A Month at Naomi's :)

[Katie Jones]

Greetings Sweet Friends and Family!

Can believe I've been away for one month (4 weeks and 3 days if you're really counting)? This month has been absolutely incredible. I will do my best to condense my time into an email that doesn't take a day to read (no promises...).

I'll start with a few quick updates on the education side of life! I have been enjoying my time in the classroom so much. The school on the Naomi's compound is called Cornerstone Prep, it currently holds the 54 kids here (the babies are excluded here). I have been teaching parts of geometry curriculum to Class 4, 5, 7 and 8. The classes are small but the personalities are big! Our time together has been wonderful. The head teacher has asked me, Keri, and Gracie to help the teachers come up with more projects for the kids to be doing that fit in with what they are learning. This past week, we have been in Kinder though Class 3 trying out some awesome projects; it has been so rewarding to see them learning without even knowing they are :) 

Just down the road from Naomi's Village is the site of Cornerstone Prep's new campus- which will grow over several years to fit not only the kids from Naomi's, but about 400 kids from the community as well. These kids will be fully sponsored to go to school, so they will not be hindered from attending school for funding reasons. We visited the school this past week, a construction site with a huge vision for what is possible for the kids of this community. It was wonderfully inspiring. I will contrast this experience with the local primary school, which we have visited twice now. On my second trip, I was asked on the spot to teach a math lesson to an 8th grade class of 50 students. Game for anything, I ended up enjoyed my time with them so much. However, it became clear 10 minutes in that many of them had no school supplies or learning materials whatsoever. I learned that underfunding/corruption is a completely normal aspect of life here in Kenyan public schools- making Cornerstone's vision all the more important.  

In other news, we climbed a mountain recently! Not Kilimanjaro, nobody panic. It is called Mt. Longonot, an inactive volcano (heavy on the in-) a few miles from us. The 2 mile trail up took us along a 2200 ft elevation change. Needless to say, we all had some trouble walking the next day. The view, however, was worth every sore muscle. We hiked another couple of miles around the rim to make for some lovely hiking. We have also made a few trips to Nairobi for our days off (we get one every two weeks, haha). The local markets have made for some amazing shopping- though it requires a bit of bargaining until they realize you are not their typical Mzungu (white person).

God is doing incredible things here at Naomi's. It is clear that the kids are growing to be healthy and happy, with so many relationships among the many house-moms (Aunties) and staff. It's not uncommon to find the head chef in the baby room on his off hour, or the housekeepers running around with Classes 1-3 during recess. The energy here is wonderful, the pace so much slower than Dallas. No one in a hurry to get to the end of the day (or even to get to that meeting on time). It's a rhythm I am growing to love more by the day. My next few weeks, I will be working primarily on photographing all of the kids for an art show coming up- I am so excited.  

The Lord has been teaching me so much of what it means to follow him through my time here. I am doing a study on serving and suffering in the context of the Bible and it has been immensely rewarding and timely.  I would love prayer that the last two weeks and two days (but who's counting?) would be full of opportunities to love on the kids here and serve Naomi's village well. I am praying now for him to reveal all that he needs me to learn here. I would also love continued prayer for Keri as she continues to discern the next step in starting her children's home and for Evelyn as she prepares to take her big exam in November. 

That's about all the words I think you handle today (not that I doubt your ability in any way). I would love to hear from you: questions, comments, prayer requests, life updates, etc. I love to hear how things are while I am away. Thanks for being amazing. 

Love, 

Katie Jones