School lunches

Anna's boys attend a school just around the corner from the office. It is very common for all school children to have a hot lunch at school each day. Anna and her husband have chosen , for various reasons, to do it differently and each day Anna either packs lunch for her two boys or takes it to them at lunch time. Sometimes, Jenepher, from the YFC office, takes it to the boys and I have gone with her a couple of times.

Wema and Furaha go to Westlands school.

There is plenty of space to play

and I really liked the educational walls 

 around the school.

  Hardly a wall that is not informative.

I particularly liked this one indicating when to wash our hands - after toilet, after touching pets, after wiping baby, before cooking, and before eating. Very sound.

It seems that school bags are left outside the classroom

 and the buses wait at school all day to return the children home after school.

A good reminder nailed to a tree close to the front of the school.

DO NOTHING

BE NOTHING

 This is where Furaha eats lunch with his classmates

 

 and where we deliver Wema's lunch to him.

 Green grams (mung beans) and chepati today. Wema seems happy, don't you think?

My new young friend Trevor

When I came home from church last Sunday, as I went through the gates of the apartment complex, I met one of the guards, Lydia, with her son Trevor. Trevor was busy drawing/copying an adult cartoon from a newspaper. It wasn't an edifying message at all, and, in my opinion, it wasn't suitable for an eightish year old boy to be engaging with. Lydia agreed with me. I asked if there was something else that he could be drawing. Lydia's response was: "Do you have something?"  Fair comment. I had to wrack my brains.

Yes, I realised that I did have something at my place. Would he like to draw a kangaroo?

I had brought with me, as gifts, some drawstring bags I had made from Aussie fabrics. One is all kangaroos. Trevor was my first recipient. He was VERY happy with the bag and a pencil with kangaroos on it.

He set about drawing his first ever kangaroo and then brought it down to me as a present. It says:

Present:  From Trevor To Jane

Love it! Thank you, Trevor.

Of course I wanted to take a photo of Trevor with his kangaroo bag

 and one with his lovely mum.

God used you two to bless my day.

Lesson in chapati making

Martha is Anna's Personal Assistant and a very competent administrator and chepati maker.

She offered to give me a lesson in chepati-making.

Forgot the photo of mixing the dough, sorry.

Martha taught by example every step of the way, first rolling the dough,

then oiling it

and rolling again into a long roll to be chopped into shorter sections - one for each chepati.

Next step, re-roll the chopped sections of dough

into little rounds that look a bit like a sweet scroll.

Now it was time to re-roll them again

before putting them on the very hot chepati griddle to cook.

Then it was my turn to follow Martha's instructions.

Thank you for my chepati lesson, Martha, and they were DELICIOUS. Sorry I forgot the photo of that part too, but everyone in the YFC office enjoyed them.

Kenya YFC

I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya just over a week ago. I love Africa and its so good to be back.

My boss while I'm here is Anna, the National Director of YFC in Kenya. I first met Anna at the YFC International General Assembly in Denver in 2011 and our paths crossed again in Ethiopia in 2016  when she invited me to come to Kenya sometime. And so now, here I am. Thank you for the invitation, Anna. It's so good to be here with you and your team.

My first day at the office, last Friday, was a staff meeting (admin staff only) - perfect timing to meet them all.  I'm going to enjoy working alongside this team. I'll meet the other members of YFC Kenya as time goes by.

The YFC office is at the end of a quiet, green road in Westlands.

and the property is shared with a manufacturing company.

The sign on the front door is very simple

 and I especially liked the one on the toilet door. Hope you can read it!