You Don't Choose Where You Are Born

Sarah writes about Friday, Sept. 3 -

While the title for Friday is about birth, the day was all about endings. Even though we still have more than a week to go in the trip, Friday was the last day we'd be spending at Kimuri School, and the team was not eager to say goodbye to those we'd met there. We had only the morning to finish our work before we would gather with Church of the Torch leaders for tea, so we were up for an early start.

Last day drawings

Upon arrival, the children were in the dining hall for Scout Day. The Boy Scouts have an international division for Kenya, and teachers Evanson and Grace had on their scout leader uniforms and were reviewing the Scout Oath and Creed. After they finished, Gretchen, Kathy, and Joyce then pulled out a map of the world and showed the children where Kenya and Rochester are. The children were interested in seeing how far we'd come, and Evanson was thrilled to get the map for use in the classroom. Because the singing was so popular on previous days, the group then went outside for more rounds of singing games and a giant circle of Hokey Pokey that was a huge hit.

Our last pane of glass is installed

Back on Wednesday, while Mary and I were finishing window washing, we discovered another classroom had a window with no panes of glass. From a distance, at first it just looked like someone had done a remarkable job of cleaning, but on closer inspection, it was clear that there was nothing there. On Thursday Tina and Brad had measured the frames, so on Friday morning they worked with Dick and Chuck to install five of the remaining panes. Brad and Rich traveled again to Kikuyu make the final purchase of glass for the church to finish the remaining windows, and they also purchased paint for the church to repaint the school doors and columns.

While others were busy with the children and glass panes, Mary and I again worked with several students cleaning classrooms.

Driving in popped nails

Happily, there wasn't much to be done because Ruth had had the students clean most of the remaining classrooms on Thursday while our team was on a touring day, visiting the elephant orphanage in Nairobi National Park and supporting Amani ya Juu, meaning "peace from above," a cooperative of displaced and marginalized women who create fair trade textiles for sale.

All too soon it was time for tea, so the team gathered with Grace, some of the church elders, the Presbytery moderator, and all of the children for a brief ceremony and tea. A man named Joseph, one of the elders, started things by saying, "You don't choose where you are born." Looking around at our team, who were fortunate to be born in the US into a situation where we could have the means to make this trip, and the children, who had so little, it was especially poignant. There is, of course, much to be said for hard work, but all the hard work in the world might not make enough of a difference to overcome such a huge discrepancy at the start. The small sacrifices we had made for this trip were a tiny token, but it was clearly appreciated by the children, school and church.

"When will you be back?"

As we started to leave we were surrounded by the children for hugs and some teary goodbyes and we wondered what would happen on Monday when school resumed without us. We left a school that was brighter, literally, with sunlight flooding the clean classrooms and newly repaired desks, a teacher who had worked for the past year without pay, but who was bolstered by a financial contribution and the knowledge that someone does recognize the work she does, and a supporting church that seemed energized to help continue the work we had started at the school.

We didn't choose where we were born. But maybe we did a little to make the gulf between the children and ourselves a tiny bit smaller.

Kimuri School students and teachers; Church of the Torch Leaders; and us