Wednesday OMG

Today was the big thanksgiving celebration so there was no school.  The students arrived early this morning at the school to prepare.  We stayed at Pan Door and worked on some details for business plans to talk to Justin about.  We had no idea how amazing the celebration would be.

We arrived at the school around 2:30 to well over 1,000 people on the school grounds – men, women, children, students and teachers from Abukloi and 4 other secondary schools in the area, government officials, tribal leaders, and more.  The governor was not present.  There had been some tribal conflict in a cattle camp in another area of his state where one man’s dog bit another and one of the men got his gun and shot 3 people.  A major part of a governor’s job is to keep peace in his state so they try to act very quickly before things escalate.  This incident apparently was already fueled by previous tension.

Back to the celebration.  There was music playing through huge speakers, a generator running in the back of the school supplying power, a huge canopy for shade, lots of plastic chairs, and so much more.  It was electric!  We walked around to take it all in.  The students continued with their cooking (beef, rice, “paper food”, flat bread, mocho) and preparing.  To celebrate their culture some were in costume as cattle campers.  A student had carved the bark off long sticks to create decorative switches.  About 3:00 the formal festivities got under way.  There were many speakers, singers, dancers, etc.  At the end the school gave to us wonderful gifts.  Ken, as the donor of the fence around Nancy’s Garden, received a huge shield and stick (similar to a billie stick) that was to be passed down to his family.  Stephanie and I both received lovely covered water gords.

What made this such an amazing OMG event was the thanksgiving was for us, those who started the school, work to keep it going, donate to the school, pray for the school.  The whole community (by this time over 2,000 people) were just so grateful that the people in the US would partner with them to make this happen.  They were so grateful their children were getting this quality education.  I was blown away by their generosity of gratitude.

For all of you who have contributed to Abukloi in some way, know that today you were thanked in a colorful, joyous celebration by the whole community.  And I thank you too!