From the top of the world

I’ve been a very lazy blogger lately. Not because I haven’t had much to write but because I’ve been too busy to. In the last three weeks I’ve gone from roasting a goat with the Emmanuel boyz on the Ngong hills to coming within two meets of lions in Samburu. My dad (both he and my mom visited Kenya) taught the boys how to repair bicycles and encouraged me up to the summit of Mount Kenya. I tucked an orphaned elephant into bed and celebrated when the first student from Emmanuel Center went to his first day of university. Together with my parents, we spent a lovely three days at the Kenyan coast, and then said a tearfully goodbye to the children at Emmanuel Center. Now I’m sitting in my parents’ house in lovely Squamish B.C. and beginning to prepare for the next great adventure…..
In the meantime instead of writing a very long story I’ve got some photos – a sort of summary of my last three weeks in Kenya – to share. Here is the web album!
Thanks for reading, thanks for caring and thanks for keeping in touch. Please continue to check in as I head off to Bradford and an academic adventure in Peace Studies.

Book Nerds in the Making

As many of you know I’m a book nerd of the first degree. What many don’t know is that I wrote a children’s story about the boys at Emmanuel Center and submitted it to the Canadian Writer’s Union Writing for Children’s Contest. The story is about two Kenyan brothers who are both in desperate need of a home, which they find at a special center for street children. This little story was selected from 925 submissions as one of 12 finalists (though it wasn’t the over all winner). The prize for being a finalist is that your story is sent to three publishing houses – so now I’m praying that my story gets published so that children all over the world (or at least Canada) can read about Emmanuel Center.

Now on to other story books – last week we got a shipment from Afretech worth it’s wait in gold - 50 boxes of books! Afretech is a registered charity that supports education programs in Africa. Afretech not only makes it possible for North Americans to donate to Emmanuel Center, it has also sent computers in the past, and has now equipped the center with a full library.
The books are ideal for the Emmanuel students. There are atlases and dictionaries, which our teachers drooled over. We filled shelves with young adult novels and reference books. The English and Math text books, including teacher’s resource guides, will greatly improved the tuition and in house education at the center.
As I unpacked the boxes, crudely organizing the books by fiction, non-fiction, reference, or text book, (we need a librarian volunteer to catalogue them) the boys gathered around with eyes wide. I doubt they had ever seen so many books before. Their schools are completely devoid of book shelves, and a class of 70 students often shares less than five text books.
So it isn’t surprising that the students honour books as prized possessions to be kept somewhere safe, but not necessarily read. In fact I had to argue with staff and some boys at the center to be able to put the books out on shelves were they could be accessed and read – they wanted to lock them in a cupboard were they would be safe. Over the last few days some boys have taken books to school, to show off, but few have read any. There simply isn’t that culture here of picking up a book and reading it. However, I expect that to change. School holidays start this week and our teachers and volunteers will be sure to use the library to engage the students. If all goes well by the end of the month all the Emmanuel students will be book nerds just like me!

Family Ties

Recently, David (one of the children at Emmanuel Center) has been talking a lot about his family. Some of it is obviously purely fiction… stories he wishes were true. For example he insists his father is the Director of another children’s home – “just like Daniel” he tells me. The truth is that David’s father has been out of the picture since he was a toddler. David was brought to the center by his mother and a priest. The priest had found him begging on the streets, looked for the mother and found her in Nairobi’s slums, suffering from AIDS related illnesses. It was obvious that David’s mother loved him very much. She was distressed to leave him at Emmanuel center, but bravely admitted she could not care for him and begged us to help him (actually we had no room for him but couldn’t refuse her so convinced the priest to buy him a bed and squeezed him in). The priest said he had taken David’s two younger brothers to a special home for HIV positive children.
That was three years ago. A year ago both his mother and youngest brother passed away. We never heard about the other brother until this week when David said he wanted to visit him at a home for HIV+ children. So on Saturday visited the home and asked for Jackson. The kind Matron, with a wonderfully wrinkled face from smiling for sixty-odd years, looked through her files but could find no record of Jackson. David’s face fell, though he manly (he is 12 years old) blinked back tears. “Are you sure?” We asked and looked at all the photos of all the children incase he had given a different name, but with no luck. My heart shrunk – an orphaned HIV positive child doesn’t have much of a chance anywhere but in a special home. I feared he was dead and was terrified that David maybe thinking the same thing. Then someone mentioned the name of another home that cares for HIV positive children, so we took a deep breath and tried again.
The equally wrinkly and kindly nun that received us was ecstatic – “Jackson’s brother! I didn’t know he had a brother.” We were just as ecstatic to see the small shy boy enter the room, eyes wide and staring. He didn’t know he had a brother either. Jackson and David had been separated when Jackson was just three years old and he didn’t remember any of his family.
The little boy was overwhelmed but us visitors, who kept asking him questions … How old was he, did he go to school, what class was he in…. Seeing he was beyond words I suggested we walk around the compound. When we stood up David, who was grinning, took his younger brother’s hand and my heart began to skip with joy. After our walk we left them alone. Through the window I could hear David softly explaining to Jackson about his family and I saw Jackson beginning to smile. The nun returned and told Jackson, “Isn’t this nice you have a big brother - someone to help take care of you.” And David’s chest puffed up and out.
I hoped finding the brother would help David give up his fantasy about his father (and sometimes Aunts and Uncles too), but as we drove past another children’s home he told me, “That’s where my dad works. He’s the Director. Just like Daniel.”
I didn’t tell him he was wrong – that I knew the director was a very nice lady - I’ll leave that to the professional councilors. Instead I said, “Your little brother is sure lucky to have you for a big brother.” David smiled and said, “I know.”