July 1 - The Performance at Kawangware

Wow!! I woke up at 5:30 again this morning feeling MUCH better than I have for days. The sauna and massage had really helped and my overall feeling had improved by at least 50%.

A shower, then breakfast, a little email, and the driver was here to pick me up again at 10:00 am. We headed off to visit Kawangware again for the day.

I arrived a little after 10:30 am and Sadie was already there. Sadie is the daughter of Lili and Lew Fulton, directors of Mercy Children's Center who were kind enough to let us stay at their place last year, but who now reside in Paris. Sadie is living in Nairobi now and working with a famous African musician. She is a singer and I quickly realized her talents during the day as she sang to the children. She is a confident young woman and a pleasure to watch her work with the kids.

I started out the day filming Sadie as she worked with the kids. First she taught Math to class 6, then English to class 5. When I return to Canada I will upload this video to their video site for viewers to watch.

Then Sadie and I went down to the baby class area and we had a large uniform distribution ceremony where Sadie and I handed out another 50 uniforms, followed by group pictures outside of the freshly uniformed children. By then it was lunch again (actually it was almost 1:30 pm) and we sat down to another version of the ugali and greens with cabbage meal. The tradition is to eat with your fingers and the ladies come around first with a wash basin and decanter of hot water which they slowly pour over hands while you wash. Charles had to go to teach so he couldn't participate in lunch.

Pius and I spent more time together throughout the day and one of the parents - Alice - came to visit us after lunch. I had a wonderful conversation with her and found out that she is a nurse by trade, but largely unemployed at this time (her husband had died about 7 years ago from an accident). The violent upheavals back in January has devastated the economic outlook of Kenya, and the dire conditions of the slums has become even worse for the residents there with a loss of employment occurring for many. Alice barely eeks out a living for her and her two children, both of whom attend our Kawangware school. Alice had come to the school to speak to Pius about her son, who had been slapped across the face by one of the other boys. This was particularly problematic because the young lad had a terrible eye problem and his sight was in a very vulnerable state. The doctors had diagnosed his condition as something like "persistent conjunctivitis", which had begun when he was about one year and 2 months old (he was now about 9 years old). The medicine they gave her to put in his eyes has never worked. He was losing his vision and now had glasses, which had been a devastating cost to her of almost 1500 shillings ($16 Canadian) several months ago. The doctors now wanted to operate on his eyes which, I believe, were developing cataracts but the surgery would cost 6000 shillings ($100 Canadian) and that was completely beyond her ability to pay. Pius called the boy into the teacher's office where we were conversing and I had a chance to have a close examination of his eyes. Two large watery liquid pools marked the place where clear eyes should preside and they looked irritated and slightly pussy. I couldn't see for sure, but his iris's almost appeared to be turning white in some areas.

We sent him back out to play and continued our discussion. Alice was enthralled by the anatomy books that I had now brought to the school (thanks to Marya and Sandy!). As a nurse, this was a wonderful opportunity for her to examine the colorful anatomy slides in the books. As we closed our conversation, she asked if we could have our picture taken together. This is a common request in these types of situations and the real underlying reason to them is that we don't forget who they are and that they hope when we see the picture again back home that we will remember their plight. I was only too happy to have the picture taken and we said our farewells. At the end, before her departure, she pleaded with me not to forget her and to please try to find a way for her son be helped. It tears your heart out.......

It is so sad to see someone who is so intelligent and capable in the world being reduced to begging for the simplest of needs in the world. This professional woman now had nothing, and no way to raise her children. She was any one of us. The work of Kawangware school was able to provide education and food for her children, to which she was deeply grateful. In the interim, she worked in whatever way she could (some of which I can not speak of here) to provide even a few meals a week for her two kids. I realise how much I sometimes take such a simple thing as a meal for granted.....

After she left one of the teachers came back into the office to report that the kids had prepared some traditional songs for us to listen too. They assembled us outside at the end oft he yard on chairs, and the children - from nursery class through class 6 - each presented their own program. It is all on video and will be quite enjoyable to watch.

This is the only time that I really see excitement in the children and you can tell that many have been traumatized by the recent violence of months past. Some were witness to close relatives or neighbours been killed (sometimes hacked to death with machetes) and the school had to closed then opened many times for safety sake. There is a deep depression and underlying sadness that has overshadowed the school. I am concerned, and we had some very clear and frank discussions about this in the afternoon. We have been pondering over the possibility of some very positive changes which I think will go a long way to initiating the healing process here. Our biggest obstacle remains money, however, and even a small amount will go a very long way. After witnessing the impressive construction of the Bumala school in this last year, I am confident that we can create the conditions to turn this Kawangware situation around.

The driver returned at 3:00 pm to take Charles, Pius and I back to the Parkland Sports Club. We had more discussions through the afternoon and then went to supper. I had also invited Moraa and Sadie to join us as this was the last night for me in Nairobi. It was a very enjoyable evening for all of us as we discussed a variety of ideas and said our final goodbyes. As much as I always enjoy our visits, it is a disturbance to their (and my) normal routines and I know that it is time for everyone, including myself, to get back to "normal life" again.

I was back to my room by about 10 pm and took about two hours to repack everything. I had realised the day before that I had slightly too much stuff to pack so I decided to give a two sided goat-skin drum to Charles to take to the Bumala school. I had bought two of them so I still have one for fundraising purposes back in Canada.

I also stopped by the front desk on my way back to my room and found that the banner for the Kenya display at heritage Days had been dropped off. One problem though - the banner, I was told, was 2 feet high by 8 feet long....small enough to fit in one of my suitcases when rolled up. So I was a bit surprised to see the 4 foot high by 8 foot long roll waiting at the desk for me. There is no way for me to take this as it is simply over-sized in every way imaginable. I rolled it out on my floor and tried to see if I could fold it in half and then re-roll it up. However, it appeared that a deep crease would be formed directly through the main word "Kenya" which would wreck the banner. So....what to do. It is too late in the game to give up.....

My plan "A" is to simply take it on board with me as a carry-on item. It is quite possible, if I keep my fingers crossed, that they will let it on the plane and simply store it in the front with some other larger items. British airways (from London to Nairobi) is sometimes good about hings like that if I am nice and don't make a big fuss about anything.

Plan "B" is that I will call Faith (my contact here) and send it in a cab to her.

Plan "C" is that I will leave it at the airport in some sort of storage place (this will cost some serious money, I think!!) and contact the Kenya committee to make arrangements to pick it up again and mail it to Canada.

I will give it a try, but cannot guarantee anything at this point.....stay tuned to find out what happens!

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