A lottery winner in Kisumu

Our third day at Reach-Out – Saturday. Pam McQuide flew in from Nairobi this morning (where she is still unpacking boxes from her recent move there). The plan was to have a joint meeting of the US Advisory Board and the Kenyan Board of Directors for Reach-Out. The meeting involved Frank, Jeanne, Peggy, Pam and me plus the Kenyan board… Meghan had other plans for the day!

The advisory board meeting was long (about 4 hours), but such a valuable time. Hezekiah presented his strategic plan for 2010 – 2015… and he is indeed a visionary thinker. Overall, he dreams of a comprehensive program that supports not only the orphans of the Reach-Out community by meeting their short-term needs of food, school & safety… but he also envisions programs that continue to build the capacity of the community (for example, vocational training, an expanded farming program, making the school a true community center – and generating income by renting out the facilities to other community members).

I learned some things that made me so proud of the work that is going on… One of the board members is a teacher in a nearby primary school and said that the Reach-Out EDC (day care) children are often the highest area scorers on the admission test that every child must take prior to beginning primary school. Hezekiah explained that Reach-Out was one of the few day care centers that provided food for the children during their time in school. This not only helps the children stay alert and able to learn… it also is a motivation for attendance (they know they will have at least one meal for the day if they go to school). Hezekiah also described several families (including that of the director of national library sciences for Nyanza Province) who have asked to enroll their children at the Dr. El-Hefni School because of the low teacher-student ratio that Reach-Out maintains and because of the positive attitude of the students.

As a final decision for the day, the board made plans to use funding provided by our largest contributor to fully support the 6 Reach-Out students who are the first to finish high school at the Dr. El-Hefni School and be admitted into a university or to a technical school (3 will go to Moi University in Eldoret & 3 will go to a local polytechnic institute in Kisumu). We also discussed the establishment of a scholarship fund to begin planning for future graduates. Overall, a great meeting.

In follow-up to our meeting, Jeanne let Hezekiah know that she had found someone from the states to sponsor Yvonne (the butterfly), which will help pay for her secondary school fees. Yvonne’s reaction was poignant, heartfelt – and one of complete and unrestrained exuberance – you would have thought that she won the lottery… which in many ways, she had. Who would have thought a young, total orphan in rural Kenya could have been connected with a school administrator in Connecticut? ….her future changed in that moment. Yvonne literally jumped into Hezekiah’s arms, and then hugged everyone near her… and finally Jeanne, who had helped make the connection – with screams of thanks and tears of joy. It was a priceless moment for us all.

Meg’s Day (from Meghan herself):
While the adults were in their advisory meeting I spent the day in the “computer lab” (the lab is an empty room because they are waiting for electricity) with about eight or so of the high school girls. We started the time by teaching each other church songs. One song they tried to teach me was a song in Swahili that talked about building your foundation on Jesus and then I tried to teach them “This Little Light of Mine.” After church songs we got a little off track and started singing Celine Dion songs (they loved her) and “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey. I couldn’t believe how many American songs they knew, but then they told me that they are able to watch MTV sometimes. Hopefully that show isn’t the only view they see of America. After a couple hours of singing songs they tried to get me to teach them salsa, but I had no idea what I was doing. Instead, I taught them all the Macarena. It was definitely fun to see about eight girls from Africa doing the Macarena with me.

After a couple hours of entertaining ourselves I had them sit down for a little counseling time. On top of a piece of paper I had them write a dream or goal they had for themselves or what career they would want for themselves. Most of the girls wrote “Journalism”, “Accounting” or “Lawyer.” On the next line I had each girl write how they were going to attain that goal like working hard in school and getting extra help on classes that were hard for them. Then we talked about some things that may hinder us from that goal. Most girls wrote about getting in the wrong crowd, they’re hard family pasts and things like drugs, alcohol and pregnancy. I talked to them about using a counselor and for using their pasts as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks to their future. I then talked about ways to say “no” to peer pressure and about having different groups of friends so if you’re friends decide to do something that you don’t want to do you can always have another group of friends to be with. The biggest thing I talked to them about was using their dream or goal as I driving force, “I will study hard because I want to be an accountant” or “no, I will not do drugs because I want to be a lawyer.” It was amazing to see how the girls responded to the activity and I really think it at least made them think about their actions and their dreams.

Back to Mom:
The final stop of the day was back to Mama Grace’s home – to deliver the shoes. The stick-method of shopping did not serve us well. Only one of the four pairs of shoes we bought actually fit (and only because we gave Marguerite’s smaller sized shoes to Emily). Irene’s shoes were obviously too big, but she initially insisted they fit. Once we realized that she was fearful that if she gave the shoes up, she might not get anything back, we worked to ease her fears with a promise to return tomorrow with shoes that fit.

So we ended the day again at the Nakumatt… exchanging the shoes (how do you explain to someone who speaks only broken English that the shoes were dusty because they were tried on in a mud hut with a dirt floor… I still think he thought I was returning used shoes). A repeat dinner at the same “American style” restaurant we had eaten in the night before… and again, home to our orange beds and orange buckets of warm water…I am into double digits counting my days without a hot shower.