ABOUT THIS FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN:
(The title of this campaign sounds better when you know that the "Ky" in Kyangoma sounds like "Ch"!)

In 2010, I went to Kenya. I spent two months in a rural town, Kikima, living on the grounds of an orphanage, and teaching at a local school - Kyangoma Primary School.

As I experienced it, Kenya has a strange way of absolutely breaking your heart one moment, and filling you with brilliant joy the next. I felt this shift of emotions often teaching at Kyangoma. It's a school with too few teachers, and too many students. Windows were missing window panes, floors were cracked, blackboards were chipped and pitted. But what a transformation, when grinning kids are leaning out those windows, waving you over to talk. What a transformation, when a bare, dusty classroom is full of students wildly waving their hands in the air, competing to answer questions. The football (soccer, for us North Americans) field, half overgrown with knee-high grass hiding uneven ground that will trip you up in the most undignified ways, became the place where the most energetic, entheusiastic, joyous games were played.

I left a part of my heart at that school, and in Kenya. So I'll be going back. This summer, June 19 to July 16, I'm going back to Kenya.

I heard many times in Kikima about how much they value visitors, because visitors bring blessings. I'd like to make this true for my visit, and bring with me a donation for my beloved school. I'm going to be making a donation out of my own pocket before I go, but I'd love to fundraise some extra.

HOW TO DONATE:
You can donate HERE with a credit card/bank account/PayPal balance (you don't need to sign up or have an account with PayPal to do a credit card donation, though).

If you don't like PayPal, I will also accept donations by cheque or Canadian/US cash. My mailing address is:

2084 Oak Grove Place
Burlington, ON
L7L 6H1
Canada

As a small thanks for donating, anyone who donates $10 will be mailed a set of two small art magnets. Anyone who donates $20 will be mailed a set of two large art magnets. Donations of all sizes will recieve my humble thanks and eternal gratitude.

ABOUT YOUR DONATIONS:
ChipIn processes donations through PayPal, and PayPal takes a small fee from all money donated.

BUT! I'm willing to cover those fees myself - I'll donate to Kyangoma what was donated pre-PayPal fees.

I do not run a charity, nor am I employed by one, so donations here are unfortunately not tax deductable.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a thousand pictures:
(Sorry about the sun glare!)


FYI, my art magnets look like this:

Problem with posting via e-mail is that I don't know if I can edit. There were supposed to be images with my last post, but I forgot to attach them. They're way to important to miss posting though, so here they are now.

The earrings, the soccer balls, the rulers, and a photo of a heap of the other miscellaneous things brought from Canada to Kenya for Kyangoma.

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Last week we visited Kyangoma Primary, my father, our entourage and I. They'd prepared an enormous lunch for us and, as when I'd first arrived in Kenya and was shown around, everyone was introduced and expected to give speeches. I am, hopefully, a bit better at making up and giving speeches on the fly now, because I've had to give more than I can count while here.

My dad, bless his heart, came to Kenya with 3 suitcases FULL of goodies for Hope Rolling Hills and Kyangoma: some of these goodies from him and my mom, some contributed by others. So HERE is (part 1 of 2 posts) where I thank everyone for their amazing thoughtfulness and generosity:

Anyone remember the post about my girls and how they use grass for earrings? Well, they'll have real earrings now, thanks to Alex Davison and Lynda Martin of Cansec; I'm sure they'll be the envy of the school now, and I was able to use the earrings to jump into a quick speech on self-esteem, confidence, and feeling beautiful, feeling "smart". Thank you! You've helped make a difference.

I KNOW I've written about having Phys Ed, playing football with my students; it's a really big thing for them, not only because it's just plain FUN, but because I'm sure the students must NEED something to enjoy, to look forward to. So we brought 5 footballs, generously donated by retired Cansec employee, Gail Duncan. The balls were received with much gratitude; the headmaster told us he felt so blessed and lucky to receive them, because no other nearby schools have SO many balls. Thank you! You've helped make a difference.

We presented the school with an enormous amount of pens and some pencils, and then we gave them something that will undoubtedly be an immense help to the students, AND a great source of pride: 500 metal rulers, printed with inspirational quotes by Obama and Ghandi... and also printed with the name of the school on the front. This amazing gift was made possible by Elliot Shendale at Macfarlane Nameplate, who had these rulers printed for FREE. I'd suggested to my dad that we bring some rulers for the kids here because I've seen them trying to draw straight lines with anything BUT rulers, and makeshift rulers do not, obviously, have measurements. I'd never imagined that'd we'd end up with 500 that the kids would be able to know were JUST for them. Thank you! You have made a difference.

We had a few other things for the school as well; a world map, so the kids could "see" the rest of the world outside of east Africa. Many bandaids (again donated by Cansec staff), for basic first aid of the cuts and scrapes I've seen the kids get at school. A few skipping ropes (which the headmaster demonstrated how to use in front of an assembly of students, to much applause), frisbees (including a very large fabric one, which was tossed into the crowd of students for more demonstration). An assortment of other balls. Stickers for teachers to use as rewards for good test marks (the teachers had noticed me doing this with a small supply of stickers I'd brought when I arrived, and that my students had been SO excited about getting them).

It was amazing. Just amazing. I got to come here to Kenya, and see what peoples' kindness and generosity have done for people here. I keep hearing about a belief the people have: that visitors bring with them blessings. But with out many people back home and their generosity, I'd have been just a visitor. You all gave me the blessings to bring with me.

Thank you all so, so much. You have made a difference.
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I've told about how my father sponsors two children in Kikima, Kenya through creation of hope: Muthina, our most recently sponsored child who I've posted about before, has been admitted to Hope Rolling Hills along with her brother, so I've been fantastically lucky to get a chance to get to know them a bit more this week. Like many kids during their first few weeks, or month, at the home, these two are fairly quiet, a little more hesitant than the rest - but I've already caught them smiling at me, and they've caught on to high-fiving as greetings or to signify jobs well done. It's beautiful to see these children blossom in their new environment.

The other girl we sponsor, Wayua; we went to visit her house last week. On the way, we passed through her old school, and she received a hero's welcome. Wayua has a sister who still goes to that school, but we learned that she was absent; we promised we'd find out why. We passed by people who must've been Wayua's old neighbours and nearby community, because this usually shy girl excitedly greeted people along the way to her old home.

We got to her house and were invited in, told to sit; Wayua turned to me and, quietly, but with the brightest smile you could imagine, told me that the woman who had greeted us and invited us in was her grandmother. As we sat and talked, we were served an enormous meal, with mangos for desert. This alone might have been the most beautiful thing I'd ever experienced, and the most important thing I'd ever been involved in, but for one thing...

The previous day, a Creation of Hope update e-mail had been sent to everyone sponsoring a child, which my father had forwarded to me. What I'm sure he had wanted me to see was that my livejournal had been linked to in it (wow! Thanks Eric!), but what I noticed most was the update that the Creation of Hope site had had a page added listing the children still needing sponsors, and wish lists for each of those kids (I'll say more about how I love this idea later). I checked out the new section immediately and noticed that Wayua, our sponsored child, had a sister on the list of those needing sponsors.

The sister, Syombua, is 15 and only in grade 7. She tries to help her grandmother, who she lives with, make money and has a wishlist of heartbreakingly basic things like clothes, stationary, school fees and a uniform so she can attend school, a mattress.

I felt, I feel, that the sister of a child we sponsor is nearly part of our extended family alreafy, so I payed to have her wishlist fulfilled.

I also opted to become her sponsor.

I would have said that the most important, beautiful thing I have ever taken part in was to visit Wayua's old home. But making everything more important, beautiful, was being able to visit Wayua's old home where her sister still lives, and deliver two mattresses and a small package of supplies. The most important, beautiful thing I have ever been part of was to be there when we told Syombua that she now had a sponsor, that she would no longer have to miss school to work and help support her grandmother, or miss school because she couldn't pay. We told her to make a list of text books she needed for school, which we will purchase, and had her check in at the school after the visit to her home.

I was tempted to say that everything here is the most important thing I'll ever do, but I don't want that to be true; I want to, maybe HAVE to, keep trying to help, keep trying to accomplish important things for Kikima and its children. I've promised that to people!
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Last week I went into the market with the older girls of Hope Rolling Hills for shoe shopping. As we passed through the market on the way there, some little kids started hollering "mzungu" at me. When we later passed back through town to go home they saw me again, and started hilariously chanting "mzungu" at me, and banging their little fists on their palms.

So I dashed up to them, and introduced myself in Kikamba. They then just stared up at me, wide-eyed and silent while I shook their hands. I ran back off to catch up with the girls, but paused to turn and clap/cheer for the little kid mob when one of them yelled out, "KATE!".

I thought that was pretty cool!

Other pretty cool thing going on right now is that my dad is here in Kenya! We've got about a week to spend some time with the people involved with Creation of Hope, and also do some tourist stuff. I went to help pick my dad up at the airport yesterday morning, and for almost the first time in 2 months, I saw paved roads and flush toilets! And there were mzungu everywhere! And I bought a really cold Coke from a vending machine.

Okay, I also got to kiss a giraffe at the Giraffe Centre that we visited while in Nairobi. It was pretty cool; the giraffes have big, long, slightly rough tongues, but they're still really gentle - when they're taking food you hold between your lips (that's how you "kiss" them), anyway. They kind of sometimes try to headbutt people if they don't have food. I was also able to grab some all-important postcards, so I hope to have them written up and sent off ASAP to people I promised them to. Was also able to pick up a few curios for myself; a beaded KENYA bracelet and an ebony figurine of a skeletal-looking cat.

I'd love to do a bit more souveneir shopping before I leave, but I don't know how much of a chance I'll get. Might have to hope for a sweet giftshop at the lodge we'll be staying at when we go on a safari. Wish me luck!
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Today I had my final lessons with my 5s and 6s (I've not said my final goodbyes yet, because I visit the school with my father this coming Monday, and we will have gifts). So when I finished my std. 5 Social Studies lesson, one girl comes up to me, holding a black plastic bag. She presented it to me, and I opened up the bag to look inside - it's a pair of flipflops.

It was beautiful, and touching, and perfectly ironic; one of my students in Kenya bought ME a pair of shoes.

Also attached to this post is a much better photo of yesterday's gift of maize and mangos.
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Yesterday, near the end of the school day, I took my std. 5s and 6s to play football. They don't like playing together, but I managed to convince them to this time, because it was the second-to-last time I'd play with them.

By the time we made it to the field, std. 7 was playing as well. One of my 5s dejectedly informed me (I'd been designated keeper for std. 5), "Teacha, it is 6 and 7 together against 5".

Morale on my team improved by leaps and bounds when we scored an early goal, I made a great save totally by accident, and we scored a second goal. When we actually won the game and were called for dismissal, I totally hollered, "Guess what std. 5?! We won!" and ran across the field like a complete goon (dad, Eric; this is probably why the kids are not intimidated by me in the least).

As my 5s rushed around collecting their belongings and going to stand and wait to be dismissed, I could hear, "2 over 0! 2 over 0!" and other victory cries from my team.

It was a pretty good day.
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Right now, there are two and a half plastic bags full of maize and a half bag of mangos, piled beside my chair in the staff room. This was all given to me as a parting gift by my std. 5 class.

How do I thank my students for generosity like this? My father said, 'It's amazing that they have so little but still want to share'. And it is, isn't it?

If you've done anything to help my students, my school, or Kikima... thank you; these are the kind of people you're helping.

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I was going to save this entry to go along with the big "Thank You" post I'd planned to do next week, but maybe I'll just let it stand by itself.

Take it from here, Emily Dickinson:

A deed knocks first at thought,
And then it knocks at will.
That is the manufacturing spot,
And will at home and well.

And then goes out an act,
Or is entombed so still
That only to the ear of God
Its doom is audible.
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