Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings to each of you from Maua on what feels like a fall day --- cool, crisp and windy. To our great joy we have had many very good rains this week so everything is green, fresh and the hills are simply gorgeous.

This past week I have been teaching Sociology to the new students, Set B. It has been a great learning experience for me (hopefully for the students also). I have taught on culture, poverty and gender plus an overview class. This next week I will teach on illness and disability and the media. I have allowed for much class participation and small discussion groups which have certainly opened my eyes to the way many of my students view the world, how different our cultures are (and there are many different cultures here in Kenya and amongst the students) and how difficult it is not to be egocentric in my views. One of the primary aims of my teaching is to help students realize that different isn't necessarily good or bad, it is just different. That has been a good reminder for me.

I'd like to share a few things that have occurred in class that have been helpful to me. In my poverty class the first activity I had the students do was look at four pictures and decide which ones showed poverty and why or why not. One of the pictures was of a homeless man in some big US city. He was sitting on the sidewalk and there was a dog next to him sharing his food. No student felt this picture showed poverty. Their reasons included: he was wearing SHOES, a shirt and slacks, he was sharing his food with a dog which must be a pet, he was sitting by a street that was well paved and the in front of tall buildings and those are signs of prosperity not poverty. As we talked about absolute poverty (lack of our basic needs) and relative poverty (unable to live "reasonably" as decided by the society in which one lives), the students were aghast at what could be considered "relative poverty" in the US (like not having a telephone, where here you are rich, very rich, if you have a personal telephone).

Certainly I know there is poverty, absolute and relative, in the US. But the degree, the depth of poverty here is so great and there are few or no social agencies to help anyone. In a 1997 report on poverty in Kenya, a town about 50 miles from here, out of the hills in the desert area, Isiola, was reported to have 82% of its population in absolute poverty. In Kenya 47% of the population is in absolute poverty and that figure is growing.

Our class talked about the causes of poverty in Kenya and I was thrilled at how well they could identify them. But when I asked if they could make a difference in any of the causes, their immediate response was "NO!" I guess that is how we all feel when we think of the underlying causes of poverty in our neighborhood, country or world. But we can all make a difference - no matter how small. What we do does make a difference --- there is hope. We are the hands, the feet, and the heart of Jesus Christ and thus nothing is impossible, not even poverty!!!

Our class on gender certainly sparked the most heated discussion and strongest disagreements. There are seven males and 13 females in class. When I first ask if there were inequities among the sexes in Kenya, the majority of the class said no. By the end of the class, the females seemed to have found strength in number and were speaking fearlessly about some of their feelings. It was one of the first times I have ever heard students express "feelings". I had statistics about the percentage of work that is done by rural woman in Kenya. For those people who are "peasant farmers" (that is what they are called here) women do about 79 - 84% of the work done. But to the end, the males insisted that all the "hard work" was done by males.

In church women and men sit on opposite sides of the church with a few exceptions. Before Bill and I joined the choir, we always sat on the women's side (no couple did that!!!!!!!!) Today in the Ki-Swahili service the pastor talked about the seating arrangement and asked that next Sunday the men sit with the women or vice versa. He said that if a man shares a bed with his wife surely he could share a pew with her. There was great laughter at that but I doubt things will change. I will let you know!!!!

Bill has had to stop his work with Charles in the accounting office as they are awaiting the initial account balances for 1999 to be provided by the auditors. Until they receive those figures they cannot continue. Thus, he has been working in the computer lab and creating the front page of the 1998 annual hospital report.

Please continue to pray for my father as he has numerous physical problems. We are so hopeful he will be able to come visit us this summer as he and my mother, sister and her husband, brother and his wife and son have planned.

We are so thankful for your continued prayers for us. Certainly that is what keeps us "hanging in there". We do love to hear from you and about you. We so appreciate your emails that are filled with encouragement, support and love. We are so grateful for you!

Mungu akubariki,

Jerri and Bill

You can answer this letter at savuto@MAF.org

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