August is over and so school starts again after four weeks of vacation. “One man’s sorrow is another man’s joy.”
We are very grateful that we were able to experience the holidays during our stay, as the relationship with the children has become much more intense due to the many hours spent together and we have been able to implement numerous projects. However, in order for the holidays to not end in chaos, together with Joseph and Mercy we have created a weekly schedule. The children were assigned to different groups depending on their age. For example, they helped in the kitchen, on the farm and with the domestic animals to get an insight into the different departments at the MCC.
To kick off the holidays, we cooked avocado tomato pasta together with the “Ulinzi Group”. Not so easy to conjure up a dinner for 45 people. First you have to wait about an hour until you bring 9 kilos of water to a boil over the fire. BUT BE CAREFUL: If you let the water out of your sight for a second, it can happen that one or the other skims it off for a shower. Unfortunately, we had some bad luck with our 20 avocados, as some of them were not yet mature enough. Nevertheless, we were able to serve the pasta on time AND cook the same dish again 3 weeks later with the “Shining-stars”.
One of our first holiday projects was cleaning windows. Especially the windows in the bedrooms were in urgent need of this! We have never seen children having so much fun cleaning, because they were allowed to start in small groups with spray bottles and music.
Every Monday and Tuesday in the late afternoon we had the honor of getting training sessions from Matron Miriam Taekwanndoo. Self-defense, discipline and respect are in the foreground. When we got a visit from Jimmy Kilonzi, the hard training paid off! He was so enthusiastic about our performance that he even received an encore spontaneously.
Every week they went to the bakery to support Philip in the best possible way. So we were able to prepare the breadrolls ourselves with the “Achievers” on the day of the campfire, while the “Simba Group” collected and carved the wooden sticks for the sausages. The special atmosphere by the fire with bread, sausages, ketchup and pineapple juice was musically supported by the guitar playing of African songs by house dad Jackson.
On two consecutive afternoons, we offered the children to go for a walk followed by a picnic. Unfortunately, it was only possible for us to use the Shamba as a “final stop”, as the fields and meadows around the MCC are almost all private property.
The free time that the kids had between their tasks and duties was spent knitting, painting nails and threading bracelets. With a saw, hammer and nails, the boys were able to build a skateboard. The results are definitely impressive! We were also able to continue our weekly run to school and back, which we started in July. To give the entrance area a little more color, the stones were painted with different patterns, which now adorn the fruit trees and the path.
When we hung up the plan for the third week in the dining hall and the children saw that we would go swimming to the Savannah Lodge in Nguluni on 17.08.24, the anticipation was great. Not only the center-based but also the community-based children had the opportunity to spend a whole day swimming, splashing and romping. We were extremely lucky with the weather! The previous weeks were always a bit cool and cloudy, but on this Saturday the sun was already shining in the morning hours. With the older ones we walked four kilometers to our splashing experience, while the younger ones got a shuttle. Once there, it was immediately time to take off our clothes and get into the water! We were also able to introduce the non-swimmers to their first swimming techniques. The lunch, which had already been longed for in the previous days, because there were fries and chicken, was a huge highlight, even though the restaurant ran out of ketchup. Even after lunch we went back into the water, which is why we all fell into bed in the evening.
Thanks to our numerous collected donations in Germany, we were able to make a second big trip to Nairobi to the National Museum and the Snake Park. Our journey was a bit bumpy. Not only due to the roads that suffered from the flooding, but also to the bus driver, because unfortunately he had no idea how to get there. In the end, we helped him out of a jam with Google Maps. Unfortunately, we didn’t arrive at our destination until two hours later. First we got a child-friendly tour of the National Museum, where wildlife, all tribal histories, cultures and challenges of Kenya were discussed. After lunch – chicken, smokeys and fries – we went to the Snakepark. With wide eyes, the children examined snakes, turtles and various fish species. As a crowning finale, it was possible to hold a real snake in the hand and touch the smooth skin. The kids grinned from one ear to the other!
Reading and learning was not neglected during the holidays either! Teacher Beatrice visited us daily on weekdays for two hours a day. While she practiced specifically with some children, we took over the supervision of homework and learning to read in the library. We also had to realize that many children still have problems reading the clocks. Therefore, we divided the children into two groups, which then practiced reading the clock in a workshop with either Antonia or Rebekka. Afterwards, the teams competed against each other in a big battle, which of course increased the motivation to learn! Since playful learning in particular brings progress, we organized a rally around the MCC grounds. In different groups, the children not only had to solve arithmetic and general knowledge problems, but also measure, fold according to instructions and show their sporting skills. Depending on the place, they earned popcorn and gummy bears for the movie night. Since they had so much fun doing it, we organized a snippet hunt two weeks later. Crossword puzzles, cloze texts and much more had to be solved. In the end, they managed to put the individual snippets together to form a map so that they could dig up the treasure in the garden.
Every Sunday morning we go to church. This cannot be compared with a German one! Dance, music, singing and praying together play a significant role. Through our daily practice, we were all able to perform a dance together to the song “I am a Miracle” by ADA. Even the boys had fun! When the whole church started cheering and clapping at the end, we knew that the hard training had paid off!
Six new kids and twelve rabbits were born at MCC. In addition, Emma can look forward to 35 freshly hatched chicks. Last Saturday we stood in the kitchen all day, because in the evening there was chicken meat from our own production with chapati. The Kitchen Garden is also growing and growing. Emma got cabbage and spinach seedlings from our farmer Boniface and was overjoyed when she was able to harvest them for the first time. We’ve never seen spinach leaves this big!
One of the most intense and emotional experiences are the home visits with the social worker Mercy. Already in the first week of our arrival here at MCC, we visited the families and the homes of the children who are in the program. It is frightening to see how many people are fighting for survival and do not yet know today whether they will have something to eat tomorrow. The securing of basic needs is not given here. Especially due to the heavy flooding in the last rainy season, the houses have been affected and the gardens and farms of the families have been destroyed, which leads to a collapse in the harvest. Nevertheless, we were offered something to drink or eat during every home visit. The hospitality of the people here is impressive and their living situation indescribable, which is why it is difficult to find the right words for it. If you haven’t seen it with your own eyes, then it’s very difficult to imagine the situation of the families and not understand their situation. This makes it all the more remarkable what the project achieves and how families are helped. Respect!
