Skip to main content

Kenya happens - Joytown Day 6


Today we started another week of data collection from our long and full weekend. It was a bit tougher than I expected getting back into the swing of things and finding the rhythm we hit this past Friday. Yet at the end of the day the team felt really confident about the accomplished work even with a few minor "Kenyan hiccups". But hey, this is Africa and Kenya happens. ;)
  • Several of the expected high-school subjects didn't show up.
  • One of our testing grounds (around the school pool) is finally being used as a pool and was crowded by children, towels and wheelchairs.
  • A 5-minute errand to find a specific kid to finish one tiny question on a research survey turns into a 20-minute trip around campus pushing kids to various locations, saving a kid who had fallen out of his wheelchair, chatting with the therapists, ect.
  • Our driver disappeared to the market when we were ready to head home for the day.
All in all it was an awesome day with the kids. I was really struck today with the fact that I am beginning to feel part of life at the school. I am beginning to recognize some regular faces and names as I dart around. I am really enjoying the effort all the kids I've worked with for the wheelchair skills test have given me. Every jambo I give is returned by at least a shy smile, and usually an enthusiastic wave.

Prayer would be appreciated for health among our team and the kids at Joytown. Connor broke out in some sort of itchy rash/hives ordeal of an unknown cause this evening. Also, our temporary teammates, David and Zach, headed home yesterday to start back at school and work, they could use some travel prayer. I would appreciate prayer for some good rest; I might even head to bed early tonight! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oh the Americans are here. Make spaghetti.

Tuesday and Wednesday passed quickly and easily as we now all adjusted to Kenya time (Goodbye jet lag!) and were back to our Joytown research routine. We knew what had to get done and the time we had to do it in.   SACDEP welcomed us back with a Tuesday meal including "American food" aka spaghetti noodles. Just noodles. Haha Thanks, Kenya. We continued our wheelchair research at Joytown Primary School and got to return to the Secondary School (Kenyan High School equivalent) for a second survey time with the students. I realized through this survey that although we are very different, Kenyans and Americans, much is the same. High school students are high school students. They are teenagers. Some with attitudes, most with dreams, and all of them with lives that are just as real and crazy to understand as my own. *Philosophical vent over* Once our survey work was finished, Danielle decided to jump in and join a group of Secondary girls rehearsing songs for an upcoming talen...
Post a Comment
Read more

London Calling...

Our first day in London was a total success! I'll try to keep this brief because I am pretty much dead tired... Hey I only traveled halfway around the world today. Yesterday and today have blended into one giant long super-day with 3 to 4 hours of plane sleep in between. It's 10:23 pm right now in London yet only 4:30 pm in the states and my body feels like its 2:00 am. Bleh. The flight over was actually pretty awesome! I watched the first half of Les Miserables, the first 20 minutes of Finding Nemo, then blasted some Beethoven while reading up on some  African Friends and Money Matters  for Kenya. I finally got some shut eye when the flight crew turned off all the cabin lights including personal overhead lamps. Well if you twist my arm... ;) Also, I enjoyed some of the best food I've ever eaten  at 30,000 ft in the air. I ordered a "Special meal" and ended up getting a "Hindu dinner" which consisted of some of my favorite Indian dishes: chicken ti...
Post a Comment
Read more

And Now Presenting… - Joytown Day 13

Our whirlwind day of presentation (no wheelchair pun intended) began with a formal presentation to the Joytown secondary school (high school) and ended with a true Kenyan-style impromptu pres to the primary students and teachers. We carefully planned a presentation to the high school students, even creating a powerpoint to share with them containing graphs of the finalized data and pictures from the study. We miraculously packed 20+ people and wheelchairs into a computer room of the school library that was really only designed for 10 or so comfortably. We shared our data results and the Tinsley family shared some really encouraging words to the teens/young adults, urging them to realize that they are fearfully and wonderfully made by God for great purposes in this world. After exchanging contact information with one of the head-teachers who organized the high school participation in our study, (once she had told us about three different ways about the high school exchange progra...
Post a Comment
Read more