YCS Rally

Saturday, I took some of the Weaver Bird students to an YCS (Young Christian/Catholic Students) diocese youth rally. These students had never been to a youth rally before. I decided that if I wanted to improve YCS at Weaver Bird, students needed to go to a rally to visit with other students from the diocese. So I paid for transport and the meal as many could not afford. I was able to get another YCS sponsor to go with us

The patron got a matatu (van) to take us to the rally which was about 30 miles away in a small village. Since he got only one matatu, I went with the girls on the first trip. We load 20 in a van that in Kansas would hold 14 people. To say the least it was crowded. Funny thing was that we were stopped by police at a check point. I was not worried because they stop all matatus. The policeman motioned for me to fasten my seatbelt. Wouldn’t you know I didn’t have mine fastened because I couldn’t! So I faked it. Of course the girls wanted to listen to music as we drove. I had to turn off my hearing aide because it was so loud!

The meeting started 30 minutes late which was not bad. We started with opening prayer. Next was introduction of patrons (adult leaders) for each school, followed by introduction of youth YCS officers. Then came the main speaker. He was a priest who seemed to give very good ideas to the students to improve themselves as students. I really don’t know what he said as he spoke in Swahili and I could only understand about 10%. I asked a student who said it would be hard to translate but said the speech was good. But the diocese youth leader said he would get me an English translation. The speech lasted over an hour which really is short by Kenyan standards.

While the adult leaders went to a classroom to vote on new leaders, students had entertainment. This meant that various schools had student groups sing, read poems

or do other things. I have to admit my favorite was a student from a rural school who did break dancing. He was joined after a few minutes with others. I was more than impressed by their moves and everyone gave them a very big clap for their efforts. The Weaver Bird students were very nervous, but I highly encouraged them to sing a couple of songs. I felt that they needed to contribute like the other schools.

Next on the schedule was lunch. I had learned from previous experiences that lunch meant bread (yes, a part of a loaf of bread) and a container of milk. I had gone to town on Friday evening and bought the items so we would not be delayed in arriving at the rally.

I was surprised to see that we were actually on schedule. The final item on the agenda was mass. Now the big problem, the priest was not there. In fact he was over an hour late. Finally the priest arrived and after about a half hour mass began. I was very impressed with the involvement of the students. The liturgical dancers having representatives from all schools escorted the priest as he entered. Mass ended at 5:20 instead of 3:40 as planned. The bad thing was that some schools had to leave early so they could make sure their students arrived home before dark.

I traveled with the girls back to Weaver Bird. They seemed to have a great experience. I learned they were very nervous singing for entertainment but felt good about their performance. That is a huge milestone for the group. But overall I think the day was a success in motivating the 500 plus students in their Christian faith.
 
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