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.