Hello Friends and Family,
Tonight marks the end of my first week in Kenya. My heart is full of joy and gratitude for finally coming here, after 40 years of dreaming about it. My mind is still trying to grasp all the contrasts with my own first world culture.
The land here is mostly lush and tropical with near perfect weather, beautiful birds and flowers. Nairobi is crowded with traffic like Austin's, but fortunately, we always hire Kenyan drivers. Everyone associated with Rafiki Village is kind and friendly. We are well cared for, with sweet Kenyans who wash our dishes and laundry.
The goal of Rafiki is not to save all of Africa's orphans, but rather is focused on feeding, sheltering, and educating a select few. We work with Kenyan Social Services and area churches to fill spots for children and for staff. The Rafiki founders profess that it will take decades to reap the fruit of this work, but they envision raising up tomorrow's leaders of Africa with a classical Christian education. This is but one of 10 model villages throughout Africa.
The five of us Mini-Missionaries spend most of our mornings helping with the toddler orphans to give their Kenyan "Mamas" a break to clean house. Then, at 11 am, I am assigned to "play" with a single boy, Amos, who has some sort of learning disability. He has been retained in the 4-year old class, although he is at least 5. At noon, we all eat lunch with the little ones and their Mamas, with each Mama expected to raise 10 kids, from infants through 9/10 years old, in her own cottage.
I spend my afternoons now in study hall and vocational arts with the 18 teens. These kids are day-students only. They must return to their homes after school. They were selected from amongst about 150 applicants on the basis of need, motivation, and scholarship. The 12 girls are learning to paint artifacts for sale in the Rafiki Exchange (see http://www.rafiki-foundation.org/). I love this time, as I am learning to paint, too. In a few weeks, I hope to assist in our quarterly Community Health Clinic for 9 days. We are hosting 8 doctors who will run the clinic as an outreach program.
This computer is shared by 4 of us in our Guest House, and is very slow. Thus, I am able to send only one or two photos. The photo below is of the first two orphans that I met, Elias and Katherine, both 5. They were playing in the dentist's waiting room while another orphan was being seen by the dentist. Yeen-Lan, the precious director of the village, had fetched me from the B&B and carted me around Nairobi all day on errands such as this.
This past weekend, we visited two private wildlife sanctuaries in The Great Rift Valley a couple of hours north of Nairobi. They were actually walking safaris, and we all were in awe at being so close to wild zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, gazelles, and impalas. It was a real gift to see these graceful animals roaming the vast rolling hills, surrounded by lakes and mountains.
I wish you all well! Stay in touch!
Kate
Tonight marks the end of my first week in Kenya. My heart is full of joy and gratitude for finally coming here, after 40 years of dreaming about it. My mind is still trying to grasp all the contrasts with my own first world culture.
The land here is mostly lush and tropical with near perfect weather, beautiful birds and flowers. Nairobi is crowded with traffic like Austin's, but fortunately, we always hire Kenyan drivers. Everyone associated with Rafiki Village is kind and friendly. We are well cared for, with sweet Kenyans who wash our dishes and laundry.
The goal of Rafiki is not to save all of Africa's orphans, but rather is focused on feeding, sheltering, and educating a select few. We work with Kenyan Social Services and area churches to fill spots for children and for staff. The Rafiki founders profess that it will take decades to reap the fruit of this work, but they envision raising up tomorrow's leaders of Africa with a classical Christian education. This is but one of 10 model villages throughout Africa.
The five of us Mini-Missionaries spend most of our mornings helping with the toddler orphans to give their Kenyan "Mamas" a break to clean house. Then, at 11 am, I am assigned to "play" with a single boy, Amos, who has some sort of learning disability. He has been retained in the 4-year old class, although he is at least 5. At noon, we all eat lunch with the little ones and their Mamas, with each Mama expected to raise 10 kids, from infants through 9/10 years old, in her own cottage.
I spend my afternoons now in study hall and vocational arts with the 18 teens. These kids are day-students only. They must return to their homes after school. They were selected from amongst about 150 applicants on the basis of need, motivation, and scholarship. The 12 girls are learning to paint artifacts for sale in the Rafiki Exchange (see http://www.rafiki-foundation.org/). I love this time, as I am learning to paint, too. In a few weeks, I hope to assist in our quarterly Community Health Clinic for 9 days. We are hosting 8 doctors who will run the clinic as an outreach program.
This computer is shared by 4 of us in our Guest House, and is very slow. Thus, I am able to send only one or two photos. The photo below is of the first two orphans that I met, Elias and Katherine, both 5. They were playing in the dentist's waiting room while another orphan was being seen by the dentist. Yeen-Lan, the precious director of the village, had fetched me from the B&B and carted me around Nairobi all day on errands such as this.
This past weekend, we visited two private wildlife sanctuaries in The Great Rift Valley a couple of hours north of Nairobi. They were actually walking safaris, and we all were in awe at being so close to wild zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, gazelles, and impalas. It was a real gift to see these graceful animals roaming the vast rolling hills, surrounded by lakes and mountains.
I wish you all well! Stay in touch!
Kate
No comments:
Post a Comment