2018 is here already! I apologize for doing a bad job of communicating what I was doing in 2017. I was just trying to get a feel for everything around me. But I’ve written up a good 2017 summary and I’m ready to share it with you! If you donated 50$ or more in 2017, you are welcome to request the 2017 FULL/serious report of the year. It’s a PDF with lots of nitty-gritty details. Just ask! But, below is a brief overview about what I did in 2017.
Why I’ve Been Quiet
2017 was a major learning experience for me. I worked on many little projects trying to test out what I’m best at and just learning about the people and the environment. Learning the language (Swahili) is super important to understand what’s going on around you! To understand what people are discussing around me, to communicate with the people who don’t speak English, to communicate better with those who aren’t fluent in English. In 2017 I spent 76 hours studying Swahili, and that’s just since July when I started recording my hours. I actually started studying Swahili clear back around June 2016. My hope is to be fluent (or mostly fluent) by the end of the year.
In 2017 I was really just trying to get settled, and experience and understand this new environment I’m in. I had my hands in many different projects and was more interested in LIVING in Kenya, than getting on the computer and typing about it. I recently made this video that talks about what I did in 2017.
The video also explains more about why I didn’t blog much. But, this year, I’m hoping to get one blog out every month. I understand more about what’s going on now, so I’m ready to post some things!
Brief Summary of 2017:
Major Projects of 2017:
Helping a 20 year old 7th grader to start to learn to read.
Playing with kids at children’s home and teaching them colors, numbers, alphabet and encouraging reading, (see pic above).
Becoming trained as an official church teacher (with Anglican Church of Kenya) and running the church bible study.
Online education (and book reading) on social change, economic development and poverty alleviation.
Minor Projects of 2017:
Teaching a high school girl to use the internet.
Teaching a young man on how to use WordPress to build a website.
400$ loan as investment for a motorcycle taxi driver.
Women’s empowerment group at YWCA in which we watched inspirational videos and talked about them after.
Offering small cleaning jobs to struggling women in the area.
Organizing office papers at children’s home office.
Classes Took:
Social Norms, Social Change I and II (Coursera)
How to Change the World (Coursera)
Subsistence Marketplaces (Coursera)
Lay Readers Course (St. Philip’s Anglican Church, Kisii)
Books Read:
The Idealist by Nina Munk
The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
African Friends and Money Matters by David Maranz
Charity Money:
I gave a way a good amount of cash and I bought a lot of items for some struggling poor people, the kids at the home and even some other organizations. See a pic of my Christmas packages above. Loan money is not included in this number. Total charitable contributions were $375.17.
Total Donations to Me in 2017:
$5,689. Short of $6,000 goal by $311.
Overall, 2017 was a pretty awesome year. A year of learning that’s for SURE!!!! I’m excited to see 2018 unfold. Since I’ve learned a lot in 2017, I plan to be much more active in 2018, with communicating but also doing. I want to see more classes, more books, more powerful major projects and more charity given. Hope you are excited for it too! A post about what’s coming ahead in 2018, coming soon!
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