Here in Kenya, there are something called jiggers that are a common problem. Jiggers are little bugs that burrow into your feet and hands and lay eggs. If nothing is done these eggs will hatch and continue to spread and eat away at the flesh of the people they are attached to. They are extremely painful and can lead to severe infections. Jiggers are common among people living in poverty because they can’t afford shoes and must walk around barefoot. These people also live in mud houses where jiggers and other bugs can easily get in. Many people use spread cow dung on their floors and when it dries it keeps away the jiggers. It is a simple solution, but many people here don’t care enough to take the precaution. Most of the people affected are children or the elderly because they are unable to take care of themselves and nobody care enough to give them the help or care that they need. If left alone, jiggers can  cause the person to be unable to walk and cause infections that can become so severe that they can be deadly. Sadly, seeing people with jiggers is very common here. Here are a few photos of what it looks like when people's hands and feet become infested with jiggers. 

A mud hut that many of the people living in the slums or villages call home

We’ve been spending a lot of time in Shimo in these past few weeks. On one of the days when we were walking to see Patrick and Ester, we ran into a mama who asked us to come look at her kids feet and hands. This is how we met Elizabeth. She is five years old and when we first looked at her hands, the fingertips were green because they were so infected and her feet were just as bad. On top of that, a bench had fallen on her foot at school two weeks earlier. It was swollen the first day we went to see her, and when we went back the next day to start soaking her feet so the jiggers could be removed, we saw that the infection had gotten worse. The skin on her foot had turned  yellow because her wound had filled with pus. So we drained the wound, and kept coming back to change the wrappings to keep it from being infected again. Elizabeth was such a tough little girl and hardly cried the whole time. When we first found her five days ago she was constantly sitting with her leg straight and her foot up in the air. She had been doing that for so long that she cried when she tried to bend her knee. Now, she is doing so much better and was even walking around when we found her today. 

Elizabeth and her foot full of jiggers

Elizabeth's foot where the bench hit her.
Believe it or not it looks ten times better than when we first found her.
Also notice the jiggers all in and around her toenails. 

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the past week or so praying and thinking about how I can help Catherine’s family and the twins family find a way that they can provide for there families. Both of these families grabbed my attention in very different ways, but God has really put them and their situation on my heart. I talked to Leila about how it would work out to start little businesses for both of these moms. People buy the things they need in smaller quantities because normally they can’t afford to buy in bulk. So there are many people that sit on the side of the road or have little stands in areas like Shimo La Tewa and sell food, charcoal or other necessities. I decided to give both Catherine and Ester the tools to make this happen and then after that it was up to them to keep the business going and we would be there to support them along the way. 

          Catherine has been a completely honest and genuine person from day one. I know I’ve said it before, but her and her husband, Samuel, are two of the most grateful people I have ever met. They don’t sit and feel sorry for themselves or their situation, but do their best with what they have. Samuel was merely using this as a story to explain how grateful he was for our help because he was saying that both him and Catherine aren’t able to do difficult work. Catherine had a c-section when giving birth and it makes it hard for her to do work that is physically demanding. Samuel has a bicycle taxi that he drives people around on and was saying that he couldn’t do that all day because of his side. We didn’t know what he was talking about and all of the sudden he lifted up his shirt and showed us a baseball size tumor on his side. Then he went on saying how much this was going to help his family improve their situation because they were going to be able to have a more steady income. 

          On Monday we went to visit Catherine and see how her business was going. Just Samuel was at the house and he was once again so thankful for the small gift we had given his family. They are still looking for a place where they can go everyday to sell their things. Until then, Samuel loads up his bicycle and goes from house to house selling what he has. They have already sold a lot of the items and have used the money to buy more. He told us that they were only using that money to keep the business going so that they can make a real way to support themselves.  I can’t wait to see what God has in store for this family.  

Samuel and Mary

           Ester, the mother of the twins, is a different story. When I first met her, I got the impression that she didn’t care about her kids or her family. She looks completely healthy, while half of their family is starving. While the kids were still in the house she was never out working and was always just sitting around the house. Since we took the twins out of the house, we’ve been stopping by their house every other day. Two days last week, she wasn’t at home because she had gone out to find work. Often times here, you find that poverty causes people to sort of give up because they don’t see any way their situation can improve. With the twins at a place where they are safe, taken care of and well fed she can see a little bit of hope. Her husband’s health is improving and he is looking better everyday. This family has also never asked me for a thing. We asked them if she new anything about selling maize, other vegetables or charcoal and they told us that she used to do that when they lived in El Doret. In Kitale, they didn’t have the support of their neighbors to help them get this started, so life has been hard for them with no source of income. 

            So yesterday we dropped off a bag of charcoal and maize at their house in the pouring rain. Ester wasn’t there so we talked to Patrick and went there today to follow up. Patrick told us that after the rain stopped he went right outside and started selling. When we went there today Ester was sitting outside and cooking the maize to sell. They had already sold most of the maize we bought them and are planning to go to a nearby shamba (farm) in the morning to get more. We also heard that they were two months behind in rent, which is about $10.00. We had found another family that had the iron sheets to repair their roof, but needed help. So this morning we took him to fix the roof and gave him the money to pay the rent. My hope is that God will use these small gifts to provide for the family in a huge way and that they can get back on their feet so the girls can go back home in a few months and live with their family. 

Ester and Dorcas cooking maize

Ester hiding from the rain inside the house, but still cooking maize

Patrick fixing the roof.

After a day of visiting the families, we stopped by the house where the twins are living now. They are looking better every day.

Rose playing with some toys.

Me hanging out with Rael 

The babies of the house in their matching sweaters

Sweet Rose

           John is one of my favorite kids that lives in Shimo. He is one of the dirtiest children I have ever met. He is one of the lucky ones, who has a monther that really loves and care for him, but despite that he is constantly covered from head to toe in dirt. One day, we were walking through Shimo one day and saw that all of the kids that go to a school down there had been given baths and new clothes. I was so excited to see John that day because I have never seen him clean. When I ran into him he was in the same dirty clothes he always wears. We asked why and he said it was because he didn’t want new clothes. His pants never fit and his little butt is always hanging out. He fights with all the other kids especially if they try to hold my hand. He has claimed me at his “mzungu” (white person) and is very protective. He starts fights and then cries because most of the time he is over powered. Despite all of that, he is an angel in my eyes. Whenever I am in Shimo without fail John shows up out of nowhere.

John

              On Saturdays we walk through the community and go into the people’s homes and ask them a few questions so that we can get to know them better. One of the Kenyans that came with us on the walk through calls John our disciple because he follows us everywhere. We were in Shimo for four and a half hours and John walked into each and every house with us. We even asked him to stay outside at most of the houses and somehow he ended up right by my side in every home. We tried to tell him to go home and get food because he missed lunch and he cried when we tried to make him leave us. We were tired and hungry, but John was still a bundle of energy. He walked with us all the way home, which is a fifteen minute walk, uphill the whole way. 

Still clinging and grabbing at my arm after a long day of walking.

Today we were walking to visit Patrick and Ester, and John came with us. He was helping us carry a bag and when we got to the bridge he slowed down. He handed me the bag and was gripping the railing with both hands because he was terrified. We finally made it across and then it started raining. So we went and took shelter inside the twins house. John stood in the doorway for a while laughing hysterically at every person walking out in the rain. When we were walking home he was greeting everyone we walked past. He is such  a sweet boy, and I love going down to Shimo and seeing his sweet, smiling face. 

John refused to look at the camera...

So I made it happen

Me with Dorcas, John and Franco

Franco (notice John's arm trying to push him away)

Walking down the slippery path to the bridge

Halfway across the bridge

So happy he made it across. 

This has been a great week for me, but today was especially great. I finally got the chance to go to Endebes to talk with Pamela and visit the kids. Protensiana, their older sister, goes to school in El Doret and got the chance to come with us to visit her family. When we got out of the car they were all standing there dressed in their nicest clothes waiting for us. 

The view of the kids house from the road

         We went into the house and sat down to talk with Pamela. She started off by telling us how her health is doing. The last time she went into the clinic, they took her CD4 count and it was at 23, when it should be around 250. This means that she has progressed into having full blown AIDS. They gave her the ARV’s, but she was told to return when they were finished and didn’t have the money to get herself to the clinic, so she’s gone 2 weeks without them. 

            They also don’t have much food in the house. I didn’t know that the kids were going home for the break, so I didn’t send them home with food or anything. Marvelous was so sad and didn’t smile once the whole time we were there. Pamela explained to us  that they only eat dinner because its all the food they have. This also is bad for her because she needs to take her medicine with food. Margaret told me that Pamela was at first resistant to the idea of her taking Marvelous to live at Purpose Driven Academy. Pamela wanted Marvelous around because she thought that she was going to die. With Marvelous in the home, people would be able to find that she had died because the baby would cry after a few days. My heart broke as she was telling us this. Pamela told us that her pain was so bad that she lost the will to live, but she told us she was doing better now. 

Pamela with Allan, Stella and Junior inside the house

  After we got caught up on a few things I asked Pamela if she had given anymore thought to the idea of telling her kids what was going on her. There are so many signs of the children being effected by the idea of not knowing what is going on with her. I told her that I love her children and I want to be able to be available for them to talk to me about anything. Then I told her that I was scared to tell her kids that because if they asked me about her health it would put me in a tough position because I wouldn’t want to betray her trust, but I also would not want to lie to them. After I told her this she agreed to telling them. She really does love her children. She has so little, but has taken in three extra kids and loves them as her own. 

Me with the whole crew.

             Today she was telling me how much the support of my parents has blessed her family and she wanted to give me something back. So the whole family rallied together and spent about fifteen minutes trying to catch a chicken to give to me. It was so sweet to receive something from people who have so little. I am thankful that God has brought me to meet these children and I am excited to see where he leads them in the future. 

Me with Pamela and my new chicken

My chicken hanging out at the compound. 

This morning I got to go down to the house and spend some time with the twins. The older kids were playing outside and Rose, Rael and Emily were inside. It is crazy how much better the girls look in such a short time. They are slowly gaining their strength and energy back. It was great just to sit and play with them a little bit. 

Emily and Rael

Rosie

Emily

Rael

Rose was laughing and playing all morning.

Emily

  Later in the day we went bring the twins father, Patrick, some food to take with his medicine. He is looking better and you can see that the medicine is working and he is gaining his strength back. We updated them on how the girls are doing and sat with them a little bit. Franco and Dorcas, the twins older siblings were at the house and they are always so full of joy despite their circumstances. I also showed the family pictures of the girls. He said that they already looked happier and healthier. It always amazes me when you see people in such dire situations and despite that they never ask for anything. Patrick is one of those people. He is grateful for what we can give him and doesn’t ask for more. 

Franco in front of his house

Franco and Dorcas

          We woke up early on Saturday morning to take Mary and Catherine to the bus station. When they got to the hospital Catherine called and told us that the doctors said that Mary did not need the operation. At the clinic, they don’t have any machines to scan the patients so they just go by what they can observe. At the hospital, after viewing the scans, the doctors decided that Mary’s head size had not decreased and the weight is shifting to the back because of natural growth and she doesn’t need a second operation because her first shunt is doing its job. 

When we told Catherine that we had money to help her pay for the surgery, but we needed them to pay for the transportation there and back. Even though the family has little money, the father said that he would work hard to get them there for the surgery even if they had to stay for a while so he could get the money to get them home. They were both so excited that their daughter was able to get the care she needs. So before we sent her on the bus we gave her the money for the surgery. When she called us from the hospital to give us an update, Leila told her to use 1,000 shillings of the money to get back home. 

Today  we went to their home to visit and Catherine proved herself to be one of the most genuine and honest human beings I have ever met. First of all she loves her daughter more than anything and never puts herself first.  Also, the money we gave her for the surgery was a lot of money to a woman living in the slums struggling to get by. Their house isn’t the worst I have seen, but it is clear that they are not extremely well off. 

The inside of Mary and Catherine's house

            Her husband does not have a steady job and goes out everyday looking for work. If he can find a job he gets a little over a dollar a day. It’s a huge temptation to have so much money, when you are struggling and in a desperate situation. Despite all those things, Catherine gave us back all of the money except the 1,000 shillings we told her to use to get home. She even told Leila to count it out to make sure it was all there. She also said trust is important and we trusted her by giving her the money and she wanted to prove that she was trustworthy. It was encouraging to hear how thankful she was for our help. I am once again amazed at how much of an impact, just simply showing up makes. So far I have only given her a neck pillow, a basin for Mary to learn to sit in and a deposit for a surgery that doesn’t happen. I am finding that while I am here, following through with the things I start speaks louder than being able to give money or some sort of material item. I pray that God continues to show me more ways to serve him and his people during my time here. 

           Last week I was busy with so many things I didn’t have the chance to visit my friends at Discover to Recover. So after church yesterday I finally got to see them and it was so much fun. I gave the kids my camera and they took some great pictures. Here are a few. 

Cool guy Ian

Me with Gregory and Pian

A shot of the classrooms 

Churchill and his shades

Benja kicking back and relaxing

Sweet Churchill

Sunday making a funny face 

Emily making paper beads

Karen

Sammy the photographer taking a picture of himself

Dorcas outside of the center

         Rael and Rosie are settling into their new home. They are both already looking so much better and happier. As they get regular good meals in their stomachs, their personalities are starting to come out. They are precious little girls. Rael is making a little slower recovery because of the severity of her malnutrition, but she is still doing well. She sat on my lap and played with me for a while today and I even got her to smile a few times. Rosie ate two whole plates of ugali for dinner and was talking for the first time since we picked her up. Rosie fell asleep right after dinner and we put her in bed, but then she started crying a few minutes later. So we went and put her into the other room to play with the other kids. Rael was sitting on the couch outside and Rosie cried until she was with her sister. I am so glad that I get to see these girls as they continue to improve. 

Rosie

Me and Rael