Viva La Russells: July 11th - Let the Fun Begin! (VBS)

Monday marks the beginning of our work week in Mathare Valley. At 7:30 a.m., our entire team loads up for our bus ride to the slums. This week, we are working in the village of Kosovo (located in Mathare Valley). Missions of Hope has a school there (also called Kosovo). The medical team will hold their all-day clinic in the basement of the school while the rest of us lead vacation bible school in the morning and go out into the community to "Bring the Light" in the afternoon.

These two buildings comprise Kosovo, a school for nearly 800 students.

The plan is to conduct the bible school while the entire school is in session. In order to help the staff and teachers, our group will work with the younger children on Monday and Tuesday (ages 4-7). On Wednesday and Thursday, we will work with the older children (ages 8-12). Friday, we'll play in a soccer tournament (the white Americans versus the Kenyan children of several Missions of Hope schools).
Within our bible school, our group is running four different stations with the children rotating every 45 minutes. (Four groups of students rotate through each morning, so with transition time, bible school lasted approximately 4 hours). The four stations are bible and worship, crafts, snacks (which also includes balloon hats and face painting), and games. Games are played outside on a big dirt field and the other three stations use classrooms inside the school. We were told to expect each group of students to have between 100 and 150 kids in it!
Matt and I got to work the games station the entire week, with the help of a few other very energetic individuals. As we loaded the bus on Monday morning, I was a little bit nervous. The curriculum we had reviewed in preparation for the school really only had four games in it, and our games crew already knew those games really weren't adaptable to small Kenyan children in very large numbers. So, as I felt my anxiety begin to rise, I began to pray. I told God that I was nervous -- that I wanted to do my very best for these little ones who have so little. I wanted the experience to be incredible for each child, and yet I didn't want my own anxiety to get in the way of God working through me. As I prayed these words, I began to relax. And those of us running games began to discuss different game options. (A HUGE shout out and thank you to my dear friend, Rachel Tiemeyer, for all of her amazing game ideas -- we adapted many of them to use while we were playing with the kiddos!! Thank you!) We decided to keep it simple, especially since we'd have pre-school, kindergarten, and first grade children these first two days. We just wanted to enjoy the kids and let them enjoy us.
So, that first morning, four of us walked up to the game field carrying two suitcases filled with balls, jump ropes, and other small props we thought we could use. Almost as soon as we plopped the suitcases down in the field, over one hundred little ones came running out onto the field in their uniforms. Tattered shoes, little red sweaters, the boys in blue knickers and the girls in gingham blue dresses, rushing the four Americans standing by brightly colored balls and props! We realized almost immediately that the kids knew little to no english. They learn english while in school, so most of them are just starting to learn the language.

This is the field where we played games (goats would freely roam through, no kidding!)

Praise God, the teachers walked up behind the kids and immediately called for them to make a circle. In loud, clear voices, the teachers yell, "One, two!" Immediately, the kids respond, "One, two, make a circle!" and grab hands. As they begin to form the circle, one hundred kids repeat and add on, "One, two, make a circle! Three, four, a big circle like a sufuria in the kitchen!" (soo-foo-ree-a: swahili for a big saucepan, like the ones they cook with or even wash dishes in). It becomes obvious that one giant circle of 100 kids won't be easy to work with, so we quickly split the kids into three smaller circles. One of our high school team members gets pulled away by some of the neighborhood kids (those not in school) to play soccer at the end of the field. He ends up playing soccer with them for well over two hours! (Good thing he's 18 and a natural athlete). The local kids LOVED him.
Matt, Erik, and I each take one of the smaller circles and begin playing games. With these little ones, their attention spans are shorter. Each of our games lasts between 3-5 minutes. In the course of the next 40 minutes, I probably play 12-15 different games with my circle. The teachers are in our circles, too, and they are happy to be involved. In addition to translating the rules of our games, the teachers also suggest some of their Kenyan games and songs. I LOVED learning the traditional songs and dances, and the kids got the biggest kick out of seeing a white girl do their dances. And I'm not kidding, those little four and five year olds have SO much rhythm!
Because of the chaos of that first morning, our games team went non-stop for four hours. (We learned later that afternoon that we were supposed to have a short break for tea in between groups three and four -- oops!) When the last group finally left the field, the four of us were exhausted, filthy, and filled with joy. I must have hugged and high five-d nearly 300 kids in the course of the morning. We packed the balls and props back into our suitcases, now covered in the rich, orange dirt, and went in for lunch.