The Momma's

Here are some photos of the mammas. They each have 10 children in their cottage of various ages under 11 years old. They do an amazing job of raising these children to be godly leaders.

This photo is from my bedroom window. This mamma and her children are giving me a wave before they walk to a nearby church.

This little one came in so underweight and malnourished they weren't sure if she was going to make it. Look at her now. She is truly a miracle. Mamma Faith has brought her to life. This is so often the condition of the children when they arrive. These mammas are God's special instruments.

This is one of my favorite mammas. I grabbed her right before she walked her boys to church outside our village. I LOVE HER!!!! She is the mamma to the Nazareth boys. That is the name of the cottage she lives in with 10 of the older boys. She loves them and keeps them in line. Can you imagine. Lowell spent his time with these boys and really bonded with them. She is my special mamma because she claims to be Lowell's African mamma. Her boys pray for him daily. She is an amazing woman

This is a mamma with her littlest one on her back while feeding the rest of her children in our dining hall.

Our Kindergarten class.

Here are a few photos from our visit to Mwiki with the kindergarten class.

The first is a typical meat shop. The meat is cut and hung for all to see.

Young ladys selling by the roadside. The village streets are lined with women sell
ing food.


the Third is the lady who sells coals is showing us her products.

Kindergarten kids looking over the bridge for the first time. It is quite frightening.

These are children from a Mwiki school wanting our kindergarteners to come in and visit them. We stopped in and our Rafiki children introducted themselves using their best manners. I was so proud of them.

An email from John

John greed to let us share this email he sent to his friend:

Dear Andrew,
We started school three days ago. It is really fun at school. We have seen a few monkeys while we are here. Alot of people set monkey traps here . They catch them to get rid of the other monkeys. Two weeks ago, I was walking outside and my neighbor, Jake Kreamer (he is Taylor's age) was riding his bike and he asked me "have you seen the monkey?" We went and looked in another neighbor's back yard. In the trap was a mother monkey with a very little baby monkey on her stomach. The monkey was looking at us and trying to get out. When we were approaching the cage two older monkeys (teenagers) ran up into the tree. Jake and I thought that the mother in the cage was the mother of those two monkeys. By the way, the traps are cages that have a banana or corn on a hook. When the monkey grabs the bait the door shuts without harming the monkey. Our village staff either puts a bell around the monkeys neck and lets it go so it will scare away monkeys or takes the monkeys to a wildlife preserve. The next day Jake told me that the two teenage monkeys in the tree were trapped as well. All the monkey was taken to a wildlife preserve.
Something I forgot to tell you about. We went to a giraffe farm our first week here. We drove out of our village area to the giraffe farm. There is a big platform where you stand and feed the giraffes. You get a handful of pellets at a time and hold one out to a giraffe and their long tongue comes and takes the pellet. You can also "kiss the giraffe". The way you do this is to hold a longer pellet in your lips and approach the giraffe. hte giraffe will come and lick it out of your mouth. There is also a wart hog and some giant tortoises.

John

Ps. We will try to take pictures next time of the monkeys here and send them to you. For now here is a picture of me feeding a monkey at the tea farm we visited.

Our Kindergarten field trip

Friday was a big day for me and 15 kindergarteners. We walked to the nearby community for a field trip. I was so excited envisioning sitting close to the front of the bus and leading the children in "the wheels on the bus" as we drove to our destination. Before departing, we circled at our village gate and I was asked to pray for our trip. I prayed thanking God for good weather, strong healthy bodies, our guards who keep us safe and our bus driver who will be taking us. Oh, how I had assumed we would be riding a bus like we do back home. The kindergarten teacher kindly informed me we will be walking to the nearby town. Oops... We gathered children's hands and began our 3 HOUR trek. We walked holding hands down a dirt path alongside a dusty road for quite a while until we reached the nearby community.

We continued our walk down dirt roads in town. We saw shops and houses the size of LRCA's concession stand made of rocks and mud. We saw children unattended playing amongst the chickens and debris. Men lingering. It was rather frightening at first for our kindergarteners. Several held on tightly to my hands as we walked. We visited a butcher shop where meat hangs in the open air for all to see. We visited a tailor shop and viewed all the sights of people selling food and items in the street. We visited another local school. Our children introduced themselves with poise to the other students. I was so proud of them.

Here are some pictures we took:

Heading back home, we stopped at the police station. The children were silent and stiff, afraid of what might happen. We viewed a jail cell with prisoners. There were 6 men lying in the same small cell on the concrete floor. The prisoners told the children to study hard so they won't go to jail. As we walked home many children said they wanted to study so they wouldn't ever go to jail.

We completed our 3 hour trek. The children walked and sang hymns. Only a few briefly mentioned their legs were tired as we neared our village gate. I was amazed at their joyful and grateful attitudes.

It was a great day!!!

Heads down determination

From my perspective the first 30 days here has required a heads down effort to get our house in order. If Mel and kids are thriving then I am doing my job. After we get settled in then I may get in touch with a rider range of feelings. Today, I live with a steely determination to take care of the basics... like finding the bathroom in the dark, keeping the car on the road while dodging missle attacks from matatus cutting in my "lane" (used loosely as there are not lanes on roads here), and trying to figure out how much money we just spent for two carts full of groceries.

We have great comfort knowing you-all care about us so much.

Lewis.

Hanging with the kids

Let there be Light!!!

Living in the dark has taken on new meaning in our Rafiki Village. Our electricity comes and goes here in our village. Normally, everything gets pitch black outside around 7pm. With electricity out, we maneuver inside our house with flashlights and headlights we brought from the States. We go to bed earlier those nights.

On mornings when electricity is out, everyone in our village proceeds with their day in the dark. My children got ready for school today by flashlight. Try to imagine what it must be like for the Rafiki mamma's when there is no electricity. They get their babies and children up early around 5 am for chores, dressing in their school uniforms and gathering the day's school lessons and supplies. The kitchen staff still continues to prepare breakfast for our 79 children plus others. I walked by the dining hall the other day and everyone was eating in the dark. School begins as usual and we teach class by the dawning daylight.

I hear no one complaining here. At all ages, we all must go on with our days. We do pray for light and God eventually brings it. The other day the children cheered in their classes when the lights came on. Just yesterday, I prayed for light around 7 am so my girls would have light to finish getting ready for their first day at their new school. You know what??? It came on just in time. God is so good. He is giving us all patience and appreciation for light in new ways. We often are surrounded by darkness but God is very present. He gives us His love for each other and His light to live in each day... We send our Rafiki love to you

..............Melody

I thought you would enjoy the light of 2 increadable smiles!

Kids will play!

Clair and John loving their new friends


Boys at play

Anna with adorable twins

In the Classroom

I wish you could be here to see the children as they run from their cottages to school. They have smiles on their faces and are so eager to learn. They gather at the flagpole and start each day with salutations and singing. Then they walk in ordered lines to their classroom.

I have had the priviledge of teaching in Primary 1 and Primary 2 classes. For Science we went on a nature walk in our village and came home with a great variety of seeds to disssect and explore. We were surprised when I examined my skirt that was full of seeds. The diversity of plant life in our village is amazing!

In another class I taught about germs and immunizations. I showed them chickenpox by putting spots with maker on my body and mumps with my puffy cheeks.I showed them a picture of a microscope in a textbook. They had never seen one. We talked about germs being transmitted by our sneezes and how important it is to use a tissue. They warmed my hearts as they began quietly taking out their own handkerchiefs and cleaning their noses as we continued discussing germ prevention. They thanked me profusely when I gave them each a squirt of Germ X to clean their hands without washing in water. They are such grateful students.

I will soon teach Language Arts in the Primary 3 class. We will be reading Charlotte's Web and other national readers. We will begin writing soon. I hope to share some of their works with you. They are very bright children.

Teaching here is very much a thrill to my soul. Those who know me well know how much I love to teach. These students are so well behaved and eager to learn. I invite anyone who enjoys working with children to consider coming on a short term minimissions trip. You will fall in love with these precious children.

I must go for now... Love to you all... Melody

Clair will not be caught doing this! - because she didn't

but....

We buy a bed

I stopped to meet a roadside vendor this week. We were advised not to. They are not to be trusted! It is too dangerous there! I had to stop. I looked a young man in the eye and made a deal with him. My whole family was invited into his shop. We walked thru the dark alley, into the dimly lit workshop where he proudly showed us his work. He agreed to make a wooden bed frame for us. We shook on it and left. Daily I stopped by to check his progress. He needed more time, began to make excuses for delays. Deadline of 3 days became 6. I decided to trust him, give him the benefit of the doubt. Today he finished the "best work of my life". He had taken extra time, used his best materials, to make the finest bed he could make. I insisted that he deliver it into our village. My whole family gathered around as it was moved into our home. He was beaming when I handed him 8,000 shillings ($123.00) Something else was in his eyes when I put my hand on his shoulder and asked if he would make another one for us. We made a new friend today.

Lewis

Melody observes her new surroundings

Today I observed the primary school classes. I wish I could send a photo of the boys in their shorts, knee socks, tie and sweater and the girls in their jumpers. I really enjoyed reading to the children today. Expanding their knowledge of things they have never seen is so satisfying. Today I explained about a snail, snow and construction machinery. I can't wait to follow up with photos from our home of our kids and the snowman they built in our yard.

The sights and sounds here are full of life. We have banana trees in our yard. I look out my window to see children in their school uniforms skipping to school. I hear their voices laughing during the day as they play at recess and after school. I see and hear a variety of birds among the flourishing trees and plants. This was our second day to see monkeys. This monkey family had a newborn monkey carried close to its mother's chest. What is even more amazing is seeing how the Rafiki mama's take care of their little ones.