Steve
Peifer was a 2007 winner of the CNN Heroes Award for Championing
Children. But the story started ten years before.
He
begins his book arriving at the Nairobi international Airport with
his wife and sons, seven and ten. Their family had recently gone
through a painful time – an at risk pregnancy and a son who lived
just over a week. Friends had suggested that a change of scenery as
short-term volunteer dorm parents at the Rift Valley Academy would
provide the time and opportunity to heal. They had no idea what they
were getting into.
Steve
shares the change in his life, from a management position at the
Oracle Corporation to living in the midst of poverty. His wife served
as the elementary school librarian. He was assigned the task of
implementing the new accounting software in the business office as
well as running the elementary school computer lab. While his
computer background helped prepare him for those responsibilities, it
did nothing to help him teach driver's education. (His experiences
are hilarious.)
Steve
relates many of the emails he sent to supporters while in Kenya. He
shares their experience that first year: delivering toys to an
orphanage, visiting remote Masai in the African bush, riding an
ostrich, enjoying safari during spring break, and teaching computer
skills to first graders.
As
that year was coming to an end, Steve realized what he had been doing
was unexpectedly one of the most rewarding things he had ever done.
“I have won million dollar accounts before in my corporate career,”
he writes, “but watching third-graders high five each other because
they learned how to sort on a spreadsheet was every bit as
satisfying.”
A
week before their scheduled flight home, he and some RVA colleagues
visited an elementary school in the Karima community down the valley,
delivering food to the families of students. What he saw there -
children lying on the dirt floor because they were too weak to stand
because of lack of food – changed his life. He knew he could not
walk away from Africa. It took a while, as he returned to the Dallas
area and a good job with an Oracle consulting company. But it wasn't
long before he knew where he really belonged.
He
chronicles their return to Kenya, the adoption of twins, starting the
food program for Kenyan elementary schools and its growth, then solar
powered computer labs, being college advisor at RVA and having
students accepted at every Ivy League college, and much more.
Peifer
writes with wit combined with feeling. Reading his stories make you
feel like you are along with him in the family adventures and their
cross-cultural challenges. And you can't help but chuckle from time
to time. Yet the seriousness of his heart for Africa comes through
loud and clear. Steve writes, “Africa can break your heart, but it
is full of people who have made something beautiful out of so
little.”
You
can watch the video of the award ceremony and find out much more
about Peifer's work at http://kenyakidscan.org.
Steve
Peifer serves as Director of College Guidance for Rift Valley Academy
in Kijabe, Kenya. He and his wife have four children.
Gregg
Lewis is the award-winning author or coauthor of more than fifty
books.
Zondervan,
336 pages.
I
received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher for
the purpose of this review.
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