Last Days in Kenya, Next Stop UGANDA!

Sweet Teeth:

We had our first sugar cane! Two girls from Glory Center, Naom (short for Naomi, on the left in the picture) and Rachel, took John and I to the river that goes through Glory. It was a beautiful rushing little river that we crossed by a narrow split log. We followed the river to the fresh spring where everybody gets their drinking water. All the kids were delighted to see us and absolutely LOVED getting their picture taken. They were such hams – as soon as we pointed the camera at one group, a bunch of kids would jump into the picture! So much for a photo op….LOL We still got great pictures though.

After that the girls pulled us away from the rest of the kids and we went down to another crossing to go back to the center. Some fine looking neighboring cattle passed us on their way to the river and we continued up a dirt path through bright green fields. Toward the top, a man was cutting sugar cane and he gave several long stocks to the girls. Sugar cane is a long, round ribbed green stalk with a very tough protective outer layer. To get to the sweet stuff you have to strip off the outer layer to reveal the white inner core. The girls just used their teeth to tear off the outer later. I tried that and gave up right away. My teeth weren’t strong enough! Rachel laughingly took my sugar cane and stripped it clean with her teeth.

The inside was great! The white core is VERY fibrous and juicy. As we bit into it, the sticky juicy would run down our hands. Then you chew the pulp until you get all the sweet juice and then you spit out the tough fibers. And for all you fiber lovers out there, let me say now, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to swallow all that fiber! LOL But it is a bit funny to be spitting out big chunks of white fiber all over the ground. But we really enjoyed eating the sugar cane! What a wonderful sweet refreshing treat. I couldn’t eat a whole stock but I ate until I couldn’t eat anymore.

Education Matters:

At Hope for Children Center we have been very pleased with what we’ve seen in regards to education. The kids love to study! Every evening, when the generator comes on the kids go out to the school and with the light from a single bulb they study for at least two hours. They are studying chemistry, biology, physics and English among other things. A single bulb light doesn’t give a lot of light but they persevere. It would hurt my eyes if I tried to study the way that they do.

All the students share text books and their notebooks are full of detailed illustrations, diagrams and notes – practically a text book in its own right! There is little to distract them from study and they are hungry to learn as much as they can with what they have.

Mama Grace:

On Saturday, we went to meet Mama Grace, Boaz and Everline’s mom. She lives a short distance away from Hope Center about a 10 minute drive or an hour by foot. The house was small and clean with a metal roof and with smooth dirt walls and floor. I was very pleased with the condition!

Mama Grace was outside cooking when we arrived. Boaz and Everline were already there as they walked over earlier that morning. Grace is a lovely lady and I was happy to see that she looked well. She is blind in one eye do to the medications that she is taking and she said that she isn’t very strong at times. She’s a slender woman but not too thin and just a little smaller in height than me.

Grace prepared sweet fresh pineapple for us and then went back to cooking a wonderful meal of scrambled eggs, stir-fried kale and ugali. We had just eaten lunch before we came over to see her so unfortunately we only could eat a little bit.

Grace is a quiet lady and we talked a little through an interpreter (Pastor Maurice). I gave her the bag that mom and I had fixed up for her. She didn’t look inside it so I don’t know what she thought about the things we brought – but I trust that she will be happy with it all. It was so nice to meet her after sending support for the last four years. We stayed for about 40 minutes and then we took the kids with us to Good Samaritan for an afternoon of outdoor games.

Good Samaritan:

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Good Samaritan. Brigitte and I taught the kids a bunch of different games. Red Rover, Duck Duck Goose, Simon Says, Follow the Leader and Flying Dutchman.

We all had such a good time. John did a lot of watching and picture taking and resting in the shade – it was quiet warm in the sun! He did join in on some of the games; the Flying Dutchman in particular was great. In this game, he was paired up with a young boy and the goal was to get back to their place in line before the other team got there. Johnny was so CUTE! I wish I had a picture to capture the look on his face as he went barreling around the circle with his team mate. They didn’t make it so then John got to pick the next opposing team to run against. John thought he was being so clever when he picked a large boy with a small boy. He thought surely he’d beat them back in line. I was watching as Johnny and his partner took off running and then the big boy picked up his partner and took off running like crazy! The shocked look on Johnny’s face was priceless when they crossed paths and he realized that he had been outsmarted!

Boaz and Everline:
We really enjoyed getting to know our kids! On Sunday, the last full day that we were at Hope Center, John taught them perspective - by drawing a house with a landscape and then we learned to draw a portrait. Boaz found his initial drawing to be “a disaster” but he was a good sport and kept trying. Both kids had a lot of fun with that and it was a treat to draw with them.


Dust, Dirt and Starlight:

Sunday evening we walked over to Good Samaritan which was about 2.5 km from Hope. We had to deliver a package to one of the children at GS so we had a good long walk together. We tried to learn some words in Luo (pronounce – Loo Ow) as we went. Erokamano (pronounce – eRO Karmo) – means Thank you. Idhinade (pronounce – Idheea nado) – means How Are You? And you would reply, Adhimabei (pronounced – adhee ma bear) – which means I am fine. I must say, I didn’t pick up the language very well. L But I had a great time trying.

It was getting dark by the time we got to Good Samaritan and as soon as the kids caught sight of us they started yelling and running to us. After greeting us, we presented Rose with her gift and then the kids sang to us before we left. They all walked us to the gate and one of the older boys escorted us a ways before he when back home. We walked the rest of the way in the black night with our two head torches (headlights) with Boaz and Everline. We were very glad to have the company. At one point, a group of boys followed us as they were on their way home too and enjoyed using the light we cast.

We turned off the lights at one place along the way to see if we could walk in the dark like others do. It would be possible but we’d most likely stumble a lot over the rocks and ruts. But turning out the lights we noticed the STARS! We took a moment to take in the beautiful skylights before finishing our journey.

We got home at last and then it was UNO time! After the games I brought out the school supplies that we brought for them. They were really happy to have new pencils, pens, rulers, sharpeners and erasers - I wish I would have brought more for them! We really enjoyed our last evening together.


In the picture you can see the headlight we used - it came in SO handy! We played games by this light, interviewed kids, even took pictures using the light! And of course to go to the loo. :)