Being the college counselor in Kenya is interesting in ways you don’t always expect.  The best counselor I know told me that most of her kids stayed in the northeast, so she didn’t get to know colleges outside of that region. I have had to learn the whole United States, and I’m starting to know Korean universities also.

But sometimes you get kids that come up with interesting ideas on their own. I had a student last week who is Korean, and he was very upset that I hadn’t told him about this great school he had discovered.

It was Howard University, probably the premier university for African American men. It took a long time to explain why it might not be a fit.

We had to take eight kids to take the TOEFL test (an English language test required of all non-US citizens wishing to attend universities in America) into Nairobi last week. We left at 7am, arrived around 8:20 and were to begin the test at 9. I had signed the kids up the first week of September, and had paid for all of them at that time.

At 9:30, they announced there were technical difficulties, and only four of the kids could take the test. So four of the kids started taking the test at 10, and four started taking the test at 12. It is almost four hours, and the room that they had to take it in was almost 100 degrees. We had plans to take them out to lunch at 1, but instead they ate cold pizza and warm Cokes during the breaks.

We ended up getting home at 5:30. None of them complained.

This is the busiest time of the year for me, and I work lots of hours getting college applications done. But writing recommendations for these kids is one of the joys of my life. I finished JiHee’s recommendation with this:  “Africa can make you old and cynical, but JiHee reminds me that that the right person in the right place can still change the whole world.”

I asked Nancy to write about our return to our roots; our first year in Kenya we did this a lot:

This year we facilitate a Sunday school class of juniors and seniors who go down to the crippled children’s hospital to share a Bible story, sing, and then play with the kids who are patients. We have a great group of students and they are such a blessing to the kids.  The favorite games are batting a balloon back and forth or popping the bubbles that are blown. Often one or more of us would take our digital cameras and take pictures, which the kids just love to see. Last month a visiting friend brought us a small photo printer which we can take down to the hospital and print photos out on the spot. Most of them have never had a picture of themselves, and you should see their faces when we hand them a picture of themselves that they can keep. Yesterday, one mama just kept saying “Nimefurahi  sana!” over and over again as she danced around the room holding the photo of her and her daughter. That means “I have just become so happy!” Sometimes when you share the love of Jesus it isn’t received, but sometimes you get the blessing of someone in some way expressing, “Nimefurahi  sana!”

School ended for the year for most Kenyan schools on Friday, but I got notice from several of the computer teachers that the students were requesting that they keep teaching, so many of the centers will stay open when school is done because of popular demand. That is such an encouraging sign, and then we went to a new center last week.

I was trying to think of something profound to say about Thanksgiving, and I came upon this little boy, who was wearing rags and had no shoes. He didn’t even have a spoon; he was eating with his fingers.

And he came up to me and pointed at the computer center and at his food and said:  “I am so happy.”

Happy Thanksgiving.

Your pal,
Steve