Me and Silvia

        

I’ve blogged about Silvia before. She lives at Discover to Recover center. She is a sweet little twelve year old girl, but she’s had experiences that no child should have to go through. I went to visit her a few days ago and she was not herself at all. I hadn’t been to see them for a while and when I got there she went around the corner and disappeared. Usually she is always right next to my side the whole time I am there. 

I tried talking to her and she wouldn’t even smile. I asked what was wrong, but she wouldn’t answer. Later, I found her sitting behind the building crying all by herself. I brought Leila over to ask her what was wrong, but she wouldn’t say. We had to leave, so we asked her if she would talk to us if we came back the next day. She said yes, so today we headed out. I found her in the same place, right behind the building all alone. Again we asked her what was wrong and she burst into tears. She told us that she has been living at the center ever since she can remember and no one from her family has ever come to visit her or even called Patricia. They don’t live very far away, so we asked her if she wanted to see them. She told us that she didn’t because they didn’t care about her enough to visit her after all this time. We told her, the same thing we’ve told her every time, that we love her and that God loves her, but in the moment of sadness that really doesn’t do much to help. 

I didn’t have much planned for the day, so I took her into town with me to get some lunch. She was still sad, but she cheered up a bit because going into town is a rare occurrence for her. Her English is pretty good for a kid in the third grade, so we talked a little bit. I think it was good for her to be able to get out of the center for a little bit. I told her that now, I have more free time because things have slowed down for me so I will be stopping by the center more and I will be able to take her out sometimes if she needs to talk more. It breaks my heart that such a sweet little kid, has so much pain and brokenness because of the circumstances that she was born into. 

Shimo!!!

 Went down in to Shimo today and got to spend time visiting all of my favorite kids. I love being able to get to know the families of the kids that I have come to know and love from going to Oasis over the years. Here are some pictures.

Helping my little buddy carry her water up the steps. 

Elizabeth

Agustus

Franco always has a huge smile on his face.

Sammy

Me with Lucy

Lucy's little sister Erica outside their house

Peter, who is Lucy and Erica's little brother

John!

John crying after losing a little tussle with one of his friends.

He cheered up fast. 

John comes from a family of five. Here are some photos of his brothers and sisters. 

Selena

Jennifer

Chris

Ester

Ambrose

I’ve blogged before about the street kids that live in Kitale, who in one way or another are forced out of the homes and onto the streets. Every time you go into town you can’t help but run into them. I know I shouldn’t play favorites, but Ambrose is my all time favorite kid that lives on the streets. When I first came here, Ambrose was always so high on glue that he didn’t even know what was going on. 

Ambrose and I

A couple of weeks ago Leila and I were in town buying things for various places and ran into Ambrose early in the day. This was the first time we had seen him when he was not high and we invited him to come with us. He didn’t ask for a single thing the whole time and helped us carry the things we bought. Ever since then he runs up to us with a huge smile on his face every time we are in town. It had been about two weeks since he has had glue on him, but today he was sniffing it again. We asked him about it and he said that’s what kids that live on the street do. We asked for his glue and he handed it right over and  we could see that he had just bought it. We hung out in town for a while then took him and some of his friends, Cobra and Samuel, to lunch. Halfway through the meal, out of nowhere, Samuel pulled two things of glue out of his pockets and handed them over to Leila. 

Cobra and Samuel 

  We got a chance to talk to Ambrose a little about why he went to the streets. He said that he was from a place that was far from town and he came with a friend about a month ago. He said that both of his parents were still alive, but his father was very harsh , abusive, and unable to provide food for his family. After we ate lunch he stood up and said that he was so full and had never in his life eaten enough food to be full.  He is such a sweet kid, it breaks my heart to know that every day he struggles to find food and sleeps on the cold hard streets of Kitale town. 

He had a huge smile on his face the whole time. 

Still smiling.

Ester

          On Monday we went back to the twins house to see how Ester, Patrick, Franco and Dorcas were doing. Patrick was out, but we ran into the mother so we talked with her for a while. She was not cooking maize so we her how the business was going. She told us that it had been going well, but because Patrick is the man of the house, he holds all of the money and is in charge of going to buy the things they need to sell. When it is time for him to go into town to buy things he just hangs around and does nothing. Leila asked her what the plan is for when we bring the twins back in a month if they weren’t going to keep the business going. Ester told us not to bring the twins back and her eyes started to tear up.  She told us that she plans on leaving Patrick on Wednesday morning. She told us that they argue all of the time, he beats her and that he is bringing a second wife into the home even though he is unable to adequately provide for his family  now. So, she is taking Marcy, Franco and Dorcas to her mother’s home and probably never coming back. 

Franco

Mary, Ester's firstborn

Dorcas

  We went back the next day to talk to Patrick and see what he had to say. Leila asked him about the business and he kept coming up with different excuses and admitted that they just ate everything that was meant to be sold. He wouldn’t accept responsibility for his lack of willingness to work and provide for his family. In the beginning it seemed like the mother was the one to blame because she sat at home while her husband was sick, but now he is better and is still unwilling to take the simple steps that could help his family’s situation drastically improve. We asked him how he plans on supporting the twins when we bring them back in a months time. He said they will sit here like they did before and eat if there’s food and not eat if there isn’t. 

One thing here that is heartbreaking is that many people don’t value children. They are seen more as a burden than anything else and because they are not looked at as a blessing they are often mistreated. This is an effect of poverty. These people are in survival mode and I think it makes it difficult for them to put the needs of their children first when they themselves are struggling to survive. The good thing is that Ester is showing us that she really cares about her children and is willing to work for them when she could easily just abandon them. We went back today hoping that she was still around and found her collecting firewood. When she was talking to us you could see that she was holding back tears. She told us that she was unable to get money for transportation, but was leaving as soon as she did. There was no talking her out of it, so we asked her again about the twins. She said that in El Doret, where her mother lives, she will find work as house help or sell things on the street like she did before the family moved to Kitale. She plans on saving money until she is able to find a place of her own where she can live with her kids. She said that once she gets back on her feet she would gladly take the twins back.  It might take some time for her to be able to earn the money to be able to support them all, but at least she is willing to put in the work.

Me with Dorcas

Dorcas running up to greet us

Franco

          Rael and Rose are removed from this situation and have at least one parent who truly cares about their well-being, but there are countless other children all over Kenya who are living in conditions like this or worse. Although, God knows their needs and will provide in one way or another it is still a difficult thing to see children suffer from the choices their parents make. Despite their hardships, these kids still have so much joy and you can see it on all of their faces.

Me with Franco and Dorcas

Just a quick little update. Today we went back to Elizabeth’s house to check on how her feet were doing. As we were walking towards her house we saw her running around and playing. We talked to the mother and she thanked us for our help. She told us that when Elizabeth’s foot kept getting worse that they took her into the district hospital to get it looked at. There, they said that her foot would need to be amputated because of the infection. We didn’t know this when we first saw her foot and did everything that we knew how to fix it and God did the rest. Now her foot is completely healed and the jiggers are gone as well. 

Elizabeth with her mother and little brother Stevo.

It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve been able to make it out to Purpose Driven Academy. I stopped by their for a while today and the first thing I see is Stella running over to me with a huge smile on her face. Usually she will walk over and say hi, but she is never as enthusiastic as she was today. She gave me a huge hug and said she missed me and told me that she thought that I went back to America. I told her I would never leave without saying goodbye and then she ran back to finish her lunch and go back to class. 

         Here the schools are on break, but they have what is called tution, which is almost the same as summer school in America because it gives the kids a time to review. The younger grades only have class until lunchtime so I sat with them while they rolled tires around the school yard because that is the closest thing to a toy that is available to them. Most of the kids that were at school are the ones who board there. They have no other place to go because there is no one to take care of them at home. It was fun to have time when less kids were around to get to know the ones that live at the school year round. TI took a few pictures, then Junior took over and showed off his photography skills once again. 

Junior and Allan

Marvelous trying so hard to roll the tire

Elizabeth

Juliet

Issac, Micah, Hillary and Phillip racing down the hill

There are more 11 milion people living all over the horn of Africa who are suffering from a lack of food. Lodwar is an area where the people of the Turkana tribe live in Northern Eastern Kenya and they are suffering severely. It is one of the hottest, driest and most impoverished areas of Kenya. People are dying everyday because the terrain is not good for growing crops, livestock are dying and prices of food are too high for most to afford it.

          This week I had the amazing opportunity to go up to Lodwar and distribute 11 tons of maize and beans with some team members and local pastors. It was an amazing experience. Over two days we passed out food in five different villages to about 1,500 families.  It was crazy to see such desperation because the people there have very little hope of their situation getting any better. The food we gave them won’t last long, but at least the people have a bit of relief and know that their situation is not going unnoticed. It was incredible to see the joy and love that these people have despite their circumstances. Pray that God will continue to provide for these people in need. I could write for days about all the things that happened while we were in Lodwar, but here are some pictures that say it all. 

We drove 10 hours on bumpy roads to get to Lodwar.

Daniel road with us for a part of the way to make sure our van was safe.

Huts that the Turkana people live in.

A village we passed along the way. 

A room full of the maize and beans that we distributed. 

Pastor George talking to the people before the distribution

People waiting in line to get their food.

Everyone praying before the food was passed out.

The women were singing, dancing and giving thanks to God for the food they received. 

More mamas waiting in line for their maize and beans.

Policemen helped keep the distributions orderly.

Hannah surrounded by a bunch of children. 

All of the adults stood with their food on their heads while listening to the message.

Meanwhile, the kids sifted through the sand for the small bits of maize and beans that dropped.

This little guy stayed right by Pastor Steve's side the whole time.