News from the Village

Open Arms Academy opens its doors to students!

On January 8th 2010 the Open Arms Academy opened its doors to students for the first time. Based on site at the Open Arms Village, it is housed in the old buildings that were recently vacated when the families moved into their newly built homes. The children are delighted to be able to go to school at the Village, and no longer have to do the bus ride to and from school each day; many of them have repeatedly expressed their gratefulness for the school. Our teachers include Linda Opati, our nursery school teacher who has been working with Open Arms since July when she started the nursery class, Grace Birgen who teaches Classes 1 and 2, Lilian Jepwambok who teaches Classes 3 and 4, and Paul Busieni who teaches Class 5 and is our headmaster.

The school is currently teaching just our children, to give them the chance to do some
accelerated learning and catch up on the delayed start so many of them had in education due to the varied and traumatic events that they lived through prior to coming to Open Arms. Over time, the plan is for the Academy doors to open up to children from outside the Village as well.

If you would like to support the development of the school, through financial means, please click here to make a donation. If you would like to be involved in a professional capacity, please contact Helen Harrison at helen@openarms.org.uk .

Nursery class with teacher Linda,       Class 1 with teacher Grace
and headmaster Paul

Class 4 and 5 with teacher Lillian and headmaster
Paul



Christmas at the Village

Matt and Cheryl Tallmann are volunteers with Open Arms, spending a year in Eldoret. Here they recount their experience of Christmas, Kenya style:

We spent Christmas Eve in Eldoret doing some last minute shopping and errands for the children at the village as we prepared Christmas stockings for all of them.
We were hoping to get the stockings done in time to send them to the village  on Christmas Eve so the children could wake up with the stockings in front of the fireplace, but by the time they were finished, it was too late in the evening for us to travel out to the village so we opted to get up early on Christmas Day and hopefully catch the children waking up. We made our best effort by getting up at 5AM on Christmas Day, but getting two babies fed and clothed, diapers changed, and getting us clothed and showered, in addition to loading up the stockings, babies, and other assorted presents took their toll as we arrived at the village at 8AM expecting to find impatient little ones eagerly waiting for their presents.

However, I suppose this is importing Western culture and expectations onto African understandings of Christmas. Here there seem to be very little expectation of the children eagerly waiting to open presents under the Christmas tree although they do give gifts to the children, especially new clothing. Christmas Day seems to be centred around a Christmas Day church service and a Christmas Day feast. We celebrated the church service at the village, and Matt was the surprise guest speaker even though he didn't know this until he was asked to come to the front and speak to the children. Many of the children came up and led songs, even two year old Beatrice did a wonderful job of leading the congregation in a great rendition of "Our God is Able".

Before church the children were too busy doing chores, taking showers, and getting dressed to have any time for opening their stockings, and the house parents were doing similar as well as preparing for the Christmas feast. Matt and Cheryl had communicated to the house parents that they wanted to give the children Christmas stockings on Christmas morning, but despite arriving at 8am, it wasn’t until 11:30am that they were able to get the attention of the children and the house parents in Upendo Home long enough to lay out the Christmas stockings on the fireplace and explain the tradition of Christmas stockings. The expression on their faces changed from one of nonchalance to one of eager excitement as they began to realize that there were actually presents in these stockings, even new Christmas clothes! We figured that somewhere in our communication to the house parents and the children, something was lost in translation (maybe the house parents actually thought all that we were going to give the children for Christmas was a new pair of socks - Christmas stockings).

As we sat in front of the fireplace, we explained how the Christmas tradition of stockings began. We also gave another gift to each house, a Nativity set, crafted in Nairobi, but nevertheless a rare site in Kenya as most houses don't use Nativity sets or even recognize them. However, as we began to explain the Nativity set, the children began to instantly state the characters in the Christmas story as their knowledge of the Biblical story is so good.

The children also decorated a simple Christmas tree which consisted of a freshly cut fir bough planted in a pot and decorated with tinsel (a tradition they inherited from the West and is honoured in some Kenyan households).
The children had lined up patiently listening to this story, but also eyeing these stockings closely, and finally they began to open up the stockings as they pulled out candy, toys, stuffed animals, books, oranges, puzzles, colouring books, and a new Christmas shirt which they all wore to the church service.

After the church service was over, the family prepared to eat a meal of boiled potatoes, sausage, a roasted ram, cole slaw, and sodas. The children were served first as the family began to feast and celebrate. The carefully cooked ram was a little tough, but tasty as a local health inspector came to the village and inspected the meat before it was cooked for the safety of the village. That poor ram had just sired two twin ewes as the newest addition to the Open Arms Village, and what was his reward, but becoming dinner on the Christmas table.

After the feast was over, we gathered back at the Upendo House for some Christmas cookies that Cheryl had baked on Christmas Eve, a tradition which the children quickly embraced and consumed. While the children consumed their cookies, Matt set up his computer to watch a movie with the children, a rare treat for them.
After the movie and more Christmas cookies, Cheryl and Matt left the children in their sugar induced state and made a hasty departure back to Eldoret with two weary babies and two weary adults. They sat by the small "Charlie Brown" size artificial Christmas tree in the Open Arms office, holding the two babies, drinking chai tea, and eating more Christmas cookies as they reminisced on the activities of their first Christmas in Kenya (and their first Christmas outside of the US).

Moving Day for the first Children's Home


18 months after the first children came to live at the Open Arms Village, and got new families, new hope and a new future, they are now getting a brand new home to live in.
The 16-strong family of Daniel and Lydia Yego moved into their new home this week, and will soon be followed by the family of Peter and Stella Kimelli, who will move into the ‘house next-door’.

This move is the culmination of a lot of hard work and amazing generosity by Open Arms volunteers and supporters, for which no amount of thanks can be enough.

Three more homes are also under construction and will be ready for habitation in 2010. Open Arms staff are currently conducting interviews to find the new house-parents that will head up those homes and allow us to give a new life to more orphans and abandoned children.

One example of a life changed beyond recognition is that of B, a child who was born on the streets of Eldoret and spent her first years wandering from rubbish bin to scrap heap in the search of morsels of food. B came to us age 2 ½ years, abandoned by her mother and living on survival instincts, she was referred to us by the District Children’s Officer. Five months on, and B has relaxed enough into being part of family life and living in a home that she is happy to sleep inside all night, rather than dragging her bedding outside to sleep on the porch steps, in line with the sleeping standards she had grown up with. She is also now confident enough of the regularity of meals that she doesn’t feel the need to bolt every meal that comes her way, in case it should be her last.

Another child whose life has been completely transformed is R, an 8yr old girl who came to us from the Kambi Teso slum via the feeding programme when her grandmother abandoned her after her parents had died of AIDS related illness. R’s grandmother had been sending her out to find food and water at night, after dark, and as a result R had suffered abuse and was always in danger. Now she has a loving, caring family, siblings to play with, a comfortable bed to sleep in, a weatherproof house, regular and nutritious food to eat and access to good quality, regular education.

As we sat in front of the fireplace, we explained how the Christmas tradition of stockings began. We also gave another gift to each house, a Nativity set, crafted in Nairobi, but nevertheless a rare site in Kenya as most houses don't use Nativity sets or even recognize them. However, as we began to explain the Nativity set, the children began to instantly state the characters in the Christmas story as their knowledge of the Biblical story is so good.


The children also decorated a simple Christmas tree which consisted of a freshly cut fir bough planted in a pot and decorated with tinsel (a tradition they inherited from the West and is honoured in some Kenyan households).
The children had lined up patiently listening to this story, but also eyeing these stockings closely, and finally they began to open up the stockings as they pulled out candy, toys, stuffed animals, books, oranges, puzzles, colouring books, and a new Christmas shirt which they all wore to the church service.

After the church service was over, the family prepared to eat a meal of boiled potatoes, sausage, a roasted ram, cole slaw, and sodas. The children were served first as the family began to feast and celebrate. The carefully cooked ram was a little tough, but tasty as a local health inspector came to the village and inspected the meat before it was cooked for the safety of the village. That poor ram had just sired two twin ewes as the newest addition to the Open Arms Village, and what was his reward, but becoming dinner on the Christmas table.

After the feast was over, we gathered back at the Upendo House for some Christmas cookies that Cheryl had baked on Christmas Eve, a tradition which the children quickly embraced and consumed. While the children consumed their cookies, Matt set up his computer to watch a movie with the children, a rare treat for them.
After the movie and more Christmas cookies, Cheryl and Matt left the children in their sugar induced state and made a hasty departure back to Eldoret with two weary babies and two weary adults. They sat by the small "Charlie Brown" size artificial Christmas tree in the Open Arms office, holding the two babies, drinking chai tea, and eating more Christmas cookies as they reminisced on the activities of their first Christmas in Kenya.