Are You Sure This is School?

Part of our language studies involve "language lab." Basically, that means that we get sent out for a couple hours each afternoon to talk with specific people who have agreed to help us with our Swahili.

By far though, the best language lab is out in a village down the road with the kids in the pre-primary school there. The kid in the picture above is named Omar -- or something very close to that -- and he is an absolute sweetheart. Many of the little boys, especially those that come from Somali or Malakote families, are used to being the center of their worlds. You can't blame them for it, it's the only thing that they've ever known, but it's hard to realize that they are growing up with such of a warped concept of the roles that men and women are supposed to play in the world, and that they are being taught to just take whatever they want whenever they want it.

I'm pretty sure that Omar is Malakote (I'm still not very good at differentiating who is from what tribe, but most of the village is Malakote, so it's a pretty decent guess...), but, from the little bit that I've seen, his attitude is totally different from the other boys. He's much more careful with the girls and doesn't push them around and grab things from them as much as is normal; he's very protective of us, and he seems to be constantly trying to get the other boys to behave.

It's really cute to watch, 'cause he's not more than six or seven years old, but he's a total big brother to the other kids. It would be REALLY cool to see him grow up with a knowledge of Christ.

Honestly, all of those kids have caught my heart (...not that that's hard when it comes to me and kids...), but it's heartbreaking to know that they are growing up in a culture where it is assumed that being Malakote means being Muslim. (The Malakotes are one of the six different "unreached" people groups within the province.)

Pray for continued ministry opportunities out in this village, both for the guys to be doing physical labor and for us to be building relationships with the people out there, especially the kids.

More pictures of the kids are coming soon!

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