“We welcome you to come and sit up here, Madam Kira and Madam Cailin” ...Up where? In front of the whole school? Yep. Groggy and slightly slap happy from lack of sleep we took our honored seats up in front of the entire school for their closing ceremonies. Kenyan schools go all year round with several two week long breaks. Today was the beginning of a break so they had a full school assembly in place of classes. So we had better-then-front-row seating as each teacher read out the three students at the top of their respective classes. The students would humbly walk to the front of the school to receive an award for placing highest on the exams and then the whole school would clap for them in different patterns led by one of their teachers. Then all the teachers stood and gave a short message to the school, each introducing the next teacher, the cycle got to Rev. Samson, the Director of the school. He in turn introduced me, and I had to improv a quick little speech for the kids, and then Kira had to do the same. Africa sure likes to keep you on your toes, whether it’s being stranded for five hours due to a giant rain storm, or having to be prepared to speak to almost 300 students. We are not short for adventures here.
After the assembly I had made it my mission to get to know Annah, one of the girls who still needs a partial sponsorship. I found her and we made our way around the compound, she showed me her classroom and where she likes to sit, then took me to her room in the rented dormitories. She was so friendly and bright, offering up information about herself without any prodding. She grabbed my hand and showed me a crinkled piece of yellow paper. “When you see my sponsor, tell them that I am ninth in my class!” She practically exploded with pride as she shoved her report card towards me. On our way Eunice cheerfully greeted me, and Dolphine and Hyline also fell into step with us, grabbing my arms and hands and smiling as they proudly showed that they remembered my name, even if I still couldn’t quite get all of theirs. We collected about 15 other kids on our walk to Annah’s room. The girls were so excited to show me their beds and tell me who their bunk mate was. The tiny little rooms housed between 2 and 4 bunk beds, each with 2 girls to a bed. Their things were stuffed in tiny cubbyholes, down the sides of the mattresses, and lining the rafters. They have no room for even their small amount of belongings. But the state of the rooms made it apparent that lots of happy, hardworking girls lived there.
The girls all began to test me about their names, memory is not my strong suit, and when I had no idea I would throw out some obscure name and the girls would erupt into contagious sidesplitting laughter and we would all have to catch our breath before I continued with the name test. Suddenly Dorothy appeared “Ohh I’ve finally found you” apparently there was something going on and I was needed back at the offices. She laughed as she explained how searching for me felt exactly like when she had to search for one of the orphans. We arrived at the offices and I stepped into a much more formal meeting then I was expecting. I felt like I was back in high school, showing up to class late, and giving some lame excuse. I apologized as I quickly took the nearest empty seat, “Sorry, I was playing with the orphans and learning their names over at the dorms” I think that is a pretty solid excuse. Should’ve tried that one back in high school. During the meeting Kira and I officially met all the teachers, and then sat through their entire board meeting, ...in Swahili. It was nice though, it gave us the chance to study the charts on the walls and learn about the school day in more detail, and about which teachers taught which grades. Part of our work is to interview each of the teachers about the students performance in class.
The rest of the day was an energetic blur. It all started with us taking photos of the kids, which quickly turned into them taking photos of each other. They loved when we would show them photos of our families or where we lived. They would “ooh and ahh” when I showed them a picture of my living room, smiling and complimenting me on how “smart” and “soft” it looked. My heart was exploding as they all took turns taking my phone and directing a group shot where at least ten kids would be squishing into the photo and hugging me so hard from all directions that I almost fell over. Kira was experiencing the same thing with another group of kids who had just discovered how to take selfies on her phone. From there the kids happily pulled us into the backyard where we played loads of circle games with singing, running, clapping, and dancing. The first game was a name game where once your name was chanted into the song, you were up next to go dance in the middle of the circle. I learned quickly by being one of the first ones pushed into the center of the circle and having to dance on beat with their clapping and singing. They games are so lively, all of them take part. Those that weren’t dancing and clapping were teaching Kira some more competitive form of monkey in the middle. We must’ve learned at least 5 new games this afternoon. And when Kira and I climbed into the blue van, out of the hot sun, the kids weren’t ready to say goodbye. Before we knew it over half the orphanage had squeezed into the little blue van and the temperature rose at least 10 degrees with all the happy, laughing kids packed like sardines against us. Samson chuckled and leaned towards me, “they wanted to go to Ogembo!” he said. We weren’t sure what that meant.. were they coming up to the apartment with us? were they coming to walk around town? Either way the little blue van with almost 50 passengers started up and we were off, bumping along like a clown car towards Ogembo. Once we arrived at the apartment, the kids cascaded out of the van, practically tumbling over each other, unfolding out into the fresh air. We hopped out, and puzzled, watched all the kids squeeze right back into the van. We then realized that they had all squeezed in, JUST to drop the two of us off at home. The van sounded like a cheerful birthday party on wheels as they rolled away, tons of arms waving furiously at us out the windows.
Hard to catch my breath while reading about these life-affirming experiences. Thank you for sharing them.
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Kaye Lermitte
8/17/2014 06:32:27 am
Thank you for this blog! You have given us such a real picture of life in Etora, Kenya. It is so exciting to see the Charity Works dream coming true of helping young adults fund their dream of serving others become a reality.
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Peter Buss
8/17/2014 10:23:41 pm
Thanks for the information included in these postings. I hope that they not only serve to keep all of us informed, but as a mini-travelogue for you to look back on in the months to come. We heard about the energy and good things happening there from Kay Alden and Kathy Schrock, and from Brian and Gretchen Keith. It will be wonderful to visit there one day. Best wishes on your continued work.