Friday Fun...Kenya Update

Yesterday some of us went to Western Kenya to pay school fees at three schools. As we were driving, I looked out the window and was captured once again by the beauty of this country, the rolling hills of different shades of green; the banana trees with big beautiful leaves like a palm tree, children playing in their yard. By the looks of it you wouldn’t even think the country had been at war for the past 3 weeks.

As we were driving by these areas, the song From a Distance by Bette Midler came to my head. It’s an 80’s song (or perhaps an early 90s song) but they’ve been playing it a lot on the radio here in Kenya due to the unrest in the country. Some of the lyrics are as follows:

From a distance, there is harmony and it echoes through the land.
It’s the voice of hope; it’s the voice of peace; it’s the voice of every man.
From a distance we all have enough and no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs and no disease
No hungry mouths to feed.
From a distance you look like my friend, even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
What all this fighting is for.

This fighting among the tribes has caused so much damage in relationships. Husbands are leaving their wives because they are from conflicting tribes. There was one man who was Kikuyu and he left his Kalenjin wife after 27 years of marriage – because of these current problems. A friend of mine in Kitale has ended it with his girlfriend because she is of a different tribe; he said that it would cause many problems for him if he were to stay with her.

Things have started to calm down now and once things get back to a “normal” way again, what is going to happen to the people remaining? Will the husband go back to his wife? Will the boyfriend try to win back his girlfriend? Will the youth that killed the father of his friend because he was of a different tribe be forgiven? The anger, the hatred of today will have heavy consequences tomorrow. There is going to be so much guilt and hurt and the people who did so much harm won’t be able to go back and fix it. They won’t be able to bring back the people they killed, they slaughtered because of moments of anger and hatred.

It was in the paper this morning that the opposition party will stop all rallies from now on. Rather than rallying, they will be telling the public to boycott certain businesses. I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. Perhaps people will start to get bored of all the fighting; they will get frustrated and decide to go back to their normal lives (as normal as it can be). We can only continue to pray.

So the schools we visited yesterday were amazing. The first school was for deaf children. We spent tons of time with the children there. The organization Grassroots Canada sponsors some children there and our organization, Transformed International, assists them in their two projects here in Kenya as we are on the ground. We went to pay the school fees of about 15 students at this first school called St. Anthony’s. It’s absolutely beautiful there; probably the best school I have ever seen in Kenya.

It was hard communicating with the children since my sign language sucks; I haven’t used the little that I learned in over 15 years. I can pretty much sign my name and that’s it. The children would sign their names for us but Amanda asked them (as she knows a bit of sign language) if they had name signs. It’s a gesture that is given for each child; rather than spelling out their whole name, each letter. So the kids started showing us their name signs and I caught on quickly so I could call over a child by using their name sign. The kids also gave each of us our own name sign as well. I had such a good time with them.

It was amazing to see these children in this environment. Some of the kids (3 of them) we had never seen in their school environment before; we had only seen them at the home they live in. It was difficult for them; they were the odd ones out, living in a home where everyone spoke and could hear. But here, we were the odd ones out; these kids were full of joy and in their element and can communicate with everyone. We on the other hand, had a hard time communicating but the kids were patient with us, showed us some hand signs, and used charades to get what they were saying across. It was one of the most fun times I had in a long time.

There were moments when I walked away from the children, on the verge of tears. I ached for them, they will never hear their own joyous laughter; they will never hear a song; they will never hear the words I love you. Some people see them as imperfect, burdens, sick, broken, but these children displayed more joy, more peace, more laughter then most of us, who are “perfect”, do. They all accept each other no matter what; they love each other no matter what; they help each other no matter what. We can learn so much from these children; they’re the ones who have it together.

The second place we went to was a school for mentally and physically disabled children. Grassroots Canada has two children there. We met a little boy named Samuel who has Down syndrome, probably one of the cutest and funniest boys I have ever met. He was being enrolled in to the school so it was his first day to see the place. He immediately fit in; the other children talking to him but also letting him do his own thing. Once he realized that he was going to stay there, he went and grabbed his belongings and brought them to the main office. One of his items was this metal box (most boarding students use these boxes to hold and lock their belongings in) that was almost as big as him. He wrapped his arms around it and attempted to carry it across the front yard of the school all by himself. Daniel went over to help him but Samuel insisted he could do it by himself….he insisted by turning away from Daniel and shaking his head no profusely. So Daniel backed away until Samuel dropped the box, Samuel then looked at Daniel with his beautiful puppy dog eyes. Daniel carried the box with Samuel to the main office.

We also have a little girl there named Emma; she’s just a beautiful little girl. Amanda and I immediately went looking for her and when we turned the corner and saw her standing in a play area with two other girls, we immediately shouted her name. She turned to see us and gave us the BIGGEST smile ever. We ran over to her and hugged her. I then noticed this other little girl standing in the middle of the yard; she was looking at Amanda and me playing and talking to Emma. I went over to her and saw that the name Elizabeth was sewn to her dress. So I bent down to get eye level with her and asked her in Swahili if she was Elizabeth. She looked at me with these big beautiful brown eyes and smiled. I told her that I was Mary Elizabeth (my middle name) and she started to laugh and bounce up and down. I hugged her and she clung to me, craving that physical touch.

After visiting with Emma and getting Samuel settled and both of their school fees paid for, we headed off to our third and last destination. It was an all girl’s deaf school that Grassroots sponsors one girl. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see this girl because she hadn’t shown up for school yet. Just like all schools in Kenya right now, many student and teachers haven’t reported to school due to recent events. Although schools do have some students, they aren’t really teaching as there are still so many absent students; they don’t want the students, when and if they do arrive to be far behind in class. I think they will give it another week or two.

On the way back to Kitale, we saw about 3 peaceful rallies (just hundreds of people standing around while someone spoke through a microphone or loudspeaker) burned down homes, and burned vehicles. The reality of the riots still very visible. It made my heart sank, so many lives changed forever over something they had no control of in the first place.

Today, I spent my last day with our kids out at the children’s home. All the children were sad that I was leaving but I promised them that I would be back; I would see them in about 5 weeks. I told them, “Kenya ni nyumbani yangu. Na rudi.” which means “Kenya is my home. I’m coming back.”

I know my blogs/emails are long but I just have so much to say at times. I want you, back in North America, to get a picture of what we see here, what life is like here. And I can only do that in words and photos.

I’ll be in Canada in ONE WEEK…that’s SEVEN DAYS!!!! I can’t wait to see some of you.

Love you always,
Meredith
xoxoxoxo