So, this is my first blog post ever! I have been told I
needed to start one and figured it would be easier than sending out mass emails
or brief facebook statuses updating everyone on what is happening or what my
days consist of each week. I have officially been in Kenya for almost 3 weeks
now and the time has flown by! We have accomplished so much in these first few
weeks than most newcomers accomplish in their first month! We live in small,
wooden cottage in a compound in Limuru, Kenya and have almost completely
furnished it with the exception of a kitchen table, coffee table, and patio
furniture. Otherwise, it is starting to feel like home and I feel immediately
rested as soon as I step in the door which is more than I could say the first
week we stayed here. Since the house is all wood, it creaks really loud at
night and was keeping my roommate Christine and I awake. I was convinced
someone was breaking in every night and would not allow myself to go to sleep!
Eventually I wised up and realized how safe we are!
We live in one of the safest places in Kenya! And the most
beautiful because of the tea fields! Everyone here lives in compounds which are
basically pieces of land that landlord owns that is encased with some type of
intimidating fencing that is covered in tall shrubs so people can not climb
over and a huge metal main gate with spikes at the top to prevent intruders.
Also, these metal gates are endowed with locks as well as the metal cage doors
over our wooden doors to our house. All of our windows have metal bars over
them to prevent intruders too. If that was not enough protection, our neighbor
is an ex government official and has 24 hr guards at his house that will gun
anyone trying to climb over a compound gate whether its his or his neighbors!
Seriously, these men carry AK 47s across their chest on the daily! They are
scary! So needless to say, we have come to feel very safe and secure in our new
home!
In more recent news, we do not yet possess a car either so
we walk to Uhuru Academy everyday (about a 20-25 minute walk) and Brackenhurst
(the old IMB headquarters where missionaries stay for short term trips)
Conference Center (a 15 minute walk). If we need to go into town we have to
rely on one of our team members to take us which is why we are working on
trying to get a car. If you would like to donate to Christine and my car fund go to http://www.youcaring.com/help-a-neighbor/Help-Christine-and-Jordan-buy-a-car-for-ministry-in-Kenya-/41234. We feel it is a huge inconvenience to have to tagalong or
ask others for rides when we constantly need to go to town for things so we are
really hoping to ease our teammates of this load (even though they do not see
it as burden) and become more independent because lets face it, we are going to
be here for 2 YEARS! The walking will suffice for now because we get to the
school just fine on foot, even though I hate exercise haha, I enjoy knowing
that I am going to spend time with these awesome girls!
So, Uhuru Academy officially opened the Tuesday we arrived
so January 22nd. It is an all-girl boarding school and we only had 4
students to begin with. In Kenya, they do not have freshman, sophomores,
juniors or seniors but they are called Form 1,2,3 and 4. So all 4 girls were
Form 2 and up until last Thursday we had no Form 1s. However, due to God’s
provision we received 5 new girls last Thursday and supposed to receive 3 more
tomorrow, Monday!! We are so excited because our school is getting its name out
there and our reputation is being built. We are still praying for 30 Form 1 and
30 Form 2 girls by the end of the term but we are thankful for whatever God
brings us! It has been such a blessing getting to know some of these girls and
where they come from. All 4 of the Form 2 girls come from a resettlement camp
in Kenya called Jikaze which is 45 minutes from Limuru. This camp was bought
and established by the poor people who live in it after the post election
violence that took place in Kenya in 2007 and Uhuru Child has provided jobs for
17 people from that village to work in our Uhuru Shambas or Freedom farms. We
grow 4 kinds of lettuce, tomatoes, and we have kuku shambas or chicken farms as
well. Uhuru Child has long standing relationship with the people of Jikaze and
are naturally excited that some of the girls from that camp scored high enough
on their KCPE’s or 8th grade exams to come to our school! All of the
Form 1 girls we have right now except for 1 I believe are from surrounding IDP
(internally displaced people) camps and are so thankful for the opportunity to
continue their education as well. Hearing some of their stories and the
persecution that have faced is so shocking and terrible that my prayer is that
they would find freedom from that kind of corruption through getting an
education. At Uhuru Academy our motto is “Education is Freedom” so if we can
empower these girls to have dreams and succeed they may never have to know poverty
again.
My part in helping them achieve excellence is in the form of
extracurricular activities such as discussion groups, bible study, chapel, and
life skills club or GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Club. We teach them about
how to read and interpret the Bible and apply it to their lives, and
incorporate it into teachings on secular things like hygiene, relationships
with boys, communication, conflict resolution, self-confidence, etc. It has
already begun to be a rewarding experience seeing how they are just so thankful
to have people who care about them as individuals and not just poor African
girls. They want to succeed if someone would just give them a chance and they
want to be free from the corruption that rampages their country if someone
would just teach them how. Yesterday (Saturday), we had team building dat where
we played ice breaker games, volleyball, softball, and their favorite, soccer
or football! It was amazing seeing them come alive and be teenage girls! I
genuinely love being their friends and not just mentors and find so much joy
from being around them day in and day
out. I probably should have worn sunscreen because right now my face, arms, and
hands are burnt but it was well worth it getting to spend the whole day with
them. Their personalities are starting to come out one by one, some are more
shy than others, and I look forward to the challenge of opening them up and
making them feel comfortable. I am leading chapel and giving a 10-15 minute
message this week and pray that God would use this time to break down some
walls for them and use his word to penetrate their hearts because being
vulnerable here is not common, but that will just make the day that it happens
that much more memorable.
Anyway, I know this blog post was all over the place but I
was trying to fit 3 weeks worth of stuff into and still didn’t succeed. It’s
getting long and I want to space them out more so I can pile more details into
a shorter post so there are definitely more to come frequently!! I know that
God is going to continue to blow my mind here as He has done with the physical beauty
of this place already and I will definitely be adding some pictures of the
girls and our activities here soon so everyone can enjoy how wonderful they
are! God Bless!
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