Tonight’s blog entry will be especially short (I hope), since it’s 9:30 here.

Today, we met two groups who were at earlier points in the program, partnered with two other members of our group, individually or in a small partnership (i.e., you don’t have to wait for your church to partner with a group).

The two groups were Smile (second year) and Chapakazi (first year). There was a LOT of dancing. When you go on a Zoe trip, get in touch with your rhythmic movement side because you will definitely get a chance to exercise it. (It gets a little bit easier for me every time.)

Some of the things that struck me about the groups’ presentations:

They were urban groups. One member told us he had been able to pay for extended English lessons, and then switched his presentation over to fluent English. The facilitator then translated from English back to Swahili for the benefit of the groups, which made me smile. That young man has a bright future ahead of him. We heard from all the members.

After that, we played musical chairs. The facilitator explained the rules carefully to us.

Karin, the pastor of the Smile group, then gave a full-throated sermon, almost without notes, on vision. The thesis was that if you have vision, you can have confidence and strength of purpose. She said that vision comes from God, and a person’s vision can die if that person does not do what they should do, or if they don’t have good mentorship. Who you surround yourself with is important.

But also, vision can be revived, and we can draw strength from our vision. She really got revved up.

After that, we played a game in which Jeremaiah, Chapakazi group’s facilitator, taught us the Swahili words for some parts of the body:

• mabega — shoulders
• masakee — ears
• tumbu — stomach
• ndomo — mouth
• pua — nose
• [something] — eyes
• [something] — head

Then we played the game. Jeremaiah stood facing us and few members of the Chapakazi group stood behind him. He would shout out the name of a body part and we were supposed to touch it on ourselves, but the trick was that he would touch a different body part. So, for example, he’d shout “Ndomo!” and grab his stomach. We did not expect that and much hilarity ensued. Eventually, all of us but one were eliminated, because we touched the wrong body part or were too slow.

But we turned the tables and played the same game in English. It was a lot of fun.

Then came the group reports. I heard tuberculosis and UTIs mentioned for the first time (as part of the health & hygiene training).

At least one of the groups visited orphans and sick elderly people in the hospital. We keep hearing stories of “our” orphans reaching out to other people in need. I’ve said “I’m amazed” and “I’m impressed” so often that it must seem repetitive, but… they remain amazing.

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(I was hoping to upload pictures and videos, but the internet in the hotel is fighting with me, so I’ll have to do it another time.)