Critical thinking and amazing wildlife

Dear all,

It has been a while before I wrote a blog. And it’s already more than a week since Talitha has arrived. Maybe the two have a correlation, resulting in less time to write ;). But of course I cannot use this as an excuse.

It’s great that Talitha is finally here. I must admit I have underestimated the effect of being apart from each other 1,5 month. That’s the great thing about love, love grows. And therefore also the way you are attached to each other. I was never a person who felt the urge to stay always together. When there was adventure, no woman could hold me beside her. I always thought we will catch up later. I still think in somehow in this way, that’s how I looked at the 1,5 month without each other. I thought we will catch up later, but something has changed that that attitude is not easy anymore ;). That’s why I’m really happy Talitha stays until the end!

Work wise, time flies. After the field research and the conference, no really special activities were planned. We mainly focused on setting up panel groups. Small groups which represent our target groups, youth between 15 till 24 in schools and in slums. They will continuously give us feedback about the things we are developing. We have now around 6 panel groups created. The hard thing here is to find people with a critical mind. I think that’s still due to the way Kenya is organized from families, to school systems, to working environments. There is still a strong hierarchy and you do not speak until a higher person asks you to do. And you will not give negative feedback about the work of a person higher in rank. The stupid thing is that because we are white we automatically are seen as persons higher in rank and somehow students block their critical mind. So we are thinking on how to overcome this, make them free in their thinking and start giving useful feedback. An interesting process, but it’s harder than I expected it to be. But luckily we already found a few very smart and critical youngsters, so we are very anxious on the first real panel session we will held with them.

Talitha started on Friday her work at LISP. Until the beginning of May LISP is in a very busy period. And therefore Talitha jumps in at the right moment to help them out. They are going to train 4.500 young people in Kenya from 18 till 25 to help them acquire skills on how to get a job. How do you prepare yourself, what do you have to do on a solicitation, how can you believe more in yourself etc. In Nairobi they will train 2.200 youngsters 10 days with all different lifeskill trainings. The preparation is to get the right materials in the right class on the right time. Quite an operation for a company like LISP. So Talitha can be of great help in this process as a start of her career at LISP ;).

Together we are having a great time catching up. Our roommates have left for a week to the Seychellen. And while the Seychellen must be one of the earth most beautiful islands and we are extremely jealous when we see the pictures, we are also really happy to have time together and catch up for the lost 1,5 month we were not together. Therefore we went yesterday to the Elephant Orphanage, which was absolutely amazing. What a cute and friendly creatures. It was so cool, you could even hug the elephants. What a mighty creatures and therefore sad to hear that poaching is still such a big problem in Africa. Great to see that these people take care of these elephants to preserve them for a next generation. After the elephant orphanage we went to a lovely place to have lunch. It looked a bit like “het Koetshuis” in Bennekom. And the weather is always good here, so it was lovely. During the evening we went with Mr and Mrs Mayor to a new restaurant, which was also so beautiful. And the family of the Mayors are such amazing and nice people! The thing what always struck me the most, is that these people come from a background with so little material possession, but they make so much out of their lives. They both are so strong and their faith is also so strong, I can only wish to grow in my faith like them and I wish the whole of the Netherlands to understand the lesson these 2 lovely people give. We come from abackground with so much possibilities, but tend to complain also so much. I wish everybody could appreciate more what we already have and start living in love for each other and love for God, instead of obtaining more and more wealth. Ok, here ends pastor Hoogendoorn his preach for this Sunday ;).

I’m really glad with Talitha on my side again. Looking forward to an amazing time. Take care everybody in the Netherlands, don’t forget us because we will be back :P ;)!

Ro