If you’ve ever wondered what the most dangerous situation we’ve faced while traveling, the answer is easy – anything to do with roads. Driving on or simply walking across a road is quite often a life-threatening situation. Our five-hour drive from Arusha, Tanzania to Nairobi, Kenya was no exception. Passing on the wrong side of the road on a blind corner near the top of a hill at 60 miles an hour does not seem to worry drivers in Kenya or most African countries for that matter. When we miraculously arrived in Nairobi in one piece we met Gershon and Gladys Mwiti. Both Gershon and Gladys hold PhDs from Fuller Seminary. Gershon has a PhD in leadership and Gladys has a PhD in psychology. Gladys started Oasis Africa in Nairobi which has many programs, including counselor training (especially for post-traumatic stress due to violence and death) and low-cost or free schools for children who otherwise couldn’t afford it.
We were able to partner with Oasis for a week at a small school near Meru. At first glance Meru appears as a beautiful and peaceful farming community near the foot of Mount Kenya. But this region faces many serious issues. Like most countries in Africa, AIDs is a big problem. There are many AIDs orphans and people very sick with AIDs. Many women get pregnant who are unable to care for a baby so they may leave the baby to die in a dump or ask a stranger on a bus to hold their baby for a second and then disappear.
This is the Nteere family who hosted us during our stay. Gerald, Rose, Emily, Hilda and Dennis were so warm and welcoming that we immediately felt at home. We feel like we have an African mama and a second family now. We joined Monica Munger, from Oakland, CA who arrived for a 3-month stay several weeks before us. (Monica is the daughter of former MPPC pastor Bob Munger.) We were so blessed to spend a week with the Nteere family and Monica, though we are still trying to lose the five pounds we gained from Mama Rose and Emily’s cooking. Mama Rose is a big believer in drinking at least six cups of tea a day and serving each person enough food to feed three people at every meal. Like most women in Africa, Mama Rose has several jobs. She is a teacher at a primary school, women’s leader at church, on the board of several committees, and homemaker (with no washing machines, dishwashers, or refrigerators… food has to be bought daily and prepared from scratch). Monica gave Rose the nickname "woman who never sits down" which describes her perfectly.
This is the five faculty and 106 students at the school where we volunteered. The four teachers and cook were incredibly dedicated women. They love the children and hope that education will give them a chance for a better life. We helped with English classes, substituted for the teachers when they needed a break, and spent time playing with the children during recess and meals (porridge in the morning, beans and cabbage for lunch… every day).
Monica Munger (pictured here with four students) had been at the school for several weeks, making a big difference. Before she arrived, most students didn’t have pencils let alone books. Instead of a playground and games, all these kids had to play with were a couple of old car tires. With the support of her friends and church (First Presbyterian in Berkeley), Monica was able to buy basic supplies for the school. Now there is at least one book to two students, better teaching supplies, plus volleyball and soccer balls for recess. It was inspiring to meet such a compassionate and resourceful woman as Monica, who decided to come to Kenya on her own after not traveling out of the U.S. for over 30 years.
While we were at the school a 6 year-old student died from AIDs. We never met him because he was too sick to go to school that semester. It was both touching and heartbreaking to hear the children practice a song for his funeral. As everyone knows, AIDs is devastating but this made it very personal as many students at the school are HIV positive and are not getting antiretroviral treatment.
One day when Rose and Monica had some things to buy in Meru, I went along to see if I could find Internet access to buy our airline tickets to Cairo. Walking to the cyber café with my mission to buy tickets and send a few quick emails to family and friends it was easy to put my head down and ignore the young kids on the street asking for money or food. Without much more than a slight smile and wave, I passed by these dirty kids dressed in rags. As is often the case in Africa, the Internet was so slow I wasn’t able to open the webpage. After a few minutes hoping for a miracle I gave up and walked out frustrated at wasting half an hour at the café and trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with myself for the next hour or more when I was to meet Rose and Monica again.
I decided to pick up a few groceries, candy mostly, at the supermarket. While I was wondering around the aisles I found myself thinking about the young ragged figures outside. I went back outside to three kids I had noticed with a bag of rolls and a jar of peanut butter. The three kids quickly turned into more than ten who were having their first and most likely only meal of the day. Nearly all the kids, some not even ten years old, were so high on shoe glue they could not stand up straight. It seemed the only time they took the bottle of shoe glue off their lips was when they were putting bread in. It was sadly humbling how they all shared and worked together. One boy did not have a bottle of glue so another sat beside him sharing his only possession – a bottle of glue to dull the reality of life on the street. Every one of those kids has a heartbreaking story but only one was able to communicate it.
Dylan is sixteen years old and speaks pretty good English, which he learned in the few years he went to primary school and has been practicing ever since. He briefly told me his story as we sat together on the street. His mom either died or abandoned him and he grew up with his drunken father. His dad beat him so badly that he couldn’t live with him anymore and he didn’t take care of him anyway so he has been on the street since he was ten. He believes school is the only way out of the mess he is in but does not have the money to go. He was the only boy in the group who was not out of his mind on glue. Dylan explained that many of the other kids are AIDs orphans and how they all work together to survive. I am not sure what I am supposed to have learned from this experience but I do know that if the Internet worked I would not have spent time with those boys. It makes me wonder how often I put blinders up and simply ignore what is going on around me to finish some task that really is not important. I think I learned that life is full of tradeoffs but people should always come before things.
- David with a little help from Steve
