AFRICA...Kenyan Song Competition 2006

October 2006 - Almost exactly a year after Justin left this life, I had the opportunity to go to Kenya for the first time to represent the Justin Wade Gunnell Foundation that my incredible boss started.  With the help of lots of my fellow co-workers and family, we sponsored the first ever Kenyan Song Competition.  To make a very long story a little bit shorter, we teamed up with two other non-profit organizations, Reach The Children and United Families International to make our foundation's goal happen.  Reach The Children has a program called "Stay Alive" which is an AIDS prevention education program.  The have different modules/lessons that they teach the children about abstinence and self respect.  It is important to know that most of the schools we dealt with did not have paper, pencils and books.  Rather, they would learn by reciting back to the teacher what they had learned as well as singing songs to help them remember.  This is where the Kenyan Song Competition came into play.  They had new lessons but no songs, so the Justin Wade Gunnell Foundation sponsored this competition between some of the schools to come up with songs in exchange for supplies to their school.  There was a lot of planning and logistics to figure out, especially when you are bringing hundreds of school children to a central location.  For example,transportation and roads are nothing like they are here in the United States.  We also needed to feed these children since they would be there all day, and cooking in Africa is nothing like cooking with the modern conveniences in the United States.

There were so many people behind the scenes to get this organized both in Africa and the U.S.  I met a few of them and absolutely cherish my friendship with them.  Wendy Schefield, Jastus Suchi and Gaye Brown.

I will never forget the day our van pulled into the beautiful church house we were holding the competition at (little did I know 4 years later I would be there again).  There were children, youth and teachers lining the fences waiting for us to come.  They instantly stood on their feet when we pulled in and were so quiet and respectful.  There were hundreds of children there.  Each of them dressed in their school's uniform looking their best.  We walked around to each of the different schools and talked to them.  They each gave us a sneak peek of what they would be performing.  They were so excited to see us and earn prizes for their school and you could tell a lot of work had gone into these songs. 

The competition began and we had each of the schools sing 3 songs they had written for the new lessons. 

We had the Kenyan Boys Choir Director come to be one of the judges.  They travel all over performing,  so it was an honor to have him there.

Some of the schools brought their own instruments.  You can see that this school is using an old shoe to play their drums. 

We did end up picking the three songs we liked best and presented the teachers with the awards.  Little did the other schools know that they too would all be receiving the same reward!  I can still remember when Suchi announced that everyone had won, the children all stood up and cheered and clapped and laughed so loud!!  I leaned over to Gaye Brown and said "Next to my wedding day, this is the greatest day of my life!"  I truly meant it.  I had never felt such an overwhelming love for the African people as I did then.  Each of the schools received a goat which they would sell the milk to earn money for their school, as well as breed and sell the offspring.  They also received a square foot gardening kit with tools and seeds to plant their own garden at school.  Many of these children came to school hungry and this was a way for them to eat.  Each school also received a trophy for their participation.  You would have thought it was Christmas morning when they found out they would get a trophy!

After the competition, we had a late lunch before we sent the children home.  We had some fabulous women in the community cook for hundreds of people.  I couldn't believe how efficient they were but also how much work it was for them to cook!  They all wanted me to take their picture while they were cooking.  One sweet woman who was probably 80 years old told me she had never had her picture taken before.  When I showed her the camera afterward, she just started laughing that her face was on it.

This was my first realization since Justin's death that there were harder things in life than dealing with death.  I realized that I had a loving family, living parents who provided for me, modern conveniences, gospel knowledge, food to eat, limitless educational opportunities, shoes to wear, more than one set of clothes, access to medical facilities, a home to live in...I had a future...and most of these children didn't.  It is something I cannot explain, but these wonderful African people changed my whole perspective on life.  They were happy and yet they had nothing compared to what I had!  It was then I realized that material things didn't matter to them...why as Americans do we focus so much on accumulating "things" when we could be happy without them? 

I even left there more grateful for my hair!  I learned that most of these schools shaved both the boys and girls hair to control lice.  I remember visiting one of the schools and being surrounded by little girls who each took a handful of my hair and just touched it over and over and over again saying how soft and long it was.  I had never been grateful that I had hair and yet I was surrounded by little girls who had none. On the way home I was thinking about my trip.  I had gone over there with the intention of changing their lives, but in all reality, they changed mine...forever.