The Taru Gazette

At last we are on the home stretch. When you begin five weeks in the bush it can truly seem interminable, yet one by one the days pass.  Each day is so full of travelling, the meshing of plans and projects, seeing both suffering and rich reward. After a rough beginning, our team has become a well-oiled machine, spreading our interests and loves over quite a wide range. Maranda, a nurse, might be teaching a section on the heart at one school, while Peter is busy working on his leadership conference for principals and administrators. John will be busy evaluating a small business that he’s helping students start, while videographer Paige is at a clinic deep in the bush where very young, pregnant girls are giving birth (a tragic, dark place). Alisa, "Mama Lisa," will be found working at the small community library helping our full time volunteer repair books grown shabby from countless readings. Sierra and her mother Stacy are at the Special Needs school evaluating their needs and photographing their recent Kenya Keys upgrades. Aliska is the “scholarship Nazi,” making sure all 148 files on our students are up to date and that we know what students still need to be seen. Gerita, (“G”) is bouncing from one place to another making sure it all gets photographed and documented. It is as exciting as it is exhausting.Brent has left such a mark on the hearts and minds of these people, as he works tirelessly to support their leadership and help them grow new ideas. Oh, to see a mind catch fire! Can there be anything more rewarding? Last fall he planted a seed with a high school journalism club. They had been gathering weekly to read newspapers, which are hard to come by in this area. He helped them lay out the structure for a newsletter, talked to them about what journalism really is. The club accepted his challenge. Months later their numbers had swelled and they had created the most amazing high school newsletter you’ve ever seen, complete with well-written articles, political cartoons, editorial and sports sections, color photos, current events and newsflashes about what’s happening at the library we saw built two years ago. The “Taru Gazette.” At best, Brent had expected a two page black and white newsletter. He was so choked up by the three issues they handed him that he could hardly speak. As we asked around, there’s nothing like it at the high school level in Kenya. The sky is the limit once you give these people an idea.