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

Advertisement