Kenya put their tax forms out on April 20. Taxes were due April 30. When people protested, they made a ruling that explains much about this country. Taxes were still due on the 30th, but the forms weren’t due until June 30th.

We had the annual Eighth Grade Formal recently. It’s always funny, and it’s always sad that the parents don’t get to see their guys clean up so nice. One guy was so scared about being incorrect that he wrote on his hands: RIGHT HAND FORK, LEFT HAND KNIFE. One guy was so excited about getting to sit with the girl he liked that he was bouncing off the walls for days before. When he got back to the dorm, he was pretty subdued:

Me: What’s the matter?
Them: I was so excited when I found out I got to sit next to her, but after two minutes, I ran out of things to say.
Me: What did you do?
Them: I looked the other way the rest of the night.

It’s easy to forget how hard it is to be an eighth grader, and how awkward that age can be. Sometimes, I think that the bravest people I know are eighth graders at this school; to go through that interesting stage of life away from your parents would be so hard.

We get back to the states on July 17th. It is a long journey; we leave at 10:30 at night from Nairobi, and fly eight hours to London. Then we gather all our luggage and go to the other airport in London to sit for about five hours. Then we fly ten hours to Dallas. The last time, we were all excited about getting home. Lots of our friends came to the airport to meet us; it was a special memory.

This time we will be traveling with the dynamic duo, who hate crowds and new things and not getting enough sleep, so we are going to try to slip into town as quietly as we can, and once we get our sea legs back, we hope to get to see everyone. We will be living in Bedford Texas for the year.

My hope is to not work until September. We are all tired, and we will have lots of work to get everyone readjusted to America. The older boys have not been in the United States since August of 2001. They missed 9/11. Reality TV, McGriddles and so much more. And they have changed; JT is wearing contacts, playing rugby, climbed Mt Kenya and rafted the Nile. Matthew is comfortable with shillings or dollars, the piano or the drums, and English and Swahili.

If you wish to continue to support the feeding program, any monies that come in after May 2004 will not be used until August 2005. If you can continue to support us while we are on home assignment, we would appreciate it. We understand if you can’t, but if you can, that would be helpful. Our largest supporter has not been able to support us for the last several months, so we will need to raise additional support when we are back. I’m not sure what kind of job I will be able to get for just one year, but I will get something. But we are going to try hard to spend part of this time at home resting; we are tired.

RVA has asked that the feeding program would cease while we are away. All of us work more than full time jobs, and adding this would be a distraction to a new staff member. The staff members who have been here for awhile have their own projects, and most everyone is stretched pretty thin. The feeding program takes a lot of time, and it is probably for the best that it takes a rest for a year.

So it was quite bittersweet to be on the last delivery for a year. Headmasters got quite emotional as we told them we would have to curtail the program for a year. I had to explain that there was no more money in the fund, and I needed to be there to supervise, but they have seen the fruit in this program, and as I listened to grown men telling me about children running that didn’t run after noon because they would normally be too tired, I thought: burn this into your heart. Let it hurt.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should inform you that I received a kickback from this program, and I’m not giving it back, no matter what.

I couldn’t give it back anyway. My name is on it. In fact, it is so specific it says `A Gift for Steve Peifer’ right on it.

And I’m not sure anyone else would want a purse with my name on it.

Yes, a purse. Why, I don’t know. But it was made by a parent at one of the schools we feed, and although I try hard to discourage that kind of thing (there is nothing harder in the world than receiving stuff from people who have nothing) what could I do?

I’m not even sure what to DO with a purse. But I do have one now. So there you go, and back off.

We went to Kenton this week. This is the school that has started having afternoon classes for the first time since we started providing lunches because before the lunches, the kids didn’t have the energy to handle the afternoon classes. It is very remote, and almost impossibly beautiful, surrounded by large green hills. It was also so poor it would take your breath away.

It is so poor. But they had some entertainment for us. They had a dance troupe, and a young man who played a homemade xylophone. At closer range, I could see it was made with discarded fence posts.

And it sounded so great. It was the most amazing thing, this little kid playing this wonderful music on this junky homemade instrument, and I thought how it would have been his right to think `I can’t do anything on this piece of junk’ and not try. But he knew what was in his hand.

I have pondered this for days. What is really in my hand? If I looked at what I had differently, would it change the way I lived my life? If I knew what I really had, how would I change?

One last thing. The woman that opens the computer center gets there at 7, and from 7:30 until school starts at 8 10 kids can use the computers for thirty minutes.

Kids have been arriving at 5am to get in line to get an extra 30 minutes on the computers. If I ever take things for granted again, you have permission to slap me hard.

The programs are bearing such fruit. Please help us grow them.  It would be wonderful to expand the feeding program to cover 100 schools, and build 24 more computer centers. May I ask you if you could ask your church or corporation if I could speak to them? I need some larger venues in order to fund such expansion, and I don’t know how to do it without your help. Can you help us help these kids?

Will you look and see what is in your hand?

And no, you can’t have my purse.

Your pal,

Steve

PS. One of my best and oldest friends in the world (since sixth grade) has a book coming out in July, and I want to do a shameless plug for it. The name of the book is the Millennium Matrix by Rex Miller, and I had the privilege of reading the draft copy. I read it with a mixture of wonder and depression. It will make you think and ponder so many issues in our society. It depressed me because I wondered how someone who went to the same junior high and high school could be so much smarter than me. Here is the link: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787962678.html