Tender Hearts, Calloused Hands

The last week has been a whirlwind. We are finally settled in Nairobi and the last week has been spent planning, meeting with all of our contacts, and beginning our work. Our main form of transportation is public transformation. The this looks slightly different than in London, here we ride Matatus. 

These small vans are our only mode of travel. They are privately owned, but incredibly inexpensive to get around on. One ride is 30 Ksh which is roughly 35 cents. They play loud music and run strobe lights and when you interchange at a competitive stop the drivers fight for your business, sometimes even pulling you in the direction of their Matatu. The convenience of having a car all to myself in America is something I have never cherished so much.

This past weekend we spent two nights and three days at Kenya's Kids, a rehabilitation center for abandoned street children from the Nairobi area. They currently have 52 orphans at their center. We slept where they sleep and ate what they eat. It was one of the most challenging weekends we have ever faced. 

To start off, these kids know how to work.....HARD. They have an acre of garden that must be watered by hand every morning and evening. They have 3 milk cows that are milked morning and evening, they also have an operating pig, rabbit, and chicken farm that they breed and sell year round. They extract the methane from cow and pig manure as bio gas to boil drinking water and make the morning porridge The children wash all of their clothes by hand and cook nearly all of their food over open fire. As if that wasn't enough, they mop every indoor floor surface every day by dumping water on the floor and then skweegeeing it off by bending over and dragging towels across the floor. They wake at 6 a.m. every morning and have to fit in all of these chores and participate in one of the most demanding education systems in the world before 7 p.m. At that time they have a one hour child led praise and worship service in their dormitories, then they have a one hour study hall from 8 to 9 before going to bed at 9 p.m. It didn't matter how hard the beds were when our heads hit the pillow on Friday night, we wanted to sleep.

With all of that work and study these kids need a lot of food, and unfortunately they don't get everything they need.

The meal you see above is Ugali, local boiled spinach, and warm fresh milk. Ugali is difficult to describe, it is made with corn meal, flour and water, and it tastes about as appetizing as it sounds. The consistency is similar to dried up cream of wheat cereal, but it is spongy and you can break off chunks to eat. This was dinner Friday evening. The children had put in a full day of manual labor and study and this is what they had to eat. On Saturday we had porridge for breakfast and a plate of rice for lunch. The only protein we ate all weekend was the very small chicken thigh on Saturday night. We would finish eating and I would look at my watch an hour later when my stomach would growl and wonder when the next meal was coming. Even under those circumstances we never heard the words, "I am hungry." Not once! 

The children are truly thankful for what they are given, they understand that without parents in Kenya it is nearly impossible to get an education, a home, or eat. They willingly go about their work and they study hard to be successful. They have huge aspirations and goals for their life and know that without Kenya's Kids they would likely be without what little they do have. 

During their study hall I had an opportunity to tutor some of the boys above. They are 16 or 17 years old, they only have an 8th grade education, but their math capabilities are comparable to that of an average U.S. university student. Every student who graduates from secondary school in Kenya completes the equivalent of Calculus I. It is amazing how proud, hard working, and devoted to the lord these kids are.  

The children had so many questions about us, about America, and they longed for affirmation of their hopes and dreams. They wanted to show us everything they had to their name, it all fit in a little trunk they kept under their beds. They wanted to show us how they did their chores and how they played basketball and soccer on their dirt fields. Jen and I even got to celebrate our first wedding anniversary with them on Sunday.

Though our impact can't be measured we hope that it will be felt by the children for days and years to come. We are planning on going back to Kenya's Kids sometime in July or August with a donated shipment of bibles to hand out. Wile the weekend was no doubt challenging, physically and mentally, it was one of the most rewarding experiences we have ever had.