Today we went on a morning run, and gained a couple of running buddies. For the first part of our run, we ran down and back up the steep hill to the shamba. It was like doing suicide hill times three, plus high altitude. To add on a bit more, we ran down the road, and as we were about to turn back, we spotted a group of kids in the distance. They started yelling to us, and at first we thought it was the kids from the Malia Children’s Home walking to church. We stopped and waited for them to catch up to us, but as they got closer, we realized it was just a random group of kids. Since we were all going the same direction, we all started running together. Not the kind of running group that we ever expected to have, but a fun experience just the same.

The Watoto are Alright

Monday 8/23

On Sunday, instead of going to the church fundraiser with Mr. Nindi, we decided to stay home and spend the day with the kids(watoto). We’d planned on spending time with them on Friday and Saturday, but had forgotten that the Kenyan motto is “hakuna matata” (no worries), so you can never rely on sticking to a plan. On satuday, what we thought would be a quick trip into Machakos, an hour tops, turned into a whole day escapade which included selling milk, seeing the church, having tea with the pastor, and buying chakula ngombe (cow food), and to top it off, a drive all the way back to Machakos for dinner at the garden hotel. All throughout the day, the two of us and Mr. Nindi were squeezed into the front seat of his pick-up truck, stopping to pick up anyone who stuck up their thumb on the side of the road. So by Sunday we realized that if you leave, you never know when you’ll return. A smart move on our part, because Mr. Nindi left at 10 A.M. Sunday morning and didn’t return until 8 in the evening.

After breakfast, we joined Rosemary, the housemother (formerly employed at the Machakos rescue center, although before our time), Jacqueline, the teacher, and the 13 kids on a safari (journey) to a market 2 km down the road. Rosemary used her own money to buy all the kids biscuits and candy, something that we gather she does every Sunday. Over the course of the 2-hour walk, we got to know the kids very well. *side note: these kids are so tough! As six year olds, neither of us would have been able to walk for 2 hours with no complaints… but then again, we’ve never had the ability to sleep while we walk, like we spotted Elizabeth doing on the way home.

Elizabeth, 6 years old, and her brother, Dominik, 8 years old, are the most recent additions to the family, only two weeks old as Mrs. Nindi says. At first, we thought that Dominik was a very shy girl because of his feminine features and pink clothing. He never responded to our attempts to speak to him in Swahili, which we initially thought was due to our accents. However, it turns out that he and his sister Elizabeth only speak Kamba, the tribal language of Machakos. Maybe because she’s younger, Elizabeth is a lot more outgoing than Dominik. Elizabeth and Dominik are one of two sets of siblings at the children’s home.

A different Elizabeth (8 years old, according to the Nindi’s…11 years old according to her), Thomas (8), and Beatrice (6) all share the trait of being very mature which has earned Thomas the nickname “father Thomas” and for Beatrice, “sister Beatrice”. Beatrice is the least serious of the three, always shooting us silly looks, and showing off her four-toothed smile. At our first introduction with the kids, she said, “my name is Beatrice Nindi, and I am a girl”.

Then there’s Daniel (5)(pictured below), the mischievous, nicknamed “professor Daniel” because he arrived at the Malia Children’s Home wearing a full suit. And of course it’s his cousin, Faustina, who’s the other trouble-maker of the bunch. She’s only 3, yet many of her facial expressions remind us of a sassy old lady.

Shiko (formerly called Shiru Rahab) and Felistas came here from the rescue center. It’s amazing to see how much they’ve grown in a year. Mrs. Nindi told us that on their first night, Shiko came up to her and politely asked, “please, can we stay with you forever?” At the rescue center, Shiko was one of the youngest girls, who we could barely communicate with, and now she’s one of the oldest, most responsible, and brightest.

Charles (4) and Rachel (4) came here as siblings, but Mrs. Nindi and Rosemary have told us that they are obviously not related because of their difference in tribal features. Rachel is clearly Masai, and Charles a Kamba. Although they’re not related, they both share huge, beautiful smiles.

Naomi (6) and Angela (4) have been here the longest. They were the only two kids who were here when we visited last summer, and for that reason, the Nindi’s call them “the founders”.

Returning to the rescue center

Sunday, August 21st

On our second day here, we found out that a volunteer at the Nairobi Children’s Home had written an article in the Kenyan Saturday Nation, outing corruption and bad treatment that takes place in government-run children’s homes. The article sparked a lot of controversy, and now all of the managers and children’s officials are being investigated. However, as a result of the article, the Kenyan government is now very distrustful of foreign volunteers. Luckily, we have some great friends in Kenya with some very helpful connections. Again, Lucy came to our rescue. Through her non-profit, Goodwill Women’s Organization, we will still be able to create a library at the rescue center. Two Kenyan girls who volunteer for Lucy will now come with us to the rescue center to help out with the project. The best part of this is that even after we have left, they will continue the project, which will primarily consist of reading to the girls once the library is completed.

On Friday, we finally visited the rescue center. With each familiar landmark we saw as we pulled up to the rescue center, we felt butterflies in our stomachs. We didn’t know whether all the girls would remember us after a whole year of being apart, but as we walked through the compound, even the youngest girls who had always just called us “mzungu” were shouting our names. There’s no words to describe how happy we felt when we finally saw Catherine, Nancy, Lucy, and Wendy (just to name a few) after a whole year. Yet it was so disappointing to find that, besides the length of their hair (they all have braids and cornrows now, because the “shaving machine” is broken), and the number of girls (there is a whopping 95 now), nothing has changed in the past year. Although we were so overjoyed to see them all again, we couldn’t help feeling bad that they were all still there. We’d expected many of the girls from last summer to be gone by now, either reunited with their families, or at boarding school through sponsorship. Unfortunately all but the three that we are sponsoring are still there. In the midst of such a joyful reunion, we couldn’t help feeling a little helpless to the fact that there are now 95 girls stuck there, with very little hope of a way out. We only hope that the library will provide a distraction and a way to take their education and future into their own hands.

If you’re interested, here’s a link to the article that was in the Kenyan Saturday Nation:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201107180284.html

Nyumbani tamu “Home Sweet Home”

Saturday, August 20th

It was dark out when we flew into Kenya on Wednesday. Our good friend, Lucy, had arranged to pick us up from the airport, but having not spoken with her for a few days, we were worried while walking into the greeting area that no one would be there to pick us up. Instead we found not only Lucy, but her daughter, son, and two other cousins grinning at us. On our drive from Nairobi to Machakos, Christine (another friend) surprised us by meeting us on the side of the road. Since we couldn’t “see Kenya” because it was already dark, it was seeing all of our old friends that made our return feel real. Lucy and her family took us straight to the Malia Children’s Home, where we’ll be staying for at least the next three weeks. We enjoyed our first Kenyan meal of the trip, complete with rice, stew, Muthakoi, and chai…everything was just as delicious as we had remembered.

In the past three days, the Nindi’s (the retired Kenyan couple who started the Malia Children’s Home) have kept us very busy. They have taken in thirteen orphaned children, ages 3-8, and spend a great amount of their time and energy making sure that the kids are happy and educated. Today we walked down to the shamba (garden) with the kids and their teacher, Jacqueline, and spent an hour playing in the dirt. We’re very focused on learning Swahili, and between the help of the Nindis, Jacqueline, and the kids especially, we can communicate better in Swahili after only three days than we could after six weeks last summer.

Last year, we roughed it like the girls at the rescue center, and were able to literally experience the living situation of these girls. This year, we’ve been living a very different type of lifestyle. Living with Mr. and Mrs. Nindi is more like a homestay, and at first, we missed our rugged life at the rescue center. However, every day we spend here we find ourselves enjoying it more and more because of the warm and loving family feeling. The Nindi’s call us and treat us like their daughters, and even have told us to call them babu and susu (grandpa and grandma). There is never a lonely moment here, and we often spend three hours talking to Mrs. Nindi about the history of the home and the children who live here. It’s so apparent how much the Nindi’s genuinely care about their children. After seeing how cruelly the manager of the rescue center treated the girls, we’re given new hope and happiness when we feel how much love there is at the Malia Children’s Home.

more coming soon

we're at an internet cafe right now with Vivian, who we just picked up in Machakos. We haven't been able to get internet at the Nindi's yet, but we have already written three blogs! So get ready...much more to come ASAP!

The books are shipped!

Thanks to everyone who donated books, money, and other materials, we ended up shipping fifty heavy boxes (close to 2,500 books) this morning through Bruning International shipping company. Although the shipment finally went smoothly, we had a few road blocks along the way. We spent a grueling seven hours sorting and packing all the books into 25 medium sized boxes, only to later find that the boxes were way to heavy to lift and were breaking at the seams. Luckily we were able to reschedule the pick-up date with Bruning International, and repack all the books into smaller boxes. Thanks to the expertise and generosity of Randy and Catherine at the Yiddish Book Center, we successfully loaded the books onto pallets.

This project, which we thought of last summer as a great but far-off dream has now become a reality, thanks to those who ontributed books, money, and services to our cause. We'd especially like to thank Ani Rivera, for providing his time, professional assistance, and gallery space to help us put up an exhibit of the photographs taken by the girls at the Machakos rescue center. The funds we raised through the exhibit and the newspaper articles resulting made it possible for us to collect and ship fifty boxes of books to Kenya.















With Catherine, Randy, and the half of the books packed onto one of the pallets.