill, Cheru and Faith 

Tori doing the "chips masala" dance with some kids

Otieno and Sammy!

This is the baby class, discover is also a preschool by day

Baby Paty and her sister Dorcus. Paty is theee chubbiest baby I've ever seen

Benja :) He is the best. Super funny and 1st in his class. He's always reading books. The other day we pulled his tooth out cuz it was barely hanging on, then made a big scene, and he looked at it then chucked it over the fence. It made me laugh how different that whole scene would have played out had he grown up in America. Great kid.

Gilgal

Gilgal High School houses about 20 kids year-round, ages 2-10ish. They're pretty funny characters. They all have no parents, or one insane or abusive parent so Ben and Christine take care of them (the school's founders). The other day I brought stickers that my mom sent me and gave some to each kid...

This is Polo.  I've only seen him full on smile the day I let him squirt people with a water gun.

His name is Jako, so sweet!

Esners and Junior. Esners is a punk.. Junior is just funny.

Haha this is Ebrahim. He took the outline of all the stickers and wore it for a while.

Redempta Nekesaaaa!!! My fave. This is the girl with the lazy eye, who pees on me. I LOVE HER.

Sweet Gladis. She's brothers with Polo up above.

Gladis and Polo are really quiet, sweet kids. This time of year the high school students that board at the school return home for like a summer break. Gladis knows this, and in Swahili she told my friend Irene that the only time she will get to return home is when they bring her corpse home. Breaks my heart what these kids deal with at such a young age. The amount of crazy life circumstances that they experience and process and carry, at what, age 6? Makes me want to pick up and hold every kid I see. Whether they have pee all over their pants, outbreaks of scabs all across their heads, dirt all in everything, whatever.

Jujuuuuu

Let's be honest: I love my sister Meagan more than anyone in the world. Last night my friend Juju was telling me about her younger sister who died and we both lost it. Her sister Violet was taken as a "house girl" when she was young into a family that basically used her as a permanent servant. Juju and her siblings had no living parents and no money. A neighbor of that family raped Violet and impregnated her. That man moved to the Congo to get away and Violet followed. She was treated badly there, alone with no friends or family. She died at age 18 two years ago, Juje doesn't know how.

Almost everyone's story here involves death or rape, genocide, sickness or poverty, so to some extend you become numb to those things, or they become less shocking, sort of expected. But when Juliette started tearing up while telling me about Violet, I thought of Meagan. If I had to sit on the sidelines, powerless, knowing that Meagan was being mistreated and not be able to do ANYTHING about it... I just can't even imagine. I love her I just wanna squeeze her all the time and make her laugh and be happy and protect her from anything bad. To think that Juje had the same feelings towards Violet as her older sister, but had to let her go, made me cry. What a horrible thing to endure.

Juliette is my closest friend here. We laugh so hard together. We dance a lot, help make dinner a lot, have sleepovers. I love her. She has another younger sister, Clementine, who I can't wait to meet someday. She lives in Rwanda with their older sister Janet. Here's some pictures of my sweet friend..

Purpose Driven Academy

This place is the best. I'm spending more and more time here, and loving it. On Friday my friend Kyleigh and I took classes 1-5 out to PE. Played red rover and soccer. I swear, if anyone spent one whole school day here with these students, they would faaaaaall in love with them. I'm 100% confident in that. Here's some pics…

This is class 6--a pretty nice classroom. They were having a formal debate over the question, "Which is better: mother or father?"  

This is the baby class :) They are crazy.

This is Laurence, but everyone calls him Lau

Break timmmmme

This is Lau's sister Suzanne, from class 5. Behind her is the classroom.

Here is class 4 kids, up in front on the right is Kamou.. Lau and Suzanne's brother.

Class 3 students taking porridge.  In the middle is Manu, my favorite PDA kid. He's first in his class!

Innocent and Amos, class 7 and class 5. Amos is reeeeal good at soccer. 

1st Day of School

Earlier this week I got to be apart of 4 girls' first day of school. Lucy, Esther, Celina and Jennifer have been apart of the consistent crew at Oasis of Hope. They are all sisters/cousins, about 10 years old. Four people on our team decided to sponser them in a formal education at Milimani Primary. We helped them get ready, had some breakfast, took lots of pictures, and then sent them off to school like proud parents. It was a really special morning, seeing them all proud and confident in their new uniforms, shiny new shoes, backpacks with 20 something pencils and 5 notebooks. 

To send each girl to school costs around $50 at the start, for books, a desk, uniform and exam fees. Every year after that is about $20. Twenty bucks!

On a grosser note, check out this video of Amy--the mom of the family that moved out here--removing jiggers at a medical clinic run through Sister Freda's...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6MEQcTjwaU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

HIV

Today my friend Irene and I tested a man for HIV. His name was Paul, 40 years old. We pricked his finger, put the blood in this small tube, then placed it in a special plastic tray. After an unsettling 10 minutes, the tray read somewhat like a  pregnancy test: negative. Ruth, the testing center nurse at Sister Fredas spoke to him in swahili for a few minutes, and then he was on his way.

I asked Ruth about her job and about AIDS for a long time after that. I learned a lotttt.. about meds, different strains, how it shows, the biology behind it, how it spreads, the stigma, ect.

Outside of Sister Fredas Hospital, Purpose Driven Academy is becoming my faaaavorite place. The baby classes are adorable, I help them review the alphabet and numbers, take porridge with them, and play outside. Grades 4, 5 and 6 are absolutely nuts. I teach them bible class basically, but also help them review math and take them to PE. I pop in on grades 2 and 3 when the teachers are gone, and love that too. PDA is the best!

Photos!

This is Sammy from Discover to Recover! He's one of my all time faves, he's in 4th grade, number one in his class! So sweet, kind, helpful, fun :)

This is Oasis of Hope...

This is ghideri: beans and maize. Sooo delicious. Served at all the schools at lunch. Forks.. optional.

The kids right by my face are my FAVES! Cecilia and Emmanuel. They are in 3rd grade, and so fun. This is Purpose Driven Academy. I am looooving this place.

This is Nekesa :) My favorite baby at Gilgal. The one who pees on me a lot. She's sorta got a lazy eye asian situation going. Love her!

Juju and Manu! Juliette is my all time favorite. This is our compound, our house.

This is Sister Freda's baby class. 

More pictures later to come! Love you guys.

10 Things I Love About Kenya

1.  90% of the time, both kids and adults are genuinely excited to wave at you or recieve a wave from you.

2.  Everyone "takes tea" here as many times a day as time (and supplies) allow.. and tea here is deeelicious. 

3.  This part of Kenya is really green and really pretty. Like rolling green hills and lots and lots of corn fields. Today I went through some of those fields and helped giglal students harvest beans!

4.  When it rains, which is pretty much every afternoon,  everyone just kinda stops. Gets under a tree, under a store awning, wherever, and just waits it out. Town is the best place to get stuck.

5.  The food. Roasted maize, chipoti (pita bread kinda), green grams, potatoes, samosas (like empanadas), and bottled soda!

6.  The people. Baby kids, students, teachers, townspeople, homeless people, moms.. most people are surprisingly friendly and cool to talk to.

7.  It lightnings at night! And the stars are crazy good.

8.  Lots of people walk places. And time isn't really something that matters a lot here. So the tempo of most days is slowwww.

9.  It's easy to appreciate the bible here, and I actually look forward to the times I get to read it. 

10.  Toblerone barsssss :)

Thursday Fridayyyyy

9-12  Sister Freda's Hospital. Mostly hangin with the baby classes again.
1-5  Discover to Recover again :)

Friday I'm at Gilgal all day. I teach CRE again, play with the baby class, teach guitar, and run games after school. Today I was there, and got one of my favorite little girls to smile. Turns out all I had to do was pick her up and run after the other  kids with her. She peed on me twice, so I guess we're friends now. 

Tuesday and Wednesdayyyyy

9-12  I'll be with the 3 preschool classes at Sister Freda's Hospital. Help teach, play at the breaks, serve lunch, ect. 
1-2  babysit the little kids at Gilgal.
2-3  teach CRE at Gilgal sophomores
3-5  run games with the high schoolers or teach guitar to a few students at Gilgal

This is my Tuesday schedule. At Sister Freda's I also have the chance to be more in the actual hospital.. praying for patients, assisting nurses, helping with clinics, ect.  The kids at Freda's are crazyyyy.. and I'm loving Gilgal more every day. Here is Wednesday:

930-10  Swahili lesson with head teacher of Purpose Driven Academy
10-11  Teach PE for class 4 at PDA
11-12  Teach CRE for class 6 at PDA
1-5  Tutor / run games / hang out at Discover to Recover, and elementary school and orphanage for 50 kids, most who have AIDS. I friggin love that place!

Mondayyyy

This week is the beginning of having a consistent weekly schedule.. where each person on our team has a morning block (9-12) and an afternoon block (1-5) and then returns home for dinner.  At each place we go to during these "blocks" we are sent out with 2 or more people.  It's gonna be uber busy and crazy. Here's what mondays look like...

9-10  help in the baby class at Gilgal (a orphanage/high school)
10-12  teach CRE (christian religious education) to form 2 (sophomores) at Gilgal, and hang out with the high schoolers on their break
12:30-2  play with the baby class at Purpose Driven Academy (a elementary/high school), and eat lunch with all the students
2-3  teach CRE to class 3 and 4 (3rd and 4th graders)
3-4  teach PE to 4th-12th grade

Gilgal and PDA are both epically cool ministries, with amazing staff and administration with huge hearts. Teaching and games and all that are just venues for getting to know these kids and loving on them. Pray that I learn all their names, and don't get overwhelmed or tired. Asante sana! (thanks a lot)

Luke 4:18-19

Here's something I read this morning that brought me encouragement in this place where there is so so much need..

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor"   

Jesus said this when first claiming to be Lord. They were Isaiah's words years earlier. And to some extend I want to take these words on for kitale this summer.  There's so much shit people have to deal with here.  It's horrible and overwhelming and wrong and seemingly inescapable. In the end, I really can't do much about the poverty, or the disease, or the beatings or rape or other injustice.. but I can bring some really really good news that this physical world is not all there is. We can be set free, released from oppression! 

So many people in Kenya live in really hard situations. It's not that I understand or accept these situations for them, I don't even know what Jesus would say/do about all this (if he were here,walking around).  But that verse in Luke gave some perspective and hope that at least this physical life isn't all there is. People can be victorious in Jesus, no matter how horrible their situation is here on earth. 

Crazy Kenya Ish

1.  There's a myth here that having sex with a virgin cures HIV/AIDS.  This is one of the reasons infant rape exists.

2.  Rape is ridiculously common here. It's not unusual for girls to be sexually active by age 12.  Girls that are 10 years old--that's third grade--have often been raped and sexually abused.

3.  Women are responsible for cultivating food (or brewing changaa, the local brew made/sold in slums nearby), house chores, raising the kids, and feeding the family. If there is no food, she may give her kids changaa, because there is nothing else. When a woman sells changaa, her daughters often come with the purchase for that night.  Men are free to sit around with other men, talk politics, beat their wives and sleep around.

4.  It's technically illegal to live on the street. This week 7 or so street kids got rounded up by police and taken, where they were probably beat. Some team members went to the prison to buy them out.  You can buy your way out of most anything here.

5.  Street kids are anywhere from 8-16 years old. They often run away from single parent families where they are overworked or beaten, without much food or love in return. So the streets is just the better option.. where they arent wanted anywhere, have to beg for food or dig through trash, sleep under store awnings with maybe a tarp or bag as a blanket, and wake up to beatings by angry store owners or drunken nightlife.  These are 3rd graders.. and it's cold in kitale at night.  To see a bunch of 8, 9, 10 years olds cuddled up together on the sidewalk is heartbreaking.  It's horrible.

6.  Jiggers are flesh eating maggots that come from walking without shoes in the dirt. At medical clinics we help at we spend all day removing jiggers from kids hands and feet, mothers hands and feet.  They're painful and eventually make you walk only on your heals. The sad part is once we remove them, kids will get them again in a few months because they don't have shoes, they need to walk, the mothers need to work, and the cycle repeats.

As sad as some of these things are, there are some really great things going on in kitale as well. Oasis of Hope is this center for children that welcomes street kids and orphans and the poor.  They educate for free, provide 2 meals a day, teach trades to older kids, house students, counsel kids, provide medical care, and have organized games.  All for free. It's literally an oasis of hope for a few hundred kids in kitale. I was there all afternoon, learning kids names, playing with them, eating lunch, and walking home together. Love it!!

Post #3

Today was a super discouraging day. People's situations here just seem so hopeless. Poverty feels like this unbreakable circle, that no matter what we do people will still be in the same horrible sad discouraging situation. The phrase/song/prayer "break my heart for what breaks yours" sucks. It's not fun or awesome or something that makes me feel closer to God. It's just heartbreak.

At the same time, today I saw two of my favorite favorite kids. A 3rd grader, Emmanuel, from purpose driven academy and Sammy, a 4th grader from discover to recover.  I hugged them, kissed them, hugged them some more. As sad as kenya can be, thinking of reuniting with these two boys makes me SO HAPPY.

Random Thoughts

1. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good.   -Romans 12:9. In some simple way I guess that's an answer for how we should respond to evil in Kenya.. and  distractions in America.

2.  We're supposed to represent Jesus Christ.. what a high calling. Jesus was epic, perfect, he was love itself! As we walked through a hospital today I struggled with that calling.  We stopped and prayed for a mom who had malaria and pneumonia. I knelt by her bed and stared at her while we prayed. Her face was scared and alone and it's something I remember when I think of my comfort and security at home.

3. There are no great acts, only small acts with great love.  -Mother Teresa.  

4.  Phrases like "God's love" and "joy in Christ" lose their meaning cuz of how often we hear them in church or in bible studies or wherever.  I LOVE the moments where I somewhat realize how powerful those ideas are.. "God loved us before we were born; He will love us after we die. Not one thing can separate us from the love of God. His heart is an inexhaustible ad irrepressible fountain of love" -Oswald Chambers

5.  "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."  Maybe it can be that simple.. Our hope is build on nothing less than the fact that Jesus lived--a perfect life--and then died.. for us. 

Post #1

Hey guyssss, made it to kitale. It was a solid 2 plus days of traveling but we made it. Being back a 2nd time is totally different. Man it's crazy. You're just brought to the forefront of like life and what matters. Poverty, the gospel, evil, becoming less so he can become greater. I'm learning a lot, being challenged consistently throughout the day and night. Like, it's crazy trying to wrap this experience cuz theres soooo much that happens each day... New mind-wrenching evils that exist in kenyan culture, new dynamics of living in a world that's spiritual not just physical, new perspectives on god/christians/truth, learning about myself as a member of close christian community. In the end, I still have NO idea how to reconcile kenya with america.  

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, I miss you guys a lot :) I guess just pray that God would stay close by, help me process, help me hear and do what he wants me to hear and do. Thanks guys

Love, Brea