Makuru

Makuru was my first experience being in the slums of Nairobi. As 7 mazungus (people with white skin) and 1 Kenyan walked single file down the narrow paths of the slums we were silent. My silence was due to two things. First, I was taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of this slum. Secondly, I did not want to draw any more attention to our group as we made our way into the slum. I have never experienced such poverty…not even during my times in Uganda. This was unimaginable…the trash and black dirt are mixed together to form a very uneven path through the shacks of homes and stores. A stream of water made as small rut in the dirt and trash we were walking along. I think the most saddening sight was of the children that looked to be 1 or 2 years old that were sitting in their rags amongst the dirt and trash playing in front of their homes. How does your heart not tighten at that? Our team was traveling to the school of El Shadi. This is a nursery school with 3 different classes…one class of around 30 4 year olds, another with 30 or so 5 and 6 year olds, and a class of around 15 seven year olds. Let me tell you the shouts and laughter that greeted us at the gate was music to our ears. These were not shy kids. In fact, they were the most wild and loud group of African students I have ever been around. In all my previous African school experiences the students have been excited to see us yet had a reserved and shy personality. They also tended to be very obedient and orderly…this was not the case for the school of El Shadi. Granted when we were in the classrooms they were really good, but the amount of energy these kids had blew me away. Now don’t forget that I am a school teacher so for me to say this means they REALLY had A LOT of ENERGY. It was a blast! These kiddos went crazy over the puppets wanting to touch them, shake their hands, but most of all they wanted to put their fingers in the puppets mouths to see if they would bite them. Oh the squeals of delight and surprise when the puppets actually did try to bite their little fingers…gently I might add.

We had a great morning of teaching Bible stories, singing with the puppets, doing a craft, as well as weighing and learning the heights of all the kids. My favorite part of the day was when the 4 year olds were being weighted and needed help putting their shoes back on. I would plop those precious children down in my lap, work on putting on their ragged shoes, give a smile and a hug, and send them to lunch. They were absolutely adorable…it made my heart smile.

I am so grateful to be able to go back several times a week to help out at this school! I am sure I will have more fun posts about these sweet kids in the future.

PS...Mesh is our translator who is a God send. She goes everywhere with us...We love her and her sweet spirit! She is in the 1st picture.