Pre-election bliss

Since my last post, we have had another discussion group with the girls at the school (there are 13 with more to come after first term!) about each presidential candidates track records. It was very frustrating because they still defended the candidate who is from the same tribe as them and is being indicted for crimes against humanity. BUT, a huge revelation for my understanding of their thinking happened.
They defend him because he defended them during the 2007 elections. Whether he committed crimes against the opposing tribe, the Luos, or not is not the question. Of course he did! They know that, just like the Luo candidate committed crimes against humanity by persecuting their tribe, the Kikuyu after the elections. Everyone understand their was violence. Everyone understands their was suffering. What WE didn't see in their argument for him though was that in their eyes, he PROTECTED them from the Luos that were killing their people and burning their homes. In their eyes, he was justified in rallying Kikuyu to fight and kill innocent Luo people because they were doing the same to them and Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kikuyu candidate, was protecting his people. They agreed you should not fight violence with violence because obviously, that gets no one anywhere, but what would you do if you saw your family being killed and your house being burned and you are forced to another part of the country you have never been with 8 children and no food or water? You would fight for the guy who was providing "justice" for you too.
 That was a hard pill to swallow. Yes, our goal was still to get them to understand and critically think about what a good leader is and how you choose one, but how do you tell them that the guy who "protected" and " fought back" for them was wrong? You don't fight violence with violence, but when your sitting president isn't doin anything to stop the violence and no other countries are stepping in, you are desperate for a liberator. This realization stopped me dead in my tracks of leading discussion and I actually learned more from them that day than they did from me. For sure. It was one of those humbling moments given by God's grace that allows you to understand more than you teach them that day. 
They always say when you go to a foreign country, don't go with expectations of teaching, go with a humble heart that is willing to learn. Everyone says you will learn more from them than they will of you sometimes and we as Americans think that we know the right way, or the best way, and we understand everything but that's just not the case. Yes, these people might live simple lives, but they are not simple-minded in understanding of their culture. Our biggest hope HAS to be to learn, understand, and listen. That way, we can see what their needs are and not just assume we know about how they think and feel. I think I have learned how to approach situations they know more about now with a humble heart and sometimes ask them more questions that I don't already know the answer to. Teaching them how to think critically and for themselves instead of just giving in to the cultural norm or what their parents say about elections, hygiene, or school is our goal. It's a good goal and so revolutionary in a culture where linear thinking does not come naturally but in order to succeed we must first learn to listen, understand, and be humble so we can assess their needs correctly. 
After this discussion group though, things simmered down and we got to spend some actual quality time with them! No agenda necessary. This is what happens when they got a hold of my iPad!

This is Ruth. She is one of our paying students and she has been here for 2 weeks now and loves to play with my hair!

Ann- I love this picture of her!

Gladys

 

Ann Gathoni - She is fastly winning my heart!

Lynette- Our first paying student we received!

Margaret- She is saying "kidosh" in this picture which means "thumbs up!" It's her signature greeting I would say!

Lucy- She certainly has come out of her shell in the past few weeks!

Mary- She is our newest student at the moment and as you can see she had no problem acclamating to the new environment!

My roommate Christine and Ann Wangui

Me and Ann Gathonie- my little presh pot!

Ruth and Ann Wangui

All of the girls minus 2! If you can tell, everytime they take a picture with me, they put my hair on their heads and pretend its theirs!

Christine with Lucy, Josephine, and Margaret

I am laughing because Margaret was pulling my hair over hers to make it look like hers!

My girls :)

Also, a few prayer requests for this upcoming week... The elections are monday, March 4 and although there has been plenty of campaigning for peaceful elections, on the ground, there is a lot of tension between tribes because Uhuru Kenyatta is the leader in the polls and a lot of the country does not want him to win for good reason. BUT, if he loses, the Kikuyu will be upset and violence will break out again. Not to the degree that it did last time because America especially is looking out for any signs of bad behavior to shut down so what happened in 2007 does not repeat itself. However, we are planning on hunkering down next week and stocking up on supplies tomorrow just in case. We will be staying with a few of our teams members so we will all be together in case something were to happen but we live in a peaceful  part of Kenya so chances are it won't be too disturbed. BUT,  just to be safe we will not be going into the market or to Nairobi until we are sure things are calm.

PRAISE FOR THE WEEK: we have reached 34% of our total goal for the car fundraiser!! We have close to 1400 raised out of 4000 right now and we still have a month until our deadline! W are so excited to hopefully have a car by the end of march and if yall could keep sharing the link on Facebook or go to my Facebook and donate whatever you can, Christine and I will be so grateful! Anyone who knows me knows I hate physical exercise besides sports so walking everywhere isn't my favorite thing to do and especially when we start clubs in far away schools a car would be awesome to have!!! The link is:
http://www.youcaring.com/help-a-neighbor/Help-Christine-and-Jordan-buy-a-car-for-ministry-in-Kenya-/41234
Lastly, in my next post I will include pictures of the outside of our house and compound because so many keep asking for them so be on the look out!!

Valentine's, PE, and Elections

Our first Valentine’s Day in Kenya actually turned out to be a success! Even though I could not spend it with my boyfriend, DB, Christine made a good substitute! We got ingredients to make red velvet brownies from a recipe we found on pinterest, pasta and homemade red sauce, and we even got some white wine to finish it off.

Our beautiful place setting for a romantic dinner date!! My personal favorite are the african candlesticks :)

Our back patio and yard complimenting our dinner spot!

My beautiful valentines date!

One of our first PE classes was with the Form 2 girls who we have known the longest and are all from Jikaze, the IDP camp Uhuru Child works intimately with to provide employment through the lettuce, tomato, and chicken farms. These girls LOVED taking pictures and we wanted some specifically of them with us since they were our firsts!

Playing volleyball with all the students!

Awkward volley position on my part but it was so fun! Except for the sunburn....

These Form 2 girls are sassy!

Precious :)

Me and my gurlz :)

A huge success we had last week in discussion group was finally getting tribalism (like racism but with different tribes) out of these girls heads long enough to help them see the correct way to vote for a presidential candidate. In Kenya, English is limited as are televisions so even though Kenya has made advances to promote healthier voting skills by having their FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE EVER, the majority population had no access to it and if they did, it was all in English. So, the majority is still uneducated about which candidates are making empty promises and which ones actually have action plans to implement if they were to become president so they result in voting for whomever represents their tribe. In Kenya, there are 8 parties and all but basically 2 of the candidates have actual action plans on their official websites of how they plan to implement and fund the projects they have in store for the country if President. The saddest part about this though is that there is so much divide between the numerous amount of tribes in Kenya that they still plan on voting for whomever is representing their tribe. Uhuru Kenyatta, currently running for president while being indicted for crimes against humanity in the 2007 elections, is the popular vote! It blows my mind! He is Kikuyu, the predominant tribe in Kenya and the son of the first Kenyan president they had after they gained their independence in the 60’s. Those who were persecuted because of the post election violence are the very ones voting for him! He paid Kikuyu men who were named Mungiki, to kill and destroy the Luo tribe who retaliated and killed hundreds of Kikuyu and burned their houses. It was not until other countries intervened that this violence stopped after having gone on for months after the election in 2007. The tribes were angered that Kibaki (the current president) rigged the election so he would win and he was Kikuyu, so anyone who was known to be Kikuyu was in danger and in “need” of retaliation. Even though the fighting ceased, many are still displaced in these IDP camps like Jikaze throughout the nation and are the poorest of the poor. BUT, a positive outlook is through the activity we did in discussion where we gave the girls anonymous platforms for each of the candidates. The candidate they were assigned they had to make a campaign for, not knowing who they had until the very end. When we revealed who had which candidate they were appauled that the one they thought was the most vague and seemed like he was “blinding” people into voting for him was, low and behold, Uhuru Kenyatta!! The very man many weeks before they all said they were pulling for. I couldn’t believe it. And when we asked them what they learned after they got over their shock, the main lesson they took was not to believe everything you hear and to vote based on factual information and not tribal association or what those around you are saying. We taught them how to think independently and to vote based on actions and not empty promises. It was such a wonderful moment in my book and I was so thankful for that progress we made with them!!

In other good news, we received another new student this week by the name of Mary! She is another scholarship student who is very bright but still in her shy phase around us. We are hoping she blossoms like the other girls did when they had spent a few days at Uhuru Academy and to build a relationship with her. We are up to 13 students now, Praise the Lord, and still praying for more! It’s never too late in Kenya where being late is being on time!

Settled in Kenya!

So we have been here for officially 3 weeks and are still missing our kitchen table, coffee table, cushions for our couch (but they were ordered today!), and patio furniture but I have provided some pictures of our house thus far with its furnishings for everyone's viewing pleasure! And so no one will assume we live in a hut with no running water!

Our pretty cool unfinished wood desk with a mirror we have yet to hang on the wall.

My room completely equipped with my electric blanket from Rachel and Emily, sour patch kids on the night stand from Stefanie, pictures from Jill and Mary, and Chipper the Great Dane from Dustin Briggs himself.

Our kitchen and small stove/oven and fridge that I am taller than!

Our lovely unfinished wood furniture and super elephant pillow that we both adore and has our favorite colors in it. Our couch cushions will be orange and yellow with elephant throw pillows to accent!

Our living space!

Our outdoor patio that is semi screened in to keep out the geese the guard our compound!

And I was serious about the geese! Most everyone is Kenya unless you are really poor live in gated areas called compounds. Your land is surrounded by a gate with shrubs tall enough so that no can attempt to climb over it, with a large metal gate with spikes on the top so no one can climb it either (even though we did the first 3 days we were here because we didnt have keys and were close to getting shot at by the night guards!). Most people also have guard dogs within their compound to warn them or attack if someone suspicious is coming in but our landlord I guess does not like dogs and has substituted them with geese! Geese are naturally territorial creatures so his logic makes sense but they charge even at people they know live there.... like us! It is literally a day in, day out battle trying to fight them off with a stick or time when we leave our house so they aren't around to chase us! ITS RIDICULOUS but good entertainment I guess! 

And as long as I am talking about animals I will go ahead and say that even though the geese get on my nerves I still would never treat them the way some of these animals are treated here. When I tell Kenyans what I went to school for or that I love animals they do not understand (and some literally do not know what a veterinarian is) because they do not view animals the same way Americans  do. I mean I understand, these people can barely feed themselves so why would they get pets. The result is though that I end up seeing skinny as a rail dogs and cats walking down the side of the road digging in the piles of trash to find food. It's so sad and I just want to take all them home!! But that's not even the worst part... donkeys or punda receive the worst of it. The massai tribe sells them in the market for about 80 dollars so they are super cheap and people use them for manual labor to haul crops and heavy things on carts. They are so cheap that people use them as if they are disposable and you will literally be driving down the street and pass a donkey pulling its owner and a cart full of produce and getting the crap beat out of him with a stick to go faster.... it's really disheartening but I just try to look away because I have been lucky enough not to see any with festering wounds on their shoulders or anything. Other than that, animals used for food, eggs (mayai), milk (maziwa), and wool like cows (ng'ombe), sheep (fondoo), chickens (kuku), and goats (mbuzi) are fed regularly and do not look malnourished just really dirty. So I can handle that :) 

Above the animals  though, no matter how much I love them, I am even more sad when we see some of the poorest of the poor in the IDP (internally displaced people) camps that are a result of the post-election violence in 2007. Jikaze, our primary IDP camp focus for Uhuru Child and where a lot of our girls at Uhuru Academy come from, is where we went last week to meet with some of the parents. They are the people who live in mud huts which is a step up from some IDP camps that are still living in tents 5 years later. Their walls are curtains and their toilets are holes in the ground called latrines. They grow crops for selling and Uhuru Child has chicken, lettuce, and tomato farms to employ some of the people with and produce an income for the village. However, they do not have enough money for health care and some of the children have rotted teeth or illnesses, like one girl I met who has lost most of her nerves due to meningitis and cannot walk at all or talk very well. She is slowly deteriorating and her mother cannot afford to bring her to therapy. Also, there are so many flies inside and outside the huts that you are constantly swiping them away from your face while you are trying to have a conversation with someone! It saddens me to see these conditions but I know that the girls in our school from Jikaze and surrounding IDPs will hopefully, with the education we provide them with, will never have to go back to that kind of life and succeed in achieving their dreams. Here  are a few of the girls at our school that I absolutely already adore!

This is Esther! She is one of our brightest students scoring well above average on her KCPE (Kenya Curriculum Primary Exam) and one of the sweetest! She is a Form 2 (sophomore) and from Jikaze. She is the oldest of 5!

This is Gladys. This was taken on her first day at Uhuru Academy as a Form 1 (freshman). She was still being shy but she has perked up since and is wonderful to be around. She is from a surrounding IDP camp.

This is my sweet little Ann. I am attempting not to have favorites but she is just so precious and dear to my heart. She is an orphan and being raised by her aunt Mercy in Jikaze. She is full of passion and spunk and is the second oldest of 4 girls.

This is Lucy. She is very bright as well and is a Form 1. She was scared to talk to us her first day here but now she is laughing and messing around just like the other girls. She is also from a surrounding IDP camp.

This is Lynette. She is one of our paying students, a Form 1, and is not from an IDP camp. She was also introverted when she first arrived because she did not know the other girls but as she has spent time here she is learning how to make friends and they are very welcoming. 

This is Margaret. She is a Form 1 and all smiles all the time! She is so sweet and loves to talk to me because her English is very good. SHe is from a surrounding IDP camp as well.

This is Elenora. She is small and sweet and so talkative! She is a Form 1 and one of sponsored students so her mother works for a British woman who is currently paying for her to go to Uhuru Academy so she is not from an IDP camp.

These are the two Ann's. The girls loved having their pictures taken and were being so silly! If only I could put up all the crazy pictures!

This is Ann Wangoi and she is a Form 2 from Jikaze and 1 of 8 children. She does not know English as well as the other girls but her prayer request is always that she would continue to understand better so she can do well in school. She has the prettiest smile and is always dancing!

Lastly, this sassy thing is Teresia! She is the oldest and repeating Form 2 so she could come to Uhuru Academy because we do not have Form 3s yet. She is from Jikaze as well and knows the best English. She has a lot of personality as you can tell but she is always herself!

We also received one more girl, a Form 1, from Jikaze yesterday named Josephine and another Form 1 from Jikaze named Faith. I do not have their pictures yet but I will hopefully take some of myself with the girls to post soon! They have been so welcoming and helpful when Christine and I are practicing Swahili and are definitely part of the reason we are learning it so quickly! We  get to spend almost everyday at the school with these girls and it is such a blessing! On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays we have Swahili lessons in the morning at the school and then eat lunch with the girls on Tues and Thurs. On Fridays we have GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Club where we teach them different life skills and Christine and I teach Physical Education in the afternoons!!!, Saturday morning we have Bible Study, Sunday evening we have discussion groups, and wednesdays we have Chapel which is church for the girls since they do not leave the school on Sunday mornings. 

We had our first PE Class today but Christine was out shopping for our couch cushions so I was solo but it went so well! I was Teacher Jordan and we stretched, ran, and played volleyball until the school day was over then the other teachers joined us and we played soccer for an hour and a half before Chapel. I am head of planning for Chapel for the girls and today was our first gathering! We had a fun little ice breaker, sang some Swahili worship songs that are all upbeat and they know dance moves to (which was interesting!), and then I gave the message! I basically decided to share the gospel with these girls and make sure they heard the true version because its kind of like the Bible belt but Kenya style where there are a bunch of churches but false teachings and people not really knowing the Lord but claiming they do. So, after explaining it to them in simple terms I shared my testimony in hopes of giving them a clear picture of how the Gospel changes people. I told them about the murder of my mom and how that played into me running from a real relationship with God until I finally became a Christian 3 years ago in hopes that it would open them up aboutr some of the suffering and pain they have experienced. Because lets face it, these girls have not ever had it easy. I am really hoping that the two girls I know who are being raised by their aunts and have lost both their parents will warm up to me and eventually be vulnerable and share with their stories but this is not something that will come quickly or can be forced. The mindset here is completely different from that of America where everyone is self-oriented and individualistic. In Kenya, it is all about the family and the community so you do not naturally talk about yourself as an individual which is why they will take time. So, I will wait just like Jesus waited for me. I will be praying though for their vulnerability and trust until then!

Anyway, it is safe to say that I love my job! I have become homesick a few times which is expected and hard but I am so thankful for technology that lets me see and talk to my loved ones. I miss them dearly and if I am going to be gone for 2 years, I am glad that I am surrounded by all of these beautiful smiling faces that easily cheer me up with one look! Also,  hopefully Christine and I will be able to go to the "toi market" this weekend to shop for clothes for the first time since we have been here which will make us feel like we are in America if only for a short period of time and relieve some homesickness! I will have more pictures hopefully of our compound up soon so you can see what exactly it looks like and more updates on our activities for the weekend and next week!

Some beautiful views to leave you with! God really did an amazing job when He designed Limuru!