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.