On Saturday, June 11, we celebrated with 11 lovely Maasai women as they completed our first adult literacy class of 2011. The church shown below hosted the classes, and the pastor of the church, Pastor Richard, was their teacher.
Due to the fact that I am in the states undergoing cancer treatment, my faithful board members carried on without me and made sure the day was a huge success. A big thank you to Joanna, Jeremy, Pastor Paul, and James and visiting Global missionary, Denise. As they entered the church they saw the ladies' worksheets proudly displayed.
This is Pastor Richard. He is a Maasai from that community and has a great love for his people.
As is customary when visitors attend a gathering, each of the Starfish representatives were given an opportunity to share. Here we see James Weche addressing the crowd.
This lady is Hellen and she is the class representative. They would all share if given the opportunity, but given the time restraints of the program, we always ask for one lady to share the thoughts and hearts of the class. She said "I can open the Bible anywhere and read God's Word. All the Bible is open to me and I can also write my name." We truly take alot for granted, but this was huge for these ladies.
Pastor Paul Ochilo (left) preaches, while Jeremiah (Jeremy) translates.
We always make official certificates for the students to have so they can show others they have completed the literacy training. Joanna stands with each student and Pastor/Teacher Richard as the certificates are awarded. This beautiful lady is Damaris Kaikat
Hellen Parsapayat
Josephine Sammy. Most likely she is married to a man named Sammy. Many of these women don't have official identifications or birth certificates, so they take on the names of their husbands.
Joyce Muntet
Joyce Nina
Lucy Ilanet
Madaline Maseker
Maria Kurraru
Rohda Joseph
The entire class with the certificates
Its always a joy to watch them share their work with the families. The children are thrilled their mom's are learning to read and do math.
We handed out gifts for all the graduates which included a new wrap (lesso) and a goodie bag consisting of toiletries. However, it sometimes backfires on us and there are items in the goodie bags that require explanation. One of the ladies got hair conditioner. Since most of them shave their heads or at the very least cut their hair very closely, it was a difficult explanation. Denise was imaginative when she told the lady the product would make her head soft.
Then of course they had no concept of dental floss! Denise had to demonstrate. You can see how fascinated they were with this demo. Thank you Denise!
Our group - minus James the photographer -- stood on the platform while the class presented them with thanks and gifts.
No celebration is complete without a cake. Joanna's neighbor graciously baked this lovely cake for our special day.
Cutting the cake is a very special thing and highly anticipated.
Joanna was blessed to see the men serving the cake. Maasai men typically expect the women to do the serving, but in Christian circles, more and more we are seeing these servant gentlemen taking on that role. Such a blessing.
Pastor Richard serves his students.
The ladies enjoying their cake and chai (hot tea)
We don't always have a meal at these celebrations, but this group wanted to share lunch with our group. What you see pictured here is their kitchen. Joanna shared with me that the ladies from this community always wear matching lessos (wraps) for special occasions.
Hand-washing time before the meal.
Yum! One of my favorites. Stew and chapatis (sort of like flour tortillas)
This picture made me cry with tears of joy and longing. Its a little hard to see what they are doing, but when Joanna told them I send them my greetings, they cross their arms over their hearts as a sign that they received my greetings. Wow. Very special indeed!
