Life at the girls' place

If you have never been in the middle of a war torn place,... if you ever want to have the feeling,... you should live with 23 teenage girls in a compound haha! However not every day is war day but I can say I have had my fair share of those. I have stayed with the girls since January and its the most rare and teaching experience I have ever had and all I can say is I am humbled by the experience.

A normal day at the girls quarters begins at 5:30 for the teacher on duty and 6;00am for the students where you have to wake them and this may mean heavy pounding on the door and or taking away the blankets from their covered faces and loudly but sweetly shouting wake up! Girls! Then its a round of duties and making of breakfast since the smart girls always know their specific duties for the day. Chapel is at 8;00 am and so by 7:30 am all the chores should be done and inspected and the girls can then finish off whatever else they want to do before we leave the girls place and always this period has to do with putting on make-up and looking good, of course they are teenage girls so dont forget. (we are a little self conscious haha! )

Once they leave for chapel a few minutes to 8:00 the gate is locked. There ends the morning at the girls place. Woe unto you if you are on duty and you forget to open the gate at exactly 5:30 pm in the evening after class otherwise you will have an army of lieutenants and generals and commanders ie girls looking for you because they have to go change for games at the boys place or do their washing trust me it is only at 5:30 that the girls become living alarm clocks and you can never be late.

So round two at the girls place involves them doing their laundry and the girls on kitchen duty preparing ingredients for making supper. Monday evening is study day,and so is Thursday and Friday, Tuesday is devotion day, Wednesday is TV day (their favorite) and Saturday and Sunday is a different program. Usually this can be a very peaceful time amid shouting and singing so long as no one decides to start up an argument of sorts.

How about you and I go on a virtual tour of a week at the girls:

Whoever is on duty whom we will call Teacher On Duty (TOD), gets a knock on the door or window and when you ask, Who is it?, the answer is always the same “Keys za kitchen” (keys to the kitchen)this is short for good morning TOD, I hope you had a good nights sleep I am so and so, may I have the keys to the kitchen.

And so TOD gets up and heads to the kitchen to hand out items for the morning chores and breakfast preparation. Once tea is ready whoever was on kitchen duty will call out.. “kujeni mkunywe chai” (come and take tea) and this is when you can be sure that we do have marathon runners in Kenya because all that is left outside are tools of work i.e brooms and dusters and settling dust as everyone whizzes past to go get breakfast.

After a noisy breakfast which will end well if no one missed their fair ration of slices of bread, everyone resumes their chores and those who are done hit the showers. At this time TOD can come back and take a quick shower and prepare for the day.

Then at exactly quarter to 8.00 TOD has to go round warning the girls that its almost leaving time an then its chaos unleashed “sina viatu” (I don't have shoes) “give me my blouse”...my blouse is wet.. “someone give me socks”” who has taken my eyeliner from here” just to give you a few of the choruses. And don't forget I said this is make up time so everyone is clustered at a mirror and if they cant get access to one, there is always one big one in our (Olive and Fiona)room. Girls will be girls right?

Finally the TOD will say... “get out! get out!” as she bundles them out of their dorms and locks up. Then they will have final inspection at the gate this entails looking at their uniform and general appearance and finally releasing them for chapel.

At 5.30 the girls place is functioning again I mean it has come alive, girls doing their laundry, others plaiting and making each others hair, others telling stories in their dorms laughter and playful screams and of course the occasional argument. Here are some of the titles for the arguments we have witnessed... ‘I want my socks back clean before tomorrow’, ‘who told you to sit on my bed’, ‘why are you staring at me funny’, ‘oh so you think you are better than me’..’don't talk to me like that’...and my personal favorite... ‘you eat too much’.

So TOD comes to give out supplies to those who need them this includes tissue paper, sanitary towels, bathing and washing soap, and toothpaste. TOD will also give out ingredients for the days evening meal so that those on kitchen duty can peel , chop grind cut whatever in order to cook it for our supper.

I know this may mean relaxing but you will never hand out supplies to all the girls at once just when you get to your room have kicked off your shoes and are about to fall on your bed and close your eyes for a second... “TOD come give me soap!!”. So naturally you ask why she wasn't with the others at the specified time to hand out supplies and then come the answers, “i was outside watering the plants” , “i didn't hear you call out”, “i forgot”, and my personal favorite, “i didn't know i needed it”.

This is also a case solving time and just so you know how our girls report cases..

Student: “ Fiona, please warn so and so for me, shes really looking for trouble, warn her,

warn her I tell you, before its too late”.

Fiona : “What has she done?”

Student : “Shes' always on my case

Fiona : What happened?

Student : I was minding my own business when she walked in and stood at the door. She Looked at me from head to toe and left. You tell her its not nice and i am not happy and its not fair and I am going to do the same so she can feel like I did.

And with this words the student leaves and you are left wondering how you helped solve the problem haha! Anyway, we have so much going on at the girls that I may need to write a series of novels but just so you know every day is a new day at the girls place. More next time from the girls place.

Fiona Ondara

God is always with us - camp

Harding five had for the last week been having a half day camp with our students. The theme was to let everyone know that God is always watching and with us all time everyday.

As always so many activities, were taking place, games, crafts, prayer stations and more games.

Each day was divided into various activities, the kids into different groups helped by a team member.

From at the last day of camp, Anthony Githinji's heart was changed and transformed, he wanted to be baptized right away. Tanner, one of the Harding group, baptized Anthony right away. On Sunday Peter Simala, one of our youngest boys was baptized too by Steve.

Base visits

Friday, as every other Friday, the team went into Eastleigh. We divided into groups then went out. We had visitors from Harding University with us. They had the chance of seeing street-life. As always the bases are always welcoming and never boring, full of jokes, laughter. We came to a base that had only guys of about 20 yrs plus. Though they were high on something (most likely jet fuel), one was willing to pray for the others. As he prayed we felt the warmth. His prayer lasted minutes, he mentioned almost all living things under heaven, including names of all his friends that he knew on the streets. He also said a prayer for the government, the Somalis, the police who keeps harassing them. He also mentioned the names of all team that were present there.

We went on to another base, only to find a security guard trying to beat a street boy, the boy had helped himself near the building where the guard was guarding. Our friend was so drunk that he was shaking from the drugs he had taken. We talked the guard down and helped remove the excrement that was near his building. Obviously the guard wanted to know more about us... on mentioning kulu (Charles' streets nickname), he said he was a former street boy and was helped some by Charles while he was still principal at KCITI, the guard used to come for the youth program, and remembered the sports and activities that were there then.

Next base, were so many boys that we did not know how to distribute the bread that we had, we knew that a fight would break out and decided to tell a story and the keen once who answered the questions would be ones getting the bread. The good thing was the younger ones were more keen than older ones... so the young ones who were our target, got bread.

At the base called Mlango Kubwa, the team found a girl who is positive. She was in such a pathetic state. We came back to the center to discuss what we could do. Evans, from Eastleigh was so worried that if we don't do anything, HIV/AIDS will spread in the bases. Because that girl, could be raped or sell her body to guys for protection. The lady (Kanini-rival to MITS and claims to protect the street youths) said she was taking care of her, but all she was doing was getting money form well wishers in the poor girls' name and spending it on her business of selling glue and other drugs to young street boys.

So, the team came to a common understanding that the girl be taken from the base and taken back to her mother, then her mother to work out a plan to get her help and support from her relatives. We helped by getting them funds to do all things that concerns finances.

Such events are all on the streets.

SMAC at MITS

Molly and group arrived Saturday morning after a flight delay. They had 15 crates and...boy were we glad that all crates made it through customs without any glitches.The SMAC will be having various classes with the literacy program and activities with the whole of the student body. They have prepared crafts, lesson plans in Maths, Science, Bible and Social Studies.

In the Social Studies class, they will present something they call 'Living Museum', which they are excited about.

Jan went on to get all the Nursery kids clothes. They were all excited. Jan spent time singing games songs. It was a blast.

Harding group is also here, and will spent the next month with us. They are helping out with the SMAC and all activities happening in classes.
Other visitors coming for a day to see the kids and spent time with the team are, another Harding groups from Mozambique, from Rwanda two people who have started a street ministry and want to emulate what we do here at MITS.