I have been thinking since arriving in Kenya how to describe the place, the people, the circumstances to friends and family. When I return, I know that people will ask enthusiastically, “How was your trip?!” It feels so odd to think of answers to this. This question seems to be for those purely pleasure trips. How do you answer when some of the circumstances have been difficult but not altogether negative?
Coming on the trip, I knew there would be a fair amount of walking but did not realize how much exactly or that it would be on a lot of uneven ground. I prayed that my ankle and leg would not swell much or remain constantly sore. It has, but I also got blisters on day one and most days after. The first has been the most painful, still has not gone away, and made it hard to walk. Then, somehow I popped my knee out of place when moving sideways...twice...making me limp around all the more. All on the same leg. I had some digestive issues, sunburn, and now a sinus cold. Needless to say, for the first few days, I was just hoping that my time would pass quickly here since the ailments did not seem to be, but I still wanted this to be a trip of purpose, learning, and encouragement. I think all of this brought me to a place of constant prayer, helped me to see how much I do have to be thankful for, and give me a reason to keep looking around at what others are going through.
I think that this sets up pretty well my feelings toward my visit to Kenya so far. It has been a trip of contradictions and witnessing difficulties of others that cannot be described so much as being “so fun!” or “wonderful” but the trip has been great. I have learned a lot. I have seen the hardships that many endure day after day. I have been brought to a place of compassion and sadness. I have also been amazed at the joy that many seem to have and their complete reliance on God. It would be easy for many of these people to be mad at God or feel abandoned. It would be really easy for them to lose hope. But most have not. Or at least, the ones I have seen have not. That is really encouraging. Oddly enough, we were told that a lot of people here see Americans and people from other developed countries as having great faith because we seem to have everything. We have money, homes, food, family, friends, and so they perceive that we have no lack, no need. Because we seem not to need as much, they think that we have no need to depend on God.
We have walked through some slums (though I had to sit out on one of the trips because of hike and my leg...but I got to stay extra at the baby care) to learn about the people living there and visit some of the sick. Kaylie has connected us with so many people here. Daniel offered to take us with him to visit people in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa and, I believe, third in the world. The conditions walking between the houses was sobering. Trash, every smell you can imagine mixed, animals walking around (chickens, roosters, pigs, mangy dogs). The homes were very simple one room shacks built mostly with a single layer of metal for walls and ceilings. No power, no running water, no room to really have things other than maybe a bed/couch and a very small table. Most of these rooms are shared with perhaps five people. They have to walk a distance to get water that may not be clean and carry it back to their homes in large jugs or jerry cans. One woman another had taken us to was debating on whether she should have a hysterectomy when they remove a large cyst she has. She needs medicines first, then a blood transfusion, and then the surgery. How do they even pay for this? How can any of them pay for the basic health assessments and treatments we take for granted?
There is so much unemployment, but surprisingly, many of these people work. They just barely make enough to survive. The solutions I hear people mention in the US about the poor are usually something about them moving to a lower cost of living area, but how will they get there? Getting a better job, but that depends on education and a supply of jobs, which are hard to come by in a large city. There are others, and they all have counterpoints. I think that is why the organizations we have been hearing of and connecting with are doing such good. They seek to empower the youth to gain education, manage their money, give them basic preventative health knowledge, connect them with other artists to form a community to make and market their works, take care of babies so single moms can go out and work, provide small ($500 or less) microloans so someone can start his or her own business and hopefully help themselves out of poverty and on their way to financial stability, even at what we would consider a low level. All of these things are encouraging the community, building others up, giving them hope for life and a future. It is really a blessing to see how organizations are helping community members, community members are helping one another, and how individuals are now thriving with hope.
We visited a baby care center helping out single moms, but many babies do not have diapers. We are providing them with some cloth diapers to be used at the Inspiration Center so that the program may be able to use what very little money they have to feed the babies instead of diapering them, and hopefully there will be less infection and illness from a child walking around diaper- and pants-less. This seems to be such a small thing, but the center is just starting and I think this is a real need and will encourage hygiene and cleanliness for all of these crawling ones.
We have been able to supply a children's home and school with pencils. You should see the shape that many of their supplies are in. The children were writing with pencils that had been whittled down by a knife or something to only 2” or so. This is all they have. We were able to purchase pencils and small exercise notebooks for those in need to do their class and home work in. We also gave pencil sharpeners to the teachers who had none. One of our activities with the class two and class three grades involved crayons that we left with the teachers. The teacher I worked with had never seen the sharpener that is on the back of the crayon box and seemed somewhat amazed. We take little things like this for granted.
The place I have found the most meaning and hope for a future so far has been where we visited on Sunday. In Maasai country, there is a girl's rescue center in Olooloitikoshi. These girls are between ten and sixteen and to say they have been rescued is to put it so very lightly. The Maasai tribe have wealth in cows. They are the typical Kenyans you probably picture who are tall, thin, with colorful cloths draped around their shoulders, and sometimes with stretched earlobes. Droughts have been so bad that last year they lost 100% of their cows. 100% of what sustains them through the year. This is harsh. Boys are prized and will receive education. Girls are often not and are often abused or neglected by their fathers. Girls are also victims of genital mutilation (aka female circumcision). Once this heals, they are ready for marriage.
In an effort to gain some bit of money through a dowry, fathers will come home one day and tell their daughters (some even less than ten) that they will be married the following day, usually to much older (think sixty or seventy some year old) men. They are only one of the men's wives and rank low on the totem pole. Wife one tells wife two what to do, she tells wife three, she tells wife four, and so on, and basically the young girls become indentured servants and are abused and treated atrociously. Where does the hope lie there? Imagine being a girl of eight and having gone through a series of beatings and emotionally abusive exchanges to be followed by genital mutilation and then sold by your father to a man seven times your age only to be sold into basically slavery with conditions of the worst kind.
Mark, who runs the rescue center, has been sent from a church in Colorado to do good on the other side of the world. He picked us up in Nairobi and drove us 1.5 hours away to the center and told us many things about the girls, their circumstances, and Kenya to inform and prepare us for our visit. What can prepare you for such sweet faces so glad to see you when you know what they have been through and at the same time have absolutely no idea? What can prepare you for them showing you their bed and few belongings that we would see as so meager and they are so proud to now call their very own? What can prepare you for listening to them, who have overcome such emotional distress usually initiated by the hands of their fathers, sing a song about their Father (God) never leaving or forsaking them with such joy and beautiful voices? What can prepare you for one you have connected with smiling at you and saying, “I would like for you to be my sistah” when she is so disconnected from her family? What can prepare you for them sharing about their favorite subject in school or their brothers and sisters, who you know are back home or have been sold themselves, or what they want to be when they grow up? Not much. Not much can prepare you for such a very bittersweet meeting like this.
We did a small activity with them about being children of God as King and emphasized how precious they are and how they are all princesses. They got to put on necklaces and a crown and pose for a picture to put in a frame they were able to decorate. What creativity they had! Despite so much hardship, they are not stifled any longer. They are thriving in school, love to read, are making friends, share in chores, and seem to have a love of God that few I have encountered possess. I normally have a tender place in my heart for children of abuse, but meeting these children was somehow different. I could be simultaneously hurting for them and absolutely delighted at the future they may have. The healing and the hope. I needed to see this.
This is why I came.
PS This verse keeps coming up this week and all of the children at the children's home and at the rescue center know it and say it together: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
