True Confessions Time:  my wife dresses me. This is, I know, a shocking revelation for all those who know me and love and admire my fashion sense, but the truth must come out. The other morning I was in a panic; Nancy had left and I had not determined what shirt would go with what pants. I didn’t know what to do, and then I remembered I had a secret weapon.

Katie.

I called her into our bedroom, and she went through the closet and after examining my shirts, she grabbed one and said, “This one will work.”

And it did. It would be impossible to overestimate the thrill this is for me, although since that day, I get daily appraising looks from my daughter, which sort of make me nervous. But knowing I’m double covered more than makes up for it.

One of our seniors was invited to have an interview with Harvard last week. I took her into town, and waited out in the back yard while she had her interview with an alum of the school. The alum runs a charity that provides sanitary napkins for young women. It is one of those very important, but not widely known charities. At the end of the interview, the alum stopped to chat for several minutes, and told me about her great work. As we left, she said, “Wait” and ran to give me a package.

A package of sanitary napkins. 

I promise you that I am the only person this kind of stuff happens to.

We have another student living with us this term. Like Rupert, she is a university student doing a paper on our work. Rupert wrote about the food program; Becca is documenting how to build a computer center. Both are extremely bright, and Becca has the additional benefit of not being a Brit, which means we do not hear tales of the wonders of baked beans for breakfast.

Becca has more energy than any human I have ever met. My understanding is that police in the United States have order to shoot any coffee out of her hands; caffeine is NOT a need she has. But I receive an email or two a week of people asking how to build a center, and we will have an excellent document to give to them. And if we gave her two cups of coffee, she could build the centers herself.

There have been some alarming things going on here. We had a break-in at one of the computer centers. Five men attacked the guard and hit him in the head with a machete. They broke down the door and got all the computers. It was so discouraging; when I first heard the news, I didn’t know what to do.

But one of my favorite scriptures is Genesis 50:20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”  There is a hand-out mentality prevalent here, and part of what we are trying to do is help children get the tools to be able to make a living rather than expect a hand-out. The parents called an emergency meeting, and voted to hire three guards. They didn’t ask for any money from me, they just did it. During one of my calls to the school, I could hear children loudly weeping. The community has seen the value of these centers, and they are going to fight for them.

 The situation in the valley is grim. There has been three crop failures in a row, and it is causing us to go all the way to Uganda to find maize. The prices have gone up so much, and there are an additional 1000 students enrolled in the 34 schools we work with. Bottom line: we only have the monies to buy food for half a term. Again, I don’t know what to do. Please pray for wisdom for us.

I promise I will never do anymore projects, but our last one is to pay for Kenyan students to take the SAT, and then try to find a college for them in the United States. Tabitha graduated first in her class last year. Her father died when she was very young; her mother has AIDS. They live in a one room shack. Tabitha got up at 4am to study for the SAT every day.

She has been accepted to Warren Wilson College and given a $20,000 scholarship. We need about $12,000 more. In some ways, this is so hard to ask. I have a son who goes off to college in 2010, and his meager college fund was pounded into the dirt. I don’t know how he will go to college.

But I will tell you this:  Tabitha is someone worth investing in. One of the major ways to change this country is to educate its citizens, and she wants to study medicine and work in rural Kenya.  She has nothing; we will need airfare, clothing, books, and the rest of the monies.

She will change the world if she is given the chance.

Your pal,
Steve

P.S. Check out our first video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdeOfEsUC_o