the Other Stories

He was wearing a jersey from my high school basketball team. I was shocked by the word ‘Sounders’ written across his chest in bright blue. I felt like two realities had collided. I thought of some happy peer of mine in the past, putting on the jersey before a game in a well lit gym, wearing Nike running shoes and going home to a loving family, and I looked at the dirty, barefoot, high, 14 year old boy now wearing the jersey in front of me….. the contrast was too extreme.
Mwengie, the street boy wearing the jersey, was given it by a visitor from my home town. That was when Mwengie was living at Emmanuel Center, free of drugs, eating three meals a day and going to school. Now he rarely eats, he sleeps on the streets, and he sniffs glue to forget the constant fear of violence and abuse. So what went wrong?
Sigh….. I don’t know. I like to tell people stories of Emmanuel children excelling in school, going on to further training, helping each other and so on. But there are other stories too. Not every child is able to quit drugs or adapt to a life of rules. It is a miracle that so many do when you compare addiction recovery rates at Emmanuel Center (over 75%) to North American drug rehabilitation centers (for many 50% is successful). But statistics don’t make a difference to the individual, and the fact is Mwengi is on the streets and addicted, instead of being safe and healthy at Emmanuel Center.
Mwengi ran away from Emmanuel Center after an argument with a teacher at his school. He never told the center staff about the argument, he just ran. His behavior is not uncommon. I’m not a child psychologist, but what I guess is that on the streets children learn to run from any conflict at a very early age – it is the only conflict resolution skill they have. So Mwengi ran, started sniffing glue again to forget his suffering and is now begging outside a shopping mall in a basketball jersey from my high school. Daniel will speak to him and see if he is able to return to Emmanuel Center. I’ll let you know if he does. If he doesn’t, try not to be disappointed. Daniel tells me when can’t help them all, that they have to chose to be helped themselves; to change their behavior. I try to gain this perspective. To just think of the 40 boys going to school, working hard and playing football as I type this, but I’ts hard. It’s very very hard.