We had a retired school teacher come to visit Karibu Centre from Portland, Oregon.
This was Connie’s 5th trip to Kenya. She’s becoming quite the pro….pretty able to handle the smells, and sights, and people. But she still needs that Starbucks coffee fix in the morning! Some things take awhile to take out of the American.
Connie planned some wonderful professional growth activities for the Centre teachers and also did a few sessions with the pregnant girls/new moms introducing the ideas of business and self-sustaining enterprises. The teachers and girls all seemed to throughly enjoy their time with Connie. It is interesting to note that several staff and many of the pregnant girls/new moms were struck by Connie’s testimony. I wasn’t around to hear the testimony itself, but it was eye-opening to the girls and staff to hear that “white people/wazungu” have struggles in their lives as well. From what so many of them see, they have this picture painted in their minds of Americans/white people having perfect lives, with perfect house, and perfect kids. Goodness sakes, they even told me they were shocked to hear that I vomited…..like any ordinary Kenyan. My how I wish I were immune to it as they imagine!
Anne working on one of Connie's craft projects...a fabric doll representing her son Alex
Besides her work with the Centre staff and residents, we all got a chance to enjoy time talking to a fellow Portlander and the kids got to have some “gramma” like time.
Connie was “lucky” enough for the kids to pick out a Skippy Jon Jones book. She had never read this author before. If you’ve ever read Skippy Jon, it takes a little getting used to! We love him, I think the language and style gave Connie a headache. I remember Grandpa having a bit of a difficult time getting the lingo of Skippy right too.
All in all, we were so thankful for Connie’s trip to Karibu Centre and all she got accomplished in her week here. We can’t wait to have her back again this spring!