Our New Home Away from Home - Part I

By Christy

After our incredible welcome “ceremony”, it was time to get our bags out of the van, and take them to our new home away from home. We had no idea what our room here would be like. Dennis brought the van up to some round huts, and led us to a cottage behind them. We stepped inside, and my mouth dropped. There was a spacious sitting room! Wow—we hadn’t had one of those in our first 6 weeks on the road. We opened the door to a bedroom. It was a round “hut” room modeled on the traditional African hut, with 2 dressers and a poster bed enclosed by a mosquito net.


A bed for 2--this would be my and Barry’s room. We went to see what the other room was like for the kids. Much to our surprise, there was not just one other room, but TWO! Oh my, Trevor and Shay will each have their own space?!? Unbelievable! And there was more! There was a kitchen…and a total bonus—a “nook” with a desk space where the kids could do school work! Wow…we “oohed” and “awed”. After the 4 of us were in the same room in India with our beds side by side, or 2 small rooms elsewhere, this was utter luxury! We called it our “5 Star Hotel” and laughed aloud in disbelief! We felt quite spoiled! We realized by the photos that this was where the American ELI Director had lived with his family for 2 years, and where he likely stays when he is here.
As I started unpacking, Trevor did a bit more exploring and discovered a storage space behind the wall in our bedroom, which he dubbed “the Rec Room.” He seemed quite pleased to begin a series of “Show & Tell.” Every couple minutes he emerged with a new “find”: a badminton racket, a jump rope, a frisbee...he caught me off guard when he came rolling thru the sitting room on a scooter with the handle bars just 12 inches high. I started cracking up! I think my all time favorite though, was when he appeared grinning from ear to ear with his “magic wand”—a large silver tinsel star on the end of a stick the width of a broom handle. I was so happy that there were some fun, random amusements for Trevor to enjoy as a welcome gift just for him. He was definitely getting a kick out of it!
After settling in for a bit, it was time for dinner (or supper, I should say). When  we walked into the “Dining Hall” room, there were young people scattered at different tables eating together. These must be the “Graduates” we have heard about (more about that coming in our blog)!
Someone pointed us to some silver pots with a “screw-on” lid. We lifted the first to find spaghetti noodles, and another to find ground meat (ground beef?). That’s the last thing we expected for our 1st Kenyan meal! Right in front of us was a “service window” with a man--Joel the cook--standing behind huge metal pots and serving up thick, pasty white blobs onto the Graduates’ plates. UGALI!!

It had been about 27 years since I had seen ugali--the staple food in Kenya--but one glimpse took me right back to my summer in Kenya in college all those years ago. They must be easing us Mzungu— “white ones”—into things with the pasta. I asked if I could have some and he gave me a small “slab” and spooned some broth over it.
We found our way to a table to sit with students. I sat near 3 young men. I tried making conversation, but it was awkward as they spoke softly and very timidly. I asked a few questions, but we didn’t get very far.
A couple of the ELI leaders came to meet us and sit with us over chai tea after dinner: Samuel and his wife Roda who founded Samro School, and Laban, the Children’s Home Director and his wife Angelina. We got to learn more about the various ministries under ELI and Samro School. In addition to the Training Center, there was also a Polytechnic Center across the road, where young people are learning tailoring.

They also shared that the school has about 50 Boarding students, most of whom are from South Sudan. They told us we would definitely be able to recognize the Sudanese students by how extremely tall they are! After more of our questions and their stories, we headed back to our cottage to settle in for the night. Samuel also warned us that we might hear a rat on our roof. We laughed, saying it would make us feel right at home, since right before we left our home in California, we were setting traps for some critters that had taken refuge from the rain in our attic.
In the morning we woke up and went to the church service after breakfast. Samuel saw us making our way to some chairs in the middle of the room, and he intervened and had us take seats in the very front row. The service began with singing songs out of a song book. It was a bit of a shock, coming from our very exuberant worship experiences in Uganda, to be in a room full of Africans, singing politely out of a hymn book. Wow, what a different feel! No drums, beating, no one swaying or dancing together to the underlying rhythm. Next, a group of students came forth to sing, all in uniforms. A second student group sang next, entering down the center aisle from the back, and they did get a tad lively with some rhythmic steps. These must be some of the Sudanese students they had told us about—some were a foot or 2 taller than their peers. They were right when they told us we’d recognize the Sudanese students--boy, these were some tall  8th graders!