I have recently returned from a productive and fun trip to Kenya. I arrived in the middle of the night at Nairobi after having slept most of the way. Its a 16 hr trip from NYC with a stop in Istanbul.
I was picked up in the middle of the night by Liz, Patrick and Panena the family of Pastors Samuel and Lucy of Chazon Children Center. They were pleased to take me to Molo the next day as it was mother's day Sunday and they got to spend it with their Mary their mother and Lucy their sister. We also picked up Susan on the way! They are a close knit family as is not uncommon in Kenya.
I was excited to go to the school on Monday and see everyone. There were 350 students, the school is now at the max it can hold and believe me they are using every inch. The students who knew me gave me a warm welcome, it was so nice. They have 4 new teachers as well for a total now of 10.
I spent the next 2 weeks working very hard. I did two daily counseling groups for students with "behavioral" problems (most of them are being beaten at home!) They were so happy to have some attention and someone to listen to them. I bought them each small notebooks to use as journals. I taught them about feelings and asked them to record how they felt each day. At CCC I am trying to put more emphasis on the importance of emotions and how to deal with them. We also did a lot of positive affirmations. " I am smart, I am strong, I am good" ! I developed and taught a class on culture and change. I also revised policies and web site content and took children to the eye doctor. I do whatever needs to be done, and I love it.
Phillip Moses a RARE student and I did a seminar on Alternative Methods of Discipline for the Teachers and Staff. It was well received and CCC is one of the leaders in the area in trying to stop corporal punishment. This is very common in Kenya even though it is against the law.
With funds from AFUMC I was able to buy them a water tank to hold water. This was desperately needed as the water tap works only when it wants to! They were carrying jugs of water for 350 kids. As you can imagine there wasn't much drinking going on let alone hand washing!
After a fast 2 weeks I went to Nairobi for the weekend and had a very relaxing time with my 3 RARE University students (and Friends) Liz Njenga, Frank Olum, and Phillip. If you want to know about RARE , a program I started for education in Kenya go to my causes on Facebook. If you can share this it would be great. http://www.causes.com/causes/546366?m=98657f1f
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