Receiving TOMS :)

Back during my first year in college I remember sitting next to one of my good friends and thinking he had these bizarre burlap looking shoes.  They were undoubtedly cool, as my friend was probably one of the first hipsters trending at Moody Bible Institute, but they had a cool story to them.  He told me they were called Toms and for every pair of shoes that was bought the company donated a pair to someone else in the world.

Of course with every "charity driven" brand there comes its critics, some saying its all a scam, some saying we get the nice shoes while the street kids get cheap flip flops, and others well...just refuse to believe anything good about the world.

Well right before I arrived in Kenya in September, they received a huge shipment of over 500 pairs of Toms for the kids and our national staff.  They are great shoes and very practical for Kenyan life style.  I have just loved seeing the little Toms running around and thought I would share some pics of the receiving end of your Toms shoes!

Africa is a continent, Kenya is the country.

There is a common misconception that Africa is a seen as a country and not the second largest continent, I am guilty of this as well. I never even thought about this misconception until I had a friend who was from South Africa and anytime people would ask her where she's from they're surprised to find that she's African...I thought they were black?! Africa is a continent and a huge one at that.  There are about 55 countries on the continent of Africa, many of them being drastically different.  Even in the two countries that I've been able to visit you couldn't even compare the two...one was more modern city, beautiful mountains with two different oceans meeting at one point, the other was more developing and had the beautiful brown grasslands stretching across its middle, filled with wild animals Disney likes to cast as their protagonist.
I am guilty if this as well, grouping all of Africa into one big group.  So I'm taking this opportunity to tell you a little bit about what I have learned from my fellow Kenyan friends about the country of Kenya...and what makes it unique in this big contininent.

Kenya is in east Africa touching the Indian Ocean, and is a young country, gaining its independence on  December 12, 1963 from Britain.  It is only (roughly) the 30th country to gains it's independence in Africa. Before that, it was a British colony in the 1920s.

The official language of Kenya is Swahili, which is a mixture of the Bantu tribe language and Arabic.  When the arabs came for trading they communicated using this new trading language which later became known as Swahili.

However there are 42 tribes living in Kenya, and each with its own language and then multiple dialects of their native languages.  But because of their British colonization, English is a major language and all schooling is in English as well.

Unlike some of their neighbors, Kenya has been blessed with much peace.  For example, on just the other side of Lake Victoria, the country of Rwanda has only two tribes, the Tutsis and the Hutus, who have been fighting for years and years.  Kenya has 42 tribes who has been able to live in peace with one another for many years.  The biggest tribe being called the Kikuyu and the smallest being the El Molo who is now facing extinction.

Kenya is home to one of the world’s harshest HIV and AIDS epidemics. An estimated 1.6 million people are living with HIV, around 1.1 million children have been orphaned by AIDS and in 2011 nearly 62,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses.
Kenya’s HIV prevalence peaked during the late 1990s but has dramatically reduced to around 6 percent. This decline is thought to be partially due to an increase in education and awareness, but also from high death rates

Kenya has also claimed itself being a Christian nation, with 83% of the population claiming Christianity and 11% being next largest religion being Islam.  Some prayer requests the Kenya needs is:
Political issues increasingly impact the churches.  Christianity is increasingly politicized as many churches seek to transform Kenyan politics with new parties and fresh vision. Pray that all Christians might unite in opposing wrong and in upholding policies that honour God. Pray for gifted, holy and accountable believers to be appointed to positions of influence in the nation.

Although Kenya is a "christian nation" there is definitely a need for some quality men of God to lead this nation and their churches.  There have been numerous instances where I have been met with legalism that has saturated the way they worship God.  I would love to post more about this later!  So keep an eye out!

I keep on catching myself saying pray for Africa...be specific, pray for Kenya! Pray for Christian Leaders to lead their nation in a godly matter.  Pray that people would protect themselves and their families from illnesses like HIV.  Pray for the people of Kenya that they would seek Christ!

Things to remind me I'm in Africa.

As I was walking home today from school I starting laughing to myself and thinking of all the things that remind me that I'm in Africa and not in the US.  Here are a few, I hope you find a little pleasure in my growing list.

-Red clay dust

-walking through a heard of cattle on my way home from school

-school running an hour late (and teachers are ok with it)

-seeing monkeys on the side of the road on my walk home

-eating termites with dinner last night

-60 kids in my classroom

-kids touching my hair when I'm not looking

-kids rubbing my arms against their skin

-driving on the other side of the road

-eating more corn than I have in my entire life

-hang drying my clothes (I'm from washington, we don't hang dry)

-multiple marriages proposals (no ring is on the finger yet)

-mopping my floor with a towel

-and trying to coordinate skype times with friends is really confusing

It's a short list that seems to grow any time I take a second to reflect on my time here :) 

Classroom Mania!

One of my respoinsibilties here in Nairobi is furthering a relationship with the public school down the street that First Love sends most of our primary kids to.  This school has been very supportive of our ministry by welcoming 60 of our kids! Even though it's a public school, that doesn't mean they are given all the finances and supplies that are needed from the government.  In fact in this k-8 school there are more than 1,300 students and only 30 teaching staff!! Can you believe it!  That means class sizes are packed and are short in space, money, supplies, staff, and time.

When you first walk in a Kenyan school the first thing that hits you is the vast amount of kids.  Desks are nearly piled on top of each other, and in the baby classes (3-4 year olds) they literally have two kids sitting in each chair.

There is also a shortage of money.  These teachers are overworked, having to not only teach all of these   students but they must mark all of their papers, tests, and homework... it's exhausting.  They are also not given any money to supply their classroom with updated textbooks or basic supplies for their classroom.  In result of this, many teachers are found to be charging their students unfair fees that are pocketed or never reported.  Trying to get a receipt for our payments is like pulling teeth!

Because of the sheer number of kids in classrooms there is no way they are able to have a student based learning approach, therefore everything is lecture.  But primary kids can only listen to lecture for so long, so they teach each subject in 30 minutes increments and then teach subjects multiple times throughout the day, with a 10 minute break between every two lessons.  It sounds crazy, but I can now see that at this point it's the only way they can get through all the curriculum they are given.  But with all these lectures and breaks it makes for a very long day.  The kids leave for school at 6 30 and don't arrive home until 5pm!

Being a teacher myself it breaks my heart to see an educational system in such a place.  This is a developing country still and I pray that they are able to make necessary changes.  But it has truly been a wake up call to this little private school teacher!

One amazing thing that I love about the Kenyan school is that prayer is not absent.  Students are often seen praying for meals, for their beloved country, teachers, and families.  It's really amazing to see a public school able to pray to our Lord and Savior!

The other day I was in my 4th grade english class and I wanted to be able to show you how crammed these kids are!

King Stoba and the Queen

What do you do when you have a few free hours on a Saturday afternoon and kids coming out your of ears?  Make a home movie!

Oh man, the First Love kids had so much fun making this little diddy, they're already planning their next project.

King Stoba and the Queen from Meg Cosper on Vimeo.