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

i wear my shades in the dark

News brief:

We will likely be without electricity for the remainder of our stay in the guest house at the Robi Family compound. The transformer for the VILLAGE was vandalized last night, and as tomorrow is a national holiday in Kenya for the close of Ramadan, I can't see the Kenyan electric company jumping on our problem.

Sadly, we were also unable to paint today. After another excellent and productive morning in the classrooms (you MUST see the handmade bead necklaces the Standard 7 students created that we will be posting and selling soon to support the project), the construction crew was not able to finish sanding the walls before lunch.

Happily, we took a tour of the village, met some family friends of the Robi Family and Lynn (Stephen and Elizabeth, who supply the eggs to Mountain Park Academy from their 500 chickens), toured the hallowed grounds of Lucy (this woman has built FOUR prayer dwellings in the bush...really in the BUSH), and will be stargazing soon!





And those clouds are NOT computer-generated people! Hoping for electricity, Boniface's health, and to share more with everyone soon about our Tuesday...

tnick

big.beautiful.day

(This post is reflective of events for Monday, September 29, 2008)

Holy cow.

I think this is the second post that I have begun with an expletive, but it is so appropriate. Firstly, let me just say how AWESOME Amy, our guest blogger, is and what as asset she is to the team. I will brag on her-- her father-in-law is the gentleman who donated the money to purchase the land for the first children's home. Furthermore, it is so encouraging and incredibly fun to have a fresh perspective on our daily activities through the blog and through photography. Secondly, we would like to apologize to everyone for the lack of photography on the blog and the slow e-mail updates. We are using a dial-up connection, taking it back to 1993! As you can imagine even if you are only slightly tech savvy, posting photos on that speed are nearly impossible, but we are giving it a shot every day.

Now, on to the good stuff! Today was our first "BIG" day-- the first day in the classrooms with the children from the time they arrived for the morning assembly to the last bell for the older children. We are so honored to begin our day with them and they were incredibly inspiring. They lifted our spirits in the early hour with singing, followed by the unfurling of the Kenyan and American flags side-by-side. We did our share of singing too. Thankfully our rendition of the national anthem was better than our attempt to sing three hymns at church. Without background music on Sunday, we stumbled over the words and received blank stares in return. Today we redeemed ourselves!

I had a very special personal moment right after the assembly concluded and the students hurried to move desks and begin class. One of the two children I sponsored shyly approached me with a big hug. Only a few hours later, I was meandering with my camera over to the shack where the cooks prepare porridge and lunch for the children. As I approached a woman exited the hut and yelled, "Tiff!" I was confused, not quite sure how she knew my name. Beautiful moment: the woman is the mother of the two girls I sponsor. I was greeted with two, HUGE hugs, she took me by the hand to meet the women with whom she works, we exchanged stories about our families-- it was like we had been friends for many, many years. So cool.

In other amazing news, Susan's trunk arrived! Gideon received news last night maybe 2 minutes after Susan concluded her devotional that the trunk was found in Nairobi. He crawled out of bed at 4:00 this morning to pick it up so that Jonathan and Susan would have supplies for their lessons today. All of our teaching teams gushed over their experiences at dinner-- I am hoping to sit in on more of the classes on our next full day, Thursday, so that I can report more on the creative teaching techniques and lessons our team is introducing to strive to differentiate Mountain Park Academy in the future. Otherwise, we were avidly working to collect updated photographs for our sponsors. Amy and I pushed through close to 100 children in about 1.5 hours with white board marker-stained hands to show for it. Dee Ann, Joan, and Annamarie (with the help of two teachers from Mountain Park serving as interpreters) interviewed every child to be considered for the children's home. Jonathan introduced the children to NEW soccer balls and flying discs. And before you know it, the final school bell was ringing and we were all exhausted...

And we are still exhausted...even after our special Kenyan treat at dinner: corn roasted in the husk, Kenyan popcorn.

Thank you for reading and for your support of our goals. You are making an incredible difference, really. You are making an incredibly difference, really. As a preview for Tuesday, we will be painting the inside of the children’s home and spending another half day in the classroom!

Love hard! And as Missy would say, love like crazy!

beautiful nakuru

Hello! My name is Amy and I am helping Tiffany write today.

First let me say that traveling here to Kenya has been an eye opening experience already. You know you see the pictures and you hear the stories, but it isn't real, vivid or truly experienced until you actually get here. At least that's what happened to me.

We left Nairobi yesterday and traveled to Nakuru. It was about a two our bus ride. The first hour we spent driving through the HUGE city of Nairobi. There were people walking around everywhere to buy and sell things on the side of the road. Behind the makeshift markets were massive clusters of shack-like homes. I wanted to take pictures but it seemed wrong or invasive. I didn't fully realized that people lived in such poverty until I saw it with my own eyes. However, as we drove through these towns full of people...everyone was smiling and laughing. It made me second guess my feelings of "sorrow" for them. They might be even happier than we are with all the "stuff" we have. It made me realize how much I DON'T need and how much MORE they have than I do.

As we drove out of the Nairobi there was wide open land with sparce trees and a few wild animals to see. We stopped on the side of the road to take pictures of some zebras, monkeys and wild boars. Finally we made it into Nakuru, you could definitely tell when we made it there because the road got VERY bumpy! We drove up a steep hill, pass the school's dining hall to the Robi Family's home. Mama Robi, Mr. Robi and Gideon along with a few other helpers in their home - chef David and house hand Mary made us feel very welcome. One of the women on the team expressed that she felt "at home" in their home and I couldn't agree more.




After getting to our rooms and unpacking we took a tour of the property. We were able to see the children's home that is almost finished. I know this was a joy for Dee Ann and Lynn, to see another realization of dream come true. I could almost hear the children's voices and laughter running around the unfinished house as we walked through it. It is truly a gift from God. We also walked through the dining hall, the buildings that house all of the classrooms. The sunset was incredible. It seems as though the sun is SO much bigger here!

Finally we walked back up to the house to see a few children running around in the Robi's front yard. A little boy named Boniface was one of those children. His sweet smile and bright eyes just warmed my heart. Tiffany's grandmother and Lynn's mother, Barbara Hutchins, sponsors Boniface. He has a heart defect that they are trying to fix. He has his whole life ahead of him and I know he is thankful to have someone that believes in him and supports him here in Kenya.

This post is getting quite long, so I'll wrap it up here. All in all we had a fantastic day, with great people, and we saw the amazing things that God has already done here in Nakuru with Mountain Park School. We covet your prayers. Thank you for walking with us on this journey.

Blessings and Peace,
Amy Cathy