Pizza and planes in Nairobi

Last weekend we took our older kiddos to Nairobi for the weekend to broaden their view of their lovely country and encourage them to dream big.  And also just to have a great time :)  It was wonderful and exhausting, and I will say it again-I DON'T KNOW HOW TEACHERS DO IT.  If your child has ever gone on any kind of a field trip or excursion, you need to write their teacher a thank you note right now. 

The weekend was full of a lot of firsts, the most significant probably being their first time on an airplane.  They were delighted.  When we reached cruising altitude and all you could see below us were clouds that appeared to be unmoving, James asked why-with a note of alarm in his voice-we had stopped moving and how long we could hang in the air like that before we started to fall.  We explained how different things look when you are so far above them, and we were still actually moving very fast even though it looked like we weren't.  I've never thought about it before, but he was right- it looked like we were simply hovering in the air.

I found myself having to explain things I've never had to explain before, like how an elevator works, what a breakfast buffet is, and what wifi is.  Carol had never been to a pool before, and insisted on swimming in the outdoor pool the first evening we were in our hotel, despite the fact the rest of us were in long pants and sweatshirts.

We went to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, which was Eddah's favorite, and the giraffe center, where we all got licked in the face by big purple tongues.  We spent an afternoon at the Nairobi National Museum, and lastly, visited the campus of Nairobi University.  We talked about how the different schools work within the university, and want living on campus is like.  They all now plan to go there :)  Since Nairobi literally has everything, we took the kids to Pizza Hut for lunch.  The were all big fans, except Eddah, who said she still preferred ugali.

Huge thanks to Ray, Dana, Lynet, and especially Natalie, for helping me plan and pull this fun but slightly hectic weekend off.  I think it was a success :)

Jessie

Paperwork and Panties

Time is flying by here as usual and I can't believe Natalie  (my little sis) is already here.   We have been keeping very busy, and Nat has jumped into our work and handled jetlag with the utmost grace :)

We have been visited several new schools and enrolled them in the pad project.  Natalie is a teacher by day, and was a natural in front of a jam-packed classroom, despite the fact that we were discussing a generally embarrassing subject while trying to bridge the ever-present cultural gaps.  The teachers and the girls were so appreciative of the pads and our program, and once again I am so thankful we are able to do this work.   Thanks to our wonderful donors we were also able to distribute lots of pairs of underwear to the  girls as well.  Obviously the pads become significantly less useful if you don't have any undies, and once we become aware of this problem we have been bringing over as many pairs as we can.
 

(Natalie in the middle of the welcoming committee at Ratta Primary School where we went to deliver pads :)

This was not in my plan for my last few weeks here, but we have spent the good part of last week working on the registration paperwork for a CBO (community based organization).  Although we are a registered non-profit organization in the US, we needed an official registration over here.  And silly me thought it would be a few forms to fill out and we'd be done..........as the process stretched on and on and we began to need things like a constitution,  behavioral plan, by-laws, etc.-I started to have panicky flashbacks of the IRS paperwork I had to do for our non-profit that took 3 months to finish.  Much to my delight, since Natalie has spent the lasr 3 yrs helping to start a charter school, she knew exactly what needed to be done and whizzed through the tasks I found daunting.  As always, God has provided us with just the help we need, just when we need it.

Jessie

Surprises and Sunday Dresses

Janet

Janet is now officially ours and I can't believe the resiliency of that little soul.  We went to pick her up last week.  She was ready to go and dressed in her best Sunday dress.  We spent some time sitting in the dimly lit living room with her family and neighbors.  They all wanted to express their gratitude for Janet's chance a brighter future.  Her grandmother seemed the most relieved by Janet's good fortune, and I have a feeling she loves Janet the most.  Her grandfather and uncle will be coming to Jemo House this week to see where she lives and where they can visit her. As I sat in this dingy room, filled with this small community, and what felt like support, I wondered why Janet was pulling at our hands and so ready to leave with us.  I know not everyone there was delighted that she was leaving though, especially since she was doing a lot of work for them.  More work than any child should have to do.

Janet (purple dress) and her cousins and neighbor kids

Janet's grandmother, Jacky, Janet, Me and Praxcedes (our social worker)

After we had shaken each hand several times, taken photos for their family, and been given countless blessings, we finally set off down the road to Janet's new home.  She was running and jumping and skipping in from of us, and chattering non-stop.  I cannot wait to see how she fits in with our family.  Naomi has been the only little girl in the house for quite some time.  Janet, I have a feeling, is going to shake thing up a bit.  The house-moms and I have already talked about this, and plan to do our best to make it a smooth-as-possible transition.  

Getting a new child is like opening a package that you have no idea what's inside.  I love the surprises.  I have never seen a child so fiercely delighted with life.   She loves her new uniform.  She can hardly stand the fact that she can't go to school for another week because the term exams are still finishing.  She's always smiling.  She doesn't just get up to play, she skips and hops all the way to the door to go outside and play.  She makes Jacky laugh all the time, those your-laugh-makes-me-want-to-laugh-too kind of laughs.

We are very blessed to have this sweet girl.

Jessie

Unconditionally Prepared

I am writing these next few post retrospectively because, as time has a way of doing, it slipped away from me like a tomato slice on a wet countertop.

Catherine washing out little dresses, since anything from the market always comes home dusty :)

My laundry helpers
 

We have spent several weeks getting ready for the arrival of Janet. We started before Catherine left and are still at it. "Getting ready" consists of getting her all the clothes she will need, shoes, bedding, school supplies, etc.  It's working with a social worker to get her papers in order.  More importantly in our house though, it is making room for a new little person, and new soul and personality in our house. The other kids are helping me becuase that's what good kids do, and I am trying to raise up some good children, but I also want them to understand the process. Even though they were unaware at the time, I want them to understand they were all prepared for. They were all loved before they came to us. Unconditional love is something that can be hard for the brightest of minds to wrap around, but if I can help it-my children will recognize it.

As we wait for sweet Janet, the children have not been idle.  Their favorite game at the moment is "classroom".  Much to my delight, the front lawn of the Rotary House is still their favorite place to play.  I like to sit out on the porch and watch them.  It's takes a little time, for them to forget you're there and to go back to playing like no one's watching, but when they do, it's magical.  It's a rare glimpse into the private make-believe world of children.  What a lovely escape it is for them.  How sad that most adults usually lose that place.  Thankfully I was raised by whimsical, creative, and forever-young parents, so I will never know such loss :)

Classroom in session

Jessie

Finding land and floor paint

Catherine is back in the US now, and Paul is out traveling the world, so I'll be flying solo for a little while. My first doctor arrives from Tenneesee in two weeks, and after that my good friend, Ray, arrives. So excited to show them my home :)

Catherine and Paul on our sunrise hike

In the meantime I am struggling with the decision of our future housing. Our current place is rapidly getting too small for us, and where to go next is the question. There are other, larger homes that we could rent, but renting is not a good investment, and we usually end up putting a lot into our homes, like water tanks, gutter, plumbing, etc. that we can't take with us if we go. Owning our own home seems like the smartest choice and best investment, it's just a matter of finding land, a builder, cost considerations, and things like that. You really can't buy an existing home here, as nice as that would be-you have to build it. I have hatched a plan that is think is brilliant and will work perfectly if I can get everyone on board. I am currently working on a proposal for the Anglican bishop to convince him to sell me a small corner of the hospital land. That way I can build on it instead of leasing and our investments are secure. We would still be within hospital compound, so we would maintain this wonderful community of friends and neighborhood kids that we are a part of now, and we would the added security of staying within the gates. The HIV clinic is a 2 min walk away, which is also important, and school is 2 minutes the other way. Now it's just the matter of convincing the Bishop.........if you're the praying kind that is my request, prayers that my meeting with the Bishop goes well and he is willing to start negotiations.

As I am anxiously waiting all these decisions to finalize, I have used the time to get my guest house put together before the doctors come. It's been painted inside and out, roof repaired, ceiling replaced, showers fixed, and rewiring done. We paint the floors a dark red here because that's the color of the dirt, and it protects the cement floors. For being a relatively smart girl, I can be a nitwit sometimes, and after an hour of jamming out to Tay Swift and painting the floor in the first room I realized why you never ever start at the doorway and end in the far corner............this is where the term "you've painted yourself into a corner" comes from. And its oil paint, so dashing through it and washing your feet is not as easy as it sounds. Thankfully there were two sets of bunks still in the room, so with a little luck and my acrobatic skills I was able to land on dry ground and went back for my shoes the next day. Now that I am a seasoned floor painter things are going much more smoothly. When I was painting the walkways through the house I had to follow an intricate pattern of hopping around to the dry spots for a few days-good thing I was the only one here. It was less fun at 3 am when you have to go to the bathroom, but generally speaking I find this kind of work fun and satisfying. I also hired two workmen who have been coming everyday this week and last, and I haven't stopped coming up with jobs for them yet :).

James hard at work

I have also employed my older boys so they can make a little spending money, and learn how to paint. Much to the disappointment of the little ones, I had to forbid their helping hands from trying to help after Naomi took a baseball style slide across the porch floor and ruined her new dress. They are now quarantined to the front yard to play until painting is done.

Jessie

 

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"Can I go with you now?"

Our team did a home visit a few days ago to see Janet, a little girl who was referred to us because she is an orphan and her home situation was not good. I am ashamed to say that I seriously considering canceling our appointment with the community health worker and returning to her in a few months or so when we have our living situation sorted and we would be more "ready" to take another child. Thankfully I didn't have the social worker's number to cancel, and once again I was blindsided by a little blessing.

The hike into Janet's home

We got the the area of town where she stays and ended up walking around for about an hour until we found the family home. I blame it on the poorly labeled dirt paths :). We all sat in their hot, dark living room and explained to her grandparents and aunt and uncle about our organization and offered the option of a full time place in our home or a sponsorship so she can remain with the family. By the looks of the home they were not able to care for her there either way, but we wanted to give them the option. None of them spoke English, but you could see the grandmother visibly perk up when we talked about bringing Janet to stay with us. She said something about her being cared for and getting a good education. At this point the aunt and uncle got up and walked out of the living room. I thought they just needed to get back to their work outside, but it turns out they were using Janet as a house servant and didn't want her to go with us. Well. That made me mad. Her grandmother seemed to be interested in her well being and there was another aunt who, at the very least, didn't support the child labor situation, so at least she has someone on her side.

Janet's corner :(

As we were heading to school to meet Janet, I asked if I could see where she slept. I think you can tell a lot about how a child is cared for based on where they rest. They pointed to the living room corner behind me where there was a handful of reeds. She spreads them flat and puts her bedding on top of them. I prayed her bedding wasn't the dirty rags by the side of the house that I passed on the way in, but is was.

Janet went to the nearest public school ( it took us 30 min to walk there) because they let you enroll and go to class up until the final exams if you can't pay school fees. It looks like she has repeated class 1 (first grade) around 3 times. As we walked I started to worry-what if she wants to stay with her grandparents? What if she's scared of us? It seemed pretty clear to me they were unable and possibly unwilling to care for her, but that doesn't mean she wants to leave.

I was told she was 12 yrs old, but I take that with a grain of salt since births aren't often recorded or remembered, especially for orphans. I was still surprised when the teacher led out a little girl who looked no bigger than 6, with the spindly legs and protruding belly of chronic malnutrition. But I was delighted to see she also had the twinkly eyes and easy smile of a child who hasn't given up yet. We told her who we were and a little bit of why we were there. I gave her some Mandazi that she ate with lightning speed, all while taking out her workbooks and showing us her school performance, pointing out her high scores. I think she was trying to convince us she was a good investment. Oh that made my heart ache. She held Jackys hand the whole time, and when we were standing to go she said, "Can I go with you now?". We were still at the school. She didn't even want to go back home once more, get anything, or say goodbye to anyone. Again-heartache. We promised we'd be back for her soon, and I was tempted to break my new rule-that they must come with birth certificates-but I didn't. It's so hard for us to get them when we aren't family, and it's not a smart thing for our organization to have undocumented children.

Janet showing us her schoolwork

The social worker slipped the money we gave her into Janet's school bag and told her not to tell anyone she had it until she got home and gave it to the grandmother. She had heard from neighbors that the grandfather is "not good" and he doesn't feed the grandmother or Janet, which is why she goes house to house scrapping pots. I hope it got to her.

As we walked down the hill from the school to reach the main road, Janet was walking in front of us and swinging her little arms and singing to herself. What an resilient and unscarred little soul she seems to have. I can't wait to get to know her. As we walked away, Jacky, Judy, Catherine and I exchanged looks that didn't really have words to fit, but all meant the same thing: from now on that girl is ours.

We hope to get her next week sometime. Her bed is ready, her pile of new little clothes is waiting. If you come away from this post feeling sad or guilty for having a soft bed and people who love you, then I didn't do a good job writing it because that was not my intention. Starting in a few days Janet will be safe, well fed, loved and educated. She will have a bright future, and will get to reclaim a little of the childhood that was lost. I simply wanted you all to know where she was coming from, and why we do this work. If you have ever supported us, or prayed for us, or traveled to Kenya with us, or driven us to the airport before a trip, or picked up our mail while we were gone-then you played a part in saving Janet, because we could not do any of this without the army of support that is behind us. So thanks :)

Jessie

 

 

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Madaraka Day/ Excursion- Kisumu style

Happy Madaraka Day (celebration of Kenya gaining self-rule)! The day ended up being a big day for the kids!!!

We decided to take advantage of the children having the day off from school. The older kids now have Saturday school, which limits the time we get to spend together as a group. The children were all in desperate need of new school shoes so we decided to load everyone up and make the 40 minute drive to Kisumu (the closest city-- and the third-largest in all of Kenya). It's tough to take a trip with 11 children (we added a friend of one of the kids to the ranks) and 5 adults in one vehicle, so we utilized the hospital ambulance! The children all laughed when the back door opened and they realized it was a "true" ambulance!

Selah and Zed holding hands

 

The children had a blast looking out the window as we headed down to Kisumu! They all would start screaming whenever they saw something they wanted others to see! Needless to say the ride was a loud one but it was a lot of fun.

Jess and Eddah

When we made it to Kisumu we headed to the shoe store to get everyone new school shoes and slippers (sandals). I'm sure the store employees were a little apprehensive about the 11 excited kids in their store-- but they've never met these awesome children!!! It was a realitively ordered process of getting everyone their school shoes plus new slippers! A special shout-out to Sam Russomagno for buying shoes for three of the kids!

We decided to let the children pick what we should have for lunch (samaki-- fish or kuku-- chicken). It was a unanimous decision to go for Kuku and chips! Everyone loved their chicken, chips and a soda! Their eyes got so big when they saw the amount of chicken and French fries but these children know how to eat so nothing went to waste :)

On the ride back from Kisumu, we decided to stop by the Kisumu airport to try to watch a plane landing or taking off. For most of the kids, it would have been their first time getting to see a plane in action. We'd checked the schedules and our timing was right-on. But after unsuccessfully waiting for an hour in the sun, we had wilting children who were ready to go home. Multiple children fell asleep on the ride home including Naomi who drooled all over me multiple times (she would wake up, wipe it off and then fall back to sleep), Selah fell asleep sitting upright and then Arnold fell asleep in Daniel's lap but somehow ended up sleeping on my feet for the last bit of the ride... Not surprisingly it was a much quieter ride home than there.

The children all got new backpacks, filled with special things both for school and also for play!! We would like to thank all those that donated both the backpacks and also the goodies inside. The kids had no idea they were getting new backpacks, so they were all very excited when they saw their very own backpacks next to the new shoes they'd picked out earlier. A special thank you to Fran and Tim Buckley, Daria and Dennis Shumaker, the Russell Family, Sean Whitman, and Debbie and Tommy Whitman. Passing out the new backpacks was a little hectic so we missed a lot of pictures but here is a preview of some of the children with the backpacks and some things inside! More to come!!! :)

An exhausting day for children and adults all around but an extremely fun day full of exciting, new things!

Catherine

 

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Dreams and Rough Drafts

I am happy to report we made it to Kenya with only a few catastrophes. It's good to be in the motherland again. Thanks to the TSA drama in the US, my flight was significantly delayed so I missed my other two international flights. While that is less than ideal, I was mostly worried about Cat and Paul getting to Nairobi and not finding me there. Thanks to the delightful folks at Canada Air, I was on another plane within two hours and I still got there before them. My luggage did not have such luck though, and I was a grunge muffin for a few 4 days until it arrived. Thankfully Catherine is Miss Prepared-For-Everything, so I didn't suffer too badly :)

Jessie and Catherine

In other news, We are delighted to officially welcome Catherine Shumaker to our ranks! She will be serving as a project manager for Too Little Children. This is her second time to Kenya, and she maneuvers it like a seasoned pro. She has her work cut out for her as she is currently revamping some of our bookkeeping structures and organizational systems, neither of which are my forte. Bless her. She also plays a mean game of futbol, and I anticipate skills are already in high demand on the makeshift soccer field in front of our house.

I'm sure these are painful to look at if you have an architectural eye, but these are the rough drafts of our dream home :)

We jumped right into work since arriving and have some exciting changes on the horizon. We will quickly be outgrowing our current property, so we are house hunting at the moment. We have several great options, so we are currently mulling it over and making our pros and cons list. I feel like I'm on Fixer Upper, without the visionary advice of Chip and Joanna Gaines. They both need some work and have required all my imagination capacity. Thankfully, I have an wild eye for potential and a blatant disregard for the obstacles that most reasonable people see, so I am banking on this and a really good fundi (carpenter) will be enough to make my vision of a children's paradise come true. We also have the option of building a new house just the way we want it. It would be harder and more expensive, so naturally I am leaning that way. I feel like I am back in that 6th grade perspective drawing class as we are trying to make a blueprint for our dream house that is somewhat to scale and accurate. It's a difficult decision though, and I am thankful to have Catherine here to be the voice of reason.

The kids and I in their favorite spot-the front porch

Arnold and Cat

 

Catherine and Paul at the equator

Next week we are going to do a home visit and assessment for a new little girl who may need to come stay with us. Her name is Janet, and as taking on a new child is always a huge commitment, prayers that we make the right decision would be appreciated :)

Jessie

 

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