This Just In....Lakuna Matata

Some of the lyrics (or all) from the Lion King may be real. This is a recent discovery after my brief intro to Swahili.

The Irony of Education

So many of the orphans here are sponsored, and some not, the sponsored ones past grade 8 go typically on to a boarding school nearby.  So I've met a few of these and they have told me how much they study in Form 2 or Form 4...  And they ask me how much I studied and how hard I though it was.  I tell them honestly high school in the US is not hard, at least not for me.  They study like we would if we majored in something hard in college (maybe even harder than civil engineering), committing 16 or so hours of their day to class and studying and then receiving strick punishment when doing wrong.  But then I have met some who have finished Form 5, even with good scores and they have a hard time finding a good job, or a job at all.  I asked my mom if she thought school here was harder, and she said maybe it is. How can it be that us in the US who are many times slackers can get a job here or there, someone hooks you up with something even pays you a decently hourly without completing your diploma.  So then you have a country that is developing and striving past its corruption with a large population of young adults that are educated and know how to work hard with their minds.  But then what do they do? Their education and ingenuity prompt some of them into some enterprising business, but maybe not them all and what if you are an orphan on top of that with no real family to connect you to a business or give you shelter? I guess I don't get it, other than we most definitely have many blessings that we don't even account for. 

When Getting in the Car to Do Something Crazy

So I began to felt ill as I got into the car as I left for the airport. I wasn't sure why, could it be I forgot something important? Was it the power of attorney I needed to get signed at the police station before getting to the airport, or was it making sure I wasn't over the weight limit on two bags that were undoubtably the largest I have ever checked (with of course not a single item of which I wanted to part with). No, I think it was the realization that this had all worked out, I was on my way to do a job that I had dreamed of and that God had so clearly worked out. And that I had no job at the moment and no ticket back to the US anytime soon. But then I asked my Dad if I was crazy, after I made him turn off talk radio, and he reminded me no, I hadn't done anything I couldn't undo, and I had only been talking about this for a very long time. So it helps to have someone in the car with you on your way to big life change, in case you forget for a moment who you are and what you were made to do.

One bag was overweight, but a quick change of items between bags and we were off in the Fast Track check-in line.

From Karen Kenya

Hey Everyone -

 

Just ran up to the internet cafe quickly before dark, after half a day of surveying the orphanage site.  The flight over here was no problem, flew over Sudan and the Darfur region for a couple of hours as the sun went down.  The orphanage is really great, the kids are so welcoming and our engineering/architecture team has come together well, and we are all from seemingly random places, but have lots in common.  Its really great to be here with my mom in the place she loves, it seems so strangely normal to be here.

 

I hope to write more on my blog and stuff and not generally bombarb people with e-mail.  You should be able to get to it at: http://followingconfetti.blogspot.com/    feel free to forward that on to others.

:)

I Dare you to Move

Do you think this will really work?