Katie St. Germain

Jambo,

I live in a village in Kakoi, in the Western Province of Kenya. It is a mud hut with no running water, no electricity, no shower (we use a bucket), and no toilet (we use a hole in the ground). All of this is to say, I am having a FABULOUS time. I live with Mrs. Rose, the director of Tumaini Miles of Smiles Centre, and Heather -- another volunteer from Canada. Tumaini is a school and orphanage for the children of our rural area. The Kenyan government recently gave free primary school education to all children, but it made this allowance without having the ability to pay for it. As a result, class sizes swell to 80-120 kids per teacher. The quality of education has deteriorated rapidly. The rural areas are hit the hardest -- these are the children who have the least materially and the least opportunity to excel. Mrs. Rose is trying to change that in her own community with Tumaini (w hich means Hope in Swahili). She also runs an orphanage with 12 orphans right now, who also attend the school. HIV/AIDS is also prevalent in this area -- which is where I come in.

I arrived in Kenya on Monday, but didn't make it to Kakoi until Wednesday. In that time, Heather and I have been working on grant proposals to get Tumaini funding for food (we feed the kids lunch, which may be the only good meal that they get), textbooks, and the start-up for an HIV counselling program. We've met with a group of widows who have lost their husbands due to AIDS, many of whom are infected themselves. We are currently researching microfinance loans to see if we can get them capital to start their own businesses. Many of these women are capable of sewing and farming small produce -- so there is a chance to make money with that. Kenya has a system of wife inheritance, so when a woman becomes a widow her brother-in-law inherits her. Unfortunately, this has contributed to the spread of HIV in cases where the original husbands died of AIDS. Additionally, many second husbands don't care for their newly inherited wives, but do feel entitled to take possession of their property. We meet with the widows twice a week in a support group to talk through issues and try to find solutions with them.

Heather and I are also excited to be starting a door-to-door HIV campaign. Because we're new volunteers, people don't know us yet. The biggest problem with HIV here is that people will not talk about it, so they don't really what it is, how it spread, or how to prevent transmission. Our plan is to go door-to-door to people in our village telling them who we are and why we're here -- by way of telling them everything we know about HIV! We're taking Hesbon with us to translate and with both of us there, one of us can entertain the kids while the other educates.

We're also planning an anti-discrimination campaign. The stigma of HIV is high in this area. Most people will die from the disease without letting their parents, spouses, or children know that they were infected. People are now just starting to realize that when the hospital says "your husband died of Tuberculosis" it means HIV. We're hoping to reduce the stigma with AIDS, so that people will begin to realize how much the community of Kakoi is being affected by this disease and start talking about it.

Heather and I have already talked to the kids at Tumaini about HIV, which we will continue to do. Tumaini is only in its second year running, so we only have up to class 3. We've made an information pamphlet which we sent home to their parents last week. We also talked to Class 3's about HIV and condoms, with the proverbial banana and condom demonstration. They now know how to put on a condom, but are still confused as to why people would want to have sex -- I think their views will change in good time.

Mrs. Rose has also met with the director of another girls' high school, which we are visiting later this week. We're very excited to meet these girls as they are at a critical age for learning about HIV and condom use.

Additionally, I've had the amazing opportunity to work with the best kids in Kenya. Tumaini's children are incredibly well-behaved. I've even taught English to the Class 2's and taught them the banana song (a Center for Student Mission DC favorite, which has nothing to do with condoms by the way).
Life here is fantastic! The children run out from their mud huts whenever they see Heather and I walking on the dirt road. They scream "Jambo! HELLO! HOW ARE YOU?" It's pretty much the cutest thing ever. Honestly, everyone takes care of us here and is so friendly. I feel safer in Kakoi than I do in my own neighborhood in Richmond. We do have to be careful whenever we travel because we do stick out as tourists and people know they can either charge us more for a matatu or try and pick pocket us. We only travel on the weekends though, and not every weekend at that.

One last thing, Mrs. Rose knows that Heather and I are runners, so she wants us to start an exercise program with the kids twice a week. It went well last Friday (I have pictures, which I hope to post, but with Kenyan internet we'll see how that goes). And yes, we do realize the irony of 2 white, North American girls teaching the children of Kenya how to run. They loved it on Friday, though!--and so did we.

I love it here. I'm having a great time. Honestly, normally when I go abroad I have feelings of being overwhelmed and that I can't handle it. I've had nothing of the sort here. God has graciously given me peace about everything. Please be praying for the effectiveness of our ministry here to the children and the whole community; also, please be praying that some of our grant proposals will come through so we can start a teen HIV Counseling program. Finally, please pray for the widows of HIV that God will comfort them and provide for them and their children. Thanks so much! Love you all.

Katie
(written in 2007)

Matt Seitz

Hello everyone!! I know that I say this every time that I write, but I want to tell you all how much I love and miss you. It is unbelievably reassuring to know that people at home are praying for me. I can’t even explain the confidence that gives me. I can certainly feel the power of your prayers right now. God is hearing you, and He is moving!

Let’s move on to those sweet children. I can’t imagine that there could be a more precious and well-behaved group of kids than those here in Tumaini. If a teacher leaves the room for a few minutes, the children will sit in their seats quietly until the teacher returns. I have never seen anything like it. I love all of these kids so much, but the orphans do hold a special place in my heart. This is because (a) God calls us to look after them (James 1:27) and (b) I get to spend a lot more one-on-one time with them than the other students. Right now, all of the kids are in a special two weeks of school called tuition. School is from 8 AM until 1 PM, but when official school returns, it is from 8 AM until 4 PM. My schedule now is to teach during school hours, and then I either use the afternoon to visit the orphanage or to take care of things around my place. Next week there is no school, so I will be spending almost every day at the orphanage. School officially returns on September 8th. I have to use this upcoming week to spend a lot of my time with the orphans, because things will get busy at school after that.

There is not one huge thing to report, but there are several sweet stories. One day when I was at the orphanage, a boy named Samuel called me “papa” while we were sitting at the table. Another amazing boy named James has called me “dad” recently. This really saddens me that these boys and girls have no one else to call “mom” or “dad.” I try not to encourage the notion that I am their father. I always try and call them my brothers, sisters, and friends, because I do not want them to have a false hope that I will ever be their father. But it does give me joy that I am able to be a positive male figure in their lives for a couple of months. If I can even love on them for two and a half months, I feel like I have done everything that I came here to do. Also, earlier this week a volunteer from Australia bought oranges for the kids, and we went to the orphanage to deliver them. Their reaction amazed me. They sat in complete silence, intently waiting on the oranges. Once we gave them their two slices each, they devoured them. It broke me how excited they got over these oranges, while I take things like oranges completely for granted. Finally, I am most excited about what I am getting to do at Sunday School with all of the orphans and some of the other students. Each week, I teach a Bible story out of a children’s book, and then I almost always share the Gospel of Christ with them at the end. I love being there, because the kids sing songs for almost a half an hour, and they do it with such excitement in their faces and in their voices.  Even though I said loving on the orphans is why I am here, it is my ultimate desire to see these children come to Christ!

One way God showed Himself to me this week was through His incredible creation. As I have mentioned before, the part of Kenya that I am in is breathtaking. I am in a secluded location that is filled with green land and mountainous terrain. Sometimes I have to catch myself and make sure that I am not worshiping the creation, but the Creator. Every night, and I mean every night, there is a gorgeous sunset that gives off some of the most beautiful colors in the sky. This reminds me of the beauty of God. Almost every day there is a powerful afternoon rainstorm. In fact, just a couple of days ago it hailed for a half an hour. This reminds me of God’s power and might. And every night as I brush my teeth, since there are no artificial lights around, I see a greater number of brilliant stars than I have ever seen. This reminds me of how huge God is, and how He is bigger than any of my problems or concerns. The creation here has directed me to stand in awe of our Creator. If you can, take a minute to appreciate God and His creation this week.

Since this is very long again (and I have given into the fact that these will be long for the first couple of months—sorry!!), I wanted to make this [almost] final paragraph a collection of a bunch of random things that happened in the last week. They will have very little, if any, explanation, so this paragraph is going to be all over the place. (1) My iPod broke for several days and then turned back on; this was nearly tragic. (2) A drunk man on a bike, that rode by us yelled, fell off his bike into a bush. It was hilarious. (3) Did you know that the Lion King uses the Swahili language (the language that is spoken here)? Simba means “lion” and Rafiki means “friend” in Swahili. (4) Hesbon and I sing the coolest (a bit of an exaggeration) rendition of “Lord, Prepare Me.” He sings it in Swahili while I harmonize in English. We do a lot of songs in Swahili and English: Swenglish. It is awesome. (5) I am teaching the kids how to hug. It is so cool to see how hugging is so foreign and to see some of them hug for possibly the first time. (6) Apparently, a lot of the people eat termites when they catch them. This week, I ate a live termite. It wasn’t too bad actually. (7) I was screamed at by a mentally insane person on a mutatu (public transportation around here; like a taxi but you are squeezed into a van with 30 other people). He evidently asked in Swahili why I was looking at him. I never remember looking at him. It wasn’t scary at all because a lot of the other Kenyan people were telling me not to worry about it. They had my back. It was definitely more comical than upsetting. (8) I just had basketball sign-ups at the school. The first week of school we will have tryouts and assemble a team. This week we are killing the grass so the court will be hard enough for the kids to dribble the balls. I am so excited!

 - Matt
(written in Sept. 2008)