Visiting the Deaf Children School...

What a fun day today…even with the not-so-fun start to it.

I’m still feeling a bit yucky from the food poisoning. Remind me NEVER to eat at this restaurant again. I woke up at 2:30 this morning with a stomach ache. Then 10 minutes later, one of our dogs went on a barking rampage and I had to go to the window and scream his name. I saw him cower to a corner of the yard. But by that time I was wide awake; no matter what, I just couldn’t get back to sleep.

It was not a good way to start off a busy day but nonetheless, I had things to do. Since I couldn’t sleep, I thought, Maybe I can go and sit down at the computer and try to catch up on some personal emails. So at 4:15 am, I went to the office, with my hot cup of tea, got the laptop all fired up, sat down, got situated and was excited to start on my emails. And then….

The internet wouldn’t connect…I tried for an hour. Nothing, nada, zilch.

My assumption is that the power went out at some point during the night for a period of time. When that happens, the main server in town goes down and it needs to wait for the office to open and someone to go in and manually reset the server. And since the office didn’t open until 7:30-8:00 in the morning, I knew that I wouldn’t be getting to email that morning. Now what was I going to do? So I decided to type up some of the emails to people, save them and then send them out when I had access. It would save time. Smart thinking, eh?

The night before, a friend of mine had asked me to look up two Bible verses and let me know what I got from them and to email her back on them. They were: Isaiah 41:10 and Haggai 2:5. I looked them up the night before, as I was in bed, composed the email at 5:00 this morning and then emailed her today (when the internet was working!) what I got from them. She later responded and suggested that I put it on my blog (changed a sentence in it to protect a bit of privacy) so here you go:

Isaiah 41:10

I looked it up and noticed that in August 2006 (I was in Kenya at the time of writing this) I wrote something in the margin next to this verse. This is what I wrote.

When I feel at my lowest, my loneliest, I will focus on You. You are always with me. When I cry for help, Lord, You are there for me. When lonely, when I want to give up, You hug me; You comfort me.

In times of struggle, in times of desperation, God provides us with a strength we don't understand. He gives us Him in a deeper level. When I read the last line, "I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." it reminds me of the Footprints story that we all know. He's holding us in those low times, carrying us, bearing the burden for us and covering us with Himself.

Haggai 2:5

This verse reminds me of the sermon I listened to the other day and blogged about: Do You Fear the Kitten or the Lion?

I believe that we live in a world of fear; that we've been controlling people, which in the inner part of ourselves, means that we are full of fear, afraid to give up control to our Father. We need to stop fearing. Does fear not show a lack of faith in God?

We tend to forget that He, our Creator, is always with us. Our lives are in His hands and we're so precious to Him. Are we not worth more than the birds he feeds and they do not fear for they know that their Creator will always provide for them.

Anyway, that's what I got. I see the basis of the two verses being on fear. I guess we need to rise up, show our faith in God and give Him control of ALL things. We cannot control what tomorrow will bring; our lives are truly in His hands. We need to trust in God, surrender ALL to God and watch Him work in our lives.

What do you think? Read those verses and let me know your thoughts.

So that was my morning. I was still feeling queasy when I had to meet Anne in town to catch a matatu together to Webuye, a small town with a stinky paper factory. : ) Anne suggested that I stay home and rest but I was starting to get excited about visiting those children that I had so much fun with back in January (I blogged about it!).

We were going to a deaf school called St. Anthony’s where our Canadian friends are supporting over 20+ deaf children in this school. We help them out in getting things done since Daniel and I are the ones on the ground here.

When we got to the school and as we walked through the gate, I immediately recognized some of the children from our first day visiting. And it was so cool that they immediately recognized me and some of them even remembered my name sign.

Here is a picture of me with two of the boys from my first visit with them. I’m showing what my name sign is.

One of the boys that I met last time came running to me, doing my name sign. I was so happy that he remembered but the real shocker was when I did HIS name sign back at him. He just bursted in to an uncontrollable laughter and all his friends were laughing and hitting him, pointing at me, then pointing at him, shocked that I would remember his name sign.

Our friend Martin took us in to the school’s Assessment Room. The children’s guardians are interviewed by one person while the child is hooked up this machine that gives different pitches of tones. I wanted to try it but didn’t get a chance to. Maybe next time. : )

While I was sitting in the Assessment Room waiting for Martin to find an empty classroom that we could use to do our own assessments in with the guardians and the children, I heard a cry behind me. A little deaf girl name Milcah (Mil-ka) had bumped in to the door and scratched her arm. So I motioned her over and she immediately came over. I picked her up and without a second thought, she nuzzled up against me, put her head under my chin, put her thumb in her mouth and calmed down. I looked at her arm, saw where it was scratched and gave it a kiss. A smile crept up on her lips.

All the other children surrounded the doorway, watching Milcah get hugged by an mzungu (white person); some of them showing jealousy. One of them purposely bumped the door in hopes to get hurt and comforted by me. : ) A few times, I tried to put Milcah down but she wouldn’t see of it. She clutched my arm and wouldn’t let me go. So of course, I kept cuddling her.

Finally I put her down and only because Martin had found us a room to do our work in.

Here is a picture of Milcah; after putting her down. Beautiful, isn’t she?

I won’t bore you on the assessment stuff that we did but in total of 12 assessments. In between assessments, Milcah found me in the classroom we were using. She came over to me; I pulled her up on my lap and again she immediately nuzzled herself up against me, her head under my chin. I started rocking her and kissing her forehead. About 10 minutes later, I heard a little snore come from my lap. I looked down to find that she was fast asleep; dead to the world. It was the cutest thing ever; her fingers in her mouth.

Here is a picture of her sleeping in my lap.

Once the other children saw that I had a camera (to take pictures of the children we were assessing), they kept motioning for me to take a picture of them. So of course, I did. : )

Here are some of the children. How can you not just fall in love with them?

We said goodbye to the kids; told them (well had someone sign to them) that we would be back to visit. It ended up being a great day.

And the hour ride matatu ride back to Kitale was fun too. Here were 23 people squished in a 14 passenger van on a very hot day and yet, no one complained…well except to tell the driver to not take so long at the stops so that we could get going again and get some air in the matatu.

The one thing I love about Kenyans; everyone talks to everyone, whether you know each other or not. People just strike up conversations with one another. Anne and I were chatting away with 3 other people; teasing the conductor (the guy who collects the money). I can’t see a city bus in North America being busy with conversation from people who don’t know each other.

There’s a documentary/movie called “And God Grew Tired of Us” that focuses on about 12 different Sudanese men who fled Sudan to Ethiopia (1,000 kms walk) to escape the war in their country. Then after 3 years and change of government in Ethiopia, they had to travel back through Sudan and found refuge in Northern Kenya, at the refuge camp up in Kakuma (Turkana) that I visited last year.

The US government gave a number of Sudanese men the opportunity to come to America, get an education, a job, to try to better their lives, to get them out of the refuge camp. The two groups of men they focus on were located in Syracuse, New York and Pittsburg, Philadelphia. It shows the unbelievable culture shock that they went through in arriving in the US; the struggles they had, etc. In one scene, one of the main men of the documentary says that one of the things that he doesn’t like and can’t get used to about America is how unfriendly the people are. He says that he knows he can’t go up to a person and just greet them, start talking to them. They would think that he wanted something or just tell him to go away. He said that back in his home of Sudan, everyone talked to everyone, whether you knew them or not. But in America, everyone just flies by each other. No one stops to get to know one another.

And it’s so true. I saw that today. I saw a group of people who didn’t know each other at all, just all start chatting away. It was like they had all been friends for years. It was such a great thing to see; to be a part of.

Can we be more like that in Canada, in America?

Anyway, until next time. For those of you in Ontario, I hope the snow stops soon. I’ll try to send some of our 29 degree weather to you. No, I’m not bragging. Okay, maybe I am. : )

To see pictures from today, check out my blog. www.meredithlopez.blogspot.com

Love you all,

Meredith

xoxoxo