So here I am in Ghana. This is like the longest day ever. We have an 11 hour layover here. We met another American guy here who is on the same connecting flight with us, and we're passing the time talking to him about his time in Kenya. Someone in the airport tried to make us pay money to get a transport visa when we arrived. I'm pretty sure that was just some shady deal he was attempting to make. He said we needed the visa because our time between our connecting flight was so long and that it cost $20. I said we don't have any money with us (which is true. I have like 50 shillings left and no American money). And after some talking back and forth he said he was willing to wave the fee for us. So we bypassed the customs line and walked out of the airport again to go back inside to departures. Again we definitely could have left the airport, but the problem is that they wouldn't check our luggage all the way. So we are sitting with 3 suitcases and 1 bag. Rachel is on luggage watching duty while I'm typing. No where in the whole airport accepts credit cards and so Rachel walked quite far to find an ATM to get some Ghanan money so that we could eat.
It has been an extremely hard day for me. I was crying hysterically all morning and at the airport. Edwin drove us there and Tall and Julius came with. They were all watching us through the windows waving to us as we waited in line for our tickets. I can't believe I am leaving all these people that I care about so much and that I have bonded with so well. Yes, there have been struggles at times and living with everyone was difficult. Us mzungus often got frustrated by the loud music which woke us up many times in the morning. But overall it has been such a good experience and I have learned so much.
Yesterday we went to juvenile for the last time to make chapati with the boys. Nearly everyone loves chapati here and for these boys it's a rare treat. They never have it at juvenile because it takes so long to make for that many people and isn't as cheap as other foods. This process went extremely smooth, much better than I expected. All the boys took turns mixing, rolling, and cooking. Overall there was minimal amount of pushing and fighting. And with so many hands we finished cooking in 2 hours. One boy told me he remembered doing this in 2008 when I was here. It is good to know that people remember. We had a small drama to deal with during the day because John, the street boy, stayed at our house on Friday. And Julius discovered in the morning that John had taken 3000 shillings from his wallet. So there was lots of discussion with him about what happened. It seems he misunderstood that Alex was only temporarily taking him to Kibera to stay for a few days before taking him home. I think John thought he was being left there. Of course that doesn't justify the stealing though.
We went out for Ethiopian food last night as a farewell dinner. And then we came back to the house for tea and people came over to pray for us. It was good to hear everyone recap about how they think the 2 months went and what we have learned from each other. Rachel and I tried to stay up most of the night so that we are very tired for the plane so that our bodies can adjust. We made it till about 3:30 a.m. and slept 2 hours before getting back up. We are decked out in our Kenyan garb, braided hair, and tire shoes. I think minus our skin color we could pass for Kenyans.
So Monday morning I will be home. I feel so conflicted and pulled in many directions. I know that school is about to begin in America and that I have a purpose there. But it is very hard to leave behind my life in Nairobi. The people that I've met are like my family. And the stories of the women and boys we've met really tug at my heart. I am so encouraged by the way people share the little that they have and the strong faith of people who have been through so much. I may be leaving Kenya, but I know that I will not forget what I have seen. This place is such a part of me and I pray that I will be changed for the better by what God has allowed me to experience. Thank you again for all your prayers. We have stayed fairly healthy for our whole trip and have yet to have anything stolen. We were kept safe at night when so many scary things happen in Nairobi. Truly God has protected us and we appreciate your prayers. Asante Sana. I hope to see some of you soon and share with you about my time here. Barikwa sana!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
More Goodbyes
As the week winds down, we are continuing to say bye to people. Yesterday was the small boys juvenile. Unfortunately we haven't really grown that close with those boys. They don't speak much English, so communication is difficult and we haven't spent as much time there as the other places. But all the same, we finished up our time there yesterday. Rachel, Alex, Tall, and Julius came back from Mombasa on Wednesday, so it has been nice having them around again. Today we enjoyed our last day with the street boys. We played all sorts of games with them. It becomes very apparent when doing this as to who is on a lot of drugs. We were playing that very simple hand clap game, Down By the Banks, and Kennedy could not grasp the simple comment of slapping the hand of the person next to him. Kennedy is probably at least 19 so this shouldn't be difficult but it really was for him. Fortunately I only saw one person actually using drugs today. And it happened at the end. It was an older man. He willingly gave me the bottle and rag he was using. I thought they were basically empty so I went to throw them up on the ledge where we always throw everything. But silly me didn't notice there were actually a lot of drugs in the container and it spilled all over my hair. I wouldn't normally even care that much except that my hair is braided and can't be washed. What to do??? I guess just spray lots of product all over it to cover up the smell :)
The boys had some nice things to say about how they enjoyed us being there and they never thought visitors like us would come see them and God bless us on our trip back home. The pastor also said that we've made him to have a backbone because he is better able to stand up to the boys and women and establish some ground rules. Rachel and I laughed about that. White people are known here for being open, honest, and speaking their minds. Yes, that probably fits us. At the end there were people from city council who came to meet with the boys. They told them all this stuff about how the constitution has rights for them and they can go to these free hospitals and they have a right to have a place to sleep, blah, blah, blah. They weren't telling them anything concrete, and it seemed like a bunch of hogwash to me. We asked Julius about it later and he said it was all talk--that nothing much would happen and that there is a government place where they take these boys but it's unacceptable. It's overcrowded; they aren't fed much; they have to wake up at 4 a.m. Many of the boys who go there just run away because the streets are actually a more appealing alternative. On a good note, we took another kid from the street today. He's currently at our house waiting for Alex. Alex is supposed to take him to live with his brother for the night and then take him home tomorrow. He was extremely excited on the bus ride home. He keeps trying to talk in this mzunugu voice, which just sounds really silly. He had a bad headache. I think maybe he is very dehydrated and hadn't eaten for a long time until we fed him lunch today. Also Francis showed up with the street boys today. That's the first time we've seen him in over a month. Rachel talked with him about where he's been and how we were disappointed that he ran away. She said he looked like he might cry. He looked to me like maybe he'd been using drugs too.
And then there's this issue of Peter. Rachel and I were just examining his leg before we came to the cyber. He has completely bled through the gauze on his leg. I fear that when they took the staples out that something bad happened. And I just wonder if there has been any improvement at all. We are going to get some new gauze on our way back to the house and have him rewrap it. I worry though that this issue really hasn't been solved at all after all the effort. Continue praying for him please.
We stopped by Julius' mom's house in Kibera and made tea for her. Their house is nice and tidy and she was so welcoming. I'm really going to miss hanging out and having tea with people. And Rachel and I were commenting yesterday about how we're going to miss street food. It's so yummy, convenient, and cheap! And I'm going to miss joking around on the matatus. Yesterday we pretended not to know Alex and let him strike up this conversation with us on the ride to juvenile. I think the guy next to Alex was really believing the whole thing and a little bit confused until I finally turned around and said, "We know him actually. He's our friend." And he just laughed.
Rachel and I discovered today that we think these little neighbor kids have been going through our stuff and eating our chocolate. It's really normal here for kids to just come into the house by themselves when your door is open. It's very wierd for Rachel and I and we usually kindly try to ask them to leave because they're just sort of walking all around the house. What we didn't realize is that they've been coming in while Peter is there by himself. Rachel was upset when she found her backpack and suitcase opened up. Nothing was missing, but it was a bit disorderly. I couldn't figure out why I keep having chocolate missing. We were hiding chocolate in our room to make s'mores and everyday a little bit more disappears. We're pretty sure the kids took it. I'm glad they didn't take any money or anything important. It's just wierd. And people share everything here, so food of ours often gets eaten. We don't mind so much except when it's something special we've gotten. There was a time we came home and a bag and a half of Ashley's marshmallows had disappeared (we found out some of our friends ate them). I think we're just very used to people asking before they help themselves and so that frustrates us a lot.
One more day here before we leave Sunday morning. We're going to juvenile to make chapati. And tonight I requested that we eat madondo (beans)...my favorite. Thanks so much for your prayers and support while I've been here. I appreciate knowing that you all care enough to read these long posts. Be prepared for lots of storytelling and picture showing when I get back on Monday.
The boys had some nice things to say about how they enjoyed us being there and they never thought visitors like us would come see them and God bless us on our trip back home. The pastor also said that we've made him to have a backbone because he is better able to stand up to the boys and women and establish some ground rules. Rachel and I laughed about that. White people are known here for being open, honest, and speaking their minds. Yes, that probably fits us. At the end there were people from city council who came to meet with the boys. They told them all this stuff about how the constitution has rights for them and they can go to these free hospitals and they have a right to have a place to sleep, blah, blah, blah. They weren't telling them anything concrete, and it seemed like a bunch of hogwash to me. We asked Julius about it later and he said it was all talk--that nothing much would happen and that there is a government place where they take these boys but it's unacceptable. It's overcrowded; they aren't fed much; they have to wake up at 4 a.m. Many of the boys who go there just run away because the streets are actually a more appealing alternative. On a good note, we took another kid from the street today. He's currently at our house waiting for Alex. Alex is supposed to take him to live with his brother for the night and then take him home tomorrow. He was extremely excited on the bus ride home. He keeps trying to talk in this mzunugu voice, which just sounds really silly. He had a bad headache. I think maybe he is very dehydrated and hadn't eaten for a long time until we fed him lunch today. Also Francis showed up with the street boys today. That's the first time we've seen him in over a month. Rachel talked with him about where he's been and how we were disappointed that he ran away. She said he looked like he might cry. He looked to me like maybe he'd been using drugs too.
And then there's this issue of Peter. Rachel and I were just examining his leg before we came to the cyber. He has completely bled through the gauze on his leg. I fear that when they took the staples out that something bad happened. And I just wonder if there has been any improvement at all. We are going to get some new gauze on our way back to the house and have him rewrap it. I worry though that this issue really hasn't been solved at all after all the effort. Continue praying for him please.
We stopped by Julius' mom's house in Kibera and made tea for her. Their house is nice and tidy and she was so welcoming. I'm really going to miss hanging out and having tea with people. And Rachel and I were commenting yesterday about how we're going to miss street food. It's so yummy, convenient, and cheap! And I'm going to miss joking around on the matatus. Yesterday we pretended not to know Alex and let him strike up this conversation with us on the ride to juvenile. I think the guy next to Alex was really believing the whole thing and a little bit confused until I finally turned around and said, "We know him actually. He's our friend." And he just laughed.
Rachel and I discovered today that we think these little neighbor kids have been going through our stuff and eating our chocolate. It's really normal here for kids to just come into the house by themselves when your door is open. It's very wierd for Rachel and I and we usually kindly try to ask them to leave because they're just sort of walking all around the house. What we didn't realize is that they've been coming in while Peter is there by himself. Rachel was upset when she found her backpack and suitcase opened up. Nothing was missing, but it was a bit disorderly. I couldn't figure out why I keep having chocolate missing. We were hiding chocolate in our room to make s'mores and everyday a little bit more disappears. We're pretty sure the kids took it. I'm glad they didn't take any money or anything important. It's just wierd. And people share everything here, so food of ours often gets eaten. We don't mind so much except when it's something special we've gotten. There was a time we came home and a bag and a half of Ashley's marshmallows had disappeared (we found out some of our friends ate them). I think we're just very used to people asking before they help themselves and so that frustrates us a lot.
One more day here before we leave Sunday morning. We're going to juvenile to make chapati. And tonight I requested that we eat madondo (beans)...my favorite. Thanks so much for your prayers and support while I've been here. I appreciate knowing that you all care enough to read these long posts. Be prepared for lots of storytelling and picture showing when I get back on Monday.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Last Day With the Street Women
So today was the last day with the street women. I didn't expect to get so emotional, but I definitely shed lots of tears. (Can't imagine what the next few days will be like). I was telling them about how the first time I came there, it was crazy. All the women were yelling, shouting, on drugs, complaining, etc. I complimented them on how far they'd come. Today they were sitting down nicely listening when we walked in. I'm so amazed by the small ways even that God is changing their lives. We brought cookies and juice for a small farewell party. We also carried thermoses of hot water so that we could wash the babies today. The moms helped us, which was really nice. And the kids seemed less upset by it. One little boy, James, just stood quietly in the water and didn't cry at all. Several of the kids have ringworm or some kind of worm on their skin, not to mention some crazy rashes. I think one boy had a severe case of diaper rash, or maybe something worse; I'm not sure. But I know that sitting in poopy pants all day cannot be good. The women had nice things to say to us. Mama Vincent gave me a necklace she made, and I gave her my shoes. They stink pretty badly, but I think with some cleaning they will last a long time and be much better than the cheap flip flops most people wear. Oh, and praise God...no one was doing drugs today.
In the morning we were in Kibera. I've stocked up on lots of things to sell...necklaces, earrings, woven basket bags, and some soap stone bowls. We had to do a little negotiating because a new lady came today and was trying to sell her necklaces for 100 shillings more than the other ladies. That's only a dollar, but still it's kind of a big deal. She tried to insist that the quality of her work was better, but I think they are equal. So we got her to agree to less and I think the other women were pleased that we appreciated their work and wanted to make it fair for all. Rachel and I took them a big bag of our clothes. We're leaving almost everything here except for a few pieces of clothing.
Monday I took Peter to the hospital, and he got a mostly good report. They said the skin graft took ok. It looked really gross to me though and not all that healed. But they took the staples out and said it was fine. I had to leave the room during this b/c for some reason I couldn't handle it that day. He goes back for a follow up in 2 weeks, which means someone else will be taking him. They said he can start getting it wet next week. But the part of the skin that was vacuumed together is still oozing really badly. I just wonder how it will be. And the doctors said he needs to have his bone looked at every few months in case the infection flares up. Please pray that he would heal and mend and that this isn't just a short term fix.
On the way home today, the lady on the bus next to us started freaking out yelling in Swahili. The person on the other side of me finally explained that she was upset b/c she claimed to have dropped some money and thought the person in front of her picked it up and took it. The woman in front of her was denying everything, and the yelling continued while everyone on the bus turned to stare.
When we walked through Kibera carrying our tea for the women this morning, everyone kept making comments like, "mzunugu, give me some tea." And I decided to have a little fun with the situation, so I started making comments like, "sure, chai 40 bob." It should be only 5 or 10 shillings a cup, so the people started laughing or acting surprised and it became this big joke. I said, "Special mzunugu price." (That's what they tell me at the market).
I got my hair plaited and braided yesterday, and it looks pretty sweet. I'm getting bad headaches from it being so tight, but it's worth it. Julius' sister, Alice, did it for me. And she took less than 4 hours, which is impressive. Last time I sat for 6 hours. Our Dutch friend, Shantal, had her hair braided on Monday and it was bothering her so much that she took it out the next morning. She even had to cut some of her hair b/c she couldn't get it out. She and her family left this morning, which was very sad. I hung out with them yesterday and it was hard because Shantal really wasn't ready to leave. She is praying that God allows a way for her family to come back. If her husband could get a job here there would be a possibility they would come back to stay here. We ordered pizza with them and there was a big mixup at the pizza place over the number of pizzas ordered. We ended up getting 10 instead of 6, so let's just say there was lots to go around. And ice cream too because they were cleaning out their freezer. I took the ice cream home and Peter and I had some before I took the rest over to our Eritrean neighbors. I had to get rid of it quickly because it was melting and we have no refrigerator or freezer. I stayed and had coffee with the neighbors. They are super nice and polite. But it's wierd too because the mom seems to think that I have some special power to help her because I am white. She is a refugee here and I'm not sure if she is going to be deported or if it's just difficult to get a job here. The family talked a lot about how they are discriminated against by Kenyans because they look differently. Her husband was drafted into fighting in Eritrea...apparently Eritrea and Ethiopia are fighting over the border, which I didn't know. And I think the husband was killed. So they fled and now she is stuck here. I'm not sure how she is able to support her 4 children. There are 2 other Eritreans in the building, and they all hang out together and consider each other to be family. They call each other sister and brother. That is what I like about Africa--this sense of family and of taking care of each other. We are after all part of God's family, right? So may we not see skin color or background or upbringing or socioeconomic status. That's my prayer today and that I would bring this value of family togetherness home with me.
In the morning we were in Kibera. I've stocked up on lots of things to sell...necklaces, earrings, woven basket bags, and some soap stone bowls. We had to do a little negotiating because a new lady came today and was trying to sell her necklaces for 100 shillings more than the other ladies. That's only a dollar, but still it's kind of a big deal. She tried to insist that the quality of her work was better, but I think they are equal. So we got her to agree to less and I think the other women were pleased that we appreciated their work and wanted to make it fair for all. Rachel and I took them a big bag of our clothes. We're leaving almost everything here except for a few pieces of clothing.
Monday I took Peter to the hospital, and he got a mostly good report. They said the skin graft took ok. It looked really gross to me though and not all that healed. But they took the staples out and said it was fine. I had to leave the room during this b/c for some reason I couldn't handle it that day. He goes back for a follow up in 2 weeks, which means someone else will be taking him. They said he can start getting it wet next week. But the part of the skin that was vacuumed together is still oozing really badly. I just wonder how it will be. And the doctors said he needs to have his bone looked at every few months in case the infection flares up. Please pray that he would heal and mend and that this isn't just a short term fix.
On the way home today, the lady on the bus next to us started freaking out yelling in Swahili. The person on the other side of me finally explained that she was upset b/c she claimed to have dropped some money and thought the person in front of her picked it up and took it. The woman in front of her was denying everything, and the yelling continued while everyone on the bus turned to stare.
When we walked through Kibera carrying our tea for the women this morning, everyone kept making comments like, "mzunugu, give me some tea." And I decided to have a little fun with the situation, so I started making comments like, "sure, chai 40 bob." It should be only 5 or 10 shillings a cup, so the people started laughing or acting surprised and it became this big joke. I said, "Special mzunugu price." (That's what they tell me at the market).
I got my hair plaited and braided yesterday, and it looks pretty sweet. I'm getting bad headaches from it being so tight, but it's worth it. Julius' sister, Alice, did it for me. And she took less than 4 hours, which is impressive. Last time I sat for 6 hours. Our Dutch friend, Shantal, had her hair braided on Monday and it was bothering her so much that she took it out the next morning. She even had to cut some of her hair b/c she couldn't get it out. She and her family left this morning, which was very sad. I hung out with them yesterday and it was hard because Shantal really wasn't ready to leave. She is praying that God allows a way for her family to come back. If her husband could get a job here there would be a possibility they would come back to stay here. We ordered pizza with them and there was a big mixup at the pizza place over the number of pizzas ordered. We ended up getting 10 instead of 6, so let's just say there was lots to go around. And ice cream too because they were cleaning out their freezer. I took the ice cream home and Peter and I had some before I took the rest over to our Eritrean neighbors. I had to get rid of it quickly because it was melting and we have no refrigerator or freezer. I stayed and had coffee with the neighbors. They are super nice and polite. But it's wierd too because the mom seems to think that I have some special power to help her because I am white. She is a refugee here and I'm not sure if she is going to be deported or if it's just difficult to get a job here. The family talked a lot about how they are discriminated against by Kenyans because they look differently. Her husband was drafted into fighting in Eritrea...apparently Eritrea and Ethiopia are fighting over the border, which I didn't know. And I think the husband was killed. So they fled and now she is stuck here. I'm not sure how she is able to support her 4 children. There are 2 other Eritreans in the building, and they all hang out together and consider each other to be family. They call each other sister and brother. That is what I like about Africa--this sense of family and of taking care of each other. We are after all part of God's family, right? So may we not see skin color or background or upbringing or socioeconomic status. That's my prayer today and that I would bring this value of family togetherness home with me.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Was My Kitchen On Fire?
Because Peter and I can't clearly understand each other, often our conversations are like trying to solve a mystery. We work really hard to talk slow and motion with our hands and pull out the small English and Swahili phrases that we each know. And sometimes we are left staring at each other frustrated because we have no idea what the other one is talking about. Take yesterday, for instance. I went to juvenile with Popo for devotions. And of course, without exception, things were disorganized there. Some other random man had also come to do devotions. But no worries, Popo and I sat and listened and added some things at the end and sang some songs with them. I realize when I hear other people speaking to the boys, that not everyone is cut out to minister effectively to them. Alex and Popo have been blessed with being really hilarious and because of that they can easily get the boys' attention and get them to listen. When this other man was speaking every few minutes he would pause and say, "you, why aren't you listening? you, I'll kick you out. you, you're being disrespectful, etc." obviously you have to ignore some of this stuff or you'll never get anywhere. anyway, he mostly had them listening I just don't know if they were really letting anything sink in. And at one point he kept talking about how God wants to make you rich (and not in the spiritual sense). This is a common message that I hear a lot, even last time, and it really bothers me. I think God wants us to bless others and live in a way that we are able to share and help others, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, after this I went with Popo to the Salvation Army church in Kibera. There was no room inside so we were just standing outside until the pastor came and insisted that I couldn't sit outside. I really didn't want to go in b/c it appeared that Popo was getting left outside. But Popo made me come in, and I had to sit in the front of the church and Popo was given a seat on the stage, which made him feel really uncomfortable too. I had no idea what was going on because the entire service was in Swahili, so Popo kept texting me updating me on what was going on, "They're praying for the pastor b/c he's having surgery", etc. I know...texting in church...bad right? I would never let myself do that in the U.S.
Anyway, back to Peter. I came home and the house smelled like smoke. I asked what the smell was and he said he didn't know. I thought it might be coming from outside b/c people are always burning trash. And I had Peter start cutting vegetables to make lunch. Then a few minutes later I found a very burned towel in the trash. And I said, "Peter, did you catch something on fire?" After much struggle with communication I got the basic idea that he was cooking chips (french fries) and either the grease caused a fire on the towel or he accidentally got it caught in the flames. And to put it out he had thrown water everywhere. Everything was wet: the floor, the dishes, the flowers in the window from Popo's graduation. I wasn't mad about the fire. I mean let's face it: I do silly klutzy things like that all the time. But the fact that he lied to me about nothing happening was really irritating. I don't know if he thought I would be mad or what. I was also concerned about getting the floor dry because i fell down yesterday from it being so slippery and I don't want Peter to fall. I feel bad that he is in the house a lot by himself. I've been trying to work with him on his math and writing his letters, but I feel limited by what I can do because I don't speak Swahili. His English has improved though. Ashley talked with him on the phone last night, and she could tell a difference from when she left. Peter has a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so we'll see what happens.
i was with the street women this morning. everyone, (meaning Alex, Rachel, Tall, and Julius), is in Mombasa (not sure if I mentioned that), so I was there by myself. Popo had other things to do today. I arrived and there were 3 women for about 45 minutes. I talked with them as best I could. Mama Vincent arrived and that helped because her English is perfect. She hasn't done drugs for the entire week and she has moved into a house! She looked very clean and nice today. Praise God! The pastor never came, and I thought he wasn't going to show. So mama Vincent and I went to buy food. I never knew where they got the food from, but I learned today that it's a little nearby "slum" restaurant sort of. It's just this little tin structure down the road from the church. I thought maybe I could get food and eat with them too, but it was really really dirty...worse than most places I usually eat, so I decided maybe not. I got chapati though...somehow it seems cleaner to me b/c it's been fried and isn't sitting in a dirty dish. Probably isn't...just a mental thing. We went back to the church and of course now there were 7 more women and the pastor and all sorts of kids. They spent forever arguing about coming on time, etc. And the pastor just sort of lets them talk and discusses it with them. Finally I said, "um, are we still talking about coming on time?" (i wasn't sure b/c the conversation was in swahili) They were; and I said, we need to move on. you know the rules and the consequences and that's that. and finally they finished up this discussion and moved on to the Bible. Seriously, do we need to have this same conversation every time? Follow through, please! I watched the babies while they talked. And can i just say that watching 6 kids under the age of 3 is really hard to do by yourself. One girl peed her pants and it was all over the cement and she was playing in the puddle. Mugo, one of the babies, is super mean to the kids. His mom is never around. And everyone punishes him by hitting him, which in turn just makes him hit the other kids.
By the way, I should have been saying how thankful I have been because lately I've been taking lots of hot showers! I think because we've been having less people staying at the house that there's more hot water to go around. It doesn't stay hot super long, so you have to be snappy and turn it off while you're shampooing your hair, but it does get hot. The water situation is still iffy. Usually it's off during the day. But on Friday I came back and there was no water at all, and we hadn't stored up any extra as we normally try to. I barely had enough drinking water to brush my teeth, and there was absolutely no way I could wash my face. Popo got up early and nicely asked the landlady to fix the problem. She didn't have water either and so somehow she pumped water into the storage tank. The water tanks are on the top of the building in a large black container. But we store water in some kind of cistern underneath our apartments. there's an opening for the cistern right by the gate where you enter into our compound. So I don't know if she pumped it from there or what but it was quite glorious to wake up and be able to take a shower.
Lately people keep making comments about my nationality. Several people have asked if I'm from China or Japan...seriously people? One girl told me she thought so because my eyes were small. And then as I was walking the other day, someone said, "hello miss. where are you from? Egypt?" Rach and I are always trying to guess where other mzungus we see are from. We're usually able to narrow it down pretty easily based on what they're wearing or how they're talking. it's strange though b/c when white people see each other here, it's like we're uncomfortable or something because we never maintain eye contact. People look away instantly almost as if we don't want to acknowledge the fact that we stand out.
Anyway, back to Peter. I came home and the house smelled like smoke. I asked what the smell was and he said he didn't know. I thought it might be coming from outside b/c people are always burning trash. And I had Peter start cutting vegetables to make lunch. Then a few minutes later I found a very burned towel in the trash. And I said, "Peter, did you catch something on fire?" After much struggle with communication I got the basic idea that he was cooking chips (french fries) and either the grease caused a fire on the towel or he accidentally got it caught in the flames. And to put it out he had thrown water everywhere. Everything was wet: the floor, the dishes, the flowers in the window from Popo's graduation. I wasn't mad about the fire. I mean let's face it: I do silly klutzy things like that all the time. But the fact that he lied to me about nothing happening was really irritating. I don't know if he thought I would be mad or what. I was also concerned about getting the floor dry because i fell down yesterday from it being so slippery and I don't want Peter to fall. I feel bad that he is in the house a lot by himself. I've been trying to work with him on his math and writing his letters, but I feel limited by what I can do because I don't speak Swahili. His English has improved though. Ashley talked with him on the phone last night, and she could tell a difference from when she left. Peter has a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so we'll see what happens.
i was with the street women this morning. everyone, (meaning Alex, Rachel, Tall, and Julius), is in Mombasa (not sure if I mentioned that), so I was there by myself. Popo had other things to do today. I arrived and there were 3 women for about 45 minutes. I talked with them as best I could. Mama Vincent arrived and that helped because her English is perfect. She hasn't done drugs for the entire week and she has moved into a house! She looked very clean and nice today. Praise God! The pastor never came, and I thought he wasn't going to show. So mama Vincent and I went to buy food. I never knew where they got the food from, but I learned today that it's a little nearby "slum" restaurant sort of. It's just this little tin structure down the road from the church. I thought maybe I could get food and eat with them too, but it was really really dirty...worse than most places I usually eat, so I decided maybe not. I got chapati though...somehow it seems cleaner to me b/c it's been fried and isn't sitting in a dirty dish. Probably isn't...just a mental thing. We went back to the church and of course now there were 7 more women and the pastor and all sorts of kids. They spent forever arguing about coming on time, etc. And the pastor just sort of lets them talk and discusses it with them. Finally I said, "um, are we still talking about coming on time?" (i wasn't sure b/c the conversation was in swahili) They were; and I said, we need to move on. you know the rules and the consequences and that's that. and finally they finished up this discussion and moved on to the Bible. Seriously, do we need to have this same conversation every time? Follow through, please! I watched the babies while they talked. And can i just say that watching 6 kids under the age of 3 is really hard to do by yourself. One girl peed her pants and it was all over the cement and she was playing in the puddle. Mugo, one of the babies, is super mean to the kids. His mom is never around. And everyone punishes him by hitting him, which in turn just makes him hit the other kids.
By the way, I should have been saying how thankful I have been because lately I've been taking lots of hot showers! I think because we've been having less people staying at the house that there's more hot water to go around. It doesn't stay hot super long, so you have to be snappy and turn it off while you're shampooing your hair, but it does get hot. The water situation is still iffy. Usually it's off during the day. But on Friday I came back and there was no water at all, and we hadn't stored up any extra as we normally try to. I barely had enough drinking water to brush my teeth, and there was absolutely no way I could wash my face. Popo got up early and nicely asked the landlady to fix the problem. She didn't have water either and so somehow she pumped water into the storage tank. The water tanks are on the top of the building in a large black container. But we store water in some kind of cistern underneath our apartments. there's an opening for the cistern right by the gate where you enter into our compound. So I don't know if she pumped it from there or what but it was quite glorious to wake up and be able to take a shower.
Lately people keep making comments about my nationality. Several people have asked if I'm from China or Japan...seriously people? One girl told me she thought so because my eyes were small. And then as I was walking the other day, someone said, "hello miss. where are you from? Egypt?" Rach and I are always trying to guess where other mzungus we see are from. We're usually able to narrow it down pretty easily based on what they're wearing or how they're talking. it's strange though b/c when white people see each other here, it's like we're uncomfortable or something because we never maintain eye contact. People look away instantly almost as if we don't want to acknowledge the fact that we stand out.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Peter is Home!
Yes, it's true--Peter finally got discharged from the hospital, and it seemed to happen almost effortlessly. Ok, maybe that's not true. I've spent days and days seeking information and asking when he can go home and begging people to inform me. I had planned to call and possibly visit the hospital yesterday afternoon b/c they were going to look at his leg in the morning. I expected to wait hours for a doctor to give me information. Instead, we were in Kibera yesterday with the women making beads. Alex came in a bit late and made a casual comment about how the hospital called and Peter was being discharged. And I'm like, Whoa....wait, what?? I then called and talked to the surgeon and she said that the skin graft looked good enough for him to recover at home. The catch was that I only had 2 hours to get to the hospital and sign paperwork or we would be charged for another day. Now 2 hours might seem like plenty of time, but it's really not when you have to get there using public transportation. Plus we were deep in Kibera and someone always has to walk me out b/c i'm completely lost in there. so off we trudged out of Kibera carrying 21 straw baskets that Emily, one of the ladies, made for us. Oh, and we also had 2 wash basins, 2 thermos of hot water (all for washing the babies in the afternoon), jam and butter from making tea for the ladies, and lots of other stuff. We looked ridiculous and Joyce, who's house we were at, couldn't understand why I was in such a hurry. I ended up going to the hospital by myself so that Alex and Rach could go meet with the street women. I got there in record time; it only took about 1 hour 15 minutes...hooray for no traffic. I signed some papers, went and picked up his medicine from the pharmacy, found out I'm getting a small amount of money back from the hospital, and that was it. I think it's the only day I've smiled while at Aga Khan. So at this point he was free to go, but I didn't want to take a taxi with him myself, so I had to wait 3 hours for Alex and Rachel to come. Peter was asleep, so i found some lunch and finally finished a book I've been trying to read the whole summer. Around 5:00 we finally left for home. Peter seems glad to go home, although I just don't think he was truly understanding how careful he has to be. We have been reiterating this over and over. Rach and I have insisted he can only get up to use the bathroom and that's about it. They didn't give him crutches or anything and we have no chairs in our house, or any furniture except a falling apart stool, so he is pretty much confined to the mattresses. We go back on Monday for a follow up with the plastic surgeon. Thank you so much for your prayers for Peter and continue praying for his recovery.
Also please be praying for Rachel and I as we prepare to come home in a week. We are both really struggling with not wanting to leave and we try not to talk about it too much. I don't really know how to merge these 2 lives of mine together. I know it will be difficult leaving everyone behind here, and I think it's going to be a hard transition for me. I pray that I may take the good things that I have learned from America and Kenya and that they may shape who I am wherever I am living.
Also please be praying for Rachel and I as we prepare to come home in a week. We are both really struggling with not wanting to leave and we try not to talk about it too much. I don't really know how to merge these 2 lives of mine together. I know it will be difficult leaving everyone behind here, and I think it's going to be a hard transition for me. I pray that I may take the good things that I have learned from America and Kenya and that they may shape who I am wherever I am living.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Celebrity Encounter
So I met, or rather saw, a famous Kenyan yesterday. I went to the doctor here (yes, I am very scared of health care matters here but decided to take the risk) because I've been having this pain in my stomach since before I left the U.S. After many tests at home, no one could figure anything out, so I thought I'd pay a visit to Dr. Saio, my favorite doctor here. He is the Italian doctor who specializes in tropical medicine and was the one who finally figured out what was wrong with me last time I was here. Funny enough they still had my file from 3 years ago, and he asked for a whole recap on how I'd been doing since then. He was telling stories of travelers who'd developed diseases here that no one could diagnose at home but he finally figured it out. And when you hear him tell these things you can just tell he knows what he's talking about. Anyway, I was in the lab having blood work done, and the same lab doctor was in there too. I said, hey I remember you. You're the one who told me last time that I didn't have malaria b/c if I'd had it this long I'd be dead. And he said, yeah I remember you. He was all frazzled and flustered though and proceeded to tell me it had been a crazy afternoon because people kept coming in without appointments. and i said, oh is that common? And he said, well we have these Olympic athletes in here. I asked for clarification and he explained that the woman I'd seen in the waiting room with the nice Nike shoes was Nancy Langat, the Kenyan runner who won a gold medal in Beijing. I'm sure that was a breach of confidentiality, although that maybe doesn't exist here, but in any case I thought it was pretty sweet. So again I definitely feel like I'm at the right doctor if they're treating Olympians there. And my whole appointment took only a little over an hour. I love Western time :)
Today we are off to see the women in Kibera and hopefully they've made some sweet artsy stuff for us. They are making necklaces, earrings, and bags. If anyone is interested in purchasing this stuff when I get home, let me know. They really do great work and the money goes back to supporting them. Not sure if I mentioned that we bought some things from them last week and they were so happy b/c many of them hadn't been able to feed their families for several days. We're also trying to bring hot water to wash the babies this afternoon and then off to the hospital for an update on Peter.
Have a great day everyone. God Bless.
Today we are off to see the women in Kibera and hopefully they've made some sweet artsy stuff for us. They are making necklaces, earrings, and bags. If anyone is interested in purchasing this stuff when I get home, let me know. They really do great work and the money goes back to supporting them. Not sure if I mentioned that we bought some things from them last week and they were so happy b/c many of them hadn't been able to feed their families for several days. We're also trying to bring hot water to wash the babies this afternoon and then off to the hospital for an update on Peter.
Have a great day everyone. God Bless.
Thoughts on Culture
Today is our day off, although I'm not exactly sure that it feels like a day off and usually I stay pretty busy anyway. I slept as long as I could before going to lovely Aga Khan Hospital. I found Peter in a wheel chair trying to explore as much of the very small surgical ward as possible. He seems to be in less pain today although I'm not for sure b/c i was by myself and I don't know how well he understands me. I went to pay the hospital bill, which seems to be mounting everyday, although my mom reminded me it would be costing 10x this in the U.S. I still got no answer as to whether we would not have to pay for the extra time he's been in the hospital due to a delay of surgery. So I guess I just wait and hope for the best and keep talking to the manager as I did again today. They are supposed to look at his graft tomorrow to check on the progress. One cool thing is that the surgical beds in the hospital are made by HillRom! yes, that's right. For you Brookville people, you understand that it's a big deal since HillRom is right next door in little Batesville, Indiana.
It occured to me today that I don't talk a lot about some of the basic cultural things I encounter everyday. I guess I figure many of you have already read my book and know some of this. But let me brief you slightly...for instance, I take a bus to town every morning. The bus conductors stand outside of the bus and yell for passengers to come and wait for it to fill up before continuing. Then they come around to collect your money. Most days it's 30 shillings but it varies on the same route and i glance around at everyone else hoping to know the cost. To get to the hospital I take a matatu, and these have become much less blingy these days. The music seems softer than my last time here and they aren't decked out with as many stickers and all sorts of writing anymore either. New laws have caused these changes. I used to see Obama's face all over them and Britney Spears, and various other pop stars but not as much now. Sometimes I think the matatu drivers must just be bored and that is why they choose to take these ridiculous "short cut" routes that go off the sidewalk and through the dirt and are always very bumpy. Often people are selling bananas right next to the matatu and Rach and I are usually eager for them to come to our window so we can by a snack. There is a small shop with food and household products right next to our house. I love it and will really miss the convenience of it. We go there every morning to by milk and bread for making tea. They sell airtime for the phone, snacks, rice, oil, toilet paper. you name it, it's there.
i went to exchange american money today, and i can't say i enjoy this. you have to go into a small "room" where the cashier is behind glass. And no one outside can see completely into these rooms although you can make out shadows. it's all meant for security, but i don't know if it helps. once in the room i could completely see how much money the person in the room next to me was exchanging. how exactly is that secure? and by the way, they hate small bills here. $20 gets a worse exchange rate than a $50 or $100. does that happen at home? at one point during the exchange someone handed the cashier a huge wad of thousands of shillings. just seeing that much money makes me fear theft. i left quickly once i was done, hoping that everyone on the street didn't notice that i just came out of this place. it's not exactly great for people to know you're carrying around lots of cash.
It occured to me today that I don't talk a lot about some of the basic cultural things I encounter everyday. I guess I figure many of you have already read my book and know some of this. But let me brief you slightly...for instance, I take a bus to town every morning. The bus conductors stand outside of the bus and yell for passengers to come and wait for it to fill up before continuing. Then they come around to collect your money. Most days it's 30 shillings but it varies on the same route and i glance around at everyone else hoping to know the cost. To get to the hospital I take a matatu, and these have become much less blingy these days. The music seems softer than my last time here and they aren't decked out with as many stickers and all sorts of writing anymore either. New laws have caused these changes. I used to see Obama's face all over them and Britney Spears, and various other pop stars but not as much now. Sometimes I think the matatu drivers must just be bored and that is why they choose to take these ridiculous "short cut" routes that go off the sidewalk and through the dirt and are always very bumpy. Often people are selling bananas right next to the matatu and Rach and I are usually eager for them to come to our window so we can by a snack. There is a small shop with food and household products right next to our house. I love it and will really miss the convenience of it. We go there every morning to by milk and bread for making tea. They sell airtime for the phone, snacks, rice, oil, toilet paper. you name it, it's there.
i went to exchange american money today, and i can't say i enjoy this. you have to go into a small "room" where the cashier is behind glass. And no one outside can see completely into these rooms although you can make out shadows. it's all meant for security, but i don't know if it helps. once in the room i could completely see how much money the person in the room next to me was exchanging. how exactly is that secure? and by the way, they hate small bills here. $20 gets a worse exchange rate than a $50 or $100. does that happen at home? at one point during the exchange someone handed the cashier a huge wad of thousands of shillings. just seeing that much money makes me fear theft. i left quickly once i was done, hoping that everyone on the street didn't notice that i just came out of this place. it's not exactly great for people to know you're carrying around lots of cash.
Monday, August 1, 2011
A Success Story
I'm very excited to tell you that Ephantus, the boy from the streets that Alex took to his house, has now been safely delivered to his home somewhere in Thika (I think). He stayed at our house last night and was doing quiet well. He speaks great English, so it was easy to communicate. He ate 3 chapatis that Rach and I made (which weren't too bad), and seemed quite content. Alex took him back this morning and left a little money with the grandmother for food. They are going to try to look for a place for him to go to school. Alex says that no public schools will admit him when the term begins in September (they are off in August) b/c public schools only admit people when the school year starts in January. So hopefully they find a private school to send him to (and no it won't be fancy like some private schools in the U.S.). I thank God for his return home, and I urge us to continue praying together that this boy will continue staying off the streets and be able to go to school.
By the way, this keyboard that I'm using is amazing...it's one of the few I've used that doesn't have keys which stick hence the reason I'm able to use capital letters :) But for some wierd reason yahoo doesn't work today. Only Google programs like this blog. TIA
I just returned from the hospital with Rach and Julius. This was of course a 3 hour event like normal. It ended up that Peter didn't have surgery until Sunday, so all that running around on Saturday morning to sign paper work was completely unnecessary. Rach and I met with the manager of the hospital to try to avoid having to pay for all these days that Peter unnecessarily stayed in the hospital when he could have been discharged. Pretty much I think we just paid for him to stay there and eat chicken. The manager was more helpful than other people and she was able to find us a doctor to talk to within 45 minutes (better than the normal 2 that we wait). The surgery went fine I guess, but now we are waiting 3 days for them to remove the bandages and see if the skin graft took. They took skin from his upper thigh and grafted it on his fibula. This is the first day in many that Peter seemed to be in pain. Please pray that there will be quick healing and that he can be discharged soon.
This morning we were with the street women. We had planned to wash the babies but all the women complained that it was too cold. And it probably was. August is a bit chilly here. I'm wearing a dress and a fleece jacket today, and I'm cold. So we decided to postpone the washing until Wednesday. We're hoping to make it a joint effort where the women do it with us so that we are teaching responsibility. Plus, there is one baby, Mugo, who is constantly smelling like poop. He must never get changed. Just being close to him turns my stomach and Rachel has to encourage me not to think about it. Last week we noticed that one of the women, Mama Vincent, was using a plastic bag as a diaper for her kid. He kept making swishing sounds as he walked around. Actually I think it's a pretty resourceful idea really. I mean at least his clothes aren't always soiled. We were sad today b/c Mama Vincent was doing drugs when we arrived. She has been clean and drug free for weeks since we met her. We pulled her aside to discuss this and she said it's because she is very stressed since she lost her house a few weeks ago. I fear that she will slide down the same path as the rest when she clearly has a chance to make it out of this situation. She speaks great English and she was wearing this cool bracelet that she made today. I told her she should sell them to make money. She said, "I make one and you buy it from me." And I said that maybe we could trade the bracelet for food. Money would be a bad idea I think.
Rachel and I discussed with the women about all being part of the body of Christ and looking out for each other. We made them work in partners to make bracelets, and they did a good job with the teamwork. And then someone started playing with my hair and before I knew it, 4 women were standing around me braiding my hair. I love when people play with my hair, so it was nice even though it looked pretty ridiculous. I think women are always surprised at how white people's hair doesn't easily stay braided like the Kenyans'. Somewhere during our time one of the babies was pulling on my very large hoop earrings, until I yelled, "Hapana" meaning, "no." And Mama Vincent commented that the baby was trying to turn me into a Masai (since their earlobes are very largely gauged). Alex jokes about Rachel's ears since they are gauged, saying she is turning into a Masai.
On a good note, the landlady agreed to let us stay in the house for 2 more weeks and only pay half month's rent, which she previously wouldn't agree to. I figured she'd come around since she has no other renter. So Rach and I are happy not to have to move our stuff around. Also I am feeling better. I self diagnosed myself and got some amoxicillin (no you don't need a prescription here). And I should also mention that I'm enjoying the food much better this time. Rachel and I have learned to make quite a few Kenyan dishes and I think we are much more content since we get to decide what to have for dinner everyday. I'm about over the whole peanut butter thing though since I eat it almost everyday for lunch. We make it our mission to eat as many mangoes and pineapples as possible since they are amazing and cheap. Even the bananas taste better here. We make jokes about how a lot of my pants don't fit, which I like to think might be because I've lost a little weight, but I think mostly they get stretched out during washing and never shrink back since there's no dryer. And although I'm really ready not to have dirty feet everyday when I come home, I'm really not ready to leave here in 2 weeks. Yes, things are hard some days, but there is so much to love about the people here and the work we are doing.
By the way, this keyboard that I'm using is amazing...it's one of the few I've used that doesn't have keys which stick hence the reason I'm able to use capital letters :) But for some wierd reason yahoo doesn't work today. Only Google programs like this blog. TIA
I just returned from the hospital with Rach and Julius. This was of course a 3 hour event like normal. It ended up that Peter didn't have surgery until Sunday, so all that running around on Saturday morning to sign paper work was completely unnecessary. Rach and I met with the manager of the hospital to try to avoid having to pay for all these days that Peter unnecessarily stayed in the hospital when he could have been discharged. Pretty much I think we just paid for him to stay there and eat chicken. The manager was more helpful than other people and she was able to find us a doctor to talk to within 45 minutes (better than the normal 2 that we wait). The surgery went fine I guess, but now we are waiting 3 days for them to remove the bandages and see if the skin graft took. They took skin from his upper thigh and grafted it on his fibula. This is the first day in many that Peter seemed to be in pain. Please pray that there will be quick healing and that he can be discharged soon.
This morning we were with the street women. We had planned to wash the babies but all the women complained that it was too cold. And it probably was. August is a bit chilly here. I'm wearing a dress and a fleece jacket today, and I'm cold. So we decided to postpone the washing until Wednesday. We're hoping to make it a joint effort where the women do it with us so that we are teaching responsibility. Plus, there is one baby, Mugo, who is constantly smelling like poop. He must never get changed. Just being close to him turns my stomach and Rachel has to encourage me not to think about it. Last week we noticed that one of the women, Mama Vincent, was using a plastic bag as a diaper for her kid. He kept making swishing sounds as he walked around. Actually I think it's a pretty resourceful idea really. I mean at least his clothes aren't always soiled. We were sad today b/c Mama Vincent was doing drugs when we arrived. She has been clean and drug free for weeks since we met her. We pulled her aside to discuss this and she said it's because she is very stressed since she lost her house a few weeks ago. I fear that she will slide down the same path as the rest when she clearly has a chance to make it out of this situation. She speaks great English and she was wearing this cool bracelet that she made today. I told her she should sell them to make money. She said, "I make one and you buy it from me." And I said that maybe we could trade the bracelet for food. Money would be a bad idea I think.
Rachel and I discussed with the women about all being part of the body of Christ and looking out for each other. We made them work in partners to make bracelets, and they did a good job with the teamwork. And then someone started playing with my hair and before I knew it, 4 women were standing around me braiding my hair. I love when people play with my hair, so it was nice even though it looked pretty ridiculous. I think women are always surprised at how white people's hair doesn't easily stay braided like the Kenyans'. Somewhere during our time one of the babies was pulling on my very large hoop earrings, until I yelled, "Hapana" meaning, "no." And Mama Vincent commented that the baby was trying to turn me into a Masai (since their earlobes are very largely gauged). Alex jokes about Rachel's ears since they are gauged, saying she is turning into a Masai.
On a good note, the landlady agreed to let us stay in the house for 2 more weeks and only pay half month's rent, which she previously wouldn't agree to. I figured she'd come around since she has no other renter. So Rach and I are happy not to have to move our stuff around. Also I am feeling better. I self diagnosed myself and got some amoxicillin (no you don't need a prescription here). And I should also mention that I'm enjoying the food much better this time. Rachel and I have learned to make quite a few Kenyan dishes and I think we are much more content since we get to decide what to have for dinner everyday. I'm about over the whole peanut butter thing though since I eat it almost everyday for lunch. We make it our mission to eat as many mangoes and pineapples as possible since they are amazing and cheap. Even the bananas taste better here. We make jokes about how a lot of my pants don't fit, which I like to think might be because I've lost a little weight, but I think mostly they get stretched out during washing and never shrink back since there's no dryer. And although I'm really ready not to have dirty feet everyday when I come home, I'm really not ready to leave here in 2 weeks. Yes, things are hard some days, but there is so much to love about the people here and the work we are doing.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Progress?
I'm never sure if things that i think are really positive news are actually going to pan out, but perhaps some positive things have happened in the last few days. let us thank God for these blessings: First, the street women are continuing to show up on time and listen much better. We made necklaces with them this week and discussed trust and they seemed to enjoy. one woman named naomi made me a necklace and bracelet. people make things for rach and i all the time. i joke with her that we should see who can wear the most bling at once.
another exciting thing is that shaniza, the young girl we found on the streets and took home, finally called alex. she is staying with her brother and found somewhere to go to school. so i'm hoping that this will pan out and work. also yesterday i talked with a street boy who i hadn't seen much. he's only been on the streets for 2 weeks and hasn't done any drugs. he was living w/ his grandmother and ran away b/c there was no food and no one could pay for his school fees. alex again took him to live with his brother and told him if he's still there on monday that he'll take him home. the boy kept saying, "you're going to pay for me to go to school?" and i said, yes as long as you hold up your end of the deal: no drugs, no running away. he was super excited, but we'll see. we didn't risk buying him any new clothes this time like we did w/ francis. perhaps if he's still there monday we can get him some then.
peter is having surgery today, which is a good thing b/c we've been waiting forever. they took the vacuum off his leg and part of the skin has healed back together. but they are doing a skin graft for the other part. the wound is very clean now but you can practically see down to the bone. the hosptial has been overwhelmingly frustrating. i still can't get answers and am being charged ridiculous amounts of money every day. they don't communicate at all. they called tall this morning to tell him someone had to come to the hospital immediately to sign release papers before surgery. why they didn't tell me this yesterday or thursday when i begged for information, i don't know. i was sooooo furious and mad this morning. it was all i could do to keep from either crying or screaming. how would jesus react in this situation i wonder? Rachel was there for hours earlier in the week with Tall trying desperately to get information (they made her cry). and i was there on thursday with edwin for almost 4 hours. i think they finally understood my frustration b/c evenutally there were 3 orthopedic susurgeons by Peter's bed trying to talk with me. there was much discussion and conflicting views about whether or not his bone had an active infection. b/c if it did they need to work on fixing it or the wound won't properly heal. everyone has a different view, and no one is sure it is even fixable if there is an infection. and by the way, he has compensated for the pain of his leg by walking on the ball of his foot, which has permanently misshaped his foot, and i'm not sure it will ever be right. i do hope after all this that he is at least somewhat better and able to walk. this problem is so much bigger than me and completely out of my control. so just pray that God would work through this and i would trust Him.
Another awesome thing is that Popo graduated from college on Thursday. he said it was the best day of his life and kept saying thank you so much for sending him to school. he was saying how much of a role model he had become for people in kibera and that his mom was so proud. i went with him to the ceremony, which was so ridiculous that you have to laugh. we left at 6 a.m. after several buses and matatus we arrived at 8 something. popo went inside and we proceeded to stand in a very long line for nearly 2 hours. just as we were starting to get nearer to the entrance a part of the line we had already stood in that was looping around completely turned around and went the other direction so that there were now 2 lines. so we basically wasted an hour and a half in that part of the line. then when we got to the entrance they took our tickets, and we went in, and there were no seats. anywhere. people were sitting far from the tent on the grass and you couldn't hear or see anything. and it was hot and eric was with us and went to find a shady place for popo's mom to sit. that place happened to be the sidewalk far away where you couldn't see the tent at all. i sat on the sidewalk reading for 30 minutes before popo walked out. all the graduates were walking around and no one of them sat in their seats to listen for long. apparently being present at the graduation or listening is optional. i left after not long to go to the hosptial, but at least i was there for moral support i guess. popo even walked me 20 minutes out to the road to put me on a matatu before going back into the graduation. and there were vendors selling all kinds of funny graduation signs and tinsel and flowers. it felt like a fair in some sense. TIA.
another exciting thing is that shaniza, the young girl we found on the streets and took home, finally called alex. she is staying with her brother and found somewhere to go to school. so i'm hoping that this will pan out and work. also yesterday i talked with a street boy who i hadn't seen much. he's only been on the streets for 2 weeks and hasn't done any drugs. he was living w/ his grandmother and ran away b/c there was no food and no one could pay for his school fees. alex again took him to live with his brother and told him if he's still there on monday that he'll take him home. the boy kept saying, "you're going to pay for me to go to school?" and i said, yes as long as you hold up your end of the deal: no drugs, no running away. he was super excited, but we'll see. we didn't risk buying him any new clothes this time like we did w/ francis. perhaps if he's still there monday we can get him some then.
peter is having surgery today, which is a good thing b/c we've been waiting forever. they took the vacuum off his leg and part of the skin has healed back together. but they are doing a skin graft for the other part. the wound is very clean now but you can practically see down to the bone. the hosptial has been overwhelmingly frustrating. i still can't get answers and am being charged ridiculous amounts of money every day. they don't communicate at all. they called tall this morning to tell him someone had to come to the hospital immediately to sign release papers before surgery. why they didn't tell me this yesterday or thursday when i begged for information, i don't know. i was sooooo furious and mad this morning. it was all i could do to keep from either crying or screaming. how would jesus react in this situation i wonder? Rachel was there for hours earlier in the week with Tall trying desperately to get information (they made her cry). and i was there on thursday with edwin for almost 4 hours. i think they finally understood my frustration b/c evenutally there were 3 orthopedic susurgeons by Peter's bed trying to talk with me. there was much discussion and conflicting views about whether or not his bone had an active infection. b/c if it did they need to work on fixing it or the wound won't properly heal. everyone has a different view, and no one is sure it is even fixable if there is an infection. and by the way, he has compensated for the pain of his leg by walking on the ball of his foot, which has permanently misshaped his foot, and i'm not sure it will ever be right. i do hope after all this that he is at least somewhat better and able to walk. this problem is so much bigger than me and completely out of my control. so just pray that God would work through this and i would trust Him.
Another awesome thing is that Popo graduated from college on Thursday. he said it was the best day of his life and kept saying thank you so much for sending him to school. he was saying how much of a role model he had become for people in kibera and that his mom was so proud. i went with him to the ceremony, which was so ridiculous that you have to laugh. we left at 6 a.m. after several buses and matatus we arrived at 8 something. popo went inside and we proceeded to stand in a very long line for nearly 2 hours. just as we were starting to get nearer to the entrance a part of the line we had already stood in that was looping around completely turned around and went the other direction so that there were now 2 lines. so we basically wasted an hour and a half in that part of the line. then when we got to the entrance they took our tickets, and we went in, and there were no seats. anywhere. people were sitting far from the tent on the grass and you couldn't hear or see anything. and it was hot and eric was with us and went to find a shady place for popo's mom to sit. that place happened to be the sidewalk far away where you couldn't see the tent at all. i sat on the sidewalk reading for 30 minutes before popo walked out. all the graduates were walking around and no one of them sat in their seats to listen for long. apparently being present at the graduation or listening is optional. i left after not long to go to the hosptial, but at least i was there for moral support i guess. popo even walked me 20 minutes out to the road to put me on a matatu before going back into the graduation. and there were vendors selling all kinds of funny graduation signs and tinsel and flowers. it felt like a fair in some sense. TIA.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
I heart BOLM
Popo and I just got back from BOLM. For those of you who've read my book or heard me talk much about Kenya, you will probably remember this place. BOLM is a children's home where I used to spend a lot of time when i was here last time. unfortunately, they've moved about 2 hours outside of the city so it's impossible for me to go there regularly. but fortunately i was able to go visit last night. Popo arranged with Agatha, the director for us to come. it was fitting that he come with me b/c he also used to spend a lot of time there. after the street women ministry yesterday (where rachel and i spent a lot of time watching kids while alex talked to the women and then we did some watercolor painting with them and helped the kids who were trying to eat the paint) popo and i took a matatu to get there. we waited an hour for the matatu to fill up so that we could leave so it took us over 3 hours to get there. it was already starting to get dark when we arrived, but the place where BOLM is now, Kirinyga, is beautiful. i love the villages of kenya. they are much more peaceful (despite the bumpy road getting there), and relaxed. people were selling sugar cane at the stop where we got off. everyone welcomed us and i recognized many of the kids. the place has really grown. there are over 100 kids now and there were only 40ish last time. there are 2 big dormitories for boys and girls. after saying hi, we joined the kids in what agatha called a "fellowship." we had to go inside one of the classrooms b/c it started raining. we sang worship songs and the kids danced and clapped around and then agatha preached. she kind of scares me because she yells so loud and intensely. i know this is common for kenya, but i can't help wondering if it's too much for these small children. in any case they seem very happy. many of them are orphans or former street kids and they are obviously in a better place now. during all this it got dark and there were no lights. of course, dumb me forgot to bring a flashlight.
as soon as i got there, i could tell i was very emotional. agatha kept telling me that the kids still remember me. they were asking about some of the other MSTs that i worked with last time, and they asked where my mom was too. i think i was so happy and surprised/grateful to be there. as we sat there singing in the dark i kept telling popo that i was going to cry. and then i did. and not just little tears either; they were pouring down. maybe it was also the realization that i'm leaving soon or the nostalgic feeling of being there; or the peace that came over me; or how it reminded me of being at summer camp as a kid. i don't know, but i was crying a lot. popo was wearing a t-shirt that micah and harry screen printed with the BOLM school on it, and he was telling the kids about how i remember them so much i put them on a shirt. i saw zakayo, my favorite kid who's in the picture in my living room. he speaks english now and he remembers me too. of course, he's no longer attached me the way that he was before, but the fact that he remembers is enough.
we sat there singing in the dark for a long time until the kids were practically falling asleep, and then they finally got to eat dinner in the pitch black dark. i've decided that eating is one thing that kenyans do really fast (as do i). popo and i waited b/c agnus served us food in her house. i always feel bad knowing that people are sharing the little that they have. we sat and talked with her for a while. i don't completely trust this lady b/c of things that happened the last time i was here, and she spent considerable time mentioning about how they needed help there with food and sending kids to school. i actually would be happy to help but i know it would have to be by directly bringing food there or something not in the form of cash. i hate that helping is so complicated b/c of trust issues. at one point she said, "so what are you going to do for us?" and i said, "I'll be praying for you." popo said that he laughed inside when i said it. shortly after popo decided he was going to sleep and he left me there with agatha. i was a little scared b/c it was so dark, and i had no idea where i would be sleeping. it ended up that i shared a bed with agatha, which was funny. i mean i have no problem sharing beds, but it was funny that it was her. she had all these dolls and stuffed animals lining the bed that she removed for me, and she put so many blankets on the bed. she then left, and i was confused if she was coming back. the ceiling was vaulted and tall and teachers were in the other rooms laughing and yelling at agatha to make the other go away. the sound was carrying everywhere, and i wasn't sure if i would be able to sleep. agatha came back in and put up a mosquito net, which just ended up falling all over my face. i got so hot and sweaty at night (it's much warmer than nairobi), but i was afraid to take off my jacket b/c i heard mosquitos and i'm not sure if it's a high risk area for malaria or not (and i'm not taking any medicine). but no worries, i don't think i got any bites. all night i woke up as agatha came in and out (yes she did sleep there eventually) or the net fell in my face. at one point i had to go the bathroom but i knew i couldn't get up (the bathroom was an outhouse and i had gone there earlier in the dark with a kerosene lantern). i was sleeping against a wall too, so i felt a little trapped in a cocoon. agatha and the kids get up very early. it was still dark out, so i think it was about 5 a.m. when i woke up there were about 4 kids in the room making tea on a gas burner, agatha was changing, and everyone was talking loudly. i stayed there for a while not knowing what to do. eventually i got up and asked for some water to wash my face. they were going to boil it so it would be warm, but i told them i was fine.
we ate breakfast, chai and bread with honey from nearby, and then went to play with the kids. popo and i brought lots of puppets and did a skit about jesus calling his disciples and telling them to be fishers of me. the kids loved the puppets. we sang songs and then passed out markers and construction paper and had them write down ways they can follow Jesus. they all wrote lots and drew and enjoyed themselves. i took the older kids and broke out the modeling clay for them to make pendants. they really liked this, more so than the juvenile boys i think. we came back together later for more games and singing and prayer. this was such an uplifting joyous day to my heart. I am so blessed that God allowed me to go back there. i love that these kids are so happy even though they have little (one nice thing is that someone had just provided new shoes for all of them, but their clothes are pretty basic and worn). and i forgot to mention that the night sky there is incredible. i'm pretty sure that i could see more stars there than anywhere else i've ever been in my life. it was beautiful.
please continue praying for peter in the hospital. this situation has become a disaster because of communication problems. we hope that he's improving, but i'm having trouble getting clear answers. i don't want to write much or i'll get mad, so let me stop there. also continue praying for my health; i walk around coughing all day.
i was able to see dottie on sunday and make chapati with her. it was great reconnecting.
and a funny endnote: before ash left last week she got out her packet of info from the doctor about kenya, the health risks, transportation, climate, etc. there was all sorts of comments about the matatus being unsafe and there not being an official bus system and health risks and not eating fruit unless you peel it, etc. she started reading some of this stuff out loud and alex couldn't believe it. he thought everything was very exaggerated and far fetched. and it's funny b/c it's a pretty accurate description really. he said something about probably no one wanting to come here b/c of this information ( and then the next day something happen and he said, "it is true what they wrote.") one part said that approx 10 vehicles are hijacked everyday. and alex said, "do you have a car? NO, so you don't need to worry about it" anyway, we were laughing in good fun about it and because we broke all those rules on day 1 :)
as soon as i got there, i could tell i was very emotional. agatha kept telling me that the kids still remember me. they were asking about some of the other MSTs that i worked with last time, and they asked where my mom was too. i think i was so happy and surprised/grateful to be there. as we sat there singing in the dark i kept telling popo that i was going to cry. and then i did. and not just little tears either; they were pouring down. maybe it was also the realization that i'm leaving soon or the nostalgic feeling of being there; or the peace that came over me; or how it reminded me of being at summer camp as a kid. i don't know, but i was crying a lot. popo was wearing a t-shirt that micah and harry screen printed with the BOLM school on it, and he was telling the kids about how i remember them so much i put them on a shirt. i saw zakayo, my favorite kid who's in the picture in my living room. he speaks english now and he remembers me too. of course, he's no longer attached me the way that he was before, but the fact that he remembers is enough.
we sat there singing in the dark for a long time until the kids were practically falling asleep, and then they finally got to eat dinner in the pitch black dark. i've decided that eating is one thing that kenyans do really fast (as do i). popo and i waited b/c agnus served us food in her house. i always feel bad knowing that people are sharing the little that they have. we sat and talked with her for a while. i don't completely trust this lady b/c of things that happened the last time i was here, and she spent considerable time mentioning about how they needed help there with food and sending kids to school. i actually would be happy to help but i know it would have to be by directly bringing food there or something not in the form of cash. i hate that helping is so complicated b/c of trust issues. at one point she said, "so what are you going to do for us?" and i said, "I'll be praying for you." popo said that he laughed inside when i said it. shortly after popo decided he was going to sleep and he left me there with agatha. i was a little scared b/c it was so dark, and i had no idea where i would be sleeping. it ended up that i shared a bed with agatha, which was funny. i mean i have no problem sharing beds, but it was funny that it was her. she had all these dolls and stuffed animals lining the bed that she removed for me, and she put so many blankets on the bed. she then left, and i was confused if she was coming back. the ceiling was vaulted and tall and teachers were in the other rooms laughing and yelling at agatha to make the other go away. the sound was carrying everywhere, and i wasn't sure if i would be able to sleep. agatha came back in and put up a mosquito net, which just ended up falling all over my face. i got so hot and sweaty at night (it's much warmer than nairobi), but i was afraid to take off my jacket b/c i heard mosquitos and i'm not sure if it's a high risk area for malaria or not (and i'm not taking any medicine). but no worries, i don't think i got any bites. all night i woke up as agatha came in and out (yes she did sleep there eventually) or the net fell in my face. at one point i had to go the bathroom but i knew i couldn't get up (the bathroom was an outhouse and i had gone there earlier in the dark with a kerosene lantern). i was sleeping against a wall too, so i felt a little trapped in a cocoon. agatha and the kids get up very early. it was still dark out, so i think it was about 5 a.m. when i woke up there were about 4 kids in the room making tea on a gas burner, agatha was changing, and everyone was talking loudly. i stayed there for a while not knowing what to do. eventually i got up and asked for some water to wash my face. they were going to boil it so it would be warm, but i told them i was fine.
we ate breakfast, chai and bread with honey from nearby, and then went to play with the kids. popo and i brought lots of puppets and did a skit about jesus calling his disciples and telling them to be fishers of me. the kids loved the puppets. we sang songs and then passed out markers and construction paper and had them write down ways they can follow Jesus. they all wrote lots and drew and enjoyed themselves. i took the older kids and broke out the modeling clay for them to make pendants. they really liked this, more so than the juvenile boys i think. we came back together later for more games and singing and prayer. this was such an uplifting joyous day to my heart. I am so blessed that God allowed me to go back there. i love that these kids are so happy even though they have little (one nice thing is that someone had just provided new shoes for all of them, but their clothes are pretty basic and worn). and i forgot to mention that the night sky there is incredible. i'm pretty sure that i could see more stars there than anywhere else i've ever been in my life. it was beautiful.
please continue praying for peter in the hospital. this situation has become a disaster because of communication problems. we hope that he's improving, but i'm having trouble getting clear answers. i don't want to write much or i'll get mad, so let me stop there. also continue praying for my health; i walk around coughing all day.
i was able to see dottie on sunday and make chapati with her. it was great reconnecting.
and a funny endnote: before ash left last week she got out her packet of info from the doctor about kenya, the health risks, transportation, climate, etc. there was all sorts of comments about the matatus being unsafe and there not being an official bus system and health risks and not eating fruit unless you peel it, etc. she started reading some of this stuff out loud and alex couldn't believe it. he thought everything was very exaggerated and far fetched. and it's funny b/c it's a pretty accurate description really. he said something about probably no one wanting to come here b/c of this information ( and then the next day something happen and he said, "it is true what they wrote.") one part said that approx 10 vehicles are hijacked everyday. and alex said, "do you have a car? NO, so you don't need to worry about it" anyway, we were laughing in good fun about it and because we broke all those rules on day 1 :)
Sunday, July 24, 2011
i wish i knew swahili
So I'm still feeling pretty crummy. I have a bad cough and feel like I have junk stuck in my lungs. I'm sure the moldy house is really not helping the problem (perhaps it's the cause), but I found some medicine today, so maybe that will help. I tried really hard to rest last night, although it's difficult in our house. Lots of people keep their clothes in our room, and Popo came in late last night and turned on the lights and asked how I was doing. Yes, lights and noise policies are very different at home.
Yesterday Alex and I went to the juvenile and talked with them about honesty. we shared the story from acts 5 about Ananeis and how he lied to God about the amount of money he was giving. Alex talked about how people rip off mzungus by overcharging them on the matatus, and he's always able to tell stories in a way that makes the kids laugh. rachel went with julius that morning b/c he had a toothache, so it was just alex and i. sometimes it's hard for me just being with one other kenyan b/c there is no one to translate what's happening, and i often feel lost and not that useful. i brought model magic for them to work with. some of the kids really loved it (especially antony who's good at clay), but many of them just made it into a ball of clay and were throwing it around all over the place. i tried to explain how to make something else and get the point across that it would probably break once it dried if they used it as a ball, but no one seemed to care. i suppose it doesn't matter much since they don't have much to play with. at least they were enjoying themselves.
in the afternoon i went to the hospital to check on peter. getting there was a challenge b/c i was by myself and i couldn't figure out where to meet the matatu from where i'd gotten off on the way from juvenile. i almost started crying, which is completely ridiculous, but every person told me something different, and i didn't know who to believe. it is so challenging b/c in america i'm very independent, and it's much harder to be that way here. i wish i spoke better swahili and that i wasn't white. anyway, peter seems fine, but it's becoming a huge frustration b/c none of the doctors will tell us what's going on. they have this vacuum sort of thing on his leg and i guess they don't know if it's helping until they take it off every few days. no one would give me a clear answer about anything. and our attempts to call the doctor have been worthless. he says he'll update us, but he doesn't or he hangs up. rachel and tall are there now trying to clarify. we're concerned that if this isn't working they won't tell us and we will just keep getting charged per day for the hospital stay and we have no idea if they will want to try to do something else instead. i can't help but wonder if this is partly b/c i'm white and that people think i have all sorts of money. the one hope is the lady in the billing department who is helpful and doesn't make me wait for hours. she was talking with me yesterday about what i did. her sister lives in alabama. she asked me how i like teaching and if the kids were bad. i explained that most were good, a few more challenging than others. and she said, "just like kenya." but then she said, "at least we can punish kids here though by beating them." and she was asking all sorts of questions about how we discipline kids. there's some issues like this that are just hard for me to understand.
Friday evening i went with edwin to deliver samosas to nakumatt. this lady bakes them at her house and pays him to deliver them to various nakumatts around nairobi (yes, very different health code laws). it was pretty cool being in the delivery part of nakumatt and knowing what happens behind the scenes. everyone was staring at me like, "what's the white girl doing here." our first drop off was a success and then we had to go to another nakumatt like 30 km. outside the city. there was lots of traffica and when we arrived the delivery part was already closed. actually we'd have never made it on time though b/c the samosa lady said they were open until 8 but it was actually only 6. edwin wasn't sure what to do, and the lady was yelling at him over the phone about how it was his fault and he'd have to figure it out. we weren't permitted to bring the coolers in the front door b/c of store policy. edwin was pretty upset, but then i suggested that we find someone inside to make an exception. i went with him to ask because although i hate admitting it, sometimes in these situations, being white helps. sure enough we found someone and i just was very smiley and they agreed to let us in. the delivery people were again surprised to see me when they opened the gate. one man said, "wewe!" (pronounced way, way) meaning "you."
today rachel and i met everyone at church. we slept a little longer and went late since we can only handle a few hours of church without falling asleep. it was peaceful having the house to ourselves for a bit. i did some laundry and the basin of water turned completely brown. awesome! i'm excited b/c my friend dottie is on the way to visit me. i knew her last time i was in kenya (she gave me the pink skirt).
Yesterday Alex and I went to the juvenile and talked with them about honesty. we shared the story from acts 5 about Ananeis and how he lied to God about the amount of money he was giving. Alex talked about how people rip off mzungus by overcharging them on the matatus, and he's always able to tell stories in a way that makes the kids laugh. rachel went with julius that morning b/c he had a toothache, so it was just alex and i. sometimes it's hard for me just being with one other kenyan b/c there is no one to translate what's happening, and i often feel lost and not that useful. i brought model magic for them to work with. some of the kids really loved it (especially antony who's good at clay), but many of them just made it into a ball of clay and were throwing it around all over the place. i tried to explain how to make something else and get the point across that it would probably break once it dried if they used it as a ball, but no one seemed to care. i suppose it doesn't matter much since they don't have much to play with. at least they were enjoying themselves.
in the afternoon i went to the hospital to check on peter. getting there was a challenge b/c i was by myself and i couldn't figure out where to meet the matatu from where i'd gotten off on the way from juvenile. i almost started crying, which is completely ridiculous, but every person told me something different, and i didn't know who to believe. it is so challenging b/c in america i'm very independent, and it's much harder to be that way here. i wish i spoke better swahili and that i wasn't white. anyway, peter seems fine, but it's becoming a huge frustration b/c none of the doctors will tell us what's going on. they have this vacuum sort of thing on his leg and i guess they don't know if it's helping until they take it off every few days. no one would give me a clear answer about anything. and our attempts to call the doctor have been worthless. he says he'll update us, but he doesn't or he hangs up. rachel and tall are there now trying to clarify. we're concerned that if this isn't working they won't tell us and we will just keep getting charged per day for the hospital stay and we have no idea if they will want to try to do something else instead. i can't help but wonder if this is partly b/c i'm white and that people think i have all sorts of money. the one hope is the lady in the billing department who is helpful and doesn't make me wait for hours. she was talking with me yesterday about what i did. her sister lives in alabama. she asked me how i like teaching and if the kids were bad. i explained that most were good, a few more challenging than others. and she said, "just like kenya." but then she said, "at least we can punish kids here though by beating them." and she was asking all sorts of questions about how we discipline kids. there's some issues like this that are just hard for me to understand.
Friday evening i went with edwin to deliver samosas to nakumatt. this lady bakes them at her house and pays him to deliver them to various nakumatts around nairobi (yes, very different health code laws). it was pretty cool being in the delivery part of nakumatt and knowing what happens behind the scenes. everyone was staring at me like, "what's the white girl doing here." our first drop off was a success and then we had to go to another nakumatt like 30 km. outside the city. there was lots of traffica and when we arrived the delivery part was already closed. actually we'd have never made it on time though b/c the samosa lady said they were open until 8 but it was actually only 6. edwin wasn't sure what to do, and the lady was yelling at him over the phone about how it was his fault and he'd have to figure it out. we weren't permitted to bring the coolers in the front door b/c of store policy. edwin was pretty upset, but then i suggested that we find someone inside to make an exception. i went with him to ask because although i hate admitting it, sometimes in these situations, being white helps. sure enough we found someone and i just was very smiley and they agreed to let us in. the delivery people were again surprised to see me when they opened the gate. one man said, "wewe!" (pronounced way, way) meaning "you."
today rachel and i met everyone at church. we slept a little longer and went late since we can only handle a few hours of church without falling asleep. it was peaceful having the house to ourselves for a bit. i did some laundry and the basin of water turned completely brown. awesome! i'm excited b/c my friend dottie is on the way to visit me. i knew her last time i was in kenya (she gave me the pink skirt).
Friday, July 22, 2011
update on the week
I apologize for not posting for many days. There have been many late nights at the hospital this week where we get home too late to go to the cyber or instances like yesterday when I had time but the power was out. I finally have a free afternoon to write. Let's see...Monday morning we went to work with the street women, and we made some amazing progress I think. Only 4 women showed up, and we wouldn't let anyone else come in late, but it was nice to have only people there who really wanted to be there. Because there were so few of them, there was hardly any fighting or yelling going on. Everyone was calm. We discussed the fruits of the spirit, i think (my memory is fuzzy now), and then we brought beads for them to make bracelets. They loved this! everyone sat around stringing beads and they were excited to wear the finished product.
The afternoon was less than stellar. it was ashley's last day so she wanted to do something fun and treat everyone to going to the movies. rachel and i went with tall early to sit at some tables outside the theater to practice making some beads that we wanted to teach to the HIV+ women on Wednesday. Unfortunately when 3:15 rolled around, no one was there for the movies except our friend James. Tall wasn't planning to come with us, and all the other 7 or 8 people who had planned to come were no where in sight. None of us wanted to go into the movie and keep coming out to pay for people as they arrived. And personally, I was mostly just coming along to the movie b/c everyone else was excited, and Rachel felt the same. So we decided just to leave because Ashley was so frustrated and upset that no one cared enough to make it there on time. so us 3 mzungus went to Java, which is a very Western restaurant/coffee shop, with very good food. We decided we just needed to be away from everything. I was also very upset b/c earlier in the week Popo wanted to take Peter to get his haircut. I asked him not too b/c he still had the cuts on his head, which were just starting to clear up and I didn't want them to get infected. Of course, a few days later Popo took him anyway, and they next day Peter proceeded to get a really bad rash all over his head. it then spread to his back. we're pretty sure that whatever they put on his head to sterilize it made him have some kind of allergic reaction. i think he got his haircut in kibera, and you can't ever be sure of how clean things are there. so monday night i had a melt down b/c peter appeared to be getting worse (and when he went to get his leg rewrapped they did a blood test, which i didn't want them to do b/c it's not the best hospital and I don't really trust any diagnosis that they give) and that no one really cared. I walked in the dark (which massively freaked me out...I wrapped a scarf around my head so people couldn't see my mzunguness as much) to the chemist to find Benadryl hoping that that would help somewhat. Ashley reminded me later that I needed to stop worrying and trust God more.
Things got better though b/c a big group of 10 of us decided to all go dancing since it was Ashley's last night. Finding a place to go was a challenge and several changes of plans happened before we finally piled into our cab driver friend, Edwin's van. our land lady was later commenting to Alex about how many people we stuffed in there. anyway, all of us girls were pretty embarrassed b/c we hardly brought any money with us. we hadn't planned on going all the way to town and so we had barely enough money to pay to get in, and had to pay for our cab after we got home. and getting home was quite the ordeal. we came back around 1:00 a.m. and no one at home was answering their phone to come open the gate to let us in. we stood outside for a long time trying to figure out what to do. ashley wanted to climb over this tall tin fence, which totally wouldn't have worked, and other people were softly banging on the gate hoping not to wake up the land lady. finally another neighbor came but he was absolutely furious with us, and rightly so; it was Monday night after all. anyway, we did have lots of fun and despite being locked out it was worth it.
Tuesday we went on a field trip with the kids from Sara Junior (a preschool I volunteered at last time i was here). we took them to the safari park walk, which is a national park in nairobi. there are a few animals, which are hard to see, but the walk itself was high up near the tree tops on wooden bridges, and I liked seeing all the trees and natural side of nairobi. but ash, rachel, and I agreed that they are totally ripping off foreigners by charging them $20. I wouldn't even pay that much to go to a zoo at home. The kids seemed to like it well though it was difficult keeping everyone together. we each chaperoned a group, but these small kids are not used to any sort of structure like this and they often kept running off and we were frantically looking around for them. by the grace of God I had a really calm group that was well behaved. i think everyone else had a headache by the time they left.
afterwards we came back to town to take ash to the airport. we got stuck in a really bad jam so we proceeded to walk several miles into town so that we could meet the taxi on time. Edwin, Alex, and Steve took her to the airport and rachel and I left to take peter to the doctor. it was really sad seeing her go, and it's crazy how fast that month went. we got to the doctor (after getting on the wrong matatu and having to walk back to town for another one) only to find that the doctor wasn't there. we waited 2 hours for him to come. but thankfully he had a plan for fixing peter's leg, and we were able to admit him that night to Aga Khan Hospital. they are doing negative pressure therapy where they apply some kind of vacuum on his leg to mend the skin back together. The doctor studied in the U.S., which was comforting to me, and he knew exactly where Iowa and Indiana were. I do hope that he knows what he's doing and that this works. We've been to visit peter twice since then. He was really freaked out about being admitted at first b/c he was in Kenyatta Hospital before, and wasn't well taken care of. There were 3 patients staying in one bed! But now he's doing fine b/c they are serving him chicken, fruit, chips, and soup everyday. i'm pretty sure this is the best he's ever eaten in his life. he is supposed to have this treatment for 7 days, and then they'll see if they need to do something to the bone. please keep praying for him. it is a relief to have him in the hospital where i know that someone is taking care of him each day and he's not just being left alone to fend for himself.
Wednesday was the best day yet. we met with the HIV women and showed them this bracelet of ash's made of paper beads. it's very different though from the necklaces that i sold at home. i think this kind of style is more original than other things i've seen here and would sell better. we showed them how to get started, and this new lady, Beatrice came. she pulled a paper bead necklace out of her bag that she had made, and she was a great help at showing the other ladies what to do. she was very intrigued by this new style. everyone got really excited and started cutting, rolling, gluing. and then we brainstormed other things that they could make with the beads that they could try to sell. everyone had ideas and was giving input. it was awesome to see them empowered to make something. they are planning to make us a bunch of samples before wednesday so we can decide what we think people would like to buy. at the end they started clapping for us b/c they were so excited.
That afternoon we met with the street women and praised them for how respectful they were on monday and how much patience they showed. we did a lot of times of encouragement with them before tall demonstrated so ideas of cards they could make. we tried this another day, and no one was interested then, but everyone loved it this time. they got so caught up in making cards that no one noticed when the food came, and no one stopped working. i hope we keep seeing this progress. we saw Lydia, one of the women today, and her leg is crippled, so she came hobbling up with her cane but was smiling and so happy to see us. on monday we didn't give her food b/c she was late, but on Wednesday she was there on time.
Thursday we were in Kabete with the juvenile small boys talking about the fruits of the spirit. there are lots of new kids arriving daily, and it seems like it's getting harder to manage a big group of people. today we met with the street boys. Gerwin, our Dutch friend, brought this great video to show them about AIDS and he previewed it there, but when the boys came we couldn't get it to work. TIA. it felt like an unproductive morning, but we had a nice chat with John, one of the boys. he recited this poem for us: "In front of you is John Jenga, a street boy, ready to present to you a poem entitled, "I"ve got the Power." Life is short; life is sweet; take time to taste it. life is a journey. find the right path. but most importantly, life is what you make it. thank you."
it was very heart warming watching him. he really wants to go to school, and we're trying to figure out where he can go. alex is possibly going to try taking him home on sunday, although this worries me a little b/c i think there is some history of abuse/violence in the home, and i'm not sure how he'll do there. but he's very small and clingy, and really going to get beat up if he stays in the streets.
a funny story to finish: on the way back from the hospital on wednesday, alex was sitting in the back of the matatu. when people got off, he came up to sit by rachel and i since a seat opened up. he pretended like he didn't know us and said hello. he asked us our names, and we made up new ones. he made small talk with us as if he'd never met us. then he said, "are you married?" and we said no. and he said, "good because polygamy is legal in kenya." this lady in the front seat turned around b/c she thought he was serious and she gave him the most dirty, disgusted look. we could only keep the whole act up briefly though before we started cracking up.
all right that's all for now. pray for julius. he's having a toothache and might have to have it pulled. also, i'm getting some sort of sinus/cold kind of thing so pray for that too. have a great weekend :)
The afternoon was less than stellar. it was ashley's last day so she wanted to do something fun and treat everyone to going to the movies. rachel and i went with tall early to sit at some tables outside the theater to practice making some beads that we wanted to teach to the HIV+ women on Wednesday. Unfortunately when 3:15 rolled around, no one was there for the movies except our friend James. Tall wasn't planning to come with us, and all the other 7 or 8 people who had planned to come were no where in sight. None of us wanted to go into the movie and keep coming out to pay for people as they arrived. And personally, I was mostly just coming along to the movie b/c everyone else was excited, and Rachel felt the same. So we decided just to leave because Ashley was so frustrated and upset that no one cared enough to make it there on time. so us 3 mzungus went to Java, which is a very Western restaurant/coffee shop, with very good food. We decided we just needed to be away from everything. I was also very upset b/c earlier in the week Popo wanted to take Peter to get his haircut. I asked him not too b/c he still had the cuts on his head, which were just starting to clear up and I didn't want them to get infected. Of course, a few days later Popo took him anyway, and they next day Peter proceeded to get a really bad rash all over his head. it then spread to his back. we're pretty sure that whatever they put on his head to sterilize it made him have some kind of allergic reaction. i think he got his haircut in kibera, and you can't ever be sure of how clean things are there. so monday night i had a melt down b/c peter appeared to be getting worse (and when he went to get his leg rewrapped they did a blood test, which i didn't want them to do b/c it's not the best hospital and I don't really trust any diagnosis that they give) and that no one really cared. I walked in the dark (which massively freaked me out...I wrapped a scarf around my head so people couldn't see my mzunguness as much) to the chemist to find Benadryl hoping that that would help somewhat. Ashley reminded me later that I needed to stop worrying and trust God more.
Things got better though b/c a big group of 10 of us decided to all go dancing since it was Ashley's last night. Finding a place to go was a challenge and several changes of plans happened before we finally piled into our cab driver friend, Edwin's van. our land lady was later commenting to Alex about how many people we stuffed in there. anyway, all of us girls were pretty embarrassed b/c we hardly brought any money with us. we hadn't planned on going all the way to town and so we had barely enough money to pay to get in, and had to pay for our cab after we got home. and getting home was quite the ordeal. we came back around 1:00 a.m. and no one at home was answering their phone to come open the gate to let us in. we stood outside for a long time trying to figure out what to do. ashley wanted to climb over this tall tin fence, which totally wouldn't have worked, and other people were softly banging on the gate hoping not to wake up the land lady. finally another neighbor came but he was absolutely furious with us, and rightly so; it was Monday night after all. anyway, we did have lots of fun and despite being locked out it was worth it.
Tuesday we went on a field trip with the kids from Sara Junior (a preschool I volunteered at last time i was here). we took them to the safari park walk, which is a national park in nairobi. there are a few animals, which are hard to see, but the walk itself was high up near the tree tops on wooden bridges, and I liked seeing all the trees and natural side of nairobi. but ash, rachel, and I agreed that they are totally ripping off foreigners by charging them $20. I wouldn't even pay that much to go to a zoo at home. The kids seemed to like it well though it was difficult keeping everyone together. we each chaperoned a group, but these small kids are not used to any sort of structure like this and they often kept running off and we were frantically looking around for them. by the grace of God I had a really calm group that was well behaved. i think everyone else had a headache by the time they left.
afterwards we came back to town to take ash to the airport. we got stuck in a really bad jam so we proceeded to walk several miles into town so that we could meet the taxi on time. Edwin, Alex, and Steve took her to the airport and rachel and I left to take peter to the doctor. it was really sad seeing her go, and it's crazy how fast that month went. we got to the doctor (after getting on the wrong matatu and having to walk back to town for another one) only to find that the doctor wasn't there. we waited 2 hours for him to come. but thankfully he had a plan for fixing peter's leg, and we were able to admit him that night to Aga Khan Hospital. they are doing negative pressure therapy where they apply some kind of vacuum on his leg to mend the skin back together. The doctor studied in the U.S., which was comforting to me, and he knew exactly where Iowa and Indiana were. I do hope that he knows what he's doing and that this works. We've been to visit peter twice since then. He was really freaked out about being admitted at first b/c he was in Kenyatta Hospital before, and wasn't well taken care of. There were 3 patients staying in one bed! But now he's doing fine b/c they are serving him chicken, fruit, chips, and soup everyday. i'm pretty sure this is the best he's ever eaten in his life. he is supposed to have this treatment for 7 days, and then they'll see if they need to do something to the bone. please keep praying for him. it is a relief to have him in the hospital where i know that someone is taking care of him each day and he's not just being left alone to fend for himself.
Wednesday was the best day yet. we met with the HIV women and showed them this bracelet of ash's made of paper beads. it's very different though from the necklaces that i sold at home. i think this kind of style is more original than other things i've seen here and would sell better. we showed them how to get started, and this new lady, Beatrice came. she pulled a paper bead necklace out of her bag that she had made, and she was a great help at showing the other ladies what to do. she was very intrigued by this new style. everyone got really excited and started cutting, rolling, gluing. and then we brainstormed other things that they could make with the beads that they could try to sell. everyone had ideas and was giving input. it was awesome to see them empowered to make something. they are planning to make us a bunch of samples before wednesday so we can decide what we think people would like to buy. at the end they started clapping for us b/c they were so excited.
That afternoon we met with the street women and praised them for how respectful they were on monday and how much patience they showed. we did a lot of times of encouragement with them before tall demonstrated so ideas of cards they could make. we tried this another day, and no one was interested then, but everyone loved it this time. they got so caught up in making cards that no one noticed when the food came, and no one stopped working. i hope we keep seeing this progress. we saw Lydia, one of the women today, and her leg is crippled, so she came hobbling up with her cane but was smiling and so happy to see us. on monday we didn't give her food b/c she was late, but on Wednesday she was there on time.
Thursday we were in Kabete with the juvenile small boys talking about the fruits of the spirit. there are lots of new kids arriving daily, and it seems like it's getting harder to manage a big group of people. today we met with the street boys. Gerwin, our Dutch friend, brought this great video to show them about AIDS and he previewed it there, but when the boys came we couldn't get it to work. TIA. it felt like an unproductive morning, but we had a nice chat with John, one of the boys. he recited this poem for us: "In front of you is John Jenga, a street boy, ready to present to you a poem entitled, "I"ve got the Power." Life is short; life is sweet; take time to taste it. life is a journey. find the right path. but most importantly, life is what you make it. thank you."
it was very heart warming watching him. he really wants to go to school, and we're trying to figure out where he can go. alex is possibly going to try taking him home on sunday, although this worries me a little b/c i think there is some history of abuse/violence in the home, and i'm not sure how he'll do there. but he's very small and clingy, and really going to get beat up if he stays in the streets.
a funny story to finish: on the way back from the hospital on wednesday, alex was sitting in the back of the matatu. when people got off, he came up to sit by rachel and i since a seat opened up. he pretended like he didn't know us and said hello. he asked us our names, and we made up new ones. he made small talk with us as if he'd never met us. then he said, "are you married?" and we said no. and he said, "good because polygamy is legal in kenya." this lady in the front seat turned around b/c she thought he was serious and she gave him the most dirty, disgusted look. we could only keep the whole act up briefly though before we started cracking up.
all right that's all for now. pray for julius. he's having a toothache and might have to have it pulled. also, i'm getting some sort of sinus/cold kind of thing so pray for that too. have a great weekend :)
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Relaxing with the Dutch
The past two days have been really good. I feel like God has really given me peace, strength, and encouragement that have been much needed. A quick recap on what's been happening: Friday we met with the street boys and while we were waiting to start we taught them the macarena, which was quite funny. Then we had a very serious discussion about AIDS and sex education. After hearing the street boys talk on Monday, Alex was very alarmed, and we felt it was super important to talk about these things. The guys did most of the talking, but then we split up the group into the smaller and bigger kids. Some of the street boys are actually adults or late teens, so we took the smaller ones. There was one boy in the group who is only 8 years old, and he is on so many drugs that he can barely stay awake during our sessions together. Our talk with the smaller boys was pretty good. They took things more seriously than the older ones, and we got them to really open up. It's amazing that despite the very high infection rate of HIV in this country that these boys don't know much about how the disease is contracted. Plus there are all sorts of crazy myths going around about ways to get rid of the disease. Don't think I've mentioned this but Ashley really is a rock star of a teacher. She's really great at asking questions and explaining things. I already knew this, but I don't often get to see her teaching, so it's been good to have that experience. She is leaving on Tuesday and I"m really going to miss her, and Rachel said the same thing. We realized that this is the most time we've spent together since I was in high school. i'm glad to have had this experience together this summer.
After the street boys we took Francis to get new clothes. The plan was that Alex would take him to stay somewhere in Kibera for a few days and talk with him and mentally prepare him to go home. we walked forever far away to the market (where we constantly get harrassed, "sister, tops, tops, these are nice, etc) to get him clothes and we were carrying heavy bags. but we finally finished and once Francis changed he looked nice and no longer like a street boy. Julius took him to Kibera and the rest of us went with Peter to the hospital. The doctor there referred him to a plastic surgeon at Aga Khan hospital, which is apparently one of the best hospitals in the country and the best plastic surgeon in the country. we go there on tuesday. i feel like we're on a bit of a wild goose chase, and I hope that we can just get on with the surgery. every doctors appointment involves at least 2-3 hours of waiting, and while I'm using that time to read a lot, it gets old.
Back to Francis, unfortunately on Saturday when Alex's brother went to get him food he ran away, and now he is gone. Partly this doesn't surprise me but rather breaks my heart, but partly I just can't fathom why someone would choose street life over going home. I have 2 theories: either he is too afraid to go home or he recently has been using more drugs and he is addicted and he left to get drugs. I can't really imagine any other scenarios. Alex thinks we will find him again, although i'm not so sure.
In good news, Saturday Rachel and I went to the big boys juvenile. we did the flood skit (again, yes we do every skit about 4 times during the week) and sang songs before doing some arts and cooking. julius and i took a group of kids and i taught them to make french toast. the bakery classroom was locked and so we did this outside and i had them sit on this ledge of concrete (the headmaster came later and said, oh i had no idea you were coming. alex had told them but the man is very flighty). we only had one jiko (charcoal burner) and one frying pan, and we did this with about 60 kids, so you can imagine that this took several hours. it was pretty smooth at first but crowd control became a big problem in the afternoon. i expected this because it's always an issue. doing things in an organized fashion is not Kenyan style, so you just make do. there were a list of kids for the afternoon cooking session but many more tried to come too. boys were shoving each other and yelling and kicking people out, and it was impossible to get their attention. i gave everyone one piece of bread and made them sit and wait. it took so long that one boy, felix, correctly pointed out that the sun was making his bread stale. i said don't worry, the milk will soften it up again. meanwhile rachel was making picture frames with foam, and several boys used it as an opportunity to make love note pictures for her. one note said "black guy featuring white girl." i don't think they realize, even after telling them, that we're a lot older. all in all, despite the chaos, i think the boys liked it and it was a good day.
we got home and ash had prepared snickerdoodle batter. we went to our dutch friend's house in a nearby nicer neighborhood, and got to use their oven. however, there are no temperature settings on it and i added too much flour i think and the altitude affects the baking, so they tasted a little different. anyway the dutch people made us pancakes and we got to meet their adopted children (one from south africa and one from kenya). they've been in kenya 8 months and are still waiting for their son's visa so that they can go home. they help us with the street ministry, and it was a joy to hang around western people in a clean house where the roads outside are not dirt. the roads outside our house are dirt and so dirt gets tracked all over our house. it's just nice to be able to relate to people and clearly communicate with them. and i think it's awesome that Erec, their 5-year-old, is getting exposure to so many different nationalities of people at such a young age.
we came home last night and our key didn't work for the gate. guess what? the land lady changed the lock again! but she came to the gate and gave us a new key (at 9:30 p.m.) um hello...isn't that something you should tell people about earlier in the day? but we laughed it off. I offered her one of our cookies and said, "oh we thought maybe we had the wrong gate." she laughed and said, no, no. i think she likes us now. our toilet is leaking like 1 liter of water an hour by the way and it's created mold all over the back of the toilet. we paid someone to fix it, and he fixed it by putting the handle on upside down so that you flush it up. unfortunately this only worked for about 8 hours. by night time it was leaking again. i have been informed that this building where we're staying is brand new. i don't think that's possible. it is so poorly put together. the counter top is unlevel and things roll off of it. everything keeps breaking. the sink leaks and we keep a pan underneath. my underwear were covered in mold on friday from all the moisture in the room. at least it keeps us laughing. the other funny thing is this man, gitau, who works in the building. he's always wearing this hat so we refer to him as the man with the hat. whenever he sees us he asks how we are and then when we ask back he says he is very hungry. we shared some food a few times, but even alex has gotten annoyed at the way he seems to take advantage (only he makes it into a funny story that he tells the kids about how the man acts when he sees the mzungu). one day ashley said, "yes, we're really hungry too. we haven't eaten yet."
this morning we went back to juvenile for a devotion. amazingly the kids were all sitting listening and ready to go, and alex had no problem getting them wound up with his funny stories. we talked about the fruits of the spirit in galatians and talked a lot about patience and self-control, which is a huge struggle for them, and definitely me too. it is awesome to see how much the kids look up to alex. i think God is really using alex to influence them in positive ways and i'm glad for them to have him as a role model.
then we had tea and went to church 3 hours late again, and then were at church for about 3 hours. we hung out dancing around the church afterward while everyone packed up. our friend Tall (don't know if i've mentioned him. he's someone new that i've met this time) took Rachel and I to the masai market today. he is excellent at bargaining. ash is at home getting her hair braided i think. she went with popo to church in kibera today.
hope you're having a great weekend. thanks for your prayers. please continue to pray for peter and his situation and figuring out schooling for him. the next school session begins in september. also pray for francis that we might find him again and have wisdom about what to say to him.
After the street boys we took Francis to get new clothes. The plan was that Alex would take him to stay somewhere in Kibera for a few days and talk with him and mentally prepare him to go home. we walked forever far away to the market (where we constantly get harrassed, "sister, tops, tops, these are nice, etc) to get him clothes and we were carrying heavy bags. but we finally finished and once Francis changed he looked nice and no longer like a street boy. Julius took him to Kibera and the rest of us went with Peter to the hospital. The doctor there referred him to a plastic surgeon at Aga Khan hospital, which is apparently one of the best hospitals in the country and the best plastic surgeon in the country. we go there on tuesday. i feel like we're on a bit of a wild goose chase, and I hope that we can just get on with the surgery. every doctors appointment involves at least 2-3 hours of waiting, and while I'm using that time to read a lot, it gets old.
Back to Francis, unfortunately on Saturday when Alex's brother went to get him food he ran away, and now he is gone. Partly this doesn't surprise me but rather breaks my heart, but partly I just can't fathom why someone would choose street life over going home. I have 2 theories: either he is too afraid to go home or he recently has been using more drugs and he is addicted and he left to get drugs. I can't really imagine any other scenarios. Alex thinks we will find him again, although i'm not so sure.
In good news, Saturday Rachel and I went to the big boys juvenile. we did the flood skit (again, yes we do every skit about 4 times during the week) and sang songs before doing some arts and cooking. julius and i took a group of kids and i taught them to make french toast. the bakery classroom was locked and so we did this outside and i had them sit on this ledge of concrete (the headmaster came later and said, oh i had no idea you were coming. alex had told them but the man is very flighty). we only had one jiko (charcoal burner) and one frying pan, and we did this with about 60 kids, so you can imagine that this took several hours. it was pretty smooth at first but crowd control became a big problem in the afternoon. i expected this because it's always an issue. doing things in an organized fashion is not Kenyan style, so you just make do. there were a list of kids for the afternoon cooking session but many more tried to come too. boys were shoving each other and yelling and kicking people out, and it was impossible to get their attention. i gave everyone one piece of bread and made them sit and wait. it took so long that one boy, felix, correctly pointed out that the sun was making his bread stale. i said don't worry, the milk will soften it up again. meanwhile rachel was making picture frames with foam, and several boys used it as an opportunity to make love note pictures for her. one note said "black guy featuring white girl." i don't think they realize, even after telling them, that we're a lot older. all in all, despite the chaos, i think the boys liked it and it was a good day.
we got home and ash had prepared snickerdoodle batter. we went to our dutch friend's house in a nearby nicer neighborhood, and got to use their oven. however, there are no temperature settings on it and i added too much flour i think and the altitude affects the baking, so they tasted a little different. anyway the dutch people made us pancakes and we got to meet their adopted children (one from south africa and one from kenya). they've been in kenya 8 months and are still waiting for their son's visa so that they can go home. they help us with the street ministry, and it was a joy to hang around western people in a clean house where the roads outside are not dirt. the roads outside our house are dirt and so dirt gets tracked all over our house. it's just nice to be able to relate to people and clearly communicate with them. and i think it's awesome that Erec, their 5-year-old, is getting exposure to so many different nationalities of people at such a young age.
we came home last night and our key didn't work for the gate. guess what? the land lady changed the lock again! but she came to the gate and gave us a new key (at 9:30 p.m.) um hello...isn't that something you should tell people about earlier in the day? but we laughed it off. I offered her one of our cookies and said, "oh we thought maybe we had the wrong gate." she laughed and said, no, no. i think she likes us now. our toilet is leaking like 1 liter of water an hour by the way and it's created mold all over the back of the toilet. we paid someone to fix it, and he fixed it by putting the handle on upside down so that you flush it up. unfortunately this only worked for about 8 hours. by night time it was leaking again. i have been informed that this building where we're staying is brand new. i don't think that's possible. it is so poorly put together. the counter top is unlevel and things roll off of it. everything keeps breaking. the sink leaks and we keep a pan underneath. my underwear were covered in mold on friday from all the moisture in the room. at least it keeps us laughing. the other funny thing is this man, gitau, who works in the building. he's always wearing this hat so we refer to him as the man with the hat. whenever he sees us he asks how we are and then when we ask back he says he is very hungry. we shared some food a few times, but even alex has gotten annoyed at the way he seems to take advantage (only he makes it into a funny story that he tells the kids about how the man acts when he sees the mzungu). one day ashley said, "yes, we're really hungry too. we haven't eaten yet."
this morning we went back to juvenile for a devotion. amazingly the kids were all sitting listening and ready to go, and alex had no problem getting them wound up with his funny stories. we talked about the fruits of the spirit in galatians and talked a lot about patience and self-control, which is a huge struggle for them, and definitely me too. it is awesome to see how much the kids look up to alex. i think God is really using alex to influence them in positive ways and i'm glad for them to have him as a role model.
then we had tea and went to church 3 hours late again, and then were at church for about 3 hours. we hung out dancing around the church afterward while everyone packed up. our friend Tall (don't know if i've mentioned him. he's someone new that i've met this time) took Rachel and I to the masai market today. he is excellent at bargaining. ash is at home getting her hair braided i think. she went with popo to church in kibera today.
hope you're having a great weekend. thanks for your prayers. please continue to pray for peter and his situation and figuring out schooling for him. the next school session begins in september. also pray for francis that we might find him again and have wisdom about what to say to him.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Francis, Obama's people, and one year older
I feel like everyday things happen that could possibly turn out to be really good but that they don't always or i'll never know for sure what happened. for instance, this afternoon alex and i went to track down the street boy Francis. We found him pretty easily, amazingly, not far from where we meet with the boys on Fridays. I recognized the back of his head. Alex wanted to speak with him without the other boys around so we took him to a park. Alex had a talk with him about how the other boys are influencing him to use drugs and how it's not too late to turn his life around. I encouraged him as well saying that he had lots of potential and should go back to school. although he never could look me in the eye, he also agreed that he wanted to go back to school and back to his parents (I didn't know this was an option, but they seem to be on ok terms.) alex thinks that he might have left home when his parents couldn't pay for school fees. So we got Francis soap and food, and the plan is that tomorrow when we meet with the boys Alex will take him to stay somewhere in Kibera I think for a few nights. And then if he does ok there, we will try to take him home to Nakuru on Monday and arrange for paying for school. That's several hours drive, by the way, and it amazes me that kids from far away make it all the way to Nairobi. In any case, I'm really hoping that Francis follows through on his part and that this could work. I will believe it when I see it, and pray in the meantime. Unfortunately, Sheniza, the girl we met Monday, has not called Alex about paying for school, so she could be back on the street again. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed and tired by the lack of progress that seems to happen. I'm praying that while we are here we would see at least a few kids leave the streets. Please pray with me and that we would not grow weary in meeting with them.
we visited the little boys juvenile home this morning. and did the skit about the flood coming and the man not accepting the help that God had sent. we talked about being grateful for God's blessings and using the opportunities in front of us that he has given us. we sang some songs and then split up for arts and games. Rachel and I broke out the beads for bracelet making. Kids love beads here, and I mean LOVE them. alex and i went over to the big boys juvenile afterwards b/c he needed to meet with someone there about us coming (it seems although alex has been coming for a long time and even though we've told them and met with them, it's not quite right. TIA). and can i randomly add that as i'm sitting here at the cyber cafe, the man next to me is listening to shania twain in his headphones while singing out loud and playing the music so loud that i can make out every word. we're also sitting in plastic pool like deck chairs, which are popular here, even in churches, restaurants, etc.
anyway, juvenile: when we got there, class 6 was in class with no teacher--typical. so alex decides to give them an english lesson so that they're not just sitting there doing nothing. i tried to help as well as we discussed nouns and verbs, etc. i tried to have them practice writing something until it became clear that only a handful of kids had a pen or pencil to write with. can you imagine going to school and not having pencils for students?
yesterday we tried to go minister to the street women but they took forever to come even though we walk right past them and say hello before we go into the church where we meet. they just leisurely come at their own pace. the time ticked by, and ash, rachel, and I were needing to leave soon to go take peter to the doctor. we started talking with chantel, this dutch lady who comes to help, about how the women are taking advantage of the situation. she agreed and said there needs to be a cut off time where the women must come by or else they don't get food. we explained this to the pastor, and he said yes we can try that. and i said, how about we go tell them they have 5 minutes to come or they don't get fed. and guess what?...they all came pretty quickly. alex then started talking to them about coming on time and being respectful, and it resulted in this huge yelling/interrupting fest by the women. it was pretty ridiculous. i think that they've sort of done things how they want for so long that they've really manipulated the situation. the fighting was still going on and we had to leave for the doctor. we then proceeded to have many bus drivers try to rip us off and overcharge us for bus fare, and so i kept refusing to get on any bus. a worker for one of the bus companies tried to radio another bus to put us on at what he said was a fair price, but i couldn't really tell if he was being honest or not. finally, we found a bus to take (it had to be the right number) and we only paid 30 shillings instead of the 50 that many were insisting we pay. it sort of comes down to how long are you willing to wait for the correct price and is it worth fighting for 20 cents. it's just the idea of corruption and trustworthiness that are important to me and we had a little time to spare, so it was worth it. we waited 1 1/2 hours at the doctor, even though we had an appointment. the doctor said at the very least peter's leg needs to have skin grafts for the fibulua because that part of his leg has hardly any skin. there's just muscle and tissue showing barely and the bone is right underneath. he couldn't tell if the bone was infected b/c the x-rays weren't clear enough so he sent us to have an MRI done down the road. he called the place to see how long the wait was. they told him to have us come tomorrow and he said, "No, these are Americans; they don't want to wait all day. Please be nice to Obama's people." we were cracking up. unfortunately, rachel and alex waited with him for several hours anyway. i got a little worried about them b/c they came home around 9:30 p.m., which is late to be traveling around Nairobi. i came back at 8 myself, and i remembered why i don't travel at night. too creepy, risky, dangerous. nothing is well lit, so you can't really see who's coming up behind you or towards you. tomorrow we go back to the doctor to see what should happen with Peter. the doctor was planning to refer us to a plastic surgeon if the bone isn't infected. continue to pray for this situation.
on a funny note, we helped alex realize that he's 26 and not 25. we were talking about birthdays and he was saying how he was born in april of '85 (which is 1 month and 1 year after me), so i said, oh you're 26 then. and he kept saying, no i'm 25. and i said, well you must be born in '86 then. and he insisted that he was born in '85, so we told him he had to be 26 then. he said it's common for people to sort of fudge a date on the birth certificate b/c in his case he was left at the hospital without his mom around for a while so no one knew the exact date.
please pray for ash, rachel, and i for strength and perserverance. the lack of communication continues to wear on us but we pray for positive spirits and loving hearts to overcome this.
we visited the little boys juvenile home this morning. and did the skit about the flood coming and the man not accepting the help that God had sent. we talked about being grateful for God's blessings and using the opportunities in front of us that he has given us. we sang some songs and then split up for arts and games. Rachel and I broke out the beads for bracelet making. Kids love beads here, and I mean LOVE them. alex and i went over to the big boys juvenile afterwards b/c he needed to meet with someone there about us coming (it seems although alex has been coming for a long time and even though we've told them and met with them, it's not quite right. TIA). and can i randomly add that as i'm sitting here at the cyber cafe, the man next to me is listening to shania twain in his headphones while singing out loud and playing the music so loud that i can make out every word. we're also sitting in plastic pool like deck chairs, which are popular here, even in churches, restaurants, etc.
anyway, juvenile: when we got there, class 6 was in class with no teacher--typical. so alex decides to give them an english lesson so that they're not just sitting there doing nothing. i tried to help as well as we discussed nouns and verbs, etc. i tried to have them practice writing something until it became clear that only a handful of kids had a pen or pencil to write with. can you imagine going to school and not having pencils for students?
yesterday we tried to go minister to the street women but they took forever to come even though we walk right past them and say hello before we go into the church where we meet. they just leisurely come at their own pace. the time ticked by, and ash, rachel, and I were needing to leave soon to go take peter to the doctor. we started talking with chantel, this dutch lady who comes to help, about how the women are taking advantage of the situation. she agreed and said there needs to be a cut off time where the women must come by or else they don't get food. we explained this to the pastor, and he said yes we can try that. and i said, how about we go tell them they have 5 minutes to come or they don't get fed. and guess what?...they all came pretty quickly. alex then started talking to them about coming on time and being respectful, and it resulted in this huge yelling/interrupting fest by the women. it was pretty ridiculous. i think that they've sort of done things how they want for so long that they've really manipulated the situation. the fighting was still going on and we had to leave for the doctor. we then proceeded to have many bus drivers try to rip us off and overcharge us for bus fare, and so i kept refusing to get on any bus. a worker for one of the bus companies tried to radio another bus to put us on at what he said was a fair price, but i couldn't really tell if he was being honest or not. finally, we found a bus to take (it had to be the right number) and we only paid 30 shillings instead of the 50 that many were insisting we pay. it sort of comes down to how long are you willing to wait for the correct price and is it worth fighting for 20 cents. it's just the idea of corruption and trustworthiness that are important to me and we had a little time to spare, so it was worth it. we waited 1 1/2 hours at the doctor, even though we had an appointment. the doctor said at the very least peter's leg needs to have skin grafts for the fibulua because that part of his leg has hardly any skin. there's just muscle and tissue showing barely and the bone is right underneath. he couldn't tell if the bone was infected b/c the x-rays weren't clear enough so he sent us to have an MRI done down the road. he called the place to see how long the wait was. they told him to have us come tomorrow and he said, "No, these are Americans; they don't want to wait all day. Please be nice to Obama's people." we were cracking up. unfortunately, rachel and alex waited with him for several hours anyway. i got a little worried about them b/c they came home around 9:30 p.m., which is late to be traveling around Nairobi. i came back at 8 myself, and i remembered why i don't travel at night. too creepy, risky, dangerous. nothing is well lit, so you can't really see who's coming up behind you or towards you. tomorrow we go back to the doctor to see what should happen with Peter. the doctor was planning to refer us to a plastic surgeon if the bone isn't infected. continue to pray for this situation.
on a funny note, we helped alex realize that he's 26 and not 25. we were talking about birthdays and he was saying how he was born in april of '85 (which is 1 month and 1 year after me), so i said, oh you're 26 then. and he kept saying, no i'm 25. and i said, well you must be born in '86 then. and he insisted that he was born in '85, so we told him he had to be 26 then. he said it's common for people to sort of fudge a date on the birth certificate b/c in his case he was left at the hospital without his mom around for a while so no one knew the exact date.
please pray for ash, rachel, and i for strength and perserverance. the lack of communication continues to wear on us but we pray for positive spirits and loving hearts to overcome this.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
evicted/not evicted and hanging with street boys
i started typing this yesterday, and then we had a sudden blackout and the computers all turned off. so we'll try this again:
the past day and a half seems almost so ridiculous that i don't think it really happened, and i feel kind of silly telling the story. but it went something like this:
yesterday was a great morning for me. alex and i went to the juvenile on sunday morning for devotion time with the kids. i talked with them about how we are one family in christ and that it's our responsibility to look after each other and care about each other. alex expanded on this by saying that no matter what tribe we're from or what city, we're all united in christ. we sang songs afterwards and i thought we were about finished since we'd been there for 1 1/2 hours. then a bunch of kids came in, and alex said, ok it's time for session 2. he looked at me and said, are you ready to speak? i just gave him this blank expression wondering what in the world he was talking about. and he says, "you didn't prepare something for session 2?" um, no...you didn't say anything about 2 sessions. no worries though. tia, you just make it up as you go. this type of miscommunication happens a lot with everyone and after a while it's really exhausting. it helps though to have ashley and rachel to talk about it with. i know that there is no way i can ever come here by myself again. it's too difficult. you must have another westerner to relate to. anyway, juvenile was good and then we went and got tea and prolonged going to church, which was fine b/c this service is at least 5 hours long....yes, for real. we got there around 12 i think and it ended at 3. i think it started at 9 or 10. but it was one of the best services i've been to. the pastor was funny and told lots of stories and we were dancing around and jumping up and down so much during worship that i was sweating. ashley said we should have worn workout clothes instead of skirts.
the drama started when we got home. we've been having more small problems with the land lady and alex mistakenly thought that we could use our deposit money to pay for this last month of rent. mixed in with this is that we were trying to figure out a place where some of these street boys could live and start going back to school. we were thinking of trying to rent a place and have julius and alex stay there with them and that we would stay there until we left. so alex decided (sort of without telling us) that we were moving. he told the landlady as much and we started looking for other places. we found a sweet apartment and things seemed good to go. we packed up everything. and alex nicely asked the landlady for our money back. i think twice she promised it the next day. so sunday afternoon we sat around forever waiting for her husband to bring us our deposit and check us out. he never came and never came. we had the entire apartment packed up (which wasn't much stuff really). he finally came at 9:30, and it was this huge altercation with alex about all sorts of things that we'd have to pay for. apparently no matter what you always have to have the apartment repainted when you leave. and he was making up charges for all sorts of things. he wanted to keep all our deposit and told us we owed more as well. the whole thing was pretty ridiculous. ash and rach finally went to look at the lease papers, which alex did not have, to make sure everything was true, and it was very brief and open for interpretation, so pretty much whatever the landlord says goes. we went to bed not really sure what to do. in the morning when we looked at the lease for the other apartment there were a lot of red flags to me. like you have to repaint and varnish the floors before leaving and you can't put any nails in the walls and there are no set charges for damages. so we collectively decided we shouldn't move. it became clear to us girls that none of these guys have ever signed this type of lease before and have no idea of what is involved in renting apartment. and ashley correctly said we can't blame them b/c they've grown up in kibera and have never had this experience. so we went and nicely talked to the landlady, and she was happy to let us stay as long as we paid our rent for this month (but i'm sure we're going to lose our whole deposit b/c of repainting charges, etc). we then had to unpack everything again, and now all my clothes and stuff are just wadded up in my suitcase, which by the way has mold growing on it b/c it is sitting in that damp room that never dries. we're chalking this all up to a good learning experience for everyone. we've been extra nice to the landlady, and we're trying to show her love despite some of our falling outs. we also decided that we won't be renting a house to put these boys...there are too many what ifs involved for us to think about that right now. perhaps we can look around and find other alternatives homes to place them in, although alex has many doubts that that could work due to trying this before without much success.
on a positive note, some good things happened yesterday. we went to see the street women and arrived very late b/c we were unpacking the house. the pastor that helps with this ministry was there wrapping up his talk with them. i looked around (everyone was sitting in plastic chairs on this cement patioish thing) and almost everyone was sniffing drugs. i think the pastor is either naive or too nice, b/c he seemed unbothered by it. he told us he was leaving to get food for the women. then he said, "and this lady over there prayed and accepted christ today." rachel and i asked for clarification on which woman, and it was a new lady who was sitting sniffing drugs. we just looked at the pastor like, "seriously, you have to be kidding me. the lady is totally high right now." i know you're wondering about the good part...here's where it gets funny. i became super frustrated b/c we've clearly told the women that they can't do drugs there. i don't think it's too much to ask people to not sniff for 2 hours in exchange for us feeding them (and talking to them). they were all crowding around alex asking for things, complaining, etc, and i couldn't take it. and so i just started yelling, without even telling alex i had something to say, i started yelling, and he started translating. i said that we cared about them a lot but that they were treating this time together like a joke. they weren't respecting the rules, and it was a complete slap in the face to us. we're here to help and love them and they can't even leave the drugs for a short time. as alex is translating, they start yelling and blaming each other. agnus, one woman, is sort of the ringleader and she's always super doped up. she started to interrupt, and i looked at her and pointed with my finger "skiza", meaning, "listen!" and she did. and everyone got really quiet. i think it really surprised them to see the nice white girl yelling. and then everyone started apologizing and agnus took out her drugs and poured them all out on the pavement (alex says she poured out a lot and that it cost a lot of money). it was a small victory, but it was great. i think tough love is really important, and we've been more than nice and loving and perhaps too soft at times. alex also had me talk to this pregnant lady that we've talked to multiple times. he had me tell her what the drugs are doing to her unborn baby. i really think that this baby is going to have massive birth defects and learning problems but i pray that i'm wrong. it is unfortunate that sin does not just affect us but others as well.
also during this time, a young girl came with the street women. she was only 13. alex, rachel, and i sat down with her b/c alex said she left the streets 6 months ago and was now back. we found out that she no longer had school fees and so she left home to look for money and hadn't slept for days b/c she was worried about being raped or hurt on the streets. we had a long talk with her about going back to school and how dangerous it was living on the streets. we made cards with her and some street boys who joined us later. and then we walked her all the way across town (probably 2 miles) to get on a matatu to go home. we gave her matatu fare, and alex's number. she's supposed to call him so that we can talk to her mom and arrange for paying for her to continue school when the new term starts in september. the fees are less than $50, so the cost is not a problem, but she will have to find somewhere new to go. she hasn't called yet, which makes me a little nervous. she made cards for rachel and i though saying how much she appreciated us talking to her and encouraging her.
after taking her back to the matatu we walked (many more miles) to a park to meet some of the street boys. we had fun playing frisbee with them while alex went to get them some food. but then while we were eating, the conversation became so disheartening. first francis, my fave kid, was back and had been doing drugs today. he has been clean every other time i've seen him. he first lied to me saying that the drugs on the sleeve of his shirt were not his b/c it was someone else's shirt. but it turned out later that he told alex he did the drugs today b/c someone stole his pants and he had to wear dirty muddy ones and he was embarrassed. then all the kids started talking about how they got tested for HIV yesterday b/c some organization was giving away free food if you got tested. b/c they found out they were negative, the went and did who knows what that night. they really have no clear understanding of AIDS i don't think, and when we talked to them they were just laughing. alex said that even though they're only 13, they are already sleeping around on the streets. rachel and i just looked at him with huge eyes, like oh my gosh these kids are so little, please tell me i miss heard you. so we talked to them the best we could even though they didn't seem to care much. please pray for these boys, for their safety, for their futures, for their relationship with Christ. it is so heart breaking seeing the ways that they struggle and i pray that we would be able to find somewhere for them to live and go to school and that they would be willing. remember too that alex used to be a street boy for several years in kisumu, and he is such an awesome testimony of how God broke those chains.
today was our break day. ash and i got up early and ran to nakumatt to get food to make biscuits and gravy. while i know i'm out of shape, i was particulary having trouble breathing while i ran and i wonder if that's partly the altitude. we made it back though and made delicious biscuits and gravy. ash decided it should be a birthday celebration for peter today b/c he doesn't know when his birthday is. so we sang to him and gave him a candle to blow out, and she gave him an activity book with a map and stickers of animals that live around the world. also some letter flash cards and some deodorant spray (the other day he sprayed ashley's dry shampoo all over him b/c he thought it was deodorant). we then went to the giraffe center and kazuri bead factory in karen. these were fun things, but it was a long day b/c there were 10 of us walking around together (and also we were surrounded by mzungu tourists all afternoon, which is just wierd here). i find myself growing very impatient with having so many people and things taking forever and waiting around and people not communicating well. i got really upset b/c we went down this trail at the giraffe park, and alex had us go up this steep hill. i kept saying, peter should not climb up there and they said they would carry him, and then they let him walk up there anyway. i think this is where the mom in me comes out. what the kenyans don't understand is that we paid a lot of money and that his leg is really serious. i don't think peter understands either. we're taking him back to the doctor tomorrow, so pray that that goes well. also pray that i would learn to hold my tongue more and think before speaking. and that despite not knowing what is going on half the time that i would have a positive attitude.
the past day and a half seems almost so ridiculous that i don't think it really happened, and i feel kind of silly telling the story. but it went something like this:
yesterday was a great morning for me. alex and i went to the juvenile on sunday morning for devotion time with the kids. i talked with them about how we are one family in christ and that it's our responsibility to look after each other and care about each other. alex expanded on this by saying that no matter what tribe we're from or what city, we're all united in christ. we sang songs afterwards and i thought we were about finished since we'd been there for 1 1/2 hours. then a bunch of kids came in, and alex said, ok it's time for session 2. he looked at me and said, are you ready to speak? i just gave him this blank expression wondering what in the world he was talking about. and he says, "you didn't prepare something for session 2?" um, no...you didn't say anything about 2 sessions. no worries though. tia, you just make it up as you go. this type of miscommunication happens a lot with everyone and after a while it's really exhausting. it helps though to have ashley and rachel to talk about it with. i know that there is no way i can ever come here by myself again. it's too difficult. you must have another westerner to relate to. anyway, juvenile was good and then we went and got tea and prolonged going to church, which was fine b/c this service is at least 5 hours long....yes, for real. we got there around 12 i think and it ended at 3. i think it started at 9 or 10. but it was one of the best services i've been to. the pastor was funny and told lots of stories and we were dancing around and jumping up and down so much during worship that i was sweating. ashley said we should have worn workout clothes instead of skirts.
the drama started when we got home. we've been having more small problems with the land lady and alex mistakenly thought that we could use our deposit money to pay for this last month of rent. mixed in with this is that we were trying to figure out a place where some of these street boys could live and start going back to school. we were thinking of trying to rent a place and have julius and alex stay there with them and that we would stay there until we left. so alex decided (sort of without telling us) that we were moving. he told the landlady as much and we started looking for other places. we found a sweet apartment and things seemed good to go. we packed up everything. and alex nicely asked the landlady for our money back. i think twice she promised it the next day. so sunday afternoon we sat around forever waiting for her husband to bring us our deposit and check us out. he never came and never came. we had the entire apartment packed up (which wasn't much stuff really). he finally came at 9:30, and it was this huge altercation with alex about all sorts of things that we'd have to pay for. apparently no matter what you always have to have the apartment repainted when you leave. and he was making up charges for all sorts of things. he wanted to keep all our deposit and told us we owed more as well. the whole thing was pretty ridiculous. ash and rach finally went to look at the lease papers, which alex did not have, to make sure everything was true, and it was very brief and open for interpretation, so pretty much whatever the landlord says goes. we went to bed not really sure what to do. in the morning when we looked at the lease for the other apartment there were a lot of red flags to me. like you have to repaint and varnish the floors before leaving and you can't put any nails in the walls and there are no set charges for damages. so we collectively decided we shouldn't move. it became clear to us girls that none of these guys have ever signed this type of lease before and have no idea of what is involved in renting apartment. and ashley correctly said we can't blame them b/c they've grown up in kibera and have never had this experience. so we went and nicely talked to the landlady, and she was happy to let us stay as long as we paid our rent for this month (but i'm sure we're going to lose our whole deposit b/c of repainting charges, etc). we then had to unpack everything again, and now all my clothes and stuff are just wadded up in my suitcase, which by the way has mold growing on it b/c it is sitting in that damp room that never dries. we're chalking this all up to a good learning experience for everyone. we've been extra nice to the landlady, and we're trying to show her love despite some of our falling outs. we also decided that we won't be renting a house to put these boys...there are too many what ifs involved for us to think about that right now. perhaps we can look around and find other alternatives homes to place them in, although alex has many doubts that that could work due to trying this before without much success.
on a positive note, some good things happened yesterday. we went to see the street women and arrived very late b/c we were unpacking the house. the pastor that helps with this ministry was there wrapping up his talk with them. i looked around (everyone was sitting in plastic chairs on this cement patioish thing) and almost everyone was sniffing drugs. i think the pastor is either naive or too nice, b/c he seemed unbothered by it. he told us he was leaving to get food for the women. then he said, "and this lady over there prayed and accepted christ today." rachel and i asked for clarification on which woman, and it was a new lady who was sitting sniffing drugs. we just looked at the pastor like, "seriously, you have to be kidding me. the lady is totally high right now." i know you're wondering about the good part...here's where it gets funny. i became super frustrated b/c we've clearly told the women that they can't do drugs there. i don't think it's too much to ask people to not sniff for 2 hours in exchange for us feeding them (and talking to them). they were all crowding around alex asking for things, complaining, etc, and i couldn't take it. and so i just started yelling, without even telling alex i had something to say, i started yelling, and he started translating. i said that we cared about them a lot but that they were treating this time together like a joke. they weren't respecting the rules, and it was a complete slap in the face to us. we're here to help and love them and they can't even leave the drugs for a short time. as alex is translating, they start yelling and blaming each other. agnus, one woman, is sort of the ringleader and she's always super doped up. she started to interrupt, and i looked at her and pointed with my finger "skiza", meaning, "listen!" and she did. and everyone got really quiet. i think it really surprised them to see the nice white girl yelling. and then everyone started apologizing and agnus took out her drugs and poured them all out on the pavement (alex says she poured out a lot and that it cost a lot of money). it was a small victory, but it was great. i think tough love is really important, and we've been more than nice and loving and perhaps too soft at times. alex also had me talk to this pregnant lady that we've talked to multiple times. he had me tell her what the drugs are doing to her unborn baby. i really think that this baby is going to have massive birth defects and learning problems but i pray that i'm wrong. it is unfortunate that sin does not just affect us but others as well.
also during this time, a young girl came with the street women. she was only 13. alex, rachel, and i sat down with her b/c alex said she left the streets 6 months ago and was now back. we found out that she no longer had school fees and so she left home to look for money and hadn't slept for days b/c she was worried about being raped or hurt on the streets. we had a long talk with her about going back to school and how dangerous it was living on the streets. we made cards with her and some street boys who joined us later. and then we walked her all the way across town (probably 2 miles) to get on a matatu to go home. we gave her matatu fare, and alex's number. she's supposed to call him so that we can talk to her mom and arrange for paying for her to continue school when the new term starts in september. the fees are less than $50, so the cost is not a problem, but she will have to find somewhere new to go. she hasn't called yet, which makes me a little nervous. she made cards for rachel and i though saying how much she appreciated us talking to her and encouraging her.
after taking her back to the matatu we walked (many more miles) to a park to meet some of the street boys. we had fun playing frisbee with them while alex went to get them some food. but then while we were eating, the conversation became so disheartening. first francis, my fave kid, was back and had been doing drugs today. he has been clean every other time i've seen him. he first lied to me saying that the drugs on the sleeve of his shirt were not his b/c it was someone else's shirt. but it turned out later that he told alex he did the drugs today b/c someone stole his pants and he had to wear dirty muddy ones and he was embarrassed. then all the kids started talking about how they got tested for HIV yesterday b/c some organization was giving away free food if you got tested. b/c they found out they were negative, the went and did who knows what that night. they really have no clear understanding of AIDS i don't think, and when we talked to them they were just laughing. alex said that even though they're only 13, they are already sleeping around on the streets. rachel and i just looked at him with huge eyes, like oh my gosh these kids are so little, please tell me i miss heard you. so we talked to them the best we could even though they didn't seem to care much. please pray for these boys, for their safety, for their futures, for their relationship with Christ. it is so heart breaking seeing the ways that they struggle and i pray that we would be able to find somewhere for them to live and go to school and that they would be willing. remember too that alex used to be a street boy for several years in kisumu, and he is such an awesome testimony of how God broke those chains.
today was our break day. ash and i got up early and ran to nakumatt to get food to make biscuits and gravy. while i know i'm out of shape, i was particulary having trouble breathing while i ran and i wonder if that's partly the altitude. we made it back though and made delicious biscuits and gravy. ash decided it should be a birthday celebration for peter today b/c he doesn't know when his birthday is. so we sang to him and gave him a candle to blow out, and she gave him an activity book with a map and stickers of animals that live around the world. also some letter flash cards and some deodorant spray (the other day he sprayed ashley's dry shampoo all over him b/c he thought it was deodorant). we then went to the giraffe center and kazuri bead factory in karen. these were fun things, but it was a long day b/c there were 10 of us walking around together (and also we were surrounded by mzungu tourists all afternoon, which is just wierd here). i find myself growing very impatient with having so many people and things taking forever and waiting around and people not communicating well. i got really upset b/c we went down this trail at the giraffe park, and alex had us go up this steep hill. i kept saying, peter should not climb up there and they said they would carry him, and then they let him walk up there anyway. i think this is where the mom in me comes out. what the kenyans don't understand is that we paid a lot of money and that his leg is really serious. i don't think peter understands either. we're taking him back to the doctor tomorrow, so pray that that goes well. also pray that i would learn to hold my tongue more and think before speaking. and that despite not knowing what is going on half the time that i would have a positive attitude.
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