The Whole Picture

May 28, 2007

In the end, the plague touched us all…

These are called Nairobi Eyes; they are an insect that has covered everything in our area lately. The problem with them is not that they bite, but when you squish them, they secrete a chemical that causes really nasty burns on the skin. If one drops on you at night, you swat at it, and it can really leave a mark:

(JT with a nasty scar on his neck)

They are starting to go away, but it has resulted in dozens of students having burns all over, which in true MK fashion, has resulted in lots of posing and showing off. If it sounds funny and not disgusting, I’m not describing it correctly.

The above was taken on the annual band tour, which I got to be a chaperon on this year. My principal responsibility was to brush off ants from the chocolate chip cookies we had brought on the trip. Because you can’t buy chips out here, they are a coveted item and the team thought it was worth brushing off several hundred cookies. Again, if it sounds funny and not disgusting, I’m not describing it accurately.

In three days, the kids played seven concerts in seven different locations. The music director, besides being supremely talented, is also wise, so he booked one day with an evening performance at a country club and an afternoon date at a school for handicapped children.

Joytown was a hard place to go. Many Kenyans are horrified and ashamed if they have crippled children, and so they have a tendency to hide them, and so easily treated problems become life long disabilities. There were more sad cases than anyplace I’ve ever been.

Our kids performed, and then they said they wanted to sing a song for us. I settled in to be made more sad, if that was possible.

And then they started to sing.

I’ve heard beautiful choirs before, and Nancy and I went to the Symphony several times a year. I heard great music before. I’ve seen Neil Diamond in concert.

But honestly, I’ve never heard a choir that sang as wonderfully as the Joytown choir sang. And as I listened and marveled, I thought `I just don’t see the whole picture.’

I long to see more than what I see with my eyes. It was the reminder that His ways are so much greater than mine, and if we will only try, He will show us so much more.

(Matthew eating with some students at Joytown)

The road to Ewaso, a school we have provided food to for years, is not an easy one.

But if you hang in there, there are rewards. We saw giraffe, zebra and gazelle as we slowly and carefully drove to the school and got to tell the students that they would have a computer center.

It is such a poor school, and so remote, that many of the students didn’t know what a computer was. As I talked to some of them, the grins got bigger and bigger as they started to understand what would happen for them.

Sometimes, that is enough to make me happy. As I looked at the school, made of mud, I couldn’t stay glad.

The children love to eat, and there were long lines for the food that day.

A little girl wore a dress that was in such shambles that it made me angry. A little boy had a cough that was far worse than a bad cold, and there was no medicine. There is no power, no water, not enough desks, not enough teachers, and no books.

At times like that, I begin to rage inside for children who have to live like that. I rage for what could be, and never seems to change for little kids in this country. I RAGE.

Scripture says to be angry, and sin not.

I’ve got one part down pretty well.

Your pal

Steve and Nancy Peifer

Rift Valley Academy PO Box 80 Kijabe, Kenya 00220