Today was our last day at Marurui
Primary School. It was so hard to say ‘good-bye’. They have taught me so much more than they
will ever realize.
The kids would run out and great us
each morning, “Teacher Onnica” “Teacher Nakesha” in their cute little
accents. They would each need to give us
a high five or hold our hands as we walked in.
They demonstrated obedience and respect for authority that is unheard of
in the States. They strived each day to
please us and sought out our approval in their academic performance. Please keep in mind that they live in one of
the slums in Kenya, in fact, the school is located in the middle of the
Marurui slums. They have had very
challenging lives with little resources, yet they do not make excuses and
strive each day to achieve excellence. They start school at age three, are required
to pay school and uniform fees, the only text book is often the teacher copy
and yet they are performing higher than most American students at the same
age. I can’t help but to question
American values and how we are raising our children as it relates to
education. Just think how far our kids
could go and what they could achieve if we raised them to value education as
many of the children that I have met do.
The teachers also welcomed us and
took us in as one of their own. We
shared tea together and fellowshipped during lunch each day. They shared their lives with us and
demonstrated that
hospitality is not limited by resources. They did not interact with each other as
simply colleagues; they truly cared about and for each other and they treated us
the same way. Today was no
different. They made sure they sent us
off well. They had special bread and
butter sandwiches for us during tea, showered us with words of appreciation,
and each gave us both a necklace to remember them. After hugs and tears, they ALL walked us
through the community and to our car asking us to come back. (Yes, leaving the
students at the school and I can assure you none of them thought about
misbehaving.) They assured us that they
would begin praying and fasting, asking God to provide for us to return. Wow!!!!
What amazing people!!
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| Teachers at Marurui Primary School |
Although they asked us to share how they
could improve, I assure you that they were the ones who showed us how we needed
to improve. God works in mysterious
ways. He will even take a person like me
half-way across the world to show me that He is indeed very much at work in the
lives of His people across the globe.
Please continue to pray for the teachers, students, and their families
at Marurui. They are an amazing group of
people and I thank God for the opportunity to have spent the summer with them.
