day two

Jambo (hello)!
Today was a great day. The team started the day with a devotional from JC about hearing for & listening to God... A topic that will become very meaningful as we continue this week. After breakfast (the food at the hotel is really yummy), Chris (Kenya Missionary from Hope) briefed us on the day, things to keep in mind, and what watch out for. We prayed & headed to Victory Junior Academy in Eastleigh.

Juja road separates Mathare Valley & Eastleigh. Eastleigh is predominately Somalis & 99.9% of Somalis are Muslim. Most of the money in Kenya comes from Eastleigh. Right across the road is Mathare Valley, the second to worst slum in Kenya. As soon as you get on Juju Road, you notice a difference... trash lining the roads with slums on the left & something different on the right, still poverty but not the same.

We parked & got out of the vans on the Mathare side & you immediately notice the foul smell, nothing you've ever smelt in the states. You actually get used to it fairly quickly. Victory Junior Academy is on the Eastleigh side so you have to cross the crazy busy road to get to it. When we walked in, all 75-80 kids were smiling & singing to us -"welcome, welcome, welcome". Their energy was contagious.

All the students (prek - class/grade 8) are in one room. One. They have dividers separating some of the groups but most are side by side. There's no electricity so in some places it's really tough to see. And there's no running water. These guys don't know the difference. They still learn & have fun.

I'm teaching the prek (called nursery, 4-5yo) students this week & JC is working with Class 6. Nursery doesn't have a regular teacher, neither do others, so the head teacher splits her time. The teachers make $40-100 a month. They hope to be able to pay them more soon... Hopefully when they get the new school (more on that later). The nursery class is a large group (about 20 kids) & they are all on different levels. It's challenging to teach... but they are so intelligent (smart means pretty, note made to self). Also challenging is remembering all the kids names!!! Wow, they all want to introduce themselves & want to be remembered. I'm sure I met everyone in my class through them introducing themselves but I got pretty good (with Texas twang of course) at asking again -"jina langu ninani" (what is your name), "jina langu Tori" (my name is Tori).

They get breaks every hour or so & it's a great time to connect with and love on the kids (something they don't really get at home). They have a very small common area out back where we can play. We learned some fun games, some I had no idea what they were saying but I was definitely laughing & smiling the entire time. We played the hand slap game where they say "mother in the kitchen cooking chapatis, how many chapatis did mother make today" :) And we played Miss Mary Mack... That's been around forever!

For lunch we had green grahams (lentil & veggie stew) & chapati (sorta lika naan). It was actually pretty good! The kids were licking the tables & didn't let a lick go to waste. This is likely the only meal they get in the day.

At the end of the day, we sang them a few songs like My God is So Big & I Love You Lord and they did the same for us! Their performance was definitely much better! They taught us a new song:
Mungu yu mwema
Mungu yu muema, yu muema kwangu

God is so good
God is so good, he is so good to me

Yes HE is! We're praying God would keep us well & that we would stay wrapped in His presence. Spiritual warfare is very real here & when you do the work of God, you are always a target for the enemy. And we're praying for these kids, their spirits, their families, this community, the school, and Chris & Brandi and their work here. Specific prayers for Class 8 as they have a huge test to take this year that determines if they get into high school. There is a ton of pressure because if they don't get in, they're basically on the streets. Their future is dependent on passing, and it's so sad to see them under so much stress.

No pictures today as we're not allowed to take them in the school. We will have some later in the week though.

Thanks for praying & for reading this far!

Kwaheri (goodbye)!