Ministry site 1:
Manna Worldwide
Good News Academy and New Life Academy
Mombasa, Kenya
What we did:
-Our woman taught health education class to level 6-8 (comparable to our 6-8 grades with some older students that had taken time off or repeated levels. The oldest girl we saw was 18)
-Organized the library
-Helped cook the food
– Served the kids lunch
– Taught the kids games and songs
– Spent time with the kids and staff
– Led mornings devotionals with kids
– Door to door ministry
– Painted church/auditorium
-Preached
-Led Sunday School for children and youth
Local religions:
-Christianity (we saw a lot of Baptist and Seventh day Adventist)
– Islam
– Atheism (here they believe that they should live a good life and do good and that a good God must not exist because of the bad in the world)
-Hinduism
Local language:
English and Swahili
There are also 47 tribal languages
Other terms:
Asanta- Thank you (sounds like Santa because the first a is silent)
Asanta Sanya- thank you very much
Jambo- hello
Jambo- also whites person. The kids realize this is the only word most white people know and know that we'll respond when they say it and have started calling white people.
Mambo- how are you?
Pole- (pronounced poya) good
Habari yaz asubuhi- good morning
Quahari- good bye
Chaka- Smile
Hakunah matatata- no problem (Disney you were so close!). No problem as in it's okay, not an issue not as in no worries. People say this a lot.
Simba- lion
Rafiki- friend
Bata- Duck
Turk- Turkey
Other things of note:
-When they take a picture they say "chapati" where we would say "cheese"
-There's a game here where an adult yells an animal and the kids yell back meat or no based off of whether it's okay to eat.
-Sometimes teachers instruct the kids to clap for themselves and they do this by clapping their hand against their chest.
-The standard greeting is still the handshake that we learned in Uganda or a handshake that turns into a hug with an air kiss on each cheek and another on the cheek you started with.
-Disney's Lion King is based off of Kenya and so the landscape here is similar to what you see in the movie. The Circle of Life intro is Swahili and a few of the character names correspond with Swahili.
-Mombasa is a beach city on the Indian Ocean, we had the chance to go in the water and found that it is very hot with pockets of cold spots.
-Security is high in anywhere that white people might be because there were attacks on tourist/foreign spots where many people were killed. The attacks were aimed at foreigners by Muslim seed groups. There's a lot of fear and anger left from the attacks. When the Paris attacks happened this month we heard a lot of frustration that the Kenyan attacks were only be recognized now because of their similarities to Paris and that Kenyans felt no one noticed at the time they happened.
-For some reason there are a lot of Germans that vacation in Mombasa. The Kenyans tell us they're here to find wives (although a few that we met were married to other Germans so who knows how true the stereotype is).
-There's a big concern at one of the schools we worked with about losing students over break to drugs, pregnancy, or early marriage. Some of the girls feel that the best way to improve their life is to get married or pregnant, particularly if they can marry a foreigner. The teacher who was telling us about it mentioned that many times the girls will get married and then be left behind with any children the marriage produced.
-The people here are as friendly as in the other countries we visited, but here we were yelled at less for being white. Some of this may have been that our month was fairly sheltered and we were in a touristy area so many of the places we went were used to seeing white people come in and out. Rose, one of the teachers, told us if we went to a village we would have "Mzungo" or "Jambo" yelled at us.
-The schools we worked with not only provide meals to their students, but use whatever they have left to feed as many of the community kids as they can.
-The teachers here say"I/we love you" to the kids and it's clear that they really do care deeply for each child. When they dismiss for the day it's not uncommon to hear a prayer that includes a request that each child finds food at home for dinner. Some of the kids live off of the food the school provides and while the portions are large, those two meals can be all they have.
All in all, it was an amazing month. I really enjoyed working with Manna Worldwide and plan to support their work when I get home.
If you would like to learn more about Manna, please visit: mannaworldwide.com
If you would like to find out more or support the schools we worked with, please visit: hopefoundation.co.ke
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