Thanksgiving for His blessings!

We visited a couple of families today after church. The poverty still shocks me when I see how people are living. One of our students, Evelyn, lives with her aunt and grandmother along with about five other children. Their story is a sad one, there are sad stories everywhere you turn. The grandmother’s brother-in-law died and left the children with her and her husband, and then her husband (the grandfather) died. So that left the grandmother taking care of all the children, along with Evelyn’s aunt who has two or three of her own children. The home is about 30’x6’ and that is divided into a sitting area and two bedrooms. I took this picture sitting at the wall across from them. They have a separate building that is about 10’x10’ for a kitchen and a latrine out behind the home. Grandmother was telling us how excited Evelyn has been the past couple of weeks with the new t-shirts, bible, shoes etc. It’s such a blessing to meet these parents, grandparents and guardians and see the effect on them and the children.

Then we visited Ta Te’ again. He wasn’t home but his mother was there so we were able to talk with her. She kept saying it was ok for Ta Te’ to come to the school and stay. She said she feels she has been granted two miracles, the first was her eldest son was sponsored at a secondary (high) school at the beginning of this term and now Ta Te’ is being sponsored this term. She was so happy and you could see she was on the verge of tears. Here is a photo of the complex where they live. Their home is the farthest doorway, and we found out that is used to be the toilet and the landlord turned it into a room to rent out. Rose, Ta Te’s mother, pays 250 Ksh per month (that’s about $4). Remember I told you that Ta Te’ had burned his clothes while cooking one night? The clothes are still outside and you can see what was burned.

This is Rose standing in the doorway of their room and the “kitchen” where they cook. You can see the door on the right of the picture and she had to move the stove from the doorway so we could get in. Rose agreed to have Ta Te’ come to the school and board but she wanted to wait until after the holiday so she could spend time with him. I wish I could have seen his face when she told him he would be coming to the school! We were the talk of the complex with the little kids because we handed out sweets and took pictures! The “muzungus” were very popular!

Do you remember the little girl at church who wet herself on me? I was finally able to get a picture of her today. She’s wearing the same dress although it is a bit cleaner today.

On the way home we stopped at a shop to buy some eggs. (That is the gift we take when we are visiting homes) In this part of town the little kids are all excited and eager to see what the “muzungus” are going to give them. While Chuck was in the shop these three little girls followed him in to make sure he wouldn’t forget to get them some sweets! The little boy behind him was the lookout for the other boys and as soon as Chuck told the shopkeeper to get sweets for the girls he signaled for the other boys to come running!

This was a cuter scene than the one we encountered at the Acacia Market, our local grocery store. While we were leaving a man came up to the window and started mumbling. Chuck asked Gideon to interpret but Gideon couldn’t understand him either so we started to back up to leave. All of a sudden the guy comes up to Chuck and bites his elbow! He didn’t break the skin but left a red mark. The security guard at the Acacia went after the guy, who had started to run, and kicked him in the behind to get him out of the parking lot. Afterwards we all had a laugh about Chuck being the “other white meat” here and the guy was just trying him out! He’s the only madman we’ve run into here so no worries! Sorry no picture because I was so shocked that he bit him I didn’t think of bringing my camera up and snapping a picture!

UPDATE! When we came into school Monday morning Ta Te’ and his mother were here waiting to talk with us. Rose said that Ta Te’ requested to come and stay at school now, not to wait until the 14th! He was excited to be at school since you’ve seen his home the dorm rooms are bigger because he will only be sleeping there – not cooking, cleaning, washing etc. in it. Plus he will have companionship while at school. Right now while the kids are on holiday we have Catherine and her son, Christopher (he’s like the schools accounts payable/receivable department – he collects the fees from the parents), Mutiya (the night watchman) and Ruth, who is a like a mother to the children who live here. He will be well taken care of here and won’t be on his own any longer. After he was settled in his room we asked him if he would like to get a book from our library. The first thing he said was “I would like an encyclopedia”! What 13 year old boy asks for an encyclopedia?! But he wanted the KSPE (I think that’s the acronym) which is the standard test study book for the exams he will be taking at the end of the year! When we walked into his room he was studying his science book – on holiday with no teachers to push him to study! And when we told him Ruth would be cooking for him this week over the holiday his first words were “God be blessed”. When we told him that Caffe (Catherine’s son) was excited about Ta Te’ being around he told us he looked forward to helping Caffe focus on his studies and helping him succeed! This kid is amazing and he told us that God is opening many doors for him and he plans on doing his very best to take advantage of the opportunity. I thank God for allowing me the privilege of seeing a boy of 13 living on his own coming into the school to be educated and loved. These are the children God has called us to help. I thank God for Gideon and the work he started so that Ta Te’s mother knew to come here for help. There are so many things and situations to be thankful for that I can’t begin to count the blessings. God is good all the time, all the time God is good because that is His nature – we say this in church and it is shown to me daily. Thank you for all your prayers and support, your reward is in Heaven and you will meet all those you have touched here in Tala, Kenya one day.