You can click on the photos above to view them in a larger scale.

This post will be about Gift which is pronounced Gifty. In Kiswahili speaking countries, all english words that end with certain consonants like t or d the final letter is pronounced as a separate hard syllable. So Gift is pronounced Gif–T and it sounds like Gifty.

Gift is a sweet kid, currently in our Preunity class (that is the last pre-school class before they join standard classes. He has been with us for both years and lives in the local community. During my blog about Beatrice, I mentioned that he often liked to sit next to me at church like she did and they often shared a seat so they could both be beside me.

As a student is a strong “B” student using the USA grading system. He is good at greeting in English and actually taught his mother while still in the youngest class two years ago to greet me in English when I would see her while I was walking. This is her below singing with the Kiruani TAG choir.

Gift is a big fan of the “Reading with Barnabas” program always completely enthralled and enchanted by the videos playing. He will often engage with people on the video who ask questions or want the audience to do something.

Last year Gift missed about a month of school because he burned his ankle. I have talked about the fact kids have to help with cooking dinner which sometimes includes making the fire. I am not certain about how his leg got to close to the fire but the burn was signficant enough to keep him home for a month. I really missed seeing him and having him ask to be picked up on a regular basis.

As you can tell from the pictures above, he likes to smile. He is a happy student and gets along with his fellow students. He is one of the few students I have never seen strike out at another student when pushed on a seat, stepped on, or someone gets in line in front of him.

Gift has a general easy going attitude that makes a pleasure to hang out with.