Day 3 Nairobi May 11, 2011 part two

This is part two of my outing on Wednesday since today was a down day to work on writing up these projects, and some logistical issues.  Our first visit on Wednesday was to Happy Days Faith Academy attached to the Kariobangi UMC church.  We met with the Director Abiud Ambunya and 3 other teachers.  There are a total of 85 children in 4 classes.  The baby class is for 3-4 year olds, nursery class is for 4-5 year olds, pre-unit class is for 5-6 year olds, and lastly is the standard one class made up of 6-8 year olds.  The director, teachers, and the cook all work for free.  During the presentation I asked if any of the children have to pay to come to the school.  I was told that each child is to pay 10 ksh (80 ksh = $1) per day to cover the cost of meals and supplies.  I was then told to look at the table the teachers were sitting at and I was shown the 40 ksh that was collected for the day.  We also discussed some potential projects that could help fund the school possibly at the church level or district level.  The pictures below are each class in order of grade, Pastor Ososo, school staff, all the classes as they sit (difficult to get it all in one picture), and outside the school.

Our second visit was with Huruma UMC church in the Huruma slum.  During this visit we were given a presentation on their clean water project.  Many children and the elderly die each year of water borne diseases within all the slums in Nairobi.  As told much of the disease can come right out of the tap water.  People are told to boil tap water or purchase drinking water from a source not the Nairobi Water and Sanitation Department.  We were shown a demonstration of the Pur chemical system of filtration and the non chemical Lifestay water filtration system.  The Pur system uses a 10 ksh chemical pack to clean 10 litres of tap water in a 30 minute procedure.  The Lifestay water filtration system incorporates a couple of filters and some pressure to filter the water and kill any bacteria that might be in the water.  To me the Pur chemical system looks promising.  The Lifestay water filtration system is a process that comes with a few questions.  Since I am on a strict bottled water diet I had to politely decline drinking the treated water.  The church recently acquired a handy cart to remove trash from their community and they have also purchased some Jerry cans to transport water that they sell.  The project that they are hoping to improve on is taking the treated water and selling it as a value added product within the community.  The pictures below are Pastor Dave showing us the non-chemical filtration system, the 10 ksh chemical packets, fresh tap water, stirring in the chemicals, chemicals working, and new cart with a couple of Jerry cans.

Our last visit of the day was to the Matopeni UMC in Kayole.  We met with Pastor Fridah Runji to discuss her ongoing project.  The Matopeni church is a recent addition to the UMC in Nairobi.  Pastor Fridah operated the church as a non-denominational church until joining up with Pastor Ososo and the United Methodist Church within the last year.  The Matopeni church runs a micro-finance program.  It also has a tailoring and dress making school and a hair dressing school.  There is a building that is nearing construction next to the church and they will be moving the two operations into the building within a week or so.  The sewing machines that they use for the 10 students that are presently enrolled in the school are rented.  Their desire is to own the machines and purchase more so they can expand the school to accommodate a morning school and an afternoon school.  The hair dressing school needs some equipment as well.  The first picture is of the 3 stores being built next to the church.  The church plans to rent two of them for the dress making/tailoring and hair dressing schools.  The second picture is the Matopeni school children and staff.  Last  picture is of Pastor Ososo and school gate.

The church also operates a school for about 30 children in the community.  There are two unpaid teachers for all the children.  The Pastor is one of the teachers.  She told me that she has had no formal training in teaching but she really loves to teach.  I finally had to ask someone why they would teach and not get paid.  She told me how the public schools are free but when a child first attends the public school the school will require them to buy uniforms, books, desks, supplies, and different fees.  The reason they call the public schools free is that the government pays the teachers salaries and the students pay the rest.  So many children are unable to go to public school because their parents cannot afford to send them.  Fridah also told me that many parents will not send their kids to school at all because they do not see the value in it.  It’s generational the parents did not go to school and live in poverty they believe that their children will do the same.  Fridah told me that there are so many children that will never have an opportunity to get any kind of education unless it is free or really low cost.  In the previous example many children do not come to school with their 10 shillings but still get an education.  She finally told me that she was blessed to get an education and that these children are the future of Kenya and she would like to get a salary.  If she cannot she will continue to teach because someone needs to do it and she said she really loves her job.

 

I am still trying to figure out how to caption the pictures.  Lastly I do really hope and pray that everyone that reads this blog is getting something out of it and can find it in their hearts to at least pray for these people.  Many of the places I will be going to are the places no other missionaries go to.  Today was rainy, down right nasty, smelly, and in my opinion a place where I can understand people not wanting to go.  Believe me I am way out of my comfort level and if I was in another state of mind I would not be there either.  My emotions are at both extremes.  Some times I feel like “what am I doing here?”  On the other extreme it only takes walking into one of these class rooms with the super happy children excited to see me and then I realize why I am there.  These are our brothers and sisters in Christ and they have been forgotten.

Tomorrow on Friday I will be heading to Kakamega to meet up with Bishop Okaba to review some of his projects and investigate the establishment of a permanent NGO.  I was fortunate enough to meet Ben Okello who is a Councilor in the city of Busia which is on the Ugandan border.  He was a founding member of the Huruma UMC and was in attendance during our visit there.  He has been so gracious to drive me to Kakamega and he saved me from the grueling 11 hour bus ride across the Rift Valley.

Stay tuned and thank you.

Dave