shopping in Machakos

4/26/07 - morning

Can you imagine taking 20 kids clothes shopping with only 6 adults to supervise in the United States and a $15 limit each? That is a recipe for chaos and disaster. We did it in Masii in less than three hours without losing a single kid, and everyone was happy.

Thursday morning, we rounded up all the Pathway church-sponsored kids plus the kids who were sponsored by individual Pathway members who were part of the team, took a group picture, then loaded up BOTH vans with kids and as many adults as we could spare, and off we went to Machakos. This in itself was an event, as many of the children had never even been to Machakos, which is about 40 minutes away. They were all delighted with the trip, and behaved very well on the bus -- I don't know what Paul said to them, but everybody was just happy to be going ANYWHERE! The fact that there was a shopping trip at the end was a bonus. The children each had KSH 1000 (Kenya shillings) to spend. Paul told them that this was for clothing, anything they wanted, but that they had to stay within their budget. When we got there, we each took charge of several children, with the older kids helping out. Lazarus, Mutie and Ruth Ndolo are all about 17-19 yrs old and responsible and very helpful. We started with the younger kids and worked up to the older ones. Each child had a shopping basket. Some of the kids ended up with several items of clothing, a shirt, a pair of pants, socks or a skirt and blouse. Two of the older boys had their hearts set on what Janice lovingly called "pimp shoes" -- very shiny pointed toes with a squared off toe. We laughed at them a little, but they were so pleased with themselves, it was hard to tease them too much. The next day was the final program and everyone dressed up, including Paul, and I noticed that he had the same style of shoe. I guess it is popular in their locality. They cost KSH 995. That was all they got, but it didn't matter a bit. They were stylin'!

Annah and her friend bought matching denim skirts and a blouse each. A few of the kids were doing the math on their hands, and we had a hard time convincing them that it was ok to go a "little bit" over (up to 50 shillings), if it was something they really wanted. One little girl bought a very pretty satin dress for church and dress up. At first she didn't know if it was ok, but I asked her if she liked it and she nodded and her eyes glowed, so we said, you can have it. Ruth and I spent about 10 minutes trying to find her a pair of shoes for school -- she is attending catering school and wanted to look nice. She enjoyed talking to me and later took my arm and said that I "was a very nice lady" to help her shop. I think the older girls especially miss having their mothers around to do such things. I know they sure enjoyed just being with us, especially the women. We talked all the way back to Machakos, and she asked me to write to her.

Our group is not particularly young -- most of us in our 40s and 50's, one 38 yr old and one 73 yr old. It was nice to be in a place where we were valued for our years and experience and our grey hair was honored rather than something to be dyed away.

I was continually amazed at the sweetness of these children. So many of them have an underlying sadness that is easy to understand but very little self pity. They depend on God, and each other.