After over a year of no blogs, I (Sean) feel that it is time to start again. I have had one that is rolling over in my mind for quite a while now. This particular blog is not about that one. It will have to come later down the road. This one is about the glimmers of hope that I have seen while interacting with different people around Kitale.
About a month or two ago, I was approached by a street boy named Joseph. I had just passed a group of boys all greeting me, and some of them asking me to buy them bread, or to give them a few shillings. As usual, I greeted them, and said no to the ones who asked for food or money. Joseph came right up to me and asked me to help him. I said that I didn't have money for food for him, but he said that wasn't what he wanted. He showed me his hand and said that he needed medicine to treat it. I looked and saw that his right hand was indeed swollen. I thought about it for a second and told Joseph to wait for me while I finished the tasks that I had gone to town to do.
When I met him a few minutes later, I asked Joseph what had happened. He told me that the night before he was chased my a security guard, because he was sleeping somewhere he shouldn't have been. During the chase he fell and hurt his hand. My first thought was that medicine wasn't going to fix the problem. I might be going with this kid to the hospital to fix a broken hand. How much more would that cost me?
We went to a near by pharmacy and I had Joseph explain to the man behind the counter what was wrong. The pharmacist explained to me what medicines he was recommending, and explained to Joseph, how to apply the ointment and how often to take the pain killers. The total bill came to about 150 shillings (about $2 CAD). I handed the package to Joseph and explained to him that this was for him and the treatment of his hand only. He was not to sell any of it for glue or anything else. I told him that if I discovered that he sold what I bought him, that neither Meredith or I would buy him anything ever again. He promised me that he wouldn't, thanked me and left the pharmacy.
Over the next few days, any time that I was in town, Joseph would come up to me and show me his hand. I would ask him how he was doing and he would respond that things were going well. In a matter of days, Joseph was pleased to announce to me (and show me) that his hand was better. The swelling was gone and there was no more pain. He continued to thank me and every time he sees me in town, he makes a point of greeting me. He always has a big smile on his face.
Last weekend, a few of us from the community (Kenyans, and North Americans) met with a few of the community elders and the community chief for our area. This was a meeting to discuss the security issues that have come up recently. The chief wanted to let us know that in the past year since he became chief, he had started some new security measures in the community. He told us that he had some armed guards that were patrolling the streets while we slept. He gave us all his personal number to call him any time, day or night, if there was anything that we needed to call him about. He opened the floor for questions and addressed each one. About the only downfall to the meeting was that he answered his phone and left the room, on more than one occasion, while people were asking their questions or voicing their concerns.
The chief told us that we needed to be diligent when hiring people to work on our compound. We needed to do background checks, ask people who are looking for jobs a bit about their history. He told us that he was pushing the town council to improve our roads to make them drivable, and even to put new tarmac down (something that has not been done since the 60's). It is the chief's desire to make the Mili Mani community of Kitale what the Mili Mani communities of the rest of the country are.
When the meeting was over, we as a community agreed that issues of security are everyone's concern and we would do what we could to improve things. I believe that for the most part, people were feeling better about things in Mili Mani.
Every once and a while we get glimmers of hope that life can be better for the people of Kenya. It is people like Joseph showing responsibility and gratefulness when someone helps him out. It is people like Chief Sylvester standing above corruption and doing his part to protect the people he has sworn to serve. Here's hoping that something more comes from these stories and that more and more people take responsibility for the life that they live.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Veronica, Teams & Life
On July 14th, it marked the first year anniversary of Veronica’s death. It showed me how quickly time has gone by. I knew exactly what I was doing that day; I knew exactly how I felt throughout the day, leading up to hearing about Veronica passing away and how I felt as I heard the news.
I stared at a picture of Veronica and me quite a few times throughout the day. Sean and I shared a few stories of Veronica with Nicole. I would tear up and cry a bit but I thanked God for the time that we were able to have Veronica in our lives. It was short, but boy, it was so sweet!
Teams
Sandy’s team, Hope 2 Kenya, left Kitale on Sunday. What an awesome group they were. Our ten days with them were packed with stuff to do but as always, we had such a great time with them. Here are some pictures from the food distribution we did with them.
We handed out food to over 300 widows and grandmothers caring for children. This is over 40,000 pounds of food. It’s always great to be a part of the food distributions with Hope 2 Kenya.
The New York team that is here to build a children’s home for a friend of ours, is doing a great job. We’re on our last week with Team 2; they leave on Saturday while Team 3 arrives on Saturday. These guys are working twelve hour days six days a week. I’m totally impressed with them.
Life
As some of you may have seen through Facebook, Sean and I are slowly making the house we moved into in May, a home. We still have a few things that we’d like to do but we know that it can’t all be done overnight. Here is a little sample of our home.
Before
After 
Before
After
For those of you who don’t know how to cook or really don’t like to cook, you should come to Kenya. J There is no frozen dinner section at the grocery store; there are no canned dinners (unless you just want canned corn and peas!); there are no ready cleaned, peeled and cut potatoes for mashed potato night. Everything here is pretty much made fresh.
Since moving to Kenya and especially since getting married, I have enjoyed the life of fresh food meals and not so much of the frozen or processed way of life back home (okay, except for the odd box of Macaroni & Cheese!).
I have found the World Wide Web to be wonderful in finding recipes to help ensure that my family and friends have full bellies when I cook and not just full bellies but happy bellies. A friend of mine, Jane, told me how to make sour cream because it’s rare to find sour cream here and if you do find it, it tastes kind of funny. So yesterday, I tried it and it worked! Fresh sour cream and it tastes amazing. Baked potatoes with sour cream and chives anyone!!! And to be honest, it’s not much work to make it; I don’t slave over the kitchen all day making it. It’s an overnight/day thing and it’s done. J
I really like this “Betty Crocker” thing. I love experimenting...Sean hasn’t died yet so I think my experiments with cooking are doing all right!
Sean and I are doing great. Next month will be a year and a half of married life and I wouldn’t change a minute of it. Being with him shows me that he was definitely worth the wait of all these years. For those with inquiring minds, yes, children are in the future but for now we are enjoying time with each other and when we know it’s God’s time for children, we’ll be all for it. J
In Him,
Meredith
Monday, July 5, 2010
Milka & Sabina
Our social worker, Anne, came to the staff meeting this morning, telling us of a woman that we needed to meet. This woman’s mother belongs to a friend of ours widow project in a little village called Maili Saba (Mile-ee Sa-ba). Anne was doing assessments on the widows in that area for a food distribution that we’ll be doing next week and this is where Anne met this particular woman.
The woman, the daughter, Milka, showed up to our meeting. She was dressed up for it and I could tell she was nervous about speaking to us.
Anne asked Milka to share the story of her mother, the grandmother to the children. The grandmother’s name is Sabina.
Milka said that her mother, who is seventy years old, is taking care of her grandchildren because her three sons and one daughter died of AIDs. Milka is the only remaining child for Sabina.
Sabina is thankfully living on two points of an acre of her own land and has a house that she and her grandchildren live in. Milka said that her brothers had been very hardworking men when they were alive and that they had built another home on the property as well. The children that Sabina is raising range from age seventeen years old to six months old, totalling about 18 grandchildren. This one seventy year old grandmother is raising her 18 grandchildren because all but one of her children has died of AIDs.
There is a nine year old and the six month old grandchildren that have been confirmed to be HIV+. When their father found out that he was HIV+, he went and got his children tested for it as well. The remaining grandchildren have not been tested but Milka and Sabina feel that about six to eight of the other ones are HIV+ as well.
Milka said that what they needed was 1) to be able to have all the children tested for HIV and 2) to help feed this family. She is a nurse and whenever she can find a contract job, she takes it, just so she can assist her mother and her nieces and nephews. Milka has a family of her own and yet she doesn’t want to see her extended family suffer.
As Milka spoke of her siblings who had passed away; as she spoke about her grandmother and nieces and nephews, tears would well up in her eyes. There came a point when I couldn’t look at her anymore; the tears were welling up in my eyes too. I turned away in time to have them fall down my cheeks.
And when I heard of one of the children being six months old and HIV+, I immediately looked at Sean. Could we take the baby for a little while and get him/her the proper care, nutrition, medicine that he/she needed to survive these fragile next few months? Could we take him/her PLEASE?!?!?!? We have the extra room! We’re ready for this! All these questions, hopes, possibilities kept running through my head. I want so badly, from the moment I heard about this little one, to do it.
My heart ached for Milka. I saw a strong woman, doing what she could for her mother but I also saw defeat and sadness in her eyes.
We’ll be going out there in a few weeks to assess the home and the children to see what can be done. I’ll keep you posted.
In Him,
Meredith
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Independence Day & the New York Team
Today was the USA’s Independence Day. Our friend’s, The Cooksey’s (missionary friends of ours) had a 4th of July BBQ at their place. There was so much food but it was definitely good times all around.
Thankfully, they started the BBQ early because at around 1:30, after we had lunch and dessert, it started to rain, a hard solid rain. But good times continued indoors.
In other news, our first team from New York is doing really well. They are working hard to get their part of the work done on the structures for the new home. The team has been working 12 hour days; however, they managed to have a rest on Saturday when some of the team went and saw different parts of the area. Today, they went and visited the current home of the children that they are building their new place for.
On Tuesday, I leave for Nairobi to pick up my good friend, Nicole Jeffs, who will be staying with us for about five weeks. I’m super excited to see her. Nicole and I will be travelling back to Kitale on Wednesday so I ask for your prayers regarding Nicole’s travels to Kenya, mine to Nairobi and both of us back to Kitale.
On Thursday, we have a team from Canada coming to stay for ten activity packed days. Our friend Sandy, who comes every year and stays at TI, is bringing a team of nine and this is the first time that the team is full of young people. In the past, Sandy has brought an older group but this year, she wanted to bring people who may catch her vision of the things she does here in Kenya. We’re excited for her team’s time here.
On Saturday, we say goodbye to the first New York team and hello to the second New York team, all within a few hours time span. So, this weekend will be incredibly busy.
Please keep us, the TI team, in your prayers. Starting Thursday, the next ten days (with Sandy’s team) will be extremely busy. We ask for prayer for energy, health and time. Thank you so much!
Please pray for Sean; he has a sinus infection. Tomorrow, he’ll be going to the pharmacy to get medication so hopefully we can get that cleared up soon. Again, thank you!
In Him,
Meredith
Friday, July 2, 2010
Neema & Shimo Girls
I have a bi-weekly bible study with our Neema and Shimo girls. For those of you who don’t know who these two groups of girls are, here’s a brief summary.
The Neema Girls are from our ex-street/at risk girls' home that we have had for just over two years now. There are six girls currently living in our home; they are: Lilian, Sharon, Olivia, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Metrine. They live with a house mother and in the mornings from Monday to Friday, they have a teacher come in and teach them classes. In the afternoons, we have a seamstress who teaches them tailoring. This will assist the girls in having a trade for when it is time for them to leave the home. We have the land purchased and are beginning the blue prints for the expansion of this project to ensure that we can assist more girls.
The Shimo girls are from the slum just a few minutes from our home; the slum is called Shimo. The slum is known for drunkenness, prostitution and young women pregnancies. These girls have been with TI for almost one year now. One of our interns from 2009 started making cards with these girls in order to provide the girls with extra money and a trade so that they could support their little children back at home (the oldest of these girls is 18 years old and she has a six year old son). Sewing machines were bought for the girls last year and they are now coming to TI twice a week and being taught by our seamstress (the same one who teaches our Neema girls) to sew. This will help the girls earn a trade, start a business and begin to build their self-esteem on being able to raise their children on their own. The girls are: Caroline, Maureen, Caroline and Marysellah.
Today, during our time together, I asked the girls what their favourite bible verses were. Here they are for you to read and enjoy, especially for those of you that know the girls.
Rebecca: 2 Corinthians 5:17
Lillian: Proverbs 15:9
Metrine: Luke 6:37
Olivia: John 15:14
Caroline: John 3:1-6
Sharon: John 3:16
Marysellah: Ephesians 6:1-2
Caroline: Proverbs 6:16-19
Elizabeth: Matthew 6:14
Maureen: John 15:16-22
I also asked the girls what they would like to learn in our bi-weekly bible studies. These were their answers:
1. Moses
2. Abraham & Isaac
3. Ananias & Sapphira
4. Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego
5. Abraham’s Life
6. Suffering & Crucifixion of Jesus
7. Esther
8. Naomi
9. Judas
10. Judas’ replacement, Matthias
11. How can we forgive our enemies
12. Jesus’ love for us
I have my work cut out for me over the next few months but I’m really excited to be doing this with these two groups of girls.
If anyone knows of websites or has materials that could assist me in any way, please let me know.
In Him,
Meredith
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