Kenya 3

24th
Today was day one at the school and the first day I went to visit my Friend’s parents. When we arrived at the school, we found out that we would have three Kenyan teachers with us for class. Brenda is a drama teacher at a local church, Said is a musician, and Godfrey is a photographer. We have 16 students who are beautiful and wonderful! These kids are so eager to learn and begin listening right away. Today, we worked on acting out the poem, Still I Rise by Maya Angelou and worked on movement and mirroring. Our metaphor today was that Theatre is like a mirror of our lives because it tells the story of life like a mirror tells the story of our face. The children began telling their stories by telling us things they have seen or been through in life.

After class, we went to David’s family’s café to eat native food. We had Chapatis, greens, corn, and beans. Everything was delicious!! We then went quickly from poverty to wealth, going to the YAYA center, an upscale mall.

At night, Andrew’s dad came to pick me up and have me over for dinner. I was able to see Andrew’s house, and meet his cousins and brother. For the most part I spoke with his mom and dad and barely spoke to the children at all. I was treated like a queen here and they served me a generous dinner and even brought me water and a basin to wash my hands for dinner. We had a wonderful conversation about politics, global concerns, and mostly, Obama. Andrew’s dad says that Americans have got to got back to the basics. Here, I understand what the basics are and I like them. The room is simple, the food is simple, the life, in ways, is simple, and all is good. How is it that I survive on so little here, yet need so many more amenities at home? He said the world is a small village and is the US sneezes, the whole world has a cold. This is why they watch our economy and life very carefully. I never thought of 9/11 affecting them very much, but he said, that hurt everyone, not just the US. I think that when missionaries “brought the gospel to the world,” they only focused on saving souls instead of changing lives. Along with Christianity came corruption and the people here see that. How we have failed Christ. Perhaps it is those people who we were out to “save” who will eventually have to save us. Though no one is perfect and corruption in general is bad here, there is so much we can learn from the sense of community, strong family values, and basic respect for others that Kenyan people share.

Coming back to my hotel, I had “a moment,” and watched Novelas with Carl. Then, Dorette and I brainstormed about class tomorrow. We are both excited about our plans for the day. I am extremely gassy and have a rash on my face and chest. I am hoping this is something that will easily go away…

Barack Obama is like a god here.