Omeroi School

Recently, one of my dear Maasai Pastors informed me of a village that had started a school. I’m not sure how long this school has been functional, but they recently applied to the Kenyan government for certification so they could be officially recognized and thereby receive any benefits the government could provide. The government’s requirement for certification was that they must have books. They didn’t actually even specify what kind of books, they just said books. This village is so poor that trying to purchase books for 50 students was impossible.

We rose to the challenge of helping this community educate their children. I had six boxes of books sitting in my home, so we donated those books, bought some textbooks and traveled to their village. It was a very emotional day when those precious children and their parents saw us unloading the car.

I only bought enough textbooks for 10 students, not comprehending how serious their situation was. I was feeling guilty and sad until the teacher shared how amazing it was to have books. Their school only has four class levels at this point and we were told that they have only one book per classroom that is passed around from student to student.

Seeing so many books in one place was overwhelming to them. What a wonderful day of celebration – seeing their beautiful smiles and laughter.

The children lined up as we passed out cookies. Then the speeches began. It was such a happy time. The two men are Pastor John Shakai and Jeremiah. John is the one who first told me about this school.

Cookies are such a rare treat. These children were just overjoyed.

The head teacher told the children to sing for us. This is always special to me.

There was a certain segment in the song where the children all started jumping in unison. I tried to snap fast enough to see their feet in the air, but it didn't work. I was pleased to see so many shoes though!

These are the parents who turned out for the event.

My daughter Rachel was honored with a necklace and a pair of earrings made by the mother's in the village. This little girl was so excited about putting them in Rachel's ears.

Then it was my turn. More earrings

Precious faces!

Lives were changed on that day. What an overwhelming reality!

Tea Farm

Most of my life in Kenya is filled with working with the Maasai, but occasionally, I take the time to see other parts of this beautiful country. In June when my daughter and her husband were here, we went to a tea farm about an hour out of Nairobi. This farm sits about 7,000 feet above sea level; the air is crisp and fresh -- a welcome relief after the exhaust fumes in Nairobi.

This is a close up of the bloom on an old tea bush. The bushes they use these days are a hybrid with much larger leaves. This old bush was planted by the owner's grandfather in the early 1900's.

The farm is run by an old British couple. Fiona welcomes every visitor into her home, sits you down with a cup of tea and homemade biscuits (cookies) and tells you the story of this particular farm. She is a very interesting story-teller. Along with the history, she goes into details about tea from bush to factory and even discusses the tea auction in Mombassa, Kenya. I was surprised to learn Kenya has the largest tea auction in the world. All-in-all it is very educational and interesting.

After tea and the "talk" we are escorted outside to see their beautiful grounds, a small indigenous forest, and of course the tea plantation. Pictured below is one of their dogs named Chuma. He is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the troop of Colobus monkeys that live on their property.

We weren't disappointed. They showed up and waited at the edge of the roof, while Chuma danced around on the ground. I believe this is a daily occurrence for the monkeys and for Chuma! One of the workers brought out some pieces of bananas and invited us to feed the monkeys if we wanted.
Rachel was quick to accept and stood on the porch and handed up the banana. It was very entertaining and we somehow knew that the dog and those monkeys know that when visitors show up on a daily basis, they must do their part to welcome them.
When you look at the acres upon acres of tea bushes you might forget they are bushes. They just look so carefully groomed and almost like a lawn. But you can see that they are really waist high.
Well, waist high for some. Ricky is a tall guy!
Rachel took this inviting picture of a perfect cup of tea! What a wonderful day.

In early June some dear friends, Ron and Janice from Poteau, OK came to Kenya for four days for a pastor's conference. Janice met with the pastor's wives on Sunday and then again on Monday morning, but on Tuesday she and I had the whole day to spend with one another. I took her to one of my favorite spots -- Kitengela Glass. It is a wild and bizarre place where they take bits of used glass, crush it, melt it down and make something new and beautiful with it.

We stayed in a nearby lodge and walked across the field with our Maasai guide/guard to get to the factory. On the way we encountered gazelles and antelope. We also saw this little guy very busy with his buffalo dung. This is a dung beetle. They roll up these balls of dung. It is such a funny sight to see them rolling this dung around, but they are very useful little creatures.

When we got to the river gorge we could see Kitengela Glass across the river, but to get there you had to walk across this narrow, swinging suspended bridge. First our guide had to whistle to get the attention of the Glass employee on the other side. There are actually locked gates on either end of the bridge to keep people off until the attendant can lead them across. After the attendant arrived he unlocked the gates and made us sign a waiver to cross the bridge! Janice and I both wish we had kept a copy of the waiver. It said

"I promise not to hold Kitengela Glass responsible for injury or loss of life from crossing the bridge"

We paid the $2.00 fee and crept onto the bridge. I went first so I could take a picture of Janice. It was scary.

After the bridge crossing you enter into another world. Its as if some hippies from the 60's moved in and created this wonderland. This floor in the "bead" showroom is made from glass.

There were these funny chairs throughout the compound.

This room just sparkles and glows from the sunrays hitting all that hanging glass.

Janice posing on the "lady" lounger

This face was pressed into the concrete sidewalk.

More funny chairs.

This cracked us up. It is an old style travel trailer covered in concrete and glass made in the shape of a dinosaur. Someone actually lives in it.

My turn to cross the bridge last so Janice can take pictures. I had to prove that I actually walked across that scary bridge. I would do it again. Anyone interested?

On Saturday, July 3rd, Rachel, Ricky and I, along with Jeremiah, Pastor John and his wife Maria, traveled to the small community of Iyarat for a women's literacy graduation. This was actually one of the first classes we launched this year, but the teacher took a job and left without telling us, so for three weeks, these ladies were without a teacher. That break in their class time resulted in basically starting over when we located another teacher for them. Now, 20 weeks later, they are excited about what they've learned and we had a wonderful day.

This beautiful lady is one of the first Maasai I became acquainted with 7 years ago when my ministry here started. Her name is Peninah. She has a son, Josphat, who is in Bible School. My ministry, Starfish Charities, has supported him financially by paying for his fees every quarter. When his wife gave birth to their first daughter, they named her "Rhoda" after me!

This lady came to graduation even though everyone feared she would give birth before the day was finished. I knew she was pregnant, but I had no idea it was time! She was very quiet throughout and it was only afterwards that I learned how close to delivery she really was.

These are our proud students, along with their teacher (pictures on the left). We started with 10 and ended with 9.
Passing out gifts to them is one of my favorite things to do. The beautiful wraps they wear get very worn out in a short period of time, so our gift to them was a Starfish bag, a wrap and a handkerchief. To them it was better than Christmas!

Happy faces while they display their new wraps.
You can't outgive a Maasai. They had gifts of earrings and necklaces for me and Rachel and even a necklace for Ricky.


Rachel and Ricky all decked out in their gifts.
We went outside for a group photo session. What a glorious day.

My daughter RAchel, and her husband Ricky came to Kenya in June. I will be posting a series of Blogs in random order about our travels and ministry while they were here. Last week we traveled to Maasai Mara to see God's magnificent creation in the form of animals. I am labeling each picture in case there are some strange creatures you may not have encountered before. Enjoy!

Male Ostrich

This is called a Secretary Bird
Most of you will know these are warthogs. I wish we could have captured them on the run because their tails are straight up like little flags when they are running. They often eat on their front knees.
This is a wildebeest. These travel by the hundreds of thousands or possibly millions in an annual migration from Tanzania to Kenya. We didn't see them in those numbers, but the migration has begun and we saw several clusters of them. They normally travel with zebras during migration.
This beautiful bird is called a Lilac Breasted Roller. (Try say that 10 times fast)

This is a Bustard
We were delighted to see these two beautiful cheetahs before we even entered the gates of Maasai Mara. They were teasing the zebras and wildebeests. They would first run at the other animals and then back off. Then the wildebeests and zebras would run at them. I think the cheetahs were seeing a meal, but it didn't happen while we were there. They eventually ran off into the bush.
This is the Sand River Crossing at the Tanzania border. We walked through the gates and stepped into Tanzania.

Jeremiah couldn't resist touching the skulls of an elephant and caped buffalo at the Sand River Crossing.
I never tire of watching these magnificent creatures. Elephants are so interesting to watch. They are very loving and affectionate to one another.
Additionally we saw the following:

Zebras

Grants gazelles

Thompson gazelles

Giraffes

Topi

Silver backed jackal

Antelope

Hartbeest

Vultures

Superb Starling (bird)

Egyptian geese

Waterbuck

Lizards

Maribou stork

Babboons

Hippos

Mongoose

Cape buffalo

Dik Dik (smallest deer about the size of a dog)

Lion

Hyena

It was a wonderful trip enjoyed with family and friends.

Saikeri Schooldays

This post should have come before the graduation, but I was busy and couldn't get to it. There are some very interesting things about this class, however, that need to be shared, so here goes.

When we choose a community in which to have a literacy class, we first have to find a teacher. Most of our teachers are young individuals who have completed high school. Since this is basic literacy we are dealing with kindergarten - second grade materials. The materials Starfish provides for each student costs about $14.00, then we also provide two chalk boards, chalk, and some essentials for the teacher. Each student pays the equivalent of roughly $2.00 for their packet of materials and then they pay 25 cents per day of class. That money goes to pay the teacher's salary. So with ten students, the teacher is paid approximately $2.50 per day for two hours of class time. Believe it or not, they are excited about that pay in these rural areas.

On the chalkboards below, you can see some of their daily lessons. In this case, the days of the week in English and Swahili.

There were some very interesting relationships in this class. This old man is past 80; has at least two wives and 14 children. He said he has made sure all 14 of his children were educated, now it is his turn. Pictured with him is one of his wives who is also a student in our literacy training.

Pictured below is another man who attended class with his two wives. During graduation he said "I now have something I've never had before. In the past we were in the dark, now we are in the light"
This young man is John Tira, our teacher. Pictured with him is his mother -- also a student. She said she worked hard to make sure her children were educated. Now her son is educating her.
This lady impressed us with writing her name on the chalkboard. Her name is Jerusha. At the graduation, she spoke as a representative for the ladies. She was holding her book as she spoke and said "I am holding this book because I love it." She further stated "in the past women never hold books -- only children. It is because of God that I can now hold this book and know what it says".
For all of you who helped make this possible -- a huge thank you for your help. The prices for their books has gone up and then there are expenses connected to the graduation, but for only $250 you can sponsor 10 students for literacy. I hope more of you will consider sacrificing a little and help us as we prepare for 2011.

God bless you!