GETTING TO KNOW POGA

After 48 or so hours of travel over the weekend, we woke up fairly early to children’s voices outside our window. As it turns out, the Primary girls’ dorm is outside our bedroom window. We later learn that the children wake at about 4am to do their laundry and chores. School officially begins at 8:30, but studies begin at 5:00! School ends at 3:30, but independent studies for high school students continues until approximately 9:30pm as they prepare for exams. Exams are taken by 6th and 12th grade students and play a heavy role in their acceptance to university. Extremely different from the life of an American student!

Richard, the Head Administrator arrives at breakfast (our meals are all made by Deaconess Lorna Meeker, and she is an excellent cook!) to give us a tour of Point of Grace. We realize that there are actually 3 different sections of Point of Grace. Point of Grace Academy is the Primary School and is composed of students from preschool (the youngest is 2 years old) through Grade 8. Point of Grace High School is Grades 9 through 12 (called Form 1 through Form 4). 4 Kenya’s Kids is the overarching U.S. based non-profit and sponsorship program that supports Point of Grace.

Richard’s tour took us all over the campus. The oldest building is a mud hut built in 2005 that she lived in. It currently houses one of the matron’s for the girls’ dorms. They are preparing to move 6 girls into the mud hut to relieve overcrowding in the Primary girls’ dorm. The newest school building is the high school which was built during Covid and opened in 2022. POGA was put in a position where they just finished a new medical clinic because their previous one was on rented land, and the lease ran out. We were able to see the dorms; Primary bouts and girls are in separate areas. The boys’s dorm that burned has been totally rebuilt and renovated and is waiting for inspection and occupancy permits. The high school boys’ and girls’ dorms are separate from each other and separate from the Primary school. There is a need for new dorms as currently the children sleep in metal sheds, but the priority is the girls dorms. The Kenyan government is pushing POGA to build new dorms for the girls as they are overcrowded as well.

The kitchen would be considered primitive by our standards, but they are able to feed over 800 children 3 healthy meals a day using a wood fire! They grow much of their own food and teach the children agriculture. Their crops are healthy, including Kale, maize, and tomatoes. They raise chickens, have dairy and beef cows, and goats.

Grace Lutheran financed the purchase of a solar water pumping station which has been extremely beneficial. Previously, their pump was electric, and since the electric is not always reliable and expensive, they often had to manually pump the water. They are thrilled with the solar pump. The water is now collected and filtered so it is much safer. Additionally, they can get water to irrigate their crops.

Each morning, Pastor Meeker leads us through a devotional, and each evening Pastor Ruwisch does the same. It is a time of spirituality, but also a time for reflection for all of us. Being here with the Meekers and the children can be emotional, and it is a good time to process with each other.

We apologize for the late post. We had a big thunderstorm last evening, and lost power for about 6 hours. We were unable to finish the post or get online. VBS, Day 1 coming soon!