Country Roads, Take Me Home...

Yes, John Denver is even in Africa. Yesterday as I walked home, I heard this song blaring from one of the shops. Little things like that always make me feel more at home. Today, I even saw two people wearing Minnesota Twins t-shirts!

Let’s see, it has been a while since I last updated! Last Friday, I went to the class 8 graduation (like finishing 8th grade in America) for one of the four Tumaini girls that go to boarding school here in Meru. It was quite a celebration! There were many speeches encouraging the children to keep working hard as they go on to secondary school (high school) and success stories of past students. Then, all of the parents and guests were treated to cake and heaping plates of food to celebrate the achievement that the kids have made. The cake seems to be kind of a big deal in celebrations here. There is usually a cake cutting ceremony where a group of important individuals, in this case it was the principal, a teacher, and a few of the students, cuts the cake together and pictures are taken.

On Saturday, my host mom took me to a harambe. This is an event where the community pools its resources for a certain cause. The harambe was for the reconstruction of housing and administrative offices for nuns that are affiliated with the church that my host family attends. It was a long process! There was first a catholic service featuring a lively choir with dancers dressed in vibrant blue robes. I really enjoyed the African touch in the service; it wasn’t as boring as I had anticipated! Following the service, a group of women entertained us with dance performances and then there was a series of speeches, which were mostly in Swahili, so I really don’t know what they were talking about, but some of them were pretty long winded! When the speeches concluded, there was a performance by a girls marching band featuring drums, piccolos, and recorders, and then 2 more dance performances. Finally, the main event began! For 2 hours people lined up one by one to put their donations and the donations of various organizations, community groups, and congregations into a basket as a man read out loud into a microphone how much each person was giving. The event started at 9:00 and didn’t finish until 4:00 in the afternoon!

Today for work, I spent the day celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of Children. We started off the day by joining with other organizations in the area that support children and marched with banners to the venue where the celebration was to be held. It was great to see all of the kids there marching for their rights as they are the ones who have been personally affected by the neglect children’s rights abuses. The ceremony featured many speeches, but this time most were in English. The speeches were very inspirational, especially the address by Mr. Chidi, the founder and CEO of Ripples International. He emphasized that children are largely ignored and left to suffer in silence as people turn a blind eye to them. This is a really big problem in Kenya as even the police for the most part don’t care about protecting children. The police system is so corrupt that without money, officers will do very little to help you out. He said that there are so many people living their lives for the sole purpose of making money to have nice things instead of taking the responsibility to protect those that are unable to protect themselves. I definitely agree with him. Even in America, there are so many kids that are abused and then betrayed by the government as they are lost in the shuffle of all of the children that need care and support. If America is such a rich nation, why is this still continuing to be a problem? I wish you all could see how amazing the girls are at the Tumaini Center! Each one of their lives is so much more valuable than anything that money can buy. Along with the speeches, the kids also provided the entertainment. There were songs, poems, dances, and skits. The Tumaini girls did 2 dances and a poem. They did a great job! This morning as they practiced before we left, they taught me the dances as well so now I am an expert at Kenyan dancing! I’ll give lessons when I get home ;)

I forgot to mention this in previous posts, but many of the girls are going to be going back home soon- by the end of December for sure so that they can start up the new school year in January. It is going to be so hard to say goodbye to all of them! The three babies are going to be relocated to the New Start Center (the Ripples International baby orphanage and rescue center) for three years so that their mothers can attend school. I hate thinking about them being separated from their mothers and not having the attention that they are used to, but it is for the best and their mothers can and are encouraged to visit them as often as they can.