Friday, August 04, 2006
First Day with the HCC Orphans
Zablon and H.C.C. teaching staff
We finally arrived yesterday in Malindi after many, many, many hours of traveling (about 36 to Nairobi, then overnight in Nairobi and then another several hours to Malindi the next day.) We were tired but happy to be here and anxious to connect with Rev. Zablon and the children. Yesterday we napped a bit in the heat and humidity, then last night after dinner we finally met up on the road with Zablon and his headmaster, Mr. Lawrence and the HCC secretary, Sophie. We talked a long time into the night about Zablon's goals and vision for the HCC and our own plans while we are here. It is really good to finally have a face-to-face conversation and get to know each other better. There have been some very difficult times this past year at the HCC, and clearly all of the challenges of running such a big orphanage weigh heavily on Zablon.
Our luggage went missing in all these travels (five planes) and I am concerned that Emirates Airlines will get us our luggage before the end of our stay here. In my luggage are the cards, the soccer balls from Nike, paint and school materials and medicines for the children. My friends, Jim Watson and Miles Tuttle are wonderful people, very kind and very committed to the Happy Children's Centre and they also lost their luggage. They have nothing to wear other than the clothes they wore on the journey here as all of their clothes are in their checked baggage, but we aren't daunted by this challenge. We have faith the luggage will show up soon and it will all work out.
Today was the first day that we actually spent with the children. We took two tuk-tuks to the building site with Zablon, Mr. Lawrence and Sophie and we were greeted with wonderful enthusiasm and excitement by the children! They have been expecting us anxiously for a couple of days and Zablon said they could hardly sleep because they were wondering when we would come. I brought a small video camera and Miles is our camera man. He filmed the children greeting us, singing for us and joyfully shaking our hands and shouting "Jambo!" They had made a big heart out of bougainvillea flowers and inside were written the words, "We love America! Karibu to Kenya! (Welcome to Kenya)". I was deeply touched by the gesture and the beauty of what they had made. Also were welcome signs saying "We love Mama Kirsten" and "We love Brother Jim".
We spent time with each of the primary classes--there are three levels of kindergarten classes, and also first level (Class 1), second level (Class2) and third level (Class 3) primary school clases. We recorded "class photos" and who the teacher is for each class, as well as who the youngest child and oldest child is for each class. The age spands are huge...15 year olds and 7 year olds in the same class, for example. We then started the hard work of interviewing each of the children with their teacher. Jim, Miles and I all split up and took photos of each child and a case history (as best as we could) on each one. We asked the children about their interests, friends and siblings but asked the hard questions about their family history (when and how their parents died) of the teachers. I also asked the children about their health and asked the teachers about their mental health. It was clearly difficult for my teacher (Margaret) to talk about the sad things in the children's lives, I think. She teaches Class 2 and is a young and lovely woman. The histories were somewhat abbreviated, but at least we have more information for a data base and this is a good start. We interviewed a total of 29 children today, so clearly we have our work cut out for us! There seem to be health issues with most of the children, particularly issues of "malaria" (the label "malaria" is applied to a number of ailments not just to a diagnosed case of malaria) and skin wounds. Many of the children I interviewed have been to the hospital or doctor within the past month. One of the children I interviewed was Cline Thoya, the painter of the "Rainbow House" that so many of you have loved.
The building project itself has a way to go before it can be totally usable. Right now it is being used as classrooms for the three primary school classes and I think some of the kindergarten classes. The baby kindergarten class is being taught at Zablon's church. They are sleeping at their residence home in Malindi, and it is a long walk to their school each day. (It was a long torturous tuk-tuk ride up to the project site today, too!!) The building sits up on a kind of hill made of coral and it is a rough road that brings us there, but the good news is that it is cooler and breezier up on this hill, so it is a nice location in many ways.
The toilets need quite a bit of work to be functional. Workers were there while we visited today, so I was able to have a conversation with them about how much more it would take to complete them. I was told by one construction worker it would cost 350,000 kshillings to complete the toilets, but I haven't confirmed that with Zablon. I think that is about $5,000, which seems like a fortune. Actually, Jim just sent Zablon $2,000, but it isn't clear to me that all of that money will go towards paying for the toilets, although this is a clear priority. Part of the issue with the toilets is that they are digging in coral stone and it is very hard to create the septic system in such stone. Another issue is water, and while there is water available at a neighbor's well, it is brackish and not suitable for drinking. This and other issues make the building project clearly a bigger one than I think I fully grasped last year. The floors still need concrete and right now are rough coral stones, some large, some small. There is no furniture to speak of and the kids are getting injured on the coral stones and the occasional nail or board from trying to play around an active construction site.
I think there is an issue with the daily operational expenses for the orphanage and we began talking with Zablon and the others about their ideas to make the orphanage sustainable. Zablon is clearly aware that relying on foreign help has its pitfalls and wants the HCC to be self-sufficient. Zablon talked about raising chickens, cows and vegetables, but without good water, this may be somewhat difficult. I don't think Zablon realizes that chickens, cows and vegetables can't take brackish water either. So another priority will be getting good water piped in. Jim hopes that our interviews will help start a child sponsorship program through his church which will give the orphanage a revenue stream. The children do need more food, according to Zablon, and sometimes have been eating only one or two meals a day.
Despite all of the above challenges, the children and the staff were extremely hospitable to us and we were served a cocnut milk fish stew and ugali (corn paste-mush that is a staple of the Kenyan diet) lunch. I ate a bit gingerly since I'm not a fan of ugali or fish and I am squeamish about eating out of a bucket that has been who-knows-where. But Jim and Miles ate like they were right in the comfort of their own homes in Colorado, and hopefully made up for my lack of an appetite.
Tomorrow we'll do some more interviews with orphans and hope to cover more children than today, as today we got a late start. On Sunday Jim is supposed to preach and there is to be a big neighborhood party, and people will be coming from as far away as Mombassa! It all seems a bit much for just the three of us, but hospitality is a big part of Kenyan culture. It was a wonderful and special day, and I feel very full...full of the children's affection and full of the total magic of all of this we have been gifted to do. It may not be perfect, but each of us is playing a part to make these children have a home and a future and we have felt a lot of Divine support in this work.
Tuk-tuk driver Solomon got us where we needed to go and was always very punctual!
# posted by Kirsten's Updates about the H.C.C. in Kenya @ 7:14 AM 
