I arrived in Kitale on Tuesday morning. Daniel was there at the airport in Eldoret to pick me up. We arrived in Kitale in the afternoon and headed straight to town to pick up a few things.
Since we were only in town for a few minutes, I only saw one street boy, Jeremiah. As soon as he saw me, he came running, “Mary, Mary!” I gave him a big hug. He started saying in Swahili, “You came back; you came back.” I said, “I told you I was coming back, didn’t I.” He then said in English, “its good, your word, you keep it.”
On Wednesday, I got to see Anne again, our social worker. We were so excited to see each other. She missed our girl time talks. J Daniel, Anne and I got to work, sorting out what had been done over the past 4 weeks that I was gone and what was to be done over the next 6 weeks that Daniel is gone.
We headed to town later in the day and thankfully, I got to see more of my street kids. I was just as excited as they were to see them as they were to see me. They all asked me how my family was in
The next few days, Daniel and I just hung out and went over all things that needed to be done. At
On Saturday afternoon, Anne and I went out to visit our kids at the children’s home, Hope Bright Future (HBF). The kids could hear us coming and before we saw them or they saw us, they started screaming and then they started to shout my name, “Mary! Mary!” As soon as they saw me, they came running for the car and as I got out, I had 20+ beautiful children surrounding me. If only my arms had been long enough, I would have hugged them all at once.
One of my little boys, Loya, clung to me. He asked me to pick him up and he just covered my cheeks in kisses. That was the first time he ever did that. I couldn’t get enough of hugging the children; they had never looked more beautiful to me then they did at that moment. I didn’t realize how much I missed them until that moment.
The home has four new children and I got to meet three of them on Saturday. There is Patrick (8) and Paul (6); they are brothers. They were a bit timid with me at first but once they saw me interacting with the other children, they were totally fine and came to me for hugs. Patrick didn’t realize at first that my Swahili wasn’t as good as his and tried to carry on a full conversation with me, spouting off a thousand Swahili words a minute to me and looking at me like I was understanding every word he said.
The other two new children are Veronica (8) and Martin (6). They are brother and sister and are siblings to Samuel Mwangi, one of our children already in HBF. I got to meet Martin but unfortunately Veronica wasn’t there at the time. Martin is 6 years old but he is about the height/weight of a 3 year old. He is just absolutely precious. Like Patrick and Paul, he was a bit scared at first with greeting me. So I got down on my knees, to try to get eye to eye level with him and called him over. I shook his hand and then opened up my arms a bit to see if he would reciprocate and he did!!! He immediately nuzzled in to my arms. I gave him a little kiss on the cheek and looked at him to see what his response was. He looked up at me and smiled so then I covered his face in tons of kisses and he giggled.
Anne was telling me that when she and Daniel took the new children to town to purchase clothes and shoes for them, they had told her that they had never been to town before. Anne also found out on that day that Patrick and Paul had never worn shoes before….EVER. Something we couldn’t even imagine in
Martin still needs to be sponsored, as well as 10 other children so if you would like to read a bit about Martin’s story or any of the other 10 children, please go to http://www.transformedinternational.org/sponsor.php
In other news:
My friends Bud and Kim from
They arrive in Kitale on Wednesday; I can’t wait to see them again. It’s been FOREVER.
Also, if you keep up to date on Daniel’s blogs, you will know that there was an agreement signed between the current president, Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader, Raila Odinga. This is an amazing thing that has happened; it is definitely a sign of peace and order for the country. In speaking to the Kenyan people over the past few days, they are so happy with the current event. They believe that life is going to get back to some type of normalcy. Some people have said that there is regret running among some Kenyans for what they did, what they are a part of and that they are starting to see what the consequences of their actions will be.
The country is realizing that the cost of many things has gone up and that they are starting to be told that there will be a lack of food in 2009. Because of so many displaced people in the country right now, people who still may fear to go back to their homes or may not have homes to go back to, these are people who will not be planting their farms this year in prep for food for next year and therefore, 2009 will see a shortage in food and unbelievable high prices in food that is available.
This is what the people are starting to see as a consequence to their actions. This year and next year are going to be incredibly difficult for the Kenyan family.
I just want to take a moment to THANK everyone for all of your support and encouragement while I was in
I realize that 4 weeks was not enough time so next year, I think I’m going to bump it up a few weeks. And I know that when I’m back in
Each and every one of you has been an amazing part of my life and I’m so glad that I get to share the journey that God has for me, with you. Again, thank you for your support, your encouragement, your prayers and your love. How I can repay you all, I truly don’t know. I love you all so very much, please know that.
Blessings,
Meredith
Patrick
Paul
Veronica
Martin
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