Today we put on a puppet show for the kids of Kibera. I played the part of the rain in the story of Jesus walking on the water. It was pretty hilarious, b/c our Jesus puppet was one of those cone shaped people on a stick that pop up. Our Jesus had a beard, and we put a wash cloth on his head for the head piece. You get very resourceful. Our Peter character in the story was played by a wolf puppet. Something seemed a little wrong with that picutre, but I think we got the message across and the kids liked it. We had over 100 kids watching us though, and we did this outside in a dirt area. Everything is basically dirt here. Mostly I have been really laid back about the time thing. Because time in Africa is a joke. It takes 1 1/2 hour to get home and we spend a good part of the day waiting. However, I became frustrated today when we were at the school b/c it's impossible to communicate effectively with such a large group. We tried to pick kids to come up and say our Bible memory verse. But 25 kids would storm to the front at once. Structure is non existant here.
I should describe Kibera more. There are 1 million people living in a 4 km area. Everyone lives in tin buildings that look like they are held together by nothing. it gets hot inside because the metal absorbs the heat. There is this "stream" of sewage looking water that runs through all of Kibera. Everyone throws their trash in there and it's really disgusting and often smells. I always hope that we go there at a time when people are cooking and selling food on the street b/c it smells better. There "houses" are all directly next to each other with little alleys running everywhere. You should go watch "The Constant Gardner" b/c this movie is filmed there and gives a pretty accurate picture to what it looks like. Yesterday in my CRE (Christian Religious Education) class that we taught grade 8, we asked the kids what they would like to see in Kenya in the next 5 years. Someone said they would like to see all of Kibera turn into an actual city and the houses rebuilt. Supposedly many governments (like the US) donated money to rebuild Kibera. However, the Kenyan government is not letting this go through b/c the Kibera residents pay rent to landlords. And the landlords would lose lots of money. It is slum lords to the extreme here. I can't even describe it, and it seems incredible to imagine anyone paying to live there. Even though Kibera is very close to the city center, many people never make it into the city b/c everything they need is in Kibera and it is too expensive to get there. I was told today that students in ICY (my organization) Bible class that they have often live in Kibera and walk 2 hours to get to class b/c they can't afford the bus fair. It probably costs 50 cents - $1.
I talked to Peter, the director, today a lot about ICY and ways to get more people here and clarify what the organization does. Then he asked me how I saw my gifts fitting into camp and other things we do here. I told him I would really like to use art through the ministry we are doing at the Abide Camp in August. He thought this would be good, so I think I'm going to do some type of art with them to go along with different Bible lessons we teach. I'm so excited for this. I brought many art supplies with me and Victor, of the ICY team, tells me there are places to buy more art supplies here. Please pray for using art in this ministry. It is a bit unconventional for African culture, but I think it can work. I'm most concerned about the other people that will be helping and trying to lead such a large group at once.
One last funny thing is that on Sunday, Peter was preaching at church and out of the blue he asks someone to close the window. He said, "There is cannabis coming in and I do not want to smell it and start preaching heresy." We all got a kick out of that.
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