South Coast!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

South Coast here we come.   I love, love, love south coast.   That is were I fell in love with Kenya for the first time.  In Tiwi in 2008 when I meet a young girl, at that time who was in KG-2 and was so quiet she would not even tell me her name without whispering.  I had to ask Pastor Vincent what her name was.  She was so cute.  She had brads in her hair and she was so so little.  I watched her from afar for a little while and then I moved closer and she came over to sit on my lap.  Now every time I come see here growing so so much.  She is very advanced in her class and is doing so well.   Even the next year, she was already on stage yelling out a poem as a presentation in English and that was when she was in KG-3 which is difficult for them to speak English still at that age. I have since learned that she is the youngest of the family and has three older brothers.   Her mother passed away in 2010 which is so sad.  My daughter's best friend's mom passed away in 2010 also.  She lives very close to the Tiwi property and her grandmother lives with her to help her dad care for the kids.   She has one brother already in high school and another brother in 8th grade who is very bright.  Her dad is a teacher, but not at our school. 

Liz K came with us on our trip out to South Coast.  She has taken up Kristen's work here in Kenya for Operation Give Hope.   She is another amazing woman.  Working so hard and sharing God's light with everyone.  

So we started out day today traveling way, way down the south coast all the way to Mwangda where a little, little school has started called Tumaini.  You have heard of this name before, because this is where they whole community was drinking dirty water that had crocodiles in it.  The good news is that we were able to install a well at the site of this school which is great.  The other good news is that the children at this school, now, since August have been getting food everyday through Manna Worldwide which is amazing.  That will keep more kids in the school.   The school still needs so, so much work.  The buildings are still mud hut structures and it does not have property bathrooms, but you can see more hope and you can see improvement.  I am returning to Kenya in June with someone from a Risen Savior Lutheran Church in Franklin, WI.  We are hoping that after his visit, his church might consider sponsoring that school to give it the property hope that a church of God needs so we can see change in the community. 

Tribalism is very strong in the South Coast area and that is why  it is very dark in that area.  Maybe that's way I like it so much, because it is easy to feel the darkness and that makes me want to shine brighter for God than anywhere else. 

Then we stopped and made hotel arrangements for June at a beautiful hotel in Diani called Diani Reef.  The floor when you walk in is a fish tank and you walk on it as you walk through and around the lobby.  It is a beautiful hotel they treated us very nicely there last May when we stayed.   We were able to work out reasonable arrangements for accommodations for June when we return to south coast to do some fun days with the kids at the schools. 

Then we headed for Tiwi.  At Tiwi we first found Mwanarose - I didn't even know what room she was in, but God lead me right to the room, it was the first one we walked in.  She came with to help with the STd 4 class as we did presentations.  We read the kids the Gospel story and then we talked to them about how they have God's power inside them with the Holy Spirit if they believe in Jesus and how they need to use that power to figure out their purpose.  They need to pray, read the bible, etc to hear from God and then do what he tells them to do.  Right now, that means studying and working very very hard at school as they have a special privilege of being in school and others in their community do not.    It seemed very well received. 

We had a great time talking with Vincent, Fred, and Issac about the summer trip also when we will be bringing them all a special gift - baseball hats for the full school and staff.   They are very excited about what we will be doing with the kids and the fun day.  With the older kids in the summer we will be doing a career exploration day.  We hope to bring some Kenya teachers, lawyers, doctors, engineers with us to Tiwi to talk with the 5-8 graders so they can make an educated decision on what they might want to do when they grow up. 

Then we brought Mwanarose in to see all the clothes that I brought her from the states.  She was in shock I think.  She just starred at the clothes as though she was going to have to pick out one or two things but they were all her's.  Sue got a great picture of her face as I was hugging her goodbye.  She had such a smile - it made the whole trip worth it just to see that precious face.   I pray that God keeps her safe and that she stays in school until she graduates from law school like her surrogate mother!  We'll see. 

Then we headed home to shower as it was so, so hot.  Just standing there you were dripping sweat doing nothing.   Then we headed to Yul's for Wifi again and a veggie burger.  The ocean was high and it was great to relax and eat great food.  We hadn't eaten any real food since 5:45 am when we left the house to leave for South Coast to avoid the downtown traffic and now it was 5:00 pm

Then we tried to meet up with some new Assembly of God missionary friends I found online and talked with briefly earlier in the week, but we were not able to connect with them so we came home and got ready for tomorrow.  We decided to read through the cards that the boys at the Wana wa mola Boys home wrote us and we were both in tears.  Some of their stories and how grateful they were for us to be there, and that was before we did anything with them.   Some had been on the street since the age of 10 or before and 4 years or more before they came to the home.   They were so well behaved and so grateful to God to be at the home it was amazing.  So amazing that we decided we had to go back to say hello to them again before we leave.