Happy Christmas!

Just a quick post to wish all my readers and supporters a very happy and blessed Christmas!

Goodbye Kenya... for now!

Well, I fly home tonight! These two and a half months have gone so quickly! I'm not sure I'm fully prepared for the shock of England's cold weather, but I am very much looking forward to seeing Jon, my family and friends. Today I've just been packing and pottering, it's weird waiting around all day really, keep feeling I'm going to be late. My taxi is coming in a bit over an hour so I thought I'd write a quick post to pass the time and stop myself feeling too nervous!

I went for a walk earlier, to get a bit of exercise before the flight. It was around 5, the evening light was lovely. Here's a couple of photos I took:

The Ngong Hills are in the background

The entrance to Dee and Peter's compound

I feel so privileged to have had this time here in such a beautiful place, and I am looking forward to spending more months here after Christmas. I thank God for bringing me here and for his protection and provision in so many ways.

England here I come!

The Christmas Party: Food and Father Christmas!

Once all the performances and the graduation ceremony were over, it was time to get ready for the big event... the food! It was clear the children were looking forward to it - earlier on I'd been carrying in a box of books and several of them had eyed it up and begun to chant "Chips! Chips!", and also when Lucy had asked them what they were going to do today one of them answered "Food!"

The children went to watch a short video while we got out tables and chairs on the veranda and started dishing up the food. It all happened amazingly quickly, everyone pitched in and got the job done! Soon the children were sitting down, gobbling up sausages and chips and guzzling soda. In fact they were finished so quickly that I didn't even get any photos - but here they are eating their ice cream which followed. For some this was their first taste of ice cream and there were a few funny reactions - they were very surprised by how cold it was!

Love the one blowing on it!

It got the thumbs-up from James!

After a short playtime whilst we did the reverse furniture removals, the children were gathered on the veranda, and Father Christmas appeared! The children thought it was very funny that Benson was dressed up, including a white beard, and they were extremely excited to get a present. They all waited until they were told to open it too - so well-behaved!

One, two, three... OPEN!!!

Here is a little video I made of the children playing with their cars and skipping ropes. It's not the most professional of videos but it's the first time I've edited together a few clips! In case you wonder, the whistling sound is the lollipop sticks!

Next the parents arrived to collect their children and their food parcels...

... and to listen to Benson explain the new fee-paying places and other things in the newsletter.

After this the children and parents went home, pausing only to get a balloon on the way out! All in all I think a very good day was had by everyone!

The Christmas Party: Performance and Graduation!

The day dawned, and we were so happy that it was sunny after we'd had fairly torrential rain earlier that week - thank you God! As the children arrived they got dressed up in their shukas (shawls/blankets) that they'd brought in, and their crowns. They had their faces painted by the teachers too - they looked great!

The children then had some time to play before the visitors arrived.

They had their tea with biscuits for a special treat, and there was a lot of milling around, playing with the visitors and posing for photographs...

Finally we began the Christmas performance! The children welcomed the visitors with their special song, which goes:

Every visitor becomes a blessing,

Welcome to our school!

Leah opened in prayer and there was an introduction to the school for those who hadn't visited before. Some children from the top class did a memory verse with puppets, and my choir sang two songs - you can see them here and here. I was very proud of them!

Then came the drama - some children dressed up and acted out the different characters from the Christmas story:

The cowshed and animals; baby Jesus

Star, shepherds, kings

Baby Jesus looking rather bored!

After that was the graduation - here are the children dressed in their flag-gowns and special hats!

They each came parading up one at a time, just as if they were on a catwalk, it was so funny! I got a few video clips of them which I will try and work out how to put together at some point. When each child came up they got a certificate which I'd made as well as an exercise book and pencil - they were really pleased!

More on the last part of the party tomorrow...

The Christmas Party: Preparations!

This week has mainly been about getting ready for the Christmas Party, and also trying to get lots of admin done in time for the end of term. I spent quite a while printing my brochures out and also writing a newsletter for parents (which was read/explained to them on the party day). Thanks to donations from a few people I was able to buy not only balloons, biscuits, paper for decorations etc but also a present for each child. The girls got a skipping rope and the boys got a toy car, and there was a lollipop in each parcel too! The parents are given a food package containing essentials such as flour, tea, sugar etc but I felt it would be really nice for the children to have something to open too. Luckily Andrea, a friend of a couple from homegroup, has recently arrived in Kenya wanting to do some volunteering and has been coming to Mahali with me since Wednesday, so she gave me a hand with all the wrapping. What with over 60 presents for children plus presents for the staff too it was quite a big job!

Here are some pictures of us wrapping the presents - not the best quality due to the need for flash, sorry.

Andrea busy wrapping

Me with a cheesy grin!

Skipping ropes - only 90 bob each!

Toy cars - they were the ones you pull back and let go!

Pile of presents for boys...

... and pile for girls!

The other fun part of the preparation was the children decorating their paper crowns using glitter - somehow several of them seemed to end up with more glitter on their faces than on the crowns!

More about the party tomorrow...

One more week!

We're in the final week of the school year at Mahali, and preparations for the Christmas party and graduation of our leavers are well underway! Yesterday I helped the children paint flags on huge pieces of paper - these will become their 'graduation gowns'! I think possibly more paint ended up on me than on the paper, but I failed to get a picture of that so you'll have to make do with one of the flags instead!

Cute!

Some of the children from baby class were fascinated by my camera and apparently felt they had to perform, launching into 'My God is so big' (although it rapidly fizzled out!) The one with the green hat who puts his finger right up to the camera is called Paul, he makes me laugh because his voice is quite deep and he's just generally like an old man :-)

Please excuse the shaky camerawork and my appearance in the video! It was hard with all the children crowding round!

Two months!

Yes, I have now been here for two months! In many ways it feels like longer, because here feels like home to me now. My morning routine is starting to be something I do in my sleep - up, shower, breakfast, out at 7:45-8ish (has crept a bit later this week, oops), walk up the road, catch a bus or matatu, negotiate the road crossing and the mud/rubbish/men on motorbikes/occasional policemen with guns around Karen roundabout, catch a matatu, get off, walk up the track, say good morning to people on the way, get to school, greet the staff, start the day.

Last week all the children had assessments, so I mainly helped the teachers with those, sitting with a few children that needed support and then doing some of the marking. This was another fairly eye-opening time, in that each class had tests in every subject, including 'creative' which I'd have thought was quite difficult to test for in a meaningful way!

With less than two weeks until we finish for Christmas, it's all got pretty busy this week. I've been compiling a brochure to advertise the school to parents who could potentially afford to pay a fee to send their children to Mahali. I'm quite pleased that I managed to get to grips with Publisher, which I've not used much before, to produce a threefold leaflet thing. My family will know what I mean when I say Grandma would have been proud (she used to rave about Publisher as she used it to produce cards!) Here is a picture of each side of the leaflet:

If you are a praying person, please pray that this leaflet would be distributed to the right people and that God would bless this new stage in the work of Mahali Pa Watoto. The thinking behind introducing some fee-paying places is mainly to increase local involvement, making this a more sustainable project and not wholly reliant on funding from overseas.

I'm also continuing with my groups this week and had a lovely 1:1 session with Hannah, one of the girls I've talked about previously (see this post) She can be extremely difficult in a whole class situation, very attention-seeking and hyperactive, but she thrives in a small group or individually where she can have plenty of attention and feedback from the teacher. It's a huge worry because she should be leaving us and starting at a primary school in January, but given what I've seen and heard of the government primary schools, she is going to find it very hard. Added to that there are several issues with her home situation and we really need wisdom to know how to deal with them, and whether there is any alternative for her education.

So, one more week after this one which will finish with the Christmas party. This is an eagerly anticipated event, incorporating the graduation of the children who are leaving us as well as some drama, singing, and (most importantly) sausages, chips and ice cream! I'm looking forward to it!

I shall leave you with some fun pictures I took last week.

I love this - they're 'cooking' with leaves and flowers!

A small visitor!