Sunday, July 10th - Joska

          Sunday morning, we rode the bus for an hour and a half to visit Joska and attend worship service.  Joska is one of Missions of Hope's schools, but it is not located in the slums of Mathare.  Joska is a boarding school for students in 6th, 7th, or 8th grades, and it is located outside of Nairobi in the country side.  Students at Joska have the opportunity to experience life outside of the slums, completely removed from the many temptations they might face at home.
          As we were driving, I had already formed a picture in my mind of what the school would look like.  I was envisioning more concrete buildings, but surrounded by trees and grass instead of slum houses and sewage rivers.  The image in my head was at least partially correct.  Joska sits on a beautiful piece of property, surrounded by fields.  However, Joska looks nothing like any boarding school you've probably seen before.  The school itself is housed in semi-permanent, single story structures built of corrugated tin and wood.  The floors are dirt.  The fields immediately surrounding the school are dirt.  I did notice two concrete buildings, neither completely finished, and two greenhouses.  There is open space here.  But to be honest, my gut response was, "This is a school?"
          Our bus parks and we can already hear the worship music pouring out of the church (also made of corrugated tin and wood).  We are worshiping with the students this morning, and I've been looking forward to this for a few days now (ever since I learned about it, actually).  Our group files in, and we're seated in the front of the church building.  The service is amazing.  The music is pure and powerful. The students perform dances, sing, and recite memory verses for us.  God is in this place.  As I looked around at the hundreds of students worshipping with me, I felt another shift in my heart.  God is showing me the future -- of Kenya and possibly even the world.  In this room sit hundreds of students brought up out of poverty to experience God at this boarding school, to learn of His love.  They are safe here.  Wow.
          After worship, our team is divided in to pairs and sent off to visit classrooms full of kids.  (The typical Sunday routine for Joska students is worship service in the morning and individual study in the afternoon.  The students work in their classroom on homework or other independent study projects.)  Matt and I were sent into a class of 8th grade students.  This was easily my favorite part of the day.  Matt and I got to just hang out with these 20 kids for nearly two hours.  No agenda. No plans.  They had tons of questions for us - about our lives, our kids, our jobs, our hobbies, our favorite food, our talents.  Oh, and Matt told them my talent was singing.  So, they asked me to sing.  How could I say no?  I sang "Amazing Grace".  Then they asked Matt and me to sing our National Anthem.  After we finished (yes, we remembered all the words), they sang us the Kenyan National Anthem.  We learned some Swahili and they taught us some of their favorite songs.  After about an hour and a half of just talking, the kids took us outside to teach us some of their favorite games and dances.  It was a blast.  As we said goodbye, we gave and received hugs from all of them.  I'm still praying for that class of kids, and I will continue to pray for them.  God has big things in store for that group!
          The school served us lunch (rice, vegetables, beef stew, warm sodas and water) and then took us on a tour.  The two concrete buildings I saw as we drove in are both still under construction.  As God provides the finances, Missions of Hope builds permanent structures for the students at Joska.  One floor of the permanent dormitory is finished, housing 8th grade boys and 8th grade girls.  The second floor is under construction.  The other building is a multi-purpose building.  It will be used as a kitchen and cafeteria (currently, students eat lunch in their classrooms), a basketball court, and meeting space.  The school has it's own greenhouses, where they teach students about agriculture.  It also has a chicken coup (think eggs and chicken for the kids to eat).
          At the end of the tour, we had the chance to walk into the dorms.  Each bunkhouse had one long room filled with bunks stacked 3-high.  Space was tight, but it was clean.  My first thought was, "Wow. This doesn't seem so great."  But then I remembered what I saw in the slum shacks on Friday afternoon.  Families of 8 shared one bed or slept on the floor on a piece of cardboard.  Here at Joska, each child had their own bed.  A bathroom was just outside their door.  Running water and electricity was available.  Meals were served every day.  So much is provided here...small, life giving comforts that most of these kids do not have in their own homes.  I realized that I had been looking at Joska through my "American-colored lenses" instead of seeing the school through God's eyes.  Suddenly, God opened my eyes and I saw Joska as a sanctuary and a refuge.
          The kids are learning here, too, and in a big way.  There is discipline and structure.  As we were leaving the dorms, I saw this schedule posted on the walls:

          And that's the Saturday schedule!  The 8th graders told Matt and me that their weekly days start at 5 a.m. and end between 9 and 9:30 p.m.!
          After our tour, we said goodbye to the classes we visited and loaded up the bus.  On the drive back, every one shared stories from their time in the classrooms.  When we returned to the guest house, we ate dinner and discussed our plans for our first work day.