Appleseed Travel Journal

— Tailoring School

There are many challenges as to why or why not a project in Africa will succeed. The obstacles of generational impoverished living and being are many and monstrous to overcome. Just ask any non-profit or NGO (non-governmental organization) working in a developing country. For example, many times we have been told that if destitute women could just learn the skill of tailoring, then they would be able to provide for themselves and their families. So, we have tried. To be fair, there are some ladies who are now doing small scale mending and sewing with their machines, but we have also seen many women who could not get to school every day as they tried to survive and care for their families at the same time. The results have not been as hoped!

So, last spring when I asked church planter Justin in Rwanda what could be done to help women, once again I heard the reply, “By teaching them sewing/tailoring so they can sustain themselves and their children.” Justin assured me over and over again that in Rwanda it would be different and all of the reasons why. So, after MUCH negotiating we came to an agreement and a little center was opened in August.

Roger and I were just now lucky enough to be able to visit the center and meet the 11 new and eager students. And, I have to say, I am very impressed with the project so far. There are THREE people in place to ensure the success of the students. One is discipling and empowering them spiritually to start to live out of a different mindset as well as affirming them as they start churches in their homes and also share the love of God with others; another one is teaching them accounting and budgeting; and the third, is the tailoring teacher. Each student was given one book to keep financial records in and had to purchase on their own another book to keep patterns and notes in. Already in the first two months they have learned how to make four items: a school dress uniform, shorts for boys, and two different types of skirts. The women themselves are responsible for the sewing machines and must keep them in good repair. If they fail to come to class (M-F, 8-2), then they will be dismissed and replaced. These moms seem very anxious to learn, excited to be there and from their consistency already, I feel confident that by the end of the year, we will see 11 students, competent and ready to start their own businesses.

The marker for success and the continuation of the program will be checking in with the students three months after graduation next June to see where they are and how they are doing. If, indeed, they are stable, we plan to double the students to continue the program the following year. This program is not easy for these women. Committing to letting go of the past and breaking out of the cycle of poverty is hard. There are many things coming against them. But, we believe, that “with God all things are possible” and are so thankful that we can trust that even as He has not given up on us, so He continues to reach out to these 11 and so many more precious women here in Rwanda.


Students singing and dancing to welcome us!


Students


One of the student’s accounting books


A student’s patterns and notes for tailoring


Tailoring Teacher, Church Planter Justin, Spiritual Advisor, Accounting Teacher


The spokesman for the group thanking all of those women in America (Women Walking for Women) who are making it possible for her to learn a skill and make a better life for herself and her kids.

— Needs, Ever Pressing (Guys, this may be wayyyyy TMI for you!)

“What is the absolute biggest need in all of Liberty School,” I asked teacher Marie. She matter of factly and without hesitation, answered, “Sanitary pads for the girls.” Why I hadn’t thought of this before, I don’t know. It’s common knowledge that many girls in Africa must either quit school altogether or be out for a week when their period comes. It is a source of great embarrassment and frustration for them with no hope of ever having money enough to spend on something so “frivolous” and expensive as disposable pads. Sadly, girls use leaves, mattress stuffing, newspaper, corn husks, rocks, anything they can find…but still miss up to two months of school every year. Shockingly, this one issue is one of the keys to social change for girls. Why? Because when girls can stay in school it helps to stop the cycle of poverty!

Our daughter Sarah had enthusiastically sent me a link (daysforgirls.com) last year regarding this same issue. When I approached her, she was more than willing to help me make 24 sanitary pad kits for the older girls to test at Liberty School. Three months later, kits in hand, I sat in a circle of 24 girls, where we discussed this rather awkward subject…incredibly awkward for them because of my not being a peer, not to mention being a mzungu. But once at ease, that I was just like them and had even once been a girl who on having my first period thought surely I must be bleeding to death from some horrific disease, the girls talked quite freely…about issues such as hygiene, the reproductive cycle, sex, and, of course, their monthly period. For these village girls to receive a beautiful string bag (thank you, Sandee), four pads, one liner, plastic bags, soap, a washcloth (thank you Sarah, Katie and Ben)…all new, and something that would change their lives was such a shock. I wish you could have seen them. NEVER had they heard of such a thing and NEVER did they think they might have a way to cope with this sensitive and upsetting subject.

The very next day several of the girls dragged another younger girl who had been in our circle over to me. Somewhat self-conscious, but nevertheless anxious to talk with me, she told me that she was already using the pads. She was especially excited because not only could she attend class the day before, but also, she was able to go on the field trip with the rest of the school that day…that in itself a first for any of the students…and something she would have missed, all because there was no way for her to deal with her monthly cycle.

Encouraged by one after the other of the girls coming up and saying, “Thank you, thank you!” over and over and over again, I am hopeful that next Spring we will be able to make and take enough of the kits for each of the girls and each of the female teachers in Liberty School. Beyond that, I dream that one day there will be a small center where women will be taught how to make and sell these kits to women in their community, benefitting not only women and girls monthly, but also financially sustaining the women who are sewing and selling them. Hard to believe, but this one thing – a disposable sanitary pad – could change the face of women, and therefore, families in many developing countries, and in particular, our beloved Africa!

— Special Event

Today was an extremely unique day in the lives of some very special children.

To motivate some of them for an upcoming exam, we were able to join fifty children on an outing to the Kitale Museum. For most of these kids this was their first time to town, to see a supermarket, to see paved streets and the goings and comings of city life. After the museum they were treated to lunch at a local hotel (restaurant), where for many they had their first soda, a whole piece of chicken and French fries! What a day! It was like Christmas, Disneyland, and your birthday all rolled into one. These kids have worked hard because someone believes in them and believes for their future. Words have been woven in their spirits, like “I am with you always,” “we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord,” “with God all things are possible,” “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” In very real practical ways, these children are experiencing God’s love. Where many have known only hunger, physical abuse, sexual abuse, sickness and disease, today they are free to explore a world where there is enough…timidly they test and try to see if it really is safe. Today proved that it is. For some, I saw them smile wholeheartedly, without reservation for the very first time. Even they could not hide clutched by fear on such a day as this!

Liberty School began six years ago in a dilapidated structure with a few volunteer teachers and a handful of children, orphaned, left to live with relatives or “just somewhere” in the village of Bikeke in western Kenya. None of these children or the ones who were to follow would be able to attend school without the love and compassion of one man determined to reach into the whirlpool of human depravity continually fueled here by backyard breweries, witchcraft, superstition, prostitution and poverty with the love and light of Jesus Christ.

There are 27 candidates who will take their Class 8 examinations during the week of November 4. From Class 1 (first grade) until now (eighth grade) teachers have been preparing their students for this exam. It’s hard to believe that the years without pay, without a classroom, without books or papers or pen or even individual desks have proven that Liberty School is a viable institution. In recent examinations, the school placed 63rd out of 250 private and public schools in Kitale County. Today classrooms are standing on property owned by the school. Teachers are getting paid. Over 150 students are receiving a hot meal at least once and sometimes twice a day. Many of the most vulnerable older students are boarding at the school where they can be protected and nurtured without abuse or distraction. Almost every single one of these students has no father at all. At Liberty School they receive the tangible love, affection and instruction from not only Director John Wayonyi, but other male teachers. They receive nurturing and direction from the “mothers” of the school as well. For all this is a safe place for them to be little kids…to play, to laugh, to learn, to dream. Thank you to all of you!! You are the ones who are making this possible!!!

— Functional Adult Literacy Program

Sophie was a Muslim. She attended the mosque and read her Koran faithfully, even though her spiritual community treated her harshly and with cruelty. She also lived in abject poverty never even thinking or daring to hope that life could be any different. School fees had not been there for her to attend school as a child, so she had no education, no life skills for even the possibility of a better life. Young and looking for love in all the wrong places, Sophie became pregnant at a young age and now has a child “with a very large head,” who her mother and she must take care of constantly. Life for her was very, very difficult at best.

Sophie

That was until the day Irene came to her village. “Irene came to my home and she showed me love. Even when I was hungry, she gave me 2000 shillings so we could eat. She taught me about life issues. She is teaching me how to read and write. I can even write my name and all the names of the women in my class. She is teaching all of us savings among our group and table banking, and even how to manage our homes.”

Sophie is one of many students we met whose lives are being changed. Last February monies from Women Walking for Women and Team Uganda were used to fund the Functional Adult Literacy Program (FAL) in Eastern Uganda. Several women were taught how to instruct villages and women living in poverty in the subjects of functional living (hygiene and life skills) and literacy. The target students are women who had been forced to drop out of school (if they ever went) due to finances in the homes they were raised in or pregnancy or because they were used to work and/or raise their siblings.

Today there are 10 centers where teachers have committed (without any pay) to go out to villages or neighborhoods twice a week to meet with 20-30 students. The class cost nothing for the students. The ones who attend are faithful. They want a way out. Those who are not committed are replaced with others waiting in line who are willing. As you can imagine learning to read and write at age 18-45 is not easy. Zituna told me that Irene came to her home and told her that she would teach her how to read and write and that God would help her. When Irene gathered her first class it was under a tree. There they met for many months before a small structure could be built. After talking with some of the students, it was quickly apparent to have someone come into their lives to begin to speak love into their dry spirits has been life-changing. For someone to use their own small money (Irene sells charcoal just to get money for transport) to build real and lasting relationships is unbelievable to them. These women are experiencing the love of Jesus in real, practical ways. Many practice their newly found skill of reading by gathering in simple, small home churches where they find faith in the God who loves them and believes in them and is there to give them strength and courage to embrace a new way of living, letting go of so much that traditionally has kept them bound to merely surviving. There is joy on their faces and laughter in their hearts…it’s very obvious. Today they have hope. Far too long they have lived under the blanket of superstition, fear, and oppression for simply being a woman. Thank you, all…for enabling women in Uganda to go and be all they can and were created to be.

The tree where students met for the first few months in this particular village.

Four different families live in this one structure.

The structure that was built for the women to meet in to keep from being disturbed and distracted by onlookers or held back by weather.

Irene teaching her students.

Students taking a break “to clear their minds” by playing “sheep, sheep, goat”…what we call “duck, duck, goose.”

Students anxious and willing to learn.

Children forever curious and present…

And, one little boy who could not hold back and just had to touch the hand of the mzungu. Because one Ugandan woman reached out to another with love and compassion, chances are extremely good that she will see and make possible for this little one to go to school, be educated and come out of a life of poverty.

— Some of the New Things I'm Learning

Flowers: We had been sitting in a circle of about 35 men and women for two days when it came time to say good-bye. Many of these people had traveled on a matatu for a day, some for two days to be together and discuss and learn more about making disciples and starting simple churches not only from us, but also from each other. At the end of different ones of us sharing our final thoughts and good-byes, one young man from the capital city of Uganda, Kampala, gathered all of the Ugandans together and suggested in their local language Luganda that they all give us flowers as a thank you. As all of them started reaching down, scooping up thin air and then offering it to us, I couldn’t imagine what in the world was going on or what my response should/could be!! As it was then translated to us, these very poor rural Believers who had probably never either given or received a bouquet of real flowers, continued gathering invisible armfuls of what I thought must be some of the beautiful flowers native to their homeland. How could we not open up our arms to receive them as they offered them to us with such enthusiasm and love!

flowers

flower

flower

Cults: There are many cults in Africa. Christianity is often intertwined with traditional beliefs and witchcraft. Many things that are confusing and strange to me are customary to the African. For example, in one cult, people are invited not only to water baptism, but baptism of the Spirit…by fire…literally, by real fire!!! Wood is placed on the bare ground and once the fire is burning, those wanting this baptism must walk through it to receive the Holy Spirit in their lives. Mmmmm, anyone interested????

Bathroom issues: Who knew??? When visiting the toilet at immigration, we were asked to pay 10 shillings. This is often the case where there is a public toilet, so no big surprise. However, we were then asked if when we were using the toilet (i.e., squatty potty), would we be using it for a “long stay or short stay.” The cost for short being only 10 shillings, but if we needed it for a long stay, then it would be 20 shillings.

Wives: When visiting with a Kenyan friend we often meet up with here in Kitale, Kenya, we learned a little more about his past. He is Ugandan but he and part of his family escaped the war in Uganda some years ago. As refugees they settled in Western Kenya and now this man has built a good life for himself as a driver for an oil company and supervising armed guards as they travel back and forth to the Sudan border. Turns out his father had SIXTEEN wives! Now, seriously, guys, could you manage more than even one??? He explained that his father had some land, so some of the wives had their own hut where they lived with their children. Peter’s mother was number 10 in the line of 16, so I’m not sure if this was good or bad, but I’m reminded once again that I’m pretty darned grateful not to have to share my fella with anyone else!!!

Bowing: I mistakenly thought that Ugandan women bowing low to greet someone they respect, either a man or an older woman, was on the way out, but sadly (in my opinion) no. Over and over Roger and I (and others) were greeted with the customary both knees bent and low curtsy with head bowed and hand reaching up and extended to shake the right hand of the one they are saying hello to. It is very, very humbling and awkward as an American unaccustomed to this kind of humility. I always want to lift them up and say, “Please, please don’t do that; we are equals; I am neither higher nor lower than you.” As a woman, you are not beneath, not the tail, but the head.

Clapping: On the other hand, I LOVE the custom of some tribes in rural areas…that of neither bowing, handshaking or hugging or kissing…just running up to you, standing very close and clapping and clapping with a huge smile to greet and welcome you!

In-laws: Customarily in Africa the relationship with your in-laws is a very, very big deal. For example, when you go to visit your mother-in-law, the daughter (or son)-in-law buys and saves their very best clothes to wear, something special and nice. Then, it is always expected that you will bring a very generous gift to her…like a large bag of maize or sugar, along with a respectable amount of shillings to help her. This custom is not only to show respect, but also to stay in her good graces, vying for first place in her heart above that of her other in-law children.

Showing Approval: Yesterday I learned a new way for a group to applaud for someone who has spoken or done something they especially like. You might want to try it! There is a leader who raises his hands over his head, but far apart. Then with his fingers outstretched, he waves his hands repeatedly very fast. It’s then he shouts out, “I am here, do you see me? I am here, do you see me?” As he continues moving his hands very excitedly, he invites everyone else to join him in this action by saying, “Where are you? Where are you?” In response, we all raise our hands and shake them, declaring, “We are here; we are here!” ever watchful for what we know is coming next. As the enthusiasm grows, all of the sudden, the leader leans into the one we are applauding for and brings his hands down, inviting you to simultaneously do the same. And, SMACK! We all give one huge, huge, loud CLAP! However embarrassed, the person being applauded must receive this applause with a huge and gracious, “Thank you!”

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