its a very good place to start..."
a few months ago i went to mount longonot (see previous post!) and met a very interesting South African lady called Lydia Venter there with two of her adopted children, she is white SA but has three adopted black SA kids and one adopted Kenyan daughter.
we got chatting after the climb, not during as i was at the front and she was at the back! (dont worry she wouldnt mind me saying that!) and she told me about the school that she runs in Njoro Egerton. Egerton is a university about 40 minutes by matatu (of course depending on how many times the matatu stops to collect more people, to pump a tire, to get more petrol... on the way)
anyway the school YASHA is a mission school, her and her husband are missionaries, which they set up together about 4 years ago. at the time i didnt thing too deeply about it but she suggested that i come visit some time and that if i, or any friends of mine wanted to come visit it would be much appreciated. so we swapped numbers and then I basically forgot about it.
around a month ago now i was VERY low, work at Nakuru Nursing Home was unsatisfying with only an average of 5 patients, work at the General Hospital was SO draining, i would go for a few hours, wash walls, chat to patients but wonder seriously what difference i was making in the longterm, or even short term really. i had been spending some time at a youth center where i spent one week decorating the place but then after that there was really not much for me to do- not being trained as a chancellor i couldn't help with the great work they do there. to top that i was very lonely at the house where i was staying, spending more and more fun nights out at friends houses and wondering why i was spending any time at all back at the house and shouldn't i just move out?
so i started investigating options. i talked to friends about possible places to stay, but most of them, staying already in over crowded one room waterless places i didn't really feel that i could ask. then i started looking at new places to volunteer- on one very low day walking from PGH to NNH i bumped into Jeff- someone also from the longonot trip, who i knew works in some schools so i organized to go around with him for the day and see.
it was like God had actually answered my prayers that day, sent me someone, some hope for that day and the week leading up to the visit. unfortunately the day didn't open up any options really but i still thank God for that meeting.
then i found out that a friend of mine volonteers with the Red Cross here so i went with her and talked to them about becoming a member- something i still intend to do .
but most life changing, i called Lydia Venter and arranged to go and see her school. i went on one monday evening and stayed at their house having a chance to meet all the kids:
- Timothy is 4
- Stephanus is 9
- Joy is 10
- Maki is 14
- Clemencia is 20
i also heard more about the school, Lydia and her husband Wilco set it up under a very different system that originated in the US- kids work at their own pace through work books, they set their own goals for the day, their own homework, and if the average is right they complete each years work within the number of weeks in the year. but if not then they continue the next year. but it means that kids actually progress much faster. for the younger kids, the ones who are just starting, they do learn the alphabet, to read and write together but they do it phonetically. the atmosphear there is great.
so i thought to myself, WOW i can come here as i kind of holiday!
so more information about YASHA later, i will get back to the story, it is far from finished!
i told my host mother Nancy about this and she seemed a but dubious i called Karanga our rep here and told him that i intended to be going away for a few weeks and he seemed fine with it as long as i knew that i was out of Changing Worlds care. then on Friday Nancy asked me if i was still going to Egerton, i said 'yes!' very indignantly, it had been my lifeline through that week, really i was at the point of just wanting to go home to England but was keeping going knowing that things would change soon. i thought i better be honest with Nancy so i told her that i was unhappy and not sure that i would actually come back after my stay there. she said she didn't think that it was such a good idea and that every time i was out of the house she worried so i should not go out to stay at friends houses anymore. the conversation went on and i felt more and more caged in and lonely. that night i cried myself to sleep and in the morning, about 6 once i could sleep no longer i started packing. when i was in the shower she took my things and hid them so. i had not been planning on just leaving that morning, i was preparing for the next day when i had already arranged to go. so i was in a state, she said we must meet with the leader in kenya for the company Karanga, but he was in nairobi so we met with his wife. she said that i was messing them around, i should not be spending nights out, i was in their care till i leave kenya, i cannot leave nakuru ever for the dayu, i cant work in new places even in nakuru... i was like a bird with its wings chopped off.
so in a state the day went on, do i keep on making the costumes for the YASHA kids end of term production that i started? what do i do?!
wnt to church the next day after multious emails to my mum, and the service was about taking up the things that god gives you, holding on to them and breaking free from prisons. i really knew at that point that god was on my side.
so the next day MY ABSOLUTELY LOVELY MOTHER organised from 'the other side', (ie spoke to the organiser of Changing Worlds) as they call it here that i could go to Egerton. i recieved news of this at 4.30pm, knowing that Nancy my host mother would arrive back and most probably not let me get my things i rushed back on a budabuda (bike with a seat on the back, with lots of bruses and cuts involved, but luckily i got a lift back to the house, got my things and got safely on a matatu to Egerton Njoro where Lydia picked me up in their Missionary car.
so thats how i got there! one day late but neverthe less there. the kids were SO pleased as they had been told that i would be coming for the last two weeks of term to make costumes, decorations and organise pieces for their end of term award ceremony (held yesterday) the hastle was all worth it, the family have embraced me and made me part of it, the school has given me a role where i can thrive and my ideas and organisational skills are embraced, God sent me here and i feel in a m,ental state of rest- i know what i am doing here is worthwhile.
as much as anything i have seen that i am here as a help for Lydia personally, someone from the west with as much vision and drive as her. you see things here are tough for them, Wilco is over in South Africa helping to raise funds for the school and to look for some employment so that they can raise money for the family to live off. the kids do pay but it is only the equivalent of 10pounds per term- not even enough for the filling school meals that they recieve every day at no extra cost. on top of that many of the parents actually pay with labour rather than money, one or two days a month instead of fees.
so there is no money to pay the rent, the water, the electricity, we pray every day for funds and help. so here i know that i am appreciated, i am not depriving anyone from a jopb or doing something unnecessary, i am helping to keep a fantastic vision alive. so when i am tired, stressed out, i remember what we are doping here, giving kids a future, they will have energy and passion to go somewhere, to realise that life can be enjoyed, it does not just have to be selling tomatoes by the side of the road and scraping the pennies for dinner.
last week there was a prefects retreat, a day where the prefects did fun things together, i organised games, another teacher had a descussion, everyone got dressed up for a special meal, its about making the kids feel special. knowing that people will go that extra mile for them.
yesteday was the award ceremony (dont worry i have pics!) at many points during the week i thought that i had bitten off more than i could chew, too many costumes to make, a hall with broken windows ands grafiti to decorate (we had rented the university lecture hall) and too many invitations to get delivered. late nights- up till 11pm in the hall with Maki and Mary (both students in the school) decorration on friday night while Lydia and Clemencia finished the cirtificates... up at 5.30 making breakfast and preparing thigs, the car tire going flat, mendazis not ready, plug for sound system not working... my oh my the mountains to climb over! but it all happened! and whats more Lydia enjoyed the show, i was backstage (praying and thanking all those parents who had helped out at the many shows that i was in as a kid and realising hat a tough job it is!) running about madly but the show was great, the kids had never done or seen something like it nor the parents, something that for us in the west would have been classed as medioka what is expected, here is the undreamed of.
so it was all worth it. and the thanks that i recieved was astounding, i was just doing a job, but a job that noone else would have done, Lydia has enough on her plate keeping the place afloat so was so greatful to have some help with the creative side.
so i call out to you from the bottom of my hear t with a worthwhile cause that is deserving of any monetary gifts that you can offer, this is a truely amazing place and every 10pounds helps. on thursday there were tears, the water tank was dry (we only wash with one jug of water so it is not wastage that causes that) and the electricity was about to be turned off. God calling me to go to the bank. i withdrew 150pounds worth of kenyan shillings- (what on my budget should last me 6weeks) put it in an envelope and left it on Lydias desk with a 'note saying a gift to be used where it is needed'. if i have to come home early i wont mind. here is a cause which is much more diserving that me. Lydia cried when she saw it. she said that she should have had more faith in God, as that day she had called her husband to take out a loan to pay some of the bills with. so the next day Joy could have some new school shoes, hers had been repared 3 times already, and the elecrticity could be paid to we are not living with candles.
so truely every little helps and is appreciated. when i go home i will do some proper fundraising but for now i will do my best this end in the school, i am intending to come back in january. when i asked lydia about it the smaile on her face stretched from one ear to the other! she said 'i didnt want to ask you i thought you would think i was asking too much! we would love to have you!' so my prayers have been answered and so have hers,
God works in wonderful ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment