Bethanie Newby, Koins expeditioner

Here is another blog entry from a July 2012 expeditioner, Bethanie Newby.  She traveled to Kenya along with her son, Caleb.  She worked with the SRA nutritionist and our cooks, experimenting with local foods and Koins garden produce to create new recipes that could be used by villagers to utilize the new types of food that are being grown on the Koins farm.

July, 2012

I'll always remember the stop we made at Windridge School on our way back from teaching in Gona. We noticed a commotion in the schoolyard, and pulled in to discover the entire PTA and a schoolyard full of kids dancing and singing along with drums and rattles. Standing up against a small and shabby mud hut was our friend Cindy Workman, draped in several kanga cloths as the guest of honor. I peered into the hut behind her, which was simple since the thatched roof was nearly gone, and I saw the entire second grade classroom sitting on the floor with their teacher on a small stool almost in their laps. The elder woman of the village stood near Cindy and spoke through an interpreter. She was clutching a thick and grimy envelope that turned out to contain 50,000 shillings. That amount was close to the 10% downpayment required by the villagers before Koins will build a new classroom. They had worked hard for the money, hiring themselves out on other shambas (farms), selling goats and chickens, and going without meals in order to raise enough funds to add on to the school. Their determination and willing sacrifice for the future of their children was inspiring. No wonder their children work so hard to do well in school. Back at the KCC we had talked about each of us having "a moment" here in Kenya that fills our hearts and feeds our souls. This was one of my "moments."

Cindy Workman speaking to villagers through an interpreter

Cindy holds up the villager's contribution towards a new classroom

Cindy stands in front of the current classroom

Bethanie taught classes at several of the classes, and painted new classrooms.  She also shadowed a Kenyan village woman for a day and worked several times at the dispensary. 

Bethanie teaching

Bethanie painting a new classroom

Bethanie is also a cancer survivor.  This Saturday, there will be a 5K run in Cedar Hills, Utah, put on by Lifting Hearts in Utah, a cancer survivors group she has helped organize.  For more information on this run, go to www.wedidbreastcancer.com.