Kenya 2016: You should consider yourself hugged ... and loved

Trips like this don't just happen.  They take a lot of work, but today was the payoff.

Many of you know about our hope to provide every incoming Form 1 (9th Grader) with a solar light.  Most have no power in their homes and they often walk to and from school in the dark.  This morning the team (YOUR team), distributed the lights.  A representative from the company here in Kenya delivered the lights and provide a demonstration of how to use and care for them.  Life in their homes will never be the same.  They were in awe of the generosity of the gift and thrilled by its possibilities.

This afternoon, we shared a typical American school sack lunch with each of the Eighth Graders in the primary school.  When we shared this plan at the high school in the morning, we were met with a number of blank looks that had us modify our plan to just pass out the lunch sacks.  None of the teachers had ever had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich … nor could imagine one.  To them it seemed like a strange way to eat bread which is often eaten a couple of pieces at a time with nothing on it with morning tea.

Jeremy Punch took the lead at the primary.  In front of the Eighth Grade class, he slowly took each item from the sack and described what it was.  Eyes got bigger and bigger as he went along.  When the sacks were passed out, they initially just sat on each desk.  There was the sense that the students were almost afraid to touch them.  Slowly the sacks were opened and the fun began.  

As we shared the same sack lunches with the school staff, they confirmed that NO ONE had ever had a P&J sandwich.  The students knew of such things as potato chips ("Crisps" in Kenya) and juice boxes, but had likely never had either.  This was a meal would be talked about by these students for years to come.  

What many of us will talk about for years to come is what happened after lunch.  There were about a dozen sack lunches left over.  Without a moment of hesitation, the teachers determined the neediest of the children from across the school.  They were quickly gathered and each was given a sack to take home.  This would likely be all the child or their family would eat today. 

There were lots of hugs and thank you's for the solar lanterns and the lunches  … they were for all of you.  We just happened to get them.   Sleep well.

The Kenya Mission Team