Starfish Charities: 2013 Adult Literacy

Adult Literacy for 2013 is off to a great start! Our first stop was the community of Olmeroi. As you can read from this sign "Babits Olmeroi" (Baptist) the need for literacy is great. We are very proud of this community for their interest in literacy for their adults.

Upon arrival, we began unloading my car, which held the materials needed for literacy. Pictured here with me is David Kinayia, one of my Maasai board members.

Part of the supplies we provide is a new blackboard. Some of the churches have them, many don't, so we don't assume -- we just buy new ones.

This was back in March before the rains started. It was so brown -- everywhere we looked and dry and dusty. The yellow containers previously held cooking oil. They are 20 liters (about 5 gallons) and are seen everywhere in these rural areas. Many women carry these on their backs full of water just to have water to wash dishes, cook, and wash clothes. I filled six of them with clean water and carried them out to this dusty village.

When they realized we had brought water, this lady quickly went home and got a 60 gallon drum (plastic) in which to pour the water for the church.

Before we did anything else, they poured all the water into the container. Only then, could we proceed with setting up for registration and launching of this class. We just don't have much concept of being without fresh clean water.

This is the front of the church.

We began setting up and awaiting the arrival of students.

This is the pastor, Pastor Joshua Shakai. He is very excited about having this class in his church. He and his wife are both illiterate, so they were the first to register. I am so proud of him for being a good example to his congregation and the community.

This young man is Solomon. He teaches in the local school every morning, but because there is no food for lunch, they only have class up to noon, then go home. That is a sad reality, but it makes him available to help us with these adults. He is a very quiet young man, who loves his people and looks forward to training them.

The students begin arriving. This lady brought tea for us.

David begins the registration process.

This is the group that showed up that day. They have class 3 days a week. We now have 16 students in this class and they are all doing great!

There is always time for conversation under the trees. This is a common site among the Maasai men.

After leaving Olmeroi with empty containers (jerrycans), we stopped along the road at the place they were selling well water. We were heading to the next community, Oreteti, to start another class.

The man on the right is Emmanuel, the pastor of the church at Oreteti. What a dynamic young man he is. His English is excellent and he is very enthusiastic about not only pastoring this church, but also teaching the adults in his community. He also started an Academy (Nursery school) for the local children. He truly loves his people!

Anytime a car arrives in these communities, individuals seem to appear out of nowhere to see what is going on. This man was very helpful with unloading my car.

This church already had a container available so we just started pouring water.

David was explaining the process and Emmanuel translated so I would know what they were saying..

This picture shows the class that registered. We don't have quite as many in this class, but the ones who came are very serious about learning.

They couldn't resist the chalk and that new chalk board! Those who could, showed off their skills. In many of these classes, one of the first lessons is teaching them how to hold a pencil.

Then the rains came! And came! And came! Eight weeks of rain is a bit much and it kept us away from many areas. But when it finally dried up enough to navigate, we took off to our third location, a community called Kimasiany. Here you see Pastor John, moving a thorn branch "gate" so we could proceed.

This is the church where the classes will be held. Hopefully when we return to check on the class we will find this building finished. But for this beginning day, we drove past the church to the local school to meet our students and their teacher.

This is the school.

Our lovely young teacher, Jane, came out to help us unload.

She immediately began registering the students.

Here, I am just explaining the materials they will be covering in the next 16 weeks.

This class has 15 students. There are some strange combinations of students. We have two sets of co-wives. (Ladies who are married to the same man), and the grown son of one of them.

Here they are! Our Adult Class of Kimasiany.

This is the "road" near where we got water earlier. The stream you see here is actually the road I drove on a few weeks earlier. Now we had to make a new road.