A movie…

           I have made my first ever movie and posted it on YouTube.  It is amateurish because I learned to do this by watching how-to YouTube videos on making movies.  There is a gap between watching how to do something and actually doing it.  I think that you will enjoy it though, because it has all the things we enjoyed about Kenya, especially some outstanding people whom we would like you to meet.

            The movie is eleven minutes long, and I think it is a worthwhile eleven minutes.  This video is about good news—people working hard and doing the right thing even in the face of difficult living conditions.  The link is below and I think it will work if you click on it.  I have included the URL.  There is a big gap in my understanding how to link all of this. If this fails, I will try again and apologize ahead of time for this difficulty.

Mary

• Sharing the Kenya that we know – 2012

www.youtube.com

 

The URL for the video is http://youtu.be/JzxdPmN8b

Settling in but still unsettled

Restless in California…

Here I am two weeks home and still making sense of the experience of Kenya.   These last fourteen days have been filled with experiencing the highs of settling into life in Cameron Park—catching up on the news of  our sons and daughter-in-law, going to lunch with friends, dinner out with everyone celebrating February birthdays, a great hair cut, Sunday morning at my own church, and  my very own bed.  Juxtaposed with this sense of celebration is thinking about Naomi, the youngest orphan at Phoebe House, wondering how Pamela, Protus, and Margaret are doing in their classrooms, thinking of James who was hard to convince that the instructional strategies really would work with his class of seventy seventh graders, but he tried it and believed, and missing the daily contact with Kenyans who were part of our lives for a month.  This mixed bag of emotions does not surprise me, for this is what always happens, and I have learned not to hurry this period of grieving and celebrating.

Now for a few final stories—good stories with happy endings…  In 2011 Jim and I took $300 from the Faith Episcopal Sunday School children with us to Kenya with the intent of finding a good use of it.  We decided to spend the money to repair to a condemned special education classroom and left the money with our Canadian missionary friends.  When we came home, we received $700 more donations to repair the school and that was also sent on.  This fall we learned that the repairs had been made and that the classroom now housed students and teachers.  We were surprised to learn this last January that the original $300 had not been needed, and the question was what did we want to do with it.

Our Canadian friends do great work for water and education, we ask them what they would suggest.  Patricia asked us if we would consider two scholarships for secondary day school, and said that she had two students in mind.  It was so easy to say yes, even if it meant that this would be an obligation for not just this year, but three more.  There is no hope of going to secondary school unless a family has money or the young person earns a scholarship.

Meet Darius…

A very long story short:  Patricia chose two young people, and the young man happily went off to his school.   The young woman was sent away by her family and there was no way to know what happened, but it was most likely there was a marriage or she is working as a house girl.  The second scholarship was not resolved when we left Kenya, and then a wonderful story was just sent to us.

My co-presenter and friend, Nancy Carson, went back to the tailor shop where I got my wonderful African dress, and there she met a seventeen year old boy, Darius.  Darius has a complicated African story—an illegitimate child whose step father chased him away when he was a teen. His uncles in the tailor shop were trying to help him, but they did not have funds needed for secondary school.  Nancy learned that Darius had scored very well on his primary exit exams, and she hurried home to see if the money that Jim and I left behind for a freshman secondary student was still available.  It was and Darius is now in school, but first Nancy and his uncle took his shopping for his school uniform and shoes and books.  Nancy reported that Darius was amazed, for never in his life had he had new things and so many at a time.

I just googled Disneyland and found out that a three day pass for one person costs $199.  Now I don’t have anything against Disneyland, but Darius is going to school for his freshman year and his whole life has opened up with opportunities because of it, and all less than three days of Goofy and Mickey Mouse.  It is something to think about.

Thoughts of Phoebe House…

I have come home with a desire to help Phoebe House and the heroic work being done by Kenyans for orphans and women.  I have had some feedback from some who would like to donate to Phoebe House.  Jim and I suggest that you donate through Faith Episcopal Church, 2200 Country Club Drive, Cameron Park, CA 95682.  Make your check to Faith Church and mark your check Phoebe House.  This way your donation is tax deductible.  We accumulate funds in a special account and wire transfer money to the Phoebe House account—it keeps the accounting for Phoebe House ladies transparent and it is the best way to handle money in Kenya.

Evolution of the teacher seminars…

There were some excellent and very motivated teachers in this year’s group of teachers who attended the language arts seminars. As a result of being able to identify a core group of teachers, next year’s training will be to train teachers to be facilitators of the seminars. We were very pleased at the evolution of the seminars, and it fits the contemporary thought on mission which is that you should get yourself out of a job as soon as possible. 

Producing a movie…

Well, at least I am trying to produce a movie in the program Movie Maker, because this year’s story of Kenya just can’t be contained in a Power Point.  Are you all up for a movie?

The mission is never done, just because I am home and I appreciate that you will listen to my stories and care for people on the other side of the world with me.

Fondly,

Mary

Settling in but still unsettled

Restless in California…

Here I am two weeks home and still making sense of the experience of Kenya.   These last fourteen days have been filled with experiencing the highs of settling into life in Cameron Park—catching up on the news of  our sons and daughter-in-law, going to lunch with friends, dinner out with everyone celebrating February birthdays, a great hair cut, Sunday morning at my own church, and  my very own bed.  Juxtaposed with this sense of celebration is thinking about Naomi, the youngest orphan at Phoebe House, wondering how Pamela, Protus, and Margaret are doing in their classrooms, thinking of James who was hard to convince that the instructional strategies really would work with his class of seventy seventh graders, but he tried it and believed, and missing the daily contact with Kenyans who were part of our lives for a month.  This mixed bag of emotions does not surprise me, for this is what always happens, and I have learned not to hurry this period of grieving and celebrating.

Now for a few final stories—good stories with happy endings…  In 2011 Jim and I took $300 from the Faith Episcopal Sunday School children with us to Kenya with the intent of finding a good use of it.  We decided to spend the money to repair to a condemned special education classroom and left the money with our Canadian missionary friends.  When we came home, we received $700 more donations to repair the school and that was also sent on.  This fall we learned that the repairs had been made and that the classroom now housed students and teachers.  We were surprised to learn this last January that the original $300 had not been needed, and the question was what did we want to do with it.

Our Canadian friends do great work for water and education, we ask them what they would suggest.  Patricia asked us if we would consider two scholarships for secondary day school, and said that she had two students in mind.  It was so easy to say yes, even if it meant that this would be an obligation for not just this year, but three more.  There is no hope of going to secondary school unless a family has money or the young person earns a scholarship.

Meet Darius…

A very long story short:  Patricia chose two young people, and the young man happily went off to his school.   The young woman was sent away by her family and there was no way to know what happened, but it was most likely there was a marriage or she is working as a house girl.  The second scholarship was not resolved when we left Kenya, and then a wonderful story was just sent to us.

My co-presenter and friend, Nancy Carson, went back to the tailor shop where I got my wonderful African dress, and there she met a seventeen year old boy, Darius.  Darius has a complicated African story—an illegitimate child whose step father chased him away when he was a teen. His uncles in the tailor shop were trying to help him, but they did not have funds needed for secondary school.  Nancy learned that Darius had scored very well on his primary exit exams, and she hurried home to see if the money that Jim and I left behind for a freshman secondary student was still available.  It was and Darius is now in school, but first Nancy and his uncle took his shopping for his school uniform and shoes and books.  Nancy reported that Darius was amazed, for never in his life had he had new things and so many at a time.

I just googled Disneyland and found out that a three day pass for one person costs $199.  Now I don’t have anything against Disneyland, but Darius is going to school for his freshman year and his whole life has opened up with opportunities because of it, and all less than three days of Goofy and Mickey Mouse.  It is something to think about.

Thoughts of Phoebe House…

I have come home with a desire to help Phoebe House and the heroic work being done by Kenyans for orphans and women.  I have had some feedback from some who would like to donate to Phoebe House.  Jim and I suggest that you donate through Faith Episcopal Church, 2200 Country Club Drive, Cameron Park, CA 95682.  Make your check to Faith Church and mark your check Phoebe House.  This way your donation is tax deductible.  We accumulate funds in a special account and wire transfer money to the Phoebe House account—it keeps the accounting for Phoebe House ladies transparent and it is the best way to handle money in Kenya.

Evolution of the teacher seminars…

There were some excellent and very motivated teachers in this year’s group of teachers who attended the language arts seminars. As a result of being able to identify a core group of teachers, next year’s training will be to train teachers to be facilitators of the seminars. We were very pleased at the evolution of the seminars, and it fits the contemporary thought on mission which is that you should get yourself out of a job as soon as possible. 

Producing a movie…

Well, at least I am trying to produce a movie in the program Movie Maker, because this year’s story of Kenya just can’t be contained in a Power Point.  Are you all up for a movie?

The mission is never done, just because I am home and I appreciate that you will listen to my stories and care for people on the other side of the world with me.

Fondly,

Mary

Come with me to the teacher seminars in Kenya…

 

 

A primary school that hosted the teacher seminars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My last week in Kenya

     “The students were very happy,” were the teachers’ reports when we met in final sessions after the three days of training.  The cause of students’ happiness was their teachers using some of the new strategies in their classrooms that they had learned in the training.    As you can imagine, the teacher reports made Nancy and me very happy, as well.

    The teachers who attended the seminars had received the new strategies with enthusiasm, but the proof is always in the actual application for each teacher in each classroom.  The seminars were scheduled with three days of training and two to three days for teachers to try out something that they learned, and then a final meeting day to share the outcomes. 

    First of all, Nancy and I were impressed that each teacher had implemented several things in the few days that they had between the three day training and the final session.  Teachers shared how they had used the strategies in creative ways with a wide variety of subjects.  And with success!  All the songs that Nancy had taught the teachers were immediately passed on and now hundreds of Kenyan children will be forever singing “Fish and Chips and Vinegar” in rounds and “Who Stole the Ugali from the Cooking Pot.” A group photo, presentation of certificates, and exchanges of email addresses completed the satisfying experiences of working with some outstanding Kenyan educators.

     I have never had the challenges that my Kenyan colleagues face every day in their overcrowded classrooms with few resources.  Most children, especially in rural schools, do not speak English in their homes, yet the curriculum and the government student exams are in English.  I think that one of the biggest challenges for the newly trained teachers will be to return to their schools and continue to try the new student centered strategies, while all around them their colleagues will be doing things the old way which is often punitive.  When I read the evaluation responses from the teachers, they gave me great hope that the 2012 teacher trainees are prepared to overcome all the challenges in front of them.  This is what one teacher wrote to Nancy and me:

I found Mary’s and Nancy’s approaches in teaching quite useful because of the way they were patient and appreciated all our answers.  I wish to be patient to my learners and appreciate their responses.  This will encourage them, because I too was really encouraged.

            I have had the great satisfaction of accomplishing what I came to Kenya to do, and Jim and I have enjoyed our month here very much.  We leave Saturday for Lisbon, Portugal for a belated 45^th wedding anniversary trip before we return to California.  Once home, I will post some photos of the people and sights of Kenya.

            Thank you for your interest, prayers and comments to us.

Mary

Saturday at Phoebe House

Come with us for a visit to Phoebe House—a women’s shelter and orphanage

 

      The drive was pleasant through lush green hills, small farms dotting the hillsides and little market places along the road. We arrived in Luanda on a busy Saturday market day and came to Phoebe House in the center of town. We were not even out of the car when the door opened and Gladys and Caroline stood there with arms open. We entered to a ceremony—children presented Jim and me with “flowers” which are tinsel leis that are given to people at times of celebration.

 

      Introductions were made and we met the children one by one. I recognized many of the children and immediately noted the changes in them since we saw them last year. The little ones who had sores on their heads are now healthy and all of the children were smiling and eager to shake our hands. Next we met the four mamas who are also part of the Phoebe House family. These mamas first arrived with their children because they were widows who were HIV positive and shunned by their families and communities. They, too, look well and now play an important role in helping to care for all the orphans who live at Phoebe House—fourteen in all. There were other orphans besides the fourteen, and they are those who have a guardian such as a grandmother with whom they stay, and the guardian receives food and encouragement from those of Phoebe House.

 

     A tour of this commercial building which is now Phoebe House revealed a bedroom for two mamas and their children, a boys’ room, and a girls’ room that once housed a grinding mill for maize. The girls’ room has no windows and is very dark, and they must always use a kerosene lamp, but it is big and accommodates all the girls who outnumber the boys. There is a kitchen and corner for the charcoal stove. The latrines are in the back. One room is a small office for Gladys. The building is one story and one room wide and very long. There is only a narrow sidewalk at the side of the building from which all rooms are reached and that serves for an outdoor playing place for the littlest ones.

 

      En masse the adults and all the children took a short walk to the nearby primary school and the large grass field. The children played for a while and then we adults joined the game—one big circle with lots of laughter and running about. Lunch was next back at Phoebe House, and it was obvious by the chicken, rice, beans, cabbage, and sliced tomatoes that we were honored guests.

 

      Gladys and Caroline, the two Kenyan women who lead Phoebe House, met with Jim and me at the end of the afternoon. We talked about their budget and the needs of Phoebe House and there are many. The children need new school uniforms at fifteen dollars each, the bedding is wearing out, the rent is always due, and food is a continuous need. We talked about sustainability and Caroline and Gladys have some ideas and think that the four mamas are ready. The seed money will be needed for any business venture. There are three orphans in secondary day school who each need about one hundred and twenty-five dollars for school fees. A Phoebe House orphan named Delvo is waiting to be accepted for Form 1 (freshman year) in a local high school and will require the one hundred and twenty-five dollars, also. There is no padding in any of this and there are certainly no frills.

 

     Imagine that you had been with us at Phoebe House–that you saw for yourself children thriving and women safe and strong. Imagine that you kept watching one girl in particular who last year had been newly placed at Phoebe House after it was discovered that she was the only one to care for her younger brothers and was being abused by a grandfather, and today you watch her how the year in Phoebe House has transformed her back into a child who can smile and play. Imagine that you sat with Gladys and Caroline and were asked for advice and help to raise fund,  Imagine…

On a lighter note-shopping Kenyan style

You are not in Kenya long before you want an African dress—one made of brightly colored, graphic prints that are the hallmark of African fabric in one of the styles that are worn by women here.  Nancy, my co-presenter, and Caroline, a Kenyan friend and guide for this expedition, and I headed to the tailor’s on Monday with the mission of ordering dresses.

A short taxi ride took us to the center of Kakamega’s shopping area with its rows of small, overflowing shops, street vendors selling produce from rickety carts and wheel barrows, and a tangled congestion of pedestrians, bicycles, motor bikes, and trucks that seem too big to make it down the narrow streets.  Caroline led us to a three story building and up uneven steps to the third floor and through a maze of halls with all manner of businesses tucked behind doors and in corners until we arrived at the tailor’s shop—well actually a room that is about ten by twelve crowded with treadle sewing machines and a work table. 

We met Dennisl and Dennis’s brother and son, all tailors and all working in this small space.  When asked if Dennis had daughters who are tailors, he laughed and said, “No, they all ran away.”  I know that Dennis does not mean that they literally ran away, but that they chose not to be tailors like their father.

Choosing fabric is the first order of business, and Dennis took the three of us back out onto the street to visit shops that sell fabric.  The shops are housed in buildings that remind me of a ship container or very big dumpster.   The entrance is two big metal doors which are open during business hours and become a place to display goods.  There is no electricity so the open doors provide the only light. 

We are given much attention by the shop owners, and they gladly begin putting fabric on the counter for our inspection.   We found nothing we like in the first shop and move to the second shop.  By then I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the choices, and it was hard to imagine myself in some of the very bright prints.  Caroline showed me fabric with large birds, and I shook my head as I imagined the  finished dress which would mean these large birds would be on different part of my anatomy.  Then I spy fabric with caramel colored background and white and black abstracted flowers as the print.  It is made of polished cotton and the sheen of it recalls being about twelve and the fabric that I chose for the dress that I made for my 4-H project.   I liked it, and Caroline and Nancy agreed that it suited me.

Back at Dennis’s shop with our fabric, he carefully measured each of us and recorded the figures in a notebook—metric, course.  The critical time had arrived which was the decision on the style.  I confess that I already have an African dress hanging in my closet at home.  I had it made when we were here for three months in 2010, but did not have the help of a translator when I talked to the tailor.  There is a style with very puffy sleeves, over the top puffiness, and my first dress has such sleeves, although I had tried to be clear in my request that the sleeves not be puffy.  I do not want to repeat this, and I was grateful to have Caroline’s advice and Swahili.

Dennis has posters on the walls of his shop showing styles of dresses, so it made it easy, and combined with his sketches I left the shop feeling confident that I will like the dress.

The Saturday excursion to pick the dress – Love it!!

Next blog I will chose a less light topic instead of shopping, but the experience was fun and I thought you might find it interesting.  By the way, the dress with fabric and the tailoring cost the equivalent of twenty-five dollars.

Next week there are nonstop teacher seminars.  I’ll check in later.

Fondly,

Mary

Goodnews to share…

 

The news from African countries is often sad and depressing, but we received some pieces of news that are uplifting.

The first is from South Sudan and Hope and Resurrection Secondary School.  Two of the three young women who were in December’s graduating class are now employed in local communities.  Deborah is working for the medical clinic six miles from the school.  This medical clinic is near and dear to our hearts, since they are the people who nursed Jim and me back to health when we were so ill.  It is a good place and she will be mentored well.  Mary is to become deputy head teacher of a local primary school, which is a position that holds much prestige.  Deborah and Mary have already broken the mold by earning a secondary education rather than being married at sixteen for the bride price of a hundred cows.  That they are employed as independent educated women will offer an example of an alternative to a girl having to marry in her mid-teens, and therefore ending her opportunity for education.

The second piece of information is that of the thousand dollars that was donated by Faith Episcopal Church in Cameron Park, California for repair of a special education building at a Kenyan primary school, there was three hundred dollars left over.  Patricia Crossley, the Canadian missionary who hosts the teacher seminars, has been holding the three hundred dollars and asked us what we wanted to do with it.  Of course, Patricia also had a suggestion, and it was to send two students to their freshman year of day secondary school.  In fact, she had two young people in mind.  Gladly we agreed and see it as the best possible investment.  A very little money by our standards does a very lot of good in Kenya.

The third thing that we learned in our first days here, is that standardized test scores were improved by some of the schools who sent their teachers to the teacher seminars last year.  That feels like hitting a home run.

So far we have worked on recovering from the 27 hour trip by getting some extra sleep.  Jim was a guest at a ceremony of a new well being turned over to a grateful community with all the singing and dancing that accompanies such a happy event for the people involved.  I met with Nancy Carson, this year’s co-presenter, and we have a common vision for the seminars and had a good time getting acquainted and determining the plan for the reunion seminars which begin on Jan 10^th.  Today we attended the English speaking service at the Anglican Church a short walk from where we are staying.  I love to listen to the African voices sing a song from my early Sunday school days “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”  The focus of our being here begins this next week when we meet the teachers from last year’s seminars.

All is well with us and we send you our prayers and good thoughts for the week ahead.

Mary

A trip to Kenya is about to begin

 

I can finally stop holding my breath…

And holding my breath about this trip to Kenya is what I have been doing for the last six months for many things happened that made the trip seem tentative.

 First of all, we had to make the difficult decision not to include going to South Sudan on the way to Kenya.  The class of students with whom Jim and I began Hope and Resurrection Secondary School graduated on December 20, 2011.  We wanted to be there very much, but there were so many complications that we decided that it was not meant to be.  Another thing that challenged this trip was that my friend and co-presenter from last year, Sue Dauer, had to have hip surgery and could not be a part of the 2012 teacher seminars.   After having such an outstanding partner, I felt some reluctance to go it alone, because it seemed a compromise to the quality of the seminars.    The solution is that a retired Canadian teacher, Nancy Carson, and friend of the Canadian missionaries hosting us came forward to be my co-presenter.  Jim’s accident with the table saw in mid October and the resulting surgery and physical therapy also gave us pause. Yet here we are with tickets in hand and bags just about packed, leaving on January 4^th. 

This year’s seminars have been expanded from three days to four.  We will also have a reunion day with each of last year’s three groups of teachers.  I look forward to hearing how the strategies that we presented have been working in their classrooms and offering some new things for them to try.  The 2012 seminars were revised based on the teachers’ response and interest, and one of the things that the teachers requested is demonstration lessons.  I can’t blame them, for a demo with real wiggly, giggly kids is really the proof of how well a strategy will work.  Two years ago I spent time in a Kenyan sixth grade classroom and discovered the universality of sixth graders around the world.  Nancy and I have decided to do poetry for the demo lesson and use all the rhyming and rhythm in the poems for oral language development.  I can already picture the kids’ shy smiles that can be coaxed into big grins.

Last January when we returned to St. Phillips Theological College in Maseno, Kenya we were greeted by Kenneth, a man with whom we worked the previous year.  Kenneth said to me, “You do care for us—you came back.”  In that short, simple statement Kenneth summed up the compelling pull that Africa and Africans have on me.

After experiencing the many possibilities of the trip not happening, Jim and I embrace this January in Kenya as a gift.  We invite you to accompany us via this blog.  I am not sure what this trip will bring, but as we meet people and learn their stories and see the sights, I will share them with you.

Excited to be off…

Mary

Photos to share…

Kenya is a beautiful country.

Curious students gather around us.

The welcoming party at Kakamega Airstrip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                             

Meeting with Bishop Oketch

 

Teachers participating in the training seminar

Group picture of teachers in the lst seminar

Teacher working together on trying a new instructional method