On Tuesday, we packed up our stuff and headed back to Nairobi. And we were getting so use to the fresh air out near the mountains! Eugenio also let us know that the place that we were supposed to be serving the rest of our time here in Kenya had called him, and we wouldn't be able to go there. So, Eugenio was going to spend the next day finding out some options of where we could spend about a week and a half. I was kind of excited. It was such a great opportunity for God to open up a door and show us where we needed to be.
Wednesday night Eugenio let us know where we were going. He told us that we would be going back to Korogocho slums. I immediately felt so bummed and honestly had a bad attitude about it. This is the place we went to for 2 days during our second week. It was the absolutely hardest place we had been all summer. It is a school across from the Nairobi dump and basically the people there live off of it. The kids did not know any English and we were pushed into a class to just teach all day. It freaked me out because I like to have a plan and know exactly what I will be doing and not just thrown into a situation. God is laughing because that has been exactly what this summer has been... ha!
So, Thursday.....we started our drive towards Korogocho slums. I think I must have prayed the entire ride for just a good attitude about this and for Him to just HELP me through these days. I just wanted to show these kids God's love and how could I do that with a bad attitude? Without even realizing it....Thursday was such a great day. One of my teammates, Savannah, and I taught the 2nd and 3rd class (grade) which were shoved into one room....so we divided up the blackboard and attempted to teach. I don't know what happened but God really turned my way of thinking around that day. And it definitely was not as hard that first 2 days a couple of weeks ago.
It was a funny story because these kids had been praying this whole time that we would return....and we did. How awesome is God! These kids are absolutely precious and I just loved my class. The ages ranged from about 7 to 14...in 2nd and 3rd grade. It's so disappointing the lack of opportunities these kids have.
That Thursday evening we went home and brainstormed to come up with a syllabus of what we would do for Friday and the rest of next week.
- We made name tags for the kids so we could learned their names and they could color them. And we did learn them!
- We also made little booklets for each one (30) that had a different page for each day and it was say something like "Draw a picture of your family, your favorite animal, what you want to be when you grow up, and then a free day".
- Then we would also plan an art project that had to do with the Bible lesson for the day. We made swords of the spirit,a helmet of righteousness, bracelets, and a painted picture frame.
- Then we planned alot of math and made sure they knew it.
- Then, there were some other random subjects thrown in there.
Another interesting thing about the little drawing booklets we did was the day about "draw a picture of what you want to be when you grow up." I put myself in those shoes and thought about what what I wanted to be and what my friends wanted to be at that age. When we were in 3rd grade, we reached for the moon with our dreams. We wanted to be President or an astronaut or something just super cool. When I went around to check their drawing thing I saw the most were "Matatu drivers". I was just so sad because these kids don't even know how to dream and they don't know the possibilities except for what they see day to day.
The week at Korogocho was absolutely amazing. I think it was my most favorite week and it was the week that I was looking forward to the least. What an amazing God I serve. I am so thankful that is where He led us our last week.