Foster Group

On Thursday morning, we had our Foster Group arrive, a team of 6 people from Canada, to our home. They will be staying with us for one week. They are such a great group of people to have here. All except one is retired now and it’s so awesome to see how young at heart they are, how adventurous they are. They are traveling to three different cities in Kenya and sharing their resources and fundraising in those areas. They have been an awesome group to spend time with, full of stories and laughter.

On Thursday afternoon, we took the Foster Group (the leader of the group has the last name of Foster) to our usual street kid feeding program. They were amazed by the street kids and even more amazed by the relationship that we have with them (Yes D, you know me well!). At one point, Eric and Oscar (running the program that day) asked Daniel to come up and introduce the new people there. Between Daniel and Sandy (the leader of group), they were all introduced. Then they asked me to stand and introduce the rest of the white people there (like our interns) and so I went around and introduced Jared, Amanda, Kate, Eva and Caleb. Then I pointed to Daniel and in Swahili, asked who he was. The kids all screamed “DANIEL!” Then I pointed to me and asked who I was, “MARY!” Yeah, it was pretty cool!

Later, we were walking home and Daniel asked me if I heard what some of the kids shouted when I asked who I was. I said I heard Mary. Daniel said that there were some kids there who shouted out another name for me, in Swahili. And the translation was, “Mama Street Kids.”

When Daniel told me that, tears welled up in my eyes. Mama Street Kids, wow! I was completely touched by that. How awesome is this relationship that we have built with the street kids? These kids just blow me away; I LOVE them.

There were 8 street girls at the feeding program too. And we were so excited to see them, especially the new girls that we had never met before. My sweet Rose was there and we sat together, arms around each other, the whole time. There was also a mom there with her baby.

I had a drunken older street boy next to me for awhile who liked to get right up against my cheek and ear and talk to me and of course, breathe on me. A few times, his hand moved closer to an upper place that it didn’t need to go. Thankfully, I know when it’s okay to punch a guy and not get hurt by it, so I punched him…not hard but to let him know he wasn’t allowed to do what he wanted to do. : ) Rose and two new street girls went off on him in Swahili for getting too close to me but he was too high or drunk to reason with. Within a minute, Daniel was there and removed him.

The Foster group was blown away by the street kids. They really enjoyed getting to meet them and seeing how we spend our Thursdays.

On Friday, Eva, Caleb, Amanda, Kate, Jared, Daniel and I left early in the morning to spend a day in Eldoret. On Fridays, there is this HUGE market, called the West Market that goes for about 2kms and you can get some really decent new or second-hand clothes. I’ve gotten a few second-hand skirts there for about $3 each.

We went to town to catch a Peugeot (it’s a seven passenger taxi that goes direct from Kitale to Eldoret to Kitale) and because there was seven of us, we filled up the taxi right away and were ready to go. To take a Peugeot, it costs 180 shillings per person so 180 shillings times seven people is 1,260 shillings. However, the guy that collects the money wanted 1,400 shillings from us (total). We asked why the increase and he said because of gas; we said that if we were all seven different people, including Kenyans, it would only be 1,260 shillings, right? Why are they trying to charge us an extra 140 shillings? It wasn’t much of an argument so we only paid 1,260 and we were off.

We arrived at the West Market and it was already busy. We were also buying clothes for some of the kids in our program so we were excited to be shopping for them. Thankfully, there were no hard times in the market; no one harassed us or tried to pick-pocket us. We managed to buy tons of clothes for the kids that we know they will love.

We later went in to town and went for lunch, visited our friend Robert (the craftsman), did a bit of grocery shopping and then headed to the stage (huge parking lot with all the public transport vehicles) to catch another Peugeot home. Wow, this was a pain in the butt. Apparently, there was a shortage of vehicles and therefore, the stage was PACKED with people and all fighting to get on the matatus (14 passenger vans) as they pulled up. We went to the Kitale Peugeot area and voila there was an empty one. So we all got in and the guy collecting the money says, “Two hundred shillings each. Its 1,400 total.” We were like, “Not again!” But this guy would not budge. We told him it was only 180 shillings but he wouldn’t have it. Daniel argued with him and then the guy told us that if we weren’t going to pay the 200 shillings to get out of the car. I noticed the driver of the vehicle right away as I’ve taken him many times before to and from Eldoret. I went over and said in Swahili, “You know me. Don’t cheat us.” He said that yes he knew me but it was rush hour and he wanted 200 shillings. After a few more minutes of talking with him (he wouldn’t have to sit and wait for the car to fill up, there were seven of us already there, ready to go), I told him that I was disappointed and that I would not ride with him again, if this is how he is going to cheat me and my friends. As I started to walk away, he said it was okay, he would take us to Kitale at 180 shillings. But at that point, it was too late. We didn’t want to use him anymore; so we decided to take a matatu instead.

Well that was a hassle too. Ugh, so many people, so not a lot of vehicles. After an hour and half of waiting, Daniel found a matatu at another stage in town that was saving us seven seats for 150 shillings each. So he ran back and got us and we all had to run to the other stage, across the main road at rush hour (yeah….lots of cars and trucks and crazy drivers) but we got there. The matatu waited for us, we got on and were finally headed home, all tired from the day in the sun.

Saturday was spent getting the bags of maize (corn) and beans separated and labeled for the food distribution on Tuesday (23rd). With the funds raised by the Foster Group here, we are able to feed over 100 families on Tuesday, completely desperate families in the poorest parts in this area. The food they are being given is going to last them a few months. It was a hot day but we all managed to have a great time and us young people were really able to bond with the older crowd of the Foster Group. It’s amazing to be brought together with the older generation, to hear their stories and for them to give us wisdom and encouragement in a different and refreshing way.

I don’t have much to say now. Tomorrow is the food distribution day and it’s going to be crazy busy so I’m going to call it in now. Oh yeah, the media may be there tomorrow to do a story on us; either paper or television – don’t know which one. Hopefully it works out to be a good media event and not a bad one. : )

Please pray for Amanda and her family. Amanda found out today, via email, that her grandmother has passed away. Understandably so, this has hit her really hard, especially with being here in Kenya. I just ask you all to please keep her in your prayers.

Prayer Requests:
1. Amanda and her family at the loss of her grandmother.
2. Food distribution tomorrow – that all goes smoothly with no problems.
3. Foster Group – as they wrap up their time with us on Thursday and head to Nairobi.

Love you all!
Meredith
xoxoxo