Thursday June 21 and each day there after began around 6 a.m. [we had an alarm but the local Roosters would have worked too as they did crow before daylight.] Breakfast was at 6:45 - consisted of scrambled eggs and toast - and yes, I brought my French Press and Starbucks - don’t laugh - there were many on the Team that were very happy about that.

Around 7:15 we began our trek up the hill [dirt and rocks] out of Safari Village to the main road [yes dirt] and then up another hill [more dirt and rocks might as well know now there is no pavement] to arrive for morning Staff devotions at 7:30 a.m. - often we were accompanied on our walk by students arriving at school as well. At 8 a.m. the students had assembly and then they were off to their classes. Since the majority of our Team are teachers, they were each assigned a teacher from grade 1 - 4 and then a couple of the teachers who work with upper end students floated between grades 5-8. One Team member is a librarian and she helped to organize the school library. My main role was to be Orphan Overseer Lillian’s shadow as well as offer some help regarding classroom discipline and that is where all my prayers were answered! Will get into that in a moment, but first allow me to explain our weekends.

On Saturday June 23rd we had ‘in service’ for the teachers - I was up first and as those of you who have been through our classes or read any of our books, the first place to start is who we are in relation to who God is - sharing about how precious we are as demonstrated through the Cross - we are not the product of evolutionary chance etc. Even though the school is Christian and the teachers have all made professions of faith - the history of the Loa tribe and still practiced by some, allows for more than ‘one wife’ and she can be ‘purchased’ for cows etc. so women are not necessarily held in high regard as a person and because of the high infant/child mortality rate it - well let’s say it is different than what most of us know. In addition when you understand that the majority of the children at CGA are orphans or at least one of their parents has died - children do not start school at the same developmental place as most of our children start. Anyway, I had about 90 min. to cover a lot of ground and because of your prayers, believe that goal was accomplished. Aside from our “Chai” break [yes I brought my press] and lunch, it was pretty much non-stop workshops until mid day. On Sunday we were each assigned a teacher to attend church with - I went with Lillian. Her husband Ezekiel is a pastor - the service was in both English & Loa and went for 3+ hrs. with children in attendance as well - will be the last time you complain when your Pastor goes over an hour or hour and a half. After the service we went to ‘our’ teacher’s home for lunch. Where there some stories to share that night when we regrouped!

Kenya Report - Part IV

Wednesday June 20th we were up and out by 6 a.m. to be taken to a local small airport where we were greeted by 3 African Inland Mission Pilots [AIM] who were going to fly us from Nairobi to Kisumu - I remember they called one of the planes ‘the mosquito’ which held 4 or 5 of our Team plus one pilot - the other propeller plane held the remainder of the Team and 2 pilots [our luggage was to arrive later in the day after the plane returned to Nairobi and then flew back - that gives you an idea of how big or small the 2nd plane was] It was a great day for flying, clear skies no turbulence and I was fortunate enough to have a ‘window’ seat. We flew over the Great Rift Valley, saw a huge canyon that was the result of a Volcano many years ago.

Fortunately, Gary & I have flown in various types of aircraft over the years and landed on many types of ’airfields’ - not so for most of the Team, so as we were approaching Kisumu many were wondering ‘where is the runway?’ only to discover that the runway was a cleared grassy strip - but our landing was beautiful. We were welcomed by some of the staff from Christ’s Gift Academy, which is our final destination and still requiring a drive. After a delightful morning tea - we boarded the SUV type autos and started our trek to Mbita. We also had our first introduction to what would affectionately be called an “African Massage”, as most of our time in a moving vehicle would be over, bumpy, dirt roads with a fair amount of potholes. Given that Kenya was greatly influenced by Britain, the driver sits on the right hand side of the vehicle and of course drives on the opposite side of the road than those of us living in the U.S. - but there we discovered you drove on whichever side of the road was less bumpy. To our relief we found the closer we got to Mbita the less company we had on the road in the form of autos. Now we had other company on the road, cows, donkeys, chickens, goats and of course people, but we being the bigger - they did yield - eventually.

We arrived in Mbita late morning and were first taken to the Nursery/Pre-Primary portion of CGA [would be the equivalent to pre-school and kindergarten] Wish I had some photo’s to include but if you visit the site you will have some idea of the scenery, but for now - you will need to use your imaginations. When I say ‘taken’ actually, we dropped off on the main road [dirt] and then we walked in to where the school building is [on dirt] we were greeted by the Nursery/PP staff and think it was at least 40 students [could have been more] ages 4 to 8 years, all in their uniforms. They had a program and welcoming prepared for us which was very well done, considering that for most of the children their intro to school just started in January, which means that is when English became the main language they were hearing for at least 8 hrs. a day. The “Mother tongue” is Luo - that is the main tribe in Mbita.

After the program we made our way up the road [dirt] and hillside [dirt and rocks] to Christ’s Gift Academy [CGA] where we met the rest of the staff, taken for a tour of the buildings and had lunch. Rice, beans, Chai (African tea - tea with milk and sugar) Ugali (a staple African food - ground maize fixed like mashed potatoes) Sukuma wiki (a fried or boiled vegetable like spinach, usually mixed with onions) were more or less the staple food for our lunch meals. The children have nourishing porridge each morning and then their lunch early afternoon. More on that later - back to now just Wednesday afternoon! After our meal and a short meeting with “Auntie” Judi [you can read her info on the CGA website - that gives a great description and photo's of the campus etc.] the children grades 1-8 had a program prepared for us. Think it was around 4 or 5 p.m. by the time we made our way back down the hill and down the road a bit to Safari Village which was going to be our ‘home’ for the next 11 days. The photos from the Safari Village site are good. I must admit though we only got to see the Hippo’s once - much to our dismay - they were swimming and come up for air in a similar manner as dolphins [but of course no where as gracefully :-)]

We were all checked in to our ‘rooms’ and then had dinner - the food - was local fare and good. Although after two nights of serving us tilapia with the heads and tails, I think the kitchen staff discovered that we American’s were not too keen about that and began to filet them for us - very yummy. In actuality, I found the food agreeable, lots of carbs but there was also lots of walking. Each hut/cabin did contain a twin bed for each occupant with its own mosquito net; shower, sink and toilet - albeit don’t think many ‘hot’ showers were available - mostly tepid to cold - but since we were at the Equator the coolness was ‘refreshing’, besides complaining wouldn’t have made the water any warmer. Oh and electricity - we did have that, lights were not to bright, not sure if that was so they didn’t attract mosquito’s or just not great power as the electricity was either ‘solar power’ or a generator, which was probably powered by the solar panels which did require ‘sun’ but again at least ‘bright lights’ didn’t attract flying insects. . And for my younger friends, at night the monkeys would play on the roof of our cabin! Think we all made it to bed early Wednesday night after a very full day.

Kenya Report - Part III

Although Gary & I have had the opportunity to travel around the world and have seen many contrasts of life, I have never actual done an officially called “Mission Trip” - God recently provided me that wonderful opportunity and what follows over the next several writings is a summary of my trip to Mbita in Kenya, Africa. Dates from June 18 - July 3, 2007. For those who may be new to reading my reports, I try to include links and photo’s so that as parents you can use this as a tool to introduce your children to different parts of the world - using this as an educational tool as well. Learning can be so much fun and exploring God’s creation gives us a greater appreciation of Who He is. Hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did in taking it.

Monday June 18th: Around 11 a.m. our Team of 14 bid farewell to family and friends at the Charleston airport for our 12 p.m. flight to Detroit. Between us all we had 28 checked bags full of teaching supplies and those liquids we couldn’t carry on board and then 14 carry ons that also had to be ‘checked’ plane side. Along with all the others boarding the flight that day in a relatively small aircraft - we were delayed about 45 min. because it became necessary to unload and re-load all the baggage so it would fit. Could it have been those 42 bags we all brought? Anyway we did make it to Detroit in time to make our connection to Amsterdam arriving there early Tuesday morning, June 19th. We had ample time to have a wonderful cup of coffee before boarding our 8 hour flight to Nairobi. After an uneventful flight over a good portion of the African Continent with a great view of the Nile River we and landed in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa Tuesday night June 19th around 7 p.m. Tired but glad to be at least closer to our destination. Given the hour, arrangements were made for us to spend the night at a ’safe place’ - can’t actually remember who ran it, but was certainly not the Marriott and we’re not sure how ’safe’ it was but will leave it there……..

Kenya Report - Part II

What a special privilege to have a place to share my personal thoughts and encourage other women in life’s journey, especially in our role as a wife, mother, and grandmother. Of course, the Lord isn’t finished with me yet, but there are some things He has taught me along the way that I would love to share with young moms. There are moments of reflection that fall into the category of “if only I knew this when . . .” and other times when I thanked God for the understanding He provided in a moment. Put them together with a sincere prayer and I trust that the lessons learned in my life will have some value in yours.

It would be a fairy tale dream to say a new posting will appear every day, but I know that is not possible. I have come to accept my own time limitations and the reality of my day. My goal will be to at least share a few new words each week - maybe more often, but weekly is a good starting point as I become more familiar with this new opportunity to stay connected with dear friends and ministry partners.

For now, allow me to close with my life verse from Galatians 6:9: “And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint.” Amplified Bible.

Blessings,
Anne Marie

Welcome to GrowingKids.org. While I have no interest in becoming a “blogger” of sorts, I am looking forward to the opportunity of sharing my thoughts, views, convictions, and occasionally a few opinions on contemporary issues, spiritual life matters, parenting, and that all important subcategory of fathering. This is a site where I can express a single thought about the challenges of life, or a complex message about human relationships or anything in between.