Mogotio Youth

By Sara:

While Anthony was leading TLT in Mogotio, Kenya, I had the interesting experience of leading a training for youth.  Now, in Uganda, when people use the word "youth", they're generally meaning people who are older than 18 and unmarried.  So I was expecting a group like that, but was surprised to discover the youth I was meeting with in Mogotio were around middle-school aged!  To be honest, when I was substitute teaching in the US, this was an age group I tried to avoid at all costs.

However, I found that these young people were exceedingly quiet.  Rather than the misbehaving, distracted middle-schoolers I had interacted with in Michigan, they mostly sat silently and stared at me!  I taught them an inductive Bible study method, but it was a major challenge getting anyone to speak up and contribute to the discussion.  When any of the kids said something, it was very good, but I felt like most of the time we had together was me looking at them and waiting for someone to speak up while they all looked back at me. 

The next day, I decided to try starting with something entertaining - Bible pictionary.  It was entertaining, but also rather difficult.  It wasn't that the kids had trouble drawing the words (in fact, they were very creative), but no one wanted to guess what the drawing was until it was finished and once it was finished, there was mostly silence.  Finally, someone would whisper a word and the artist would say "no" and then there would be more silence until the next guess.  This is a kid drawing a picture of Mary:

Since having them say anything to me didn't work, I decided to put them into small groups and guide them through the Bible study steps, which they would then do in their groups.  This seemed to go a bit better because they were more or less willing to talk to one another.  Some of the older kids said afterward that they appreciated learning a new way they could mentor other kids, through leading Bible study.

In the end, although I thought it was nearly a disaster, the pastor and youth leader told me they had heard appreciation for the Bible studies from these young people and their parents.  You just never know what's going on in peoples' heads.

Along with the afternoons with the youth, I also had the opportunity to give a brief lesson to the TLT participants on how our hearing works and how it can be damaged or protected.  This was much more comfortable for me.

The pastors appreciated understanding how noises are measured in decibels and what levels can be harmful.  When they discovered that they could download an app onto their phone to measure decibel levels, many of them said they would do so and test the sound levels in their church services.  Then they will be able to teach church members what they learned and help them understand how loud they can put their speakers without harming the hearing of people listening. The reason this is so important is because we have almost never been to a church service in East Africa where they had speakers and the volume set at an appropriate level. It's especially painful watching choir members stand in front of tall speakers that are creating sounds over 85 decibels from 20 feet away. We worry about people losing their hearing at an early age.

Finally, I baked a cake for the TLT graduation.  I was pleased to have the cake turn out since I was unprepared to bake and therefore had no measuring cups or spoons.  I'm pretty sure this is the first time I have made a cake and estimated all the ingredients.

My measuring cup and spoon:

The cook was busy preparing lunch while I worked on the cake, but she already knew how to bake cakes using various methods.  She helped with the decoration, though: