home visits

4/23/07 - late morning, early afternoon

The first family we visited was the home of the sponsored child of Mike Pierson's teenage daughter Jackie -- we found them to be a very nice family, and relatively well off, as the area goes. They had an approximately 5 acre "shamba" (not sure if this spelling is correct) which is a subsistence farm where they grow maize, beans, sweet potatoes, cowpeas, pumpkin, papayas, bananas, mangoes and oranges and have chickens, a couple of cows and a few goats. The uncle of the girl proudly showed me around when I told him about my interest in plants and animals and he commented that they were needing rain quite urgently. Later, after the presentation of the food gifts and prayers, I reflected that we had been praying for NO RAIN, selfishly, when they were in desperate need of the rain. There is no irrigation here, as we do in California when it doesn't rain. If it doesn't rain, there is no water. I felt shamed, as we all did, and we started praying for rain for them -- it rained Tuesday night and they said we brought the rain with us...

The next home was the home of Joel, the sponsored child of Jackie and Shawn Grignon. They discovered that there was another child in the home who was not sponsored and they immediately decided to add him to their "family." The parents of these children died, then their grandparents died (very old) and the children were on the street for a period of time. The aunt went looking for them, found them and brought them home with her so they would not suffer on the street. There was quite a large extended family with several houses in the compound including another sister and her daughter. The girl, Anastasia, came up to me, and after I had greeted her with "Huacha" and she said "Ahh" she started to talk to me about the fact that her mother had lost her job (she was obviously ill, very thin -- see the picture) and that she could not go to high school since they did not have the fees. She asked me to find her a sponsor -- she was obviously very bright, she said her goal was to be a neurosurgeon! Her English was exceptionally good for her age (about 14) when most of the kids are writing and reading English, but not speaking it very well yet. I told her that I could not make any promises, but I would do my best.

As some of you know, I took a fairly large sum of donated cash with me to meet any pressing need that I found. Here was a need, but it was barely the first day, so I tucked it away, wrote down her name and sent it to God, and asked for more guidance. I was pretty sure that what I was supposed to do with the money would become clear by the end of the week.

The last house we visited was the home of Mary and Neva, and two other siblings who are sponsored by Debbie Dowding and her husband. You might remember Debbie as the team member who scooped up her little girl off the stage and danced around with her the night before. Now we had a chance to meet the mother and see her home. It was modest but very clean --her husband died of AIDS two years previously, leaving her with three children and a small farm. She struggles along. Ellen knows her well, she goes to her husband's church (Abraham Waila Wambua, Ellen's husband, is a pastor). Mary sometimes comes home late from church and is afraid to cook for her children out in the small outbuilding where she has her charcoal stove because of bandits who frequent the road nearby. It is not safe. We decided to buy her a small parafin (kerosene) stove, that would be safe to use in the house, so she can warm up food and make tea and porridge for the children inside. She is a very sweet lady. We found out later in the week that the children are HIV negative and that they are going to ask her to test, herself. Medicine is available, but she needs to test.

During our bouncy trips between houses, Ellen has given me much information regarding the state of the AIDS epidemic in Kenya and the challenges that are being met. The infection rate has stabilized at about 6%, down from 13% (the other 7% have died) and is not increasing, due to a great deal of education and publicity. Medication is free, and things are getting better, but they are still having a hard time convincing people to test. 300 people a day are still dying, but this is down from a much higher level. She said that poor single women often prostitute themselves to earn money to care for their families and end up infected. This is a huge problem in the Kibera slum in Nairobi.

It's easy to forget why these children are in this state, with their beautiful sweet faces. Behind each face is a story of terrible loss.