True to Kenyan Form

The past week at MCDC has truly been wonderful! We started our group sessions on Monday. We all three went in anticipating that the first week would be a challenge, yet once again they have proven us wrong.  The organization was slightly chaotic but that’s how things tend to be here in Kenya. Once the students arrived, about 20 minutes late, the sessions went very well. I had a group of students that had lost both their mother and their father. No one in the group knew the topic of discussion or that they all shared this commonality. One of the most powerful moments thus far was when I asked everyone who has lost their mother to stand up. All at once, the entire group of 15 students stood from their chairs. Then I said if you have lost your father please remain standing, no one moved. I wish I could have captured the looks on each students face. As they looked around at their friends and classmates that they have know for months and years, they began to realize that they weren’t alone in this challenging world. I had one student tell be he was very surprised and that he felt encouragement and comfort for the first time since his mother died.

Ryan and I have both already made strong connections with the students. We have had many students ask to speak with us one on one, and many try to show up for the group session every day, when they are only assigned to once a week. Ryan has amazed me at his way with the kids. I knew that he was a WONDERFUL teacher but he has blown me away with his mentorship and counseling skills. God has been working in both of us so much and we have found skills that we didn’t realize we had.

Our Fourth of July holiday was much different than what we normally have in the states. We spent the day working at MCDC and it didn’t sink in that it was Independence Day until later that night. It was sad knowing that all of our family and friends were together and that we were not a part of it. We enjoyed Skyping with everyone but it just made us miss home that much more. That morning we spent 2 hours traveling to MCDC and 2 hours counseling at MCDC. Some of our Kenyan friends knew that we needed to buy butter on our way home to make cookies for a fourth of July party we were having with the local Missionaries. They offered to take us into town to pick up butter and then take us right home. “We have plenty of time to make it back before the party.” Yea those were our famous last words! The ride into town took an hour and then Maina took us to his uncle’s butcher shop, Kate took us to her brother’s jewelry store, they wanted to stop for us to buy a fruit salad, and 2 hours later we made it to the store to buy the butter. Well that put us right at rush hour, trying to find a matatu. We waited for 45 minutes to catch a ride and then sat in traffic for an hour to get to the matatu stop closest to our home. We still had a 30 minute walk from there. The cookies were not yet made and we were already 3 hours late for the party. Our friends told us that being late for a party is no problem in Kenya. It wasn’t until we told them that it was an American party that they understood why we were feeling so rushed. Everything worked out and all of the missionaries understood why we were late when we told them we were with two locals. We were served hamburgers, salads, chips, pie, and ice cream. The food was a great taste from home and the firework show really made the holiday feel official. We are so thankful for the missionaries that have welcomed us into their homes and have become our families away from home.   

We spent some time this week attempting to document our travels to MCDC. It is impossible to fully document the experience but we gave it our best attempt through the video that is attached. Every morning and every afternoon we walk approximately 1 hour each way. The total travel time is about 2 hours and we are located only 7 miles away from the school. We won’t know what to think when we get back to the states and can jump in our car to be somewhere 7 miles away in 10 minutes. View the full size video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zSn40PWz6M

 We have been told that we are officially Kenyan because we eat their food, travel by Matatu, and show up late to everything.