Hello again,
Now that we have our tech. difficulties ironed out, I can write more frequently. Internet access is quite difficult here. If your team member has not written much....you now know why. Sometimes it is 30 or 40 minutes before access is available and frankly, when you are tired...it seems longer.
I'd like to write a little about a typical day in the life of a kenyago dandora student. The day often starts at 3 am. They study and then walk 30 minutes or more to school. They arrive at school at 6:30 to begin their classes. Most have had nothing to eat and are quite hungry. They receive their poridge around 10 or so. I was not tempted to try it.... They later have a lunch which is typically a bean mixture or rice mixture with maize..better known as field corn in the Midwest..that has been ground up. This is the corn that is seen growing in the area in patches and is fertilized by the raw sewage that abounds all over. They finish up at around 5:30. One student (Evelyn)I spoke to then goes to work with her mother until 10 pm. Meanwhile her 10 year old sister (JoAn) is the cook of the family...she made chicken for the family last night.. Eveyln comes home and then studies some more and helps JoAn with her studies until midnight. 3 am comes around pretty quickly. When I spoke to Evelyn she said she was pretty tired but was used to the schedule and said "we must push to get ahead".
A typical house of a student attending this school is the size of an American bathroom. They can house 10 to 12 people in these rooms. The walls are comprised of wood scraps, metal scraps and cloth and the floors are dirt. Most will sleep on a cloth sack for their bed. There is no running water of any kind in the area...they rely on the river nearby for drinking water and bathing and it is very contaminated. There are no bathrooms except the outdoors...sometimes there is a community latrine in the area. They cook on a cauldron of sorts that is low to the floor. They have no refrigeration....so the chicken last night was probably the catch of the day. That said...the markets have meat hanging ...and it is also not refrigerated. The unemployment rate is roughly 75 percent. Needless to say...the parents of these children are really not employed. Evelyn told me that they go to the dump on weekends to find plastics that they can sell. Her mother works to sell some product...I'm not quite sure what it is. She said her father is rarely around because he is out trying to find odd jobs to support them.
Evelyn was quite interested in my life in the US. She said she had just celebrated her birthday on June 11. She was so thrilled when her family surprised her that day and JoAn made sure that she did not have to do any work that day. No presents, no cake, no outing. She was curious to know what we do on birthdays...she was aghast at the description.
For the first time, the school will graduate seniors. Each will have a chance to go to the university....they are estatic at the possibility of elevating themselves and coming back to the community to help. They need sponsors or they will not go...unless they have a very high grade point average. They just love school and are thrilled to study. I was struck by the contrast in the US. For these kids, school has been a means by which they are fed, clothed and medically attended to. The school shuts down for one month at the end of the year...and we are told that they return so malnourished that often the school year is set back academically because the kids need to be brought back nutrition wise before they can concentrate on school.
Today was a particularly rewarding day for us. As relayed earlier, we brought 20 bags of shoes collected and in part funded by my foundation, Feet in Need. We brought them to the school today. Jordan and Tom stayed up until midnight last night and counted and catalogued the shoes! We had 420 pairs. My goal was to bring 500 pairs over (which we had) but it was quickly becoming cost prohibitive so we settled on bringing just 20 bags. With this number we are able to outfit EVERY student in this school and then some. The staff felt a stampede would erupt if we were to fit all with shoes today so a select number (15-20) came to a room and I was able to outfit all with shoes. I cannot adequately describe the state of their shoes or feet....they were mud encrusted and their shoes were falling apart and too small. They were so grateful and so excited to get some of these shoes...mere castoffs of the endurance runner but so valuable to these children. For all those reading...who donated shoes....they will ALL go to these children and thank you. For anyone reading also...we donated a pair of small pink shoes to the little orphan we found outside the school gate and a pair of small velcro tennis shoes to her bigger sister. So..thanks for the little shoes as well.
Tomorrow will be a big day. Our last day at the school. Many of the children are just dreading our leaving because they feel very loved that we came so far to see them and spend time together playing soccer, football, baseball, volleyball....and a myriad of misc games including sharks and minnows (a big favorite because we grab them to catch them which they love), hokey pokey, hide and seek, etc. We will first go to the primary school...they will put on a program for us. Then off to the secondary school for another sendoff program. It will be very bittersweet for us too. You just can't help but love these children....and they love so freely back. We will all miss them very much.
Katy writes:
Our time here has been absolutely amazing. God has really blessed our interactions with the kids as well as our conversations.
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