Right Hand Fork, Left
Hand Knife: Fine Dining in the Eighth Grade
We had the annual Eighth Grade Formal recently. It’s always
funny, and it’s always sad that the parents don’t get to see their
guys clean up so nice. One guy was so scared about being incorrect that he wrote
on his hands: RIGHT HAND FORK, LEFT HAND
KNIFE. One guy was so excited about getting to sit with the girl he liked that
he was bouncing off the walls for days before. When he got back to the dorm, he
was pretty subdued:
Me: What’s the matter?
Them: I was so excited when I found out I got to sit next to her, but
after two minutes, I ran out of things to say.
Me: What did you do?
Them: I looked the other way the rest of the night.
It’s easy to forget how hard it is to be an eighth grader, and
how awkward that age can be. Sometimes, I think that the bravest people I know
are eighth graders at this school; to go through that interesting stage of life
away from your parents would be so hard.
We get back to the states on July 17th. It is a long
journey; we leave at
This time we will be traveling with the dynamic duo, who hate crowds
and new things and not getting enough sleep, so we are going to try to slip
into town as quietly as we can, and once we get our sea legs back, we hope to
get to see everyone. We will be living in
My hope is to not work until September. We are all tired, and we will
have lots of work to get everyone readjusted to
If you wish to continue to support the feeding program, any monies that
come in after May 2004 will not be used until August 2005. If you can continue
to support us while we are on home assignment, we would appreciate it. We
understand if you can’t, but if you can, that would be helpful. Our largest supporter has not been able to
support us for the last several months, so we will need to raise additional
support when we are back. I’m not sure what kind of job I will be able to
get for just one year, but I will get something. But we are going to try hard
to spend part of this time at home resting; we are tired.
RVA has asked that the feeding program would cease while we are away.
All of us work more than full time jobs, and adding this would be a distraction
to a new staff member. The staff members who have been here for awhile have
their own projects, and most everyone is stretched pretty thin. The feeding
program takes a lot of time, and it is probably for the best that it takes a
rest for a year.
So it was quite bittersweet to be on the last delivery for a year. Headmasters got quite emotional as we told
them we would have to curtail the program for a year. I had to explain that
there was no more money in the fund, and I needed to be there to supervise, but
they have seen the fruit in this program, and as I listened to grown men
telling me about children running that didn’t run after noon because they
would normally be too tired, I thought: burn this into your heart. Let it hurt.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I should inform you that I received a
kickback from this program, and I’m not giving it back, no matter what.
I couldn’t give it back anyway. My name is on it. In fact, it is
so specific it says `A Gift for
And I’m not sure anyone else would want a purse with my name on
it.
Yes, a purse. Why, I don’t know. But it was made by a parent at
one of the schools we feed, and although I try hard to discourage that kind of
thing (there is nothing harder in the world than receiving stuff from people
who have nothing) what could I do?
I’m not even sure what to DO with a purse. But I do have one now.
So there you go, and back off.
We went to Kenton this week. This is the school that has started having
afternoon classes for the first time since we started providing lunches because
before the lunches, the kids didn’t have the energy to handle the
afternoon classes. It is very remote, and almost impossibly beautiful,
surrounded by large green hills. It was also so poor it would take your breath
away.
(The library @Kenton)
It is so poor. But they had some entertainment for us. They had a dance
troupe, and a young man who played a homemade xylophone. At closer range, I
could see it was made with discarded fence posts.
And it sounded so great. It was the most amazing thing, this little kid
playing this wonderful music on this junky homemade instrument, and I thought
how it would have been his right to think `I can’t do anything on this
piece of junk’ and not try. But he knew what was in his hand.
I have pondered this for days. What is really in my hand? If I looked
at what I had differently, would it change the way I lived my life? If I knew
what I really had, how would I change?
One last thing. The woman that
opens the computer center gets there at 7, and from
Kids have been arriving at
The programs are bearing such fruit. Please help us grow them. It would be wonderful to expand the feeding
program to cover 100 schools, and build 24 more computer centers. May I ask you
if you could ask your church or corporation if I could speak to them? I need
some larger venues in order to fund such expansion, and I don’t know how
to do it without your help. Can you help us help these kids?
Will you look and see what is in your hand?
And no, you can’t have my purse.
Your pal,
Steve
PS. One of my best and oldest friends in the world (since
sixth grade) has a book coming out in July, and I want to do a shameless plug
for it. The name of the book is the Millennium Matrix by Rex Miller, and I had
the privilege of reading the draft copy. I read it with a mixture of wonder and
depression. It will make you think and ponder so many issues in our society. It
depressed me because I wondered how someone who went to the same junior high
and high school could be so much smarter than me. Here is the link: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787962678.html
Stateside
Address:
Phone:
011-254-20-32046-252
peifer@kijabe.net
http://www.yourpal-steve.org/
Stateside
Address:
Phone:
011-254-20-32046-252
peifer@kijabe.net
http://peifer.kijabe.org