One Week since Waking Up at 3:30am…

8/5/14

Hello family, friends, and loved ones,

                It’s been one week since I left for Kenya. I want to report that I made it safe and sound. Yes, I questioned it for a while before and during the journey to Kitale due to the media, but I am happy to say that I finished my second day of camp here at Nyota. Nyota is the compound that belongs to the Daughters of Charity here in Kitale. They are 5 of them and they are some of the sweetest and most hard working women I have met in my life- Sister Mary, Sister Karen, Sister Bridgette, Sister Irene, and Sister Patricia have made us feel quite at home. Their dedication and involvement in this community has helped Kitale especially the children.

                This past Sunday, my group members and I had the opportunity to take part in the festivities of the new Vincentian parish, St. Kizito, here in Kitale. Even before we got here, the church community was preparing for the big event. Mass was scheduled for 10:00am outside of the church on Sunday but apparently things don’t usually start on time like they do in the States. I didn’t mind though. After about what seemed like an hour, Mass began. The (very large) choir was singing in Swahili and down the aisle came children and women and dancing. I have never seen that before. The bishop entered along with many priests from the area. Vincentian priests came from Nairobi just for this too. There was so much reverence but there was real celebration, dancing, singing, laughter; it’s hard to describe to you how beautiful this mass was. Soon I found out that children and adults would also be receiving the sacrament of Confirmation. I was surprised to see young children receiving the sacrament. What really surprised me though were the offerings the community gave during the collection. Along with the usual money, chickens (live ones I might add), eggs, sugar cane, bananas, oranges, and many other things were given. The willingness to part with these necessities for the community reminded me of that story in Bible about the poor women in the temple who gives the little bit that she has…

                Mass was long, 3 and a half hours long to be exact, but it was worth sitting there every minute. I didn’t understand any of it but seeing the people’s joy reminded me the different ways people practice their religion, even in the Catholic Church. I believe there is no right way of prayer or believing and the people of Kitale have shown me that in the most gorgeous way possible.

                Camp started yesterday. It’s been a while since I’ve had to lead a classroom and doing so again with a language barrier is a little frightening. However, the children are just like all children. They are curious, hilarious, joyful, and loving. We have young children in the morning, ages 6- 9, and ages 9- 12 in the afternoon. The children in each session are divided into 3 groups, thus they have 3 different activities- arts and crafts, sports, and enrichment. This week I am in the enrichment room; I like to call it the miscellaneous room. I was told that I can basically do anything with the children as long as in stimulates some sort of creativity. Yesterday I started off reading two books, Clifford the Big Red Dog and The Apple Pie Tree. I have two aids (locals from Kitale) to help me with translation. They helped me translate the stories to the children. I could tell the children were very shy, like any child on the first day of anything, so I introduced the Hokey Pokey and Freeze Dance. The children laughed at me because I looked so ridiculous doing these things with them. The important thing was that I got them to be comfortable around me and around each other. J

                Today, the children worked on camp letters for their parents. These are very typical in summer camps around the States so I figured it would be a nice way to practice writing (in both English and Swahili) and drawing. The kids loved just having crayons, markers, and construction paper to work with. It was very interesting to see how many of the children, especially the younger ones, couldn’t come up with a message on their own. So I had to write one out on the chalkboard and my aids translated it in Swahili on the other side. Tomorrow I will be doing something math oriented… and maybe some Freeze Dance!

                This week has gone by so quickly. As I continue my work here in Kitale, I hope to keep learning from the Sisters, my group members, and, most importantly, the children. Until next time…