Doctors Visit Daylight to Inspire Students

Our students know the value of access to quality healthcare. In the rural town of Kapenguria where Daylight is located, medical care is limited to a small clinic with a few doctors and nurses. When students get sick they take the school van with a Daylight staff to the local clinic across town or to the nearest large hospital which is a 45 minute drive away.

Our students are passionate about helping their community stay healthy. A third of Daylight students say they want to go into the medical field when they grow up. Students like Grace, who wants to be a nurse when she grows up.

To encourage Grace and her fellow students we invited Dr. Rachel and Dr. Maria to visit Daylight. These doctors are from New York and are currently serving alongside Kenya Doctors at Kapenguria Hospital near Daylight. They spoke about their work helping Kenyan doctors deliver babies in the community.

For an hour our students asked the doctors questions like, “What should I study if I want to become a doctor?” They encouraged our students to study math and sciences, work hard, and not to give up with they experience set-backs.

This was especially inspiring for the female students to see female role models serving in their local hospital.

Thank you to Doctor Rachel and Maria for their work at the Kapenguria Hospital and inspiring our young people. And thank you to all our supporters, teachers, and families for helping our aspiring medical care providers with the education they need to reach their goals.

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Join us: Shade in a Parched Land Sunday, February 23, 2020


The second performance of Shade In A Parched Land is scheduled for February 23 at 4pm at Como Park Lutheran Church located at 1376 Hoyt Avenue West in St. Paul.

The piece is for organ, African percussion instruments and spoken poems, on a African theme. The arc of the piece in 5 movements is the emotional experience of an American educator/technician, from know-it-all to a realization that the one being helped is himself, working at a school for orphans and very poor children in rural Kenya. All are invited. Free-will offerings accepted. This event will last approximately one hour.

Below is one of the poems that will be included in the performance. 

Building A Classroom In Rural Kenya

Would you rather be
The mattock that disturbs
Dirt and clay,
Asleep in the ground
These many years,
Or the shovel that removes
Dirt and clods of clay
And creates a thing
Known for its absence – a hole?
Would you rather be
The brick that, with help from its brothers,
Defines the brick wall,
Or the mortar that binds brothers together
To make the strong wall?
In America, machines
Build everything.
Gian claws rip the ground
And trucks pour
Concrete for the foundation.
But in Kenya,
People are the machines.
They dig foundations
And build walls.
In Kenya,
The classroom
Is made of bricks and mortar,
And sweat and tears,
And hope.
So, you choose.
Would you rather be
The hammer that directs
The nail into its proper place,
Or the nail that holds
Things together
Long after the hammer
Lies asleep in the tool shed.

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