i am muthoni (moo-DOUGH-nee) and i love felix.

Greetings to all!

The past few days have been intensely busy here at Mountain Park. As many of you may know from the blog, we have been without electricity since Tuesday. Tuesday evening in the wee hours the transformer was vandalized for the entire village. Fortunately, we have been lucky enough to produce light from a generator, but unfortunately there is no hot water and no electricity at the school.

But there is SO much good news…

On Wednesday, although it was a national holiday for Kenyans, we met with the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade girls in small groups to talk about female issues and purity. After moving beyond their initial hesitations and embarrassment, the girls became enthralled and we were touched. As much as Kenya is an indescribably beautiful country, it’s children have many disheartening secrets and are yearning to learn more about what things as simple as their own bodies—things that we learn in 5^th grade health class or from our parents. Jonathan and Gideon, as well as Pastor Jeff worked with the boys upstairs where the discussion turned to the cultural stigma attached to the rites of passage.

Wednesday afternoon was marked by our women’s ministry event held at the dining hall on the Mountain Park campus. Over 250 women trickled in throughout the 3-hour session to enjoy Dee Ann’s message, our attempt at singing, and tea and bread afterward. Luckily, I managed to sneak out of singing in the name of photography—and what an amazing view I had from behind: babies wrapped delicately on their mothers’ backs, brilliant and bold scarves dressing every head, and passersby peeking through the windows as they walked past on the street. Wednesday afternoon also marked our first torrential rain and it was a powerful thing upon the tin roof. That joyful noise was only trumped by the sound of Kenyan voices singing—there is NOTHING like it. I promise.

After the women’s’ event, I had the pleasure of walking upon Mama Robi’s orphans in the field in front of the school where they were slipping and sliding while playing soccer with Jonathan. I have NEVER seen such big smiles, even from our little Boniface who was giggling and grinning with his new toy, even tangling himself in the string. After taking a few photographs of George, Felix (my new love and brother of Boniface), and Boniface, I dropped my apprehensions and let the children play with my $1,000+ camera equipment. Guiding their hands, each rushed to take their own photograph—even James (who has such a silent power) approached and requested a turn. It was pure JOY for me. Joy, joy, joy...

The goodness did not stop coming…

Dinner was marked by ugali, a local dish of boiled cornmeal. It is almost the consistency of grits that have been put in the refrigerator for later frying. Annamarie worked with David, one of our two chefs, to create a cake—flour, pineapple, cashews, coconut, and carrots. Again we were serenaded by the newly-coined “Van Robi Family Singers.” Bummed by the continued presence of clouds obscuring our stargazing, most of the team crashed quickly anticipating the even BIGGER day Thursday boasted.

SO, this is Thursday:

This morning we returned to our message: to uplift and to inspire the teachers of Mountain Park to love and to nurture their children—the ultimate future of this village and this country. We met with the teachers during their Thursday morning prayer sessions and offered them gifts of supplies for their classrooms. After proposing a collection last night, we each wrote a personal note to include with a 500 shilling note. While that roughly comes to $10 USD per person, it is a big deal here.

Our teachers quickly dispersed to begin their final day of activities in the classrooms while I continued to work the administrative end with the headmaster. Unfortunately, the day was so busy for me that I hardly had a second to enjoy it and I only was able to snap a few photos. However, I will ask that Amy add more detail in the next e-mail—she joined Jonathan and Susan with the baby classes. I was touched by meeting Peter, a boy of 9 years who has a severe vision deficiency. He is currently attending another school close to his home where he has been relegated to a class for the mentally handicapped because of his vision. He is the youngest of 11, we believe he continues to suffer from seizures, but we have already lined up willing sponsors to support his move to the school for the blind where another MPA student, Lewis, is in attendance. Apparently Peter must undergo further testing as regulated by the Kenyan government. We will keep everyone updated…

Today was not only a big day for our educators as it was their last day with the children, but today was also the day where our gifts were delivered to EVERY student at MPA. Bedecked in my bright green rain boots and a poncho, the team and I delivered the bags classroom by classroom. The little ones were in awe of the toothbrush, and the older students took pride and expressed creativity in marking their bags with their name. The gifts sent with us by sponsors were also delivered today, and we worked very hard to capture that in photography for those sponsors who were not able to join us in the moment physically—we know you love your kids!

And then dinner rolled around…

After a meal partially prepared by generous gifts given to Lynn from a local woman whose child she sponsors (this woman seriously gave up part of her livelihood for Lynn—beans, bananas, and eggs—the floor was yielded to Dee Ann for her devotional and to Mama Robi for a special presentation. We were each given a Kenyan name based on Mama Robi’s impressions of us. It was quite intimidating, but here is what we came out with: Nynguthi (Lynn), Mumbi (Roz), Wanja (Paige), Muthoni (Tiff), Wangui (Trahlyta), Wangeci (Susan), Maina (Jonathan), Mukami (Missy), Wanjiru (Amy), Wairimu (Ashley), Wanjiku (Joan), Nyambura (Annamarie), Nyawira (Dee Ann), and Mwihaki (Gwen).

Final note: the stars are beautiful tonight, really just like a planetarium. Children’s Home dedication in the AM, shopping trip to the markets in Nakuru in the PM.

Love hard,

tnick