Daraja Academy just stretched, yawned and took a well deserves 4 day weekend. The school essentially runs on the trimester system and this served as our Term III, mid-term break. If you were one of the 26 Daraja Academy students, what would you have proposed as an activity to relax and let off some steam? The answer to that question both surprised and thrilled the administration… the girls wanted to volunteer at the local orphanage. They did, and let me tell you they worked HARD!

The girls were broken into six groups upon arriving at the Mara Moja (the closest village to campus) orphanage. Two groups were sent with donkeys to the river to collect water for laundry and with around 30 orphans, there is A LOT of dirty cloths. Two groups descended on the kitchen the kitchen where one began washing plates, utensils and the like and another began to sort beans. The final two groups were sent to collect sand from a pit about 3/4th of a mile from the orphanage… but there will be more about that later. The orphanage began to bounce and sing with the vibe that radiates around these incredible young women and it was fascinating to watch as local children peered through the orphanage’s fence with longing, something I doubt happens often.

So as the group sat around the table sorting beans (a VERY important task, as biting into a rock, your tooth wanted to be a bean should only be experienced once a life time) the girls, along with volunteers Sue and Olivia, sang songs and told stories. I had never learned that it is bad luck to use your finger and point at a rabbit, but nearly every young lady at the table was told not to by their grandmother, REGARDLESS of tribe or geographic location… though none of them explained why doing so is bad. Benny thinks it might have something to do with rabbits being the cleverest of all animals, but we never came to a consensus. As we jabbered on I witnessed something remarkable transpire…

Between the bean counting story telling and the two groups of singing laundresses, groups of Daraja girls began to stream into the center of the orphanage compound in twos, carrying 50 lbs sacks of sand. The girls began emptying the bags into a small mountain of sand with a hallow crater at the top. It actually resembled the flour volcano a baker might create on a marble counter into which eggs, milk and other ingredients are broken… however, what came next, was not eggs. Two of the older girls from the orphanage entered the courtyard with a basket containing at least 20 lbs of steaming cow manure, which went straight into the sand crater and was followed by Daraja’s finest… Mary K. and Emily. Kicking off their shoes and hiking up their skirts, the girls began to stomp with gusto. Mashing and mixing what began to take on the look of a deep orange adobe.

As I watched all of the activity it was difficult to not ask myself, “would kids back home choose to do this on their day off?” Perhaps, but truly the answer didn’t matter. This IS what these 26 inspirational stars chose to do with their break, and by the time they were done the place looked like new. The floors in all the dorms and dining hall were flat, level and missing the gauges worn by time and the patter of millions of little feet. All the cracks throughout the entire orphanage and all of its outbuildings were filled and smoothed over. The girls worked hard and did a very good job.

The pastor sent me a message later in the day telling me how grateful he was for everything the girls had done and all of the hard work they had invested in his project. He said that the girls were an answer to his prayers.

They certainly are an answer to mine.

Thank you,

Jason Doherty