Adventures in Kitale: Life on the Streets

Kitale is a beautiful place. Everything is so green at this time of year. The sky is clear and beautiful and the rain brings beautiful clouds that roll through everyday. At night the stars are bright and I have never seen them look any clearer. Despite all the beauty that is around me there is also constant pain. The thing that breaks my heart the most is when I see children dealing with pain that is way beyond their years.

There are so many children that we encounter daily as we walk through town. These children leave their homes and travel very far because they imagine that life is better in Kitale town than it is in their home. Many of these children leave home because there isn’t enough food, some leave because they live in abusive home and others have no one left to take care of them so they set off to find a place where they can try to take care of themselves.

As you can imagine life on the streets is incredibly tough. Everyone living on the streets is fighting for survival. These children have little food, so they result to sniffing glue to dull their hunger, help them feel warm and help them forget the emotional pain that comes with living on the streets. At night, if you drive through town you see people sleeping under any place where they will be able to stay dry if the rains come at night. Despite the fact that this is Africa, the weather still drops down to somewhere between the low 60’s or high 50’s during the rainy season. These children have nothing but the clothes on their backs, but still manage to put smiles on their faces when they see us in town.

Luckily there are places like Oasis of Hope that reach out to these kids in need by providing them with an informal education, a couple of meals a day and a chance to hear about God’s love. As we walk through town we show these kids as much love as possible and let them know that somebody cares about them.