Our first week into the new school year at PACE has been an interesting one! We have really gotten to see the cultural differences between our worldview and the local Kenyan worldview - under a bit of a magnifying glass. We have to admit, too, that these differences have kept us spinning in circles. We’ve taken two courses on worldviews in the past year, and neither of them truly captured the struggle one faces in trying to accept a new way of ‘doing life’. However, the courses were focused on discovering God’s worldview – which is completely different from our western view, and indeed completely different from the place we find ourselves in today. Please keep us in your prayers as we fumble through….
We are learning through our struggles that in order for us to really immerse ourselves into this culture, we need to accept their worldview as legitimate, and not as something we need to fix. If we are going to fix anything, let it be our own worldview – so that it conforms more closely to God’s. We have noticed how easy it is for us as outsiders to see the sins or problems of another culture. But at the same time, we must realize that our society is not exempt from sins or problems. How about individualism, greed, and unchecked consumerism? Are these not examples of where our society falls short? And we can only imagine how the average Kenyan would react if they were plopped into our society! Please pray that we will first remove the logs out of our own eyes before we attempt to remove the sliver out of another’s eye….
All that aside, Taryn has had an interesting – but challenging – first week of school. Again, a lot of this is the result of the school system here being so different from ours back home. Plus, Taryn is admittedly a very creative, organized and structured person, which goes against the typical last minute planning style, the disarray of resources, and “by the book” teaching that characterizes the schools here. Despite all of this, the PACE school is renowned for being one of the best in the area.
So, while I’m busy in the office setting up, repairing and re-repairing computers, Taryn is teaching P.E. and Creative Arts to Classes 1-7, and she will be assisting with Class 4 Science. Her first classes were a hit! She introduced the children to dodge ball – many of whom laughed through the entire class! One student even rated the activity a 10 out of 10! For the lower grades, Creative Arts is a fascinating combination of 50 students from grades 1-3 ... yes, all at once! Their first activity involved cutting out a tracing of their hand on foam and decorating it with stickers and drawings. They liked the latter part, but most could not complete the cutting portion. Thus, Taryn was a busy bee helping nearly all 50 kids cut out their hands! The chaos of the class was worth the effort, though, because at the end of the class one young student approached Taryn and said (with her sweet little Kenyan voice), “Thank-you Teacher! Thank you! God Bless you!” That kept a smile on Taryn’s face for the rest of the day.
Another highlight of the week was getting our apartment set-up and ready to entertain our team from Harbour. And, in the midst of shopping around for supplies, we bumped into some familiar faces that had just arrived in Nyahururu … Gary, Grace, Jim, and Cathy! What a pleasant surprise! We’re looking forward to visiting with them more throughout the next couple of weeks.
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