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!