Africa!!! (Part 2)

Ok, I'll just apologize up front to everyone for how long this took. I really have been incredibly busy and working on this in snatches at a time. It takes longer than it looks.

Anyway, continuing on...

Sat. SEPTEMBER 8th

This was our first REAL day with the kids at Chepemma. We decided to "break them in" by playing kickball in this large field they had by the chapel.

Here we are organizing the game. This was harder than it looks considering many of them couldn't understand us.

At first, the children were shy about playing and none of them wanted to throw the ball at the opposing team or even kick it very hard when it was their turn. Fortunately Ellen (the other American in the picture besides me) :) is quite competitive and I was on her team SO... she and I made sure we showed those kids how to play ball. ;) Once, though, I accidentally hit a boy in the head/face with the ball... (cringe) Thankfully, he only kept running and smiling... tough kid. :) Despite the misshaps, the kids caught on fairly quickly and hours later, they didn't even want to stop for lunch. We did though and while we ate a snack lunch under a tree, the kids all went home (or back to the orphanage) to eat their lunch.

That afternoon, since we'd forgotten the craft projects we had planned on doing, we ended up just setting up three "stations" around the area. The guys station was balloons, Kimber & Ellen's was face painting, and for Bev's and my station I got to teach an impromptu art class!! I taught them the color wheel letting them mix the colors with the crayons we brought. For some reason, it really hit me that day that they're just like us. I've taught a few art classes over the years, and I realized that teaching kids in Africa was the same. They're just normal kids who love new, exciting things... duh, right? Well, I don't know why, but that hadn't struck me before. Maybe I just always thought that the way a person's culture is, drastically affects him. But the truth is... it doesn't.

The big difference I did see was how appreciative these children were of our activities and time. They don't get candy and balloons and crayons all the time. In fact, they think a handmade milk jug car is a wonderful toy and beans as your one meal for the day is plenty. Imagine if you had grown up like that. Wouldn't you be more hesitant to complain about what you DIDN'T have?That afternoon we also learned two Kenyan worship songs. It was so much fun crowding around with a bunch of the kids singing the beautiful Swahilii words. (The girls behind me in this picture kept reaching over and touching my hair. It was so sweet.) I think they really appreciated us taking the time to learn something from THEM. So often we expect to only teach while on a mission trip but in reality you always end up learning way more than you bargained for. :)

We went back to the cabin that night and had an awesome time of worship and sharing of testimonies. Afterward, I stayed up talking with two of the ladies from the group til almost 3:00am! I grew really close with all of these women. It's nice that all of them are from my church so now we can continue on in the friendships that began thousands of miles away! We even have a monthly get together planned for the five of us to fellowship, chat, and re-live the memorable experience of Kenya.

Sun. SEPTEMBER 10th

Wow. Sunday was such a blast! We got up and prepared to be at the Hope Center at 10:00am sharp for church. Since we were going to be introducing ourselves, and leading a few songs (including the ones we had learned the day before) we couldn't afford to be late. Just putting into effect the good manners we've been raised with, right? Well... we had forgotten we were in Kenya. Apparently it's common knowledge that if church starts at 10:00, you don't start arriving til about 11:00. Sure enough, we didn't actually start the service until about 11:15. Ever seen Lion King? Well, Hakuna Matata is the Kenyan motto. I just like to call them kindred spirits. ;) Nevertheless, church was well worth waiting for. We started out with some hymns (sung in Swahilii of course) and then it was our turn. Rachel and I each shared short testimonies and read a few verses. It was definitely a brand new experience speaking with a translator. I thought it would be very distracting but instead I found it gave me more time to think about what I was going to say next. (As you can see, I'm not the most photogenic person in the world.)

And here we all are singing our recently learned songs and a couple from home which we had to come up with on the spur of the moment.

After this, we listened to a sermon on a verse in Isaiah... quite long I might add and thankfully, quite good. And then came the really fun part: The offering. The pastor had everyone line up in the aisle. Elders, men, women, then children. As each one came to the front the pastor would announce to the entire congregation what each one was giving. Sounds pretty different, huh? We thought so. But it wasn't over yet. One of the last people to give was a little old lady who gave... not shillings like everyone else, but... a chicken!!! A little hen who was tied at the feet and looking scared to death. "Ok," I thought, "she's giving that to the orphanage." Nope. As soon as everyone sat down there was an auction. We called it the great chicken auction because along with some papayas and sweet potatoes, the chicken was auctioned off in the middle of church. Who bought it? Shane contributed 500 shillings to the church and gave the chicken back to the orphanage. Here he is with his prize. By this time it was well past lunch and I'm pretty sure these two were both getting hungry. Mmm... fried chicken. (Yes, there IS a chicken between them.) ;)

After church (and lunch), we decided to take a hike up one of the mountains nearby.

I'm going to be a softie and go ahead and publish this. Call it my conscience, but I feel bad for making y'all wait so long. For all you naggers out there... I hope you're happy! ;) (I'm in the middle of a day too.)

I'll be back... no really, I will. ;)