Weeki ya Kwanza! (1st Week)

Last week I was in Katesh to welcome our new set of church planter families.  We began with CHE training and Lulu lead the teaching.  Lomayani, Annah, and myself took care of the Kids Training and some of the administrative needs as we kicked off this Training Course.  We were located at the bottom of Mt. Hanang which is the third largest mountain in Tanzania.

I always remind those around me how difficult it is with the children the first week of or so of training.  But, I think even though I say it I forget just how difficult it can be until we are facing it again.  This time also made it tricky since we were not located at the CMF Training Site.  There are seven families with sixteen kids ages 6 years old to 3 weeks old.  Yes, it is a big and young group!  The things that make it difficult are that they are scared and not used to being with people they do not know.  There is a lot of crying and this time it was more like screaming.  (I'll admit on Wednesday when we were finished one of the criers was me!)  They are not used to a schedule, structure, or school.  It does not take them long to LOVE training and for how young they really are they do well when they know we love them.  But, the first few days we strap the young ones on our backs, in our arms, and comfort as best as we can as they adapt.  It takes time for them to understand going to the bathroom in a choo rather than on me or in the classroom!  I acheived a personal best for the amount of times I have been urinated on in one day.  I stopped counting after seven.  I also have to consider the health elements that the kids come with from their village areas.  I have a family of three with a severe case of scabies.  There poor little hands and legs are covered with deep infected sores.  The clinic in Katesh couldn't treat them so we did the best we could till they arrive in Arusha.  I did the best that I could trying to control the cleanliness of the classroom.  I just hope we all don't end up with it!  It was terribly difficult!  (I have a few places on my leg I am treating and keeping and eye on!)  Another internesting thing to work through is that the kids sometimes do not know Swahili.  Usually the Masaai kids always fall into this category and I am fortunate that Annah knows a bit to be able to communicate.  However, this time we have four kids who only know Kimasaai and one child who only knows Kinuturu.  The little ones usually only know their native language.  So, the better of more than half of the kids do not know Swahili.  The negative, well I think it is obvious the difficulty it is to communicate.  The positive, I am not the only one having the difficulty!  I am not doing to bad with my Swahili and a week of only Swhaili was challenging but doable!  This is only a fraction of the challenges we face in welcoming a new group and even more this time being on the road.  But, it is always worth it but terribly exhausting!

Even in the midst of the chaos we love them through it and manage to begin our journey in the love of learning.  We talked about our God who is the Creator of the World.  We made pictures to reflect His wonderful creation, prayed, and thanked God for His work.  We also talked about big and small, tall and short, right and left, up and down.  Learning these concepts will help as we learn letters once at the Center.  As you can see below it didn't take long for smiling faces to emerge from hesitation!  

  

To celebrate God's day of rest we made bubble blowers out of water bottles that were cut in half.  It takes a while for the kids to understand the concept of blowing out slow enough for a bubble to emerge.  But, it didn't take long!  They were so excited and proud to be able to do this.  There was a lot of giggling and smiling faces!

I think we are in for another great Kids Training!!

Prayer Points~

• for these seven families!
• Lulu who is training the adults in CHE last week and this week
• Annah and Elinipa who are working with the Kids in learning and Kids CHE this next week
• For the spirit to work to bring unity in language
• I have returned to Arusha for team meetings.  We will be planning for 2013 and taking care of some things that need to be addressed on our team.  David Giles from the CMF office in Indy has flown in for our meetings this week.  Pray for God to reveal His will for His work within this nation and for the Spirit of unity to be present in our week.  
• The families and our national staff will travel to the CMF Training Center on the 15th of September.  

This was our kitchen for the two weeks.  Momma Grace and the momma who helped her are working HARD!!