Boldly I Approach: Kanini

Sunday October 19th-

Sunday would prove to be another amazing day in Ngaamba. We would not hold clinic, instead, we would go with the locals to church and then spend the day enjoying the community and it's people. We split into three groups and visited three separate churches. I went to the Salvation Army Church. To say that the Ngaamban people know how to worship is an understatement. Think Buckhead Church, minus the strobe lights and special effects and add in some dancing in the aisles. It was a pretty cool experience to witness. The children were more into the worship than most of the adults, which says a lot about what they are being taught about loving God. Once again they spent a lot of time thanking us and God for bringing us to them. The most special part was when we got to all go up to the front and introduce ourselves. It was our turn to tell these amazing people that they were in fact a gift to us and we were really the lucky ones. Myself and one of my teammates Laura even got up and joined in the dancing at one point. Unfortunately, there is video of this. Let's just say I need to brush up on my Ngaamban line dancing skills. After church we gathered the team back together and headed to the clinic to spend the day in fellowship with the community. Mostly this meant we played. A lot. We painted nails, kicked soccer balls, jumped rope, colored, blew bubbles and even taught a group how to play baseball. It was pretty awesome. Most of the Kenyans who had never swung a bat before, quickly became better than most of us Americans. It was hilarious to watch them after they hit the ball. They ran crazy fast around the bases and even if you got them out, they stayed on base and kept right on playing. I admired their dedication to making it back to home plate. This time was also important not just for connecting with the people of Ngaamba, but also a time for our team to connect and build our relationships. I cannot say enough how amazing this team was. More on that later....after a full day in the HOT African sun, we piled back onto our bus with our awesome driver Paul and headed back to the Miryam Inn for a much needed shower. Monday was going to be another busy day for us. We had a full day in the clinic and Sarah and I were going to be headed to Ngaamba primary school to speak with the Class 7/8 girls. Oh, I almost forgot the highlight of my day. The children gave some of us Ngaamban names, mine was Kanini. It means "little one". That became my name for the remainder of the trip, well that and panini. What was I saying about how awesome my team was?? I can't remember....

Monday October 20th-

A month or so before our trip our leader Rob asked for volunteers who would be willing to go and speak to the Class 7/8 girls. This is the equivalent of 7th and 8th grade. This is an especially important year for all Ngaamban children because in Class 8 they take a test which determines whether or not they will go on to secondary school. Secondary school is like highschool, but not everyone has the opportunity to go. The children must obtain a certain score on the test in order to move up. If they don't score high enough on the test their future becomes less promising. This is especially true for the girls. Not making it into secondary school almost guarantees marriage at a young age, followed quickly by pregnancy. As soon as Rob asked for volunteers I knew I wanted to do it. I wasn't sure what I would say to these girls, but it felt heavy on my heart, because I knew how hard it was to make the right decisions in high school and how important it was to believe there was something more. Some of the topics on the table for discussion were menstrual cycles, abstinence and future careers. While I was pretty confident about sharing my career experiences, I felt a little nervous talking about periods, but I wouldn't be alone. My new friend Sarah stepped up to challenge with me. Sarah's presence on this team was a gift from God. Sarah, like me, is a single Mom and a nurse. To say we hit it off is an understatement. It was a blessing to have someone who shared the same fears about this trip and was taking similar risks. So I was comforted knowing Sarah would be coming with me to see the girls. We did absolutely zero preparation, save for prayer, and for those of you who know me and how I like to be in control, this was TOTALLY out of my comfort zone. At one point one of my teammates joked about me preparing a power point. It's amazing how quickly you get to know people when you travel across the world together. Also, of note, had there been electricity I might just have brought a power point...

When we arrived at the school we met up with three women who worked for the 410 Bridge in Kenya, Lucy, Kate and Petranilla. These 3 women amazed me from the moment I met them and put me at ease. We had an amazing time sharing with the Class 7/8 girls. We talked about our jobs, what their career aspirations were, how our bodies change and boys. They girls were so shy at first. When we asked them if they had questions for us they just looked at their hands. If one of them looked like they had a question and we approached them, they all giggled and whispered in each others ears. We finally got a few of them to speak up, but it wasn't easy. One of them asked us what to do if a boy had already approached them, in particular, this boy had told this sweet girl how he thought about her all night long while he slept. Kate responded quickly "if he is sleeping he isn't thinking and if he tells you he can't eat either, he is lying. He would die". We all got a giggle out of that. I then told them if a boy told them he couldn't live without you, they should tell him to "rest in peace". The girls loved that. I have a video of them screaming it! On a more serious note we had to talk to the girls about rape. This just broke my heart. This is their reality. It happens all the time. They are vulnerable and naive and men promise them safety, material things and a life outside of Ngaamba. Kate even shared men are coming over from the Middle East and promising the girls grand things, only to later sell them into sex slaves. It made me so angry to think about this. Not only are these girls in danger by the men who walk beside them in the village, men are traveling from afar to their remote village only to steal away their innocence. I just wanted to cry. So, we spent some time talking to them about how to protect themselves and stay safe. Sarah even taught them a song and dance about their "no-no" square. I have a video of that as well. It is priceless and the girls ate it up.

Life is hard for these girls. Something as insignificant to us as our periods can alter the course of their futures. With little to no access to sanitary pads, the girls have to stay home and miss school during their menstrual cycle. This affects their performance and decreases their chances for successfully making it to secondary school. The 410 Bridge does have a program in place that provides sanitary napkins, but many of the girls feel embarrassed and scared by the changes in their bodies, so they stay home anyway. Just another example of something we take for granted and a reminder of how some of our worries seem so insignificant. The 410 Bridge ladies told us their parents don't spend a lot of time talking to them about their bodies or talking to them about growing up period, so our time with them, however insignificant it might have felt to us, was very impactful. I might not ever know if anything I said made a difference to those girls, but I have to trust in my heart it did.

To finish up this post I wanted to share some of my journal from the night after I spoke with the girls. I was pretty overwhelmed Monday night with a blob of emotions and I am sure I cried at the debriefing, yet again. It was so much to process and I didn't really know where to begin, so I just started writing. This is what I wrote and I apologize if it seems choppy:

This place is beautiful in every way. The people, mountains, animals, stonework and all its simplicity. No frills. Your senses are not overwhelmed and you can just take it all in. Talking to the girls today was a gift, although sometimes I was laughing on the inside at how I was talking to them about loving and accepting themselves as God loves and accepts them. Maybe I should send myself that same message. When the girls asked the silly questions about the boys I laughed. Even halfway across the world, the boys are just the same. Their innocence was refreshing and it made me sad for our girls at home. The things our children are exposed to that steals their innocence away...it made me sad when Lucy talked to the girls about their beauty and how even though their parents didn't tell them they were beautiful, they were and it wasn't because their parents didn't love them. How much harder would life have been for me if I didn't have a mother who assured me what was normal and what was not and how lucky was I that I was able to first hear I was beautiful from my parents and not some boy who wanted to steal away my innocence.