Mangu Church School Classrooms

We squeezed in the van again. The ride this morning was rather bumpy and long. We drove through a town called Dagoretti on the way to Mangu every morning. The mass amount of people near the road conducting business was interesting to me. There were butcher shops, people selling everything from shoes to mango. There were people with punda (donkeys) pulling carts which could be loaded with water jugs or bundles of sticks. There were people waiting to catch taxi vans to commute to where ever they work. It was just like a city back home, just on a much lower economic scale. When we finally arrived at the church we were greeted by one of the teachers and some of the children from the school. Naturally after we unpacked and settled in we enjoyed some chi and pineapple, talked and prayed with the people in charge and then started to work.

The young men brought the mabati and placed it where we would

need it. They were interested in the "zoom zoom" or cordless impact wrenches we were using. So I showed one of the boys how to do it. He was excited and instantly I could see they really wanted to be part of the building process, so they took turns using the zoom zoom. One young man didn't have enough weight to sufficiently push against the tool. He stood there spinning the screw for what seemed like minutes. I started laughing and the whole group of boys started laughing with me. I then told him to push harder and laughed some more after which I helped him. The screw went in and he had a proud look of accomplishment and relief on his face. The ladies started painting and the girls were more than willing to observe and help. At this point I realized that we had way too much help. I could take photos all day and not even be missed; so I did. This was by far my favorite project. I learned so much.

My heart really went out to the children. It was here that the cultural and economic differences became real to me. I was rid of all my fear and started reaching out to the people. The relationships even though they were short lived, were Christian. We had that similarity. The children were well behaved and friendly. They were very happy. Their emotions and reactions were exactly like any other kid from the U S. They touched my skin and really look amazed at the color or lack of pigment. One of the teachers told me that some had never touched a white man before and wanted to see for themselves.

I could see our team starting to have fun with them and I wanted in on the experience. It was inevitable because the kids would swarm around us the instant we approached them. When I saw Josh, Tom, Scott, Andrea, Joe Bob, Carol, Kathy, Keith and

Michael taking photos and playing with the school children, I could see God's joy being shared. I am sure the rest of the team witnessed the same. We were learning from each other and didn't even know it at the time.