Thursday, July 14, 2011

Wednesday July 13th in Africa

WOW! What a crazy day yesterday was! And for that matter, what a crazy week this has been. I am writing this post one day late so I am going to try to remember all the details. This whole trip has been such a whirlwind of emotions and each day has had some amazing teachings about who God is and how great he is! We woke up at 6am again in Mbewai and this morning the power was out. It was hard getting up in the dark and I was worn out from the past couple days of loving on these kids with endless energy. But starting the day with Morning Glory gave me so much strength. Like every day at Mbewai, we praised God and gave him all the glory for the day. After that, Allison did morning devotion. She talked about Romans 8:18-30, how creation groans and yearns for the coming of the Lord and how we have seen the beauty of God 's creation on the trails. But as beautiful this region is, the groaning and suffering is so much louder. Today was our last day of teaching at Mbewai. Cayla and I have been teaching in kindergarten3 class. When we got to class, the kids were just starting math. Cayla had prepared a ciriculum for the day so she took over and I helped out. We taught math by writing phrases and having the kids count the number of letters. Then for social science, we taught them the use of a ven diagram, comparing the similarities and differences between a motorcycle and bicycle. I left the classroom at 11am to prepare vitamins for the kids at lunch. We had been giving them vitamins each day at lunch. The baby class got liquid vitamins and everyone else got chewable. After lunch which each class, Jaylyn and I taught the kids how to brush their teeth. We had prepared bags for each kid with a toothbrush and toothpaste. It was really fun giving kids the lesson, as I would make funny noises while brushing and they would all laugh. Then, I joined our class again, and we finished the day with a craft. The kids decorated crosses and wrote "Let the children come to me" on them. They also made and decorated nametags. We passed out the toothbrushes and toothpaste to all the kids and re-emphasized the importance of brushing. Then it was off to go home with the kids. Before we left, we gave bags to all the staff with soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, washcloths and other hygeine items. My group went home with Brighton and Tumu. Our translator was Jackson. We walked about 15 minutes to get to the house. It was a mud house with a thatched roof. The greeting party at the house was 3 mommas, a grandma and a bunch of kids. Brighton's mom was deaf and was doing a another lady's hair in front of the house, which she did for a little money. The house was a two room house with noticeable holes in the roof. They were relatively well off for the area but that is definetly a relative term. We asked Jackson questions and he would directly answer since he knew the family well. One thing I noticed was that they kept toothbrushes on the outside of the house stuck in the mud wall. The whole trail experience has been truly amazing in getting to see how little these people have, yet they are truly content with only having God. Their reliance on God for everything is very refreshing. We got back to campus and left shorty after to head immediately to dinner at a nice restaraunt right on the beach. It was really good but such a different experience from what we had seen the past couple days. Going from the trails to the resort-style restaraunt on the beach had a lot of mixed emotions. We had a great dinner though. I had hawaiian pizza and italian icecream afterwards. We headed back to Chris and Lisa's and I got to go for a swim and play with Ilo (the awesome german shepherd that they have) before going to bed. I could go into so much more detail about today and everything that has happened this trip but I am short on time. God has truly been working on each and every one of us this week and I cannot wait for the everything he will teach me this next week. I want to send a shout-out to family and girlfriend back in the States. Love yall and miss yall!

El Doctore (Matthew)

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