Kind Moments

Over the weekend we had some very special guests here at Nyumbani. There was a volunteer here in 2002, a young American nurse named Mia. A few days before she was supposed to go home she got malaria. The medicine she took interacted with medicine she was already on and she had a cardiac reaction and died. This past weekend her mom and dad, sister, brother, sister in law and aunt came to visit. They were seeing Nyumbani for the first time, where she lived, the children she cared for, the hospital she was taken to and where she died. They met Protus, who called them at 2 in the morning with the awful news. It was my job to welcome them here and start the visit. It was actually a tearful healing weekend for them, they loved it here and could see why she did. So many of the children remembered her, and shared their memories. We had a very special Sunday Mass where everyone prayed together and felt her spirit here. Sunday night they took all the volunteers and senior staff out to dinner. They left Monday morning more whole they said than when they arrived.
Sunday afternoon I spent with Warren, the former PEPFAR staff from Kericho. He is 32, arrived 5 years ago as a Peace Corp volunteer and is now a well respected member of the international aid force here. He is now with CDC and is in Karen taking a course on international diplomacy and emergency humanitarian relief. (I want to take that course!) Anyway, we have become great friends and he has been a tremendous resource for me. We matatued to the Sunday outdoor Masai market so I could finish up some shopping. He is fluent in Swahili. While we were walking to the market we were approached by 2 young street boys. There are many begging street children by there and it's always so difficult. If you give money to one you are quickly overwhelmed by many. Then there's the questions about whether you should even give money, or should you give food? (I will be relieved to be where just going to the store doesn't involve an ethical dilemma.) Most people, including me,just don't make eye contact and walk on by. It was so touching to watch how Warren dealt with them. They were fitlhy dirty, looked about 8-10 and were brothers. They had walked all the way from Kibera, many miles. He drew them aside, put his arm around them,talked softly to them in Swahili. He told them to watch for us to come out of the market. When we did he again spent time talking to them, and arranged for them to meet us after we had lunch. We went across the street and ate, then he called them over to the parking lot, out of sight of everyone on the street. Again, he spent time talking to them, his arms around them drawing them close. You could see them respond to the attention, to being treated like human children. He then handed them a bag of food he had bought for them and told them to go home and eat it, so they wouldn't have to share it with the other street kids, they could share it with the rest of their family. As we walked back to Ngong Rd to get the matatu they walked ahead of us, their arms around each other.
One thing I have seen here is that the children take care of each other, better than their families or the world take care of them. 5 days to go
Stay safe Officer Tim xoxoxo Little Boy