Kenya (4) in Text and photos

The last few days with Bernard have been spent discussing his ideas about support for children affected by HIV. My aim is to get a proposal drafted by Friday. As I watch the morning news a story about HIV in East Africa has a UN adviser suggesting that he biggest bang for the buck is male circumcision. In Kenya the rate of infection is 6.1% and studies are showing that circumcision appears to be the reason for less infection in Kenya than in Southern Africa. Bernard explained that circumcision is still traditional and boys at 13 to 14 are routinely circumcised in accord with tribal custom initiating boys into adulthood.

Thursday
I am up at 5.30 am having been unable to sleep since 3.30am. Even a chapter of Obama’s book was not enough to put me to sleep. The last few days have been interesting, challenging and satisfying.
Tuesday was spent with Pastor Sam Mwangi and Esther Wachira who work on the Care for AIDS Program. Presently they are visiting all 80 people in the program at their homes while the church building is built. Normally the participants attend Tuesdays or Thursdays where meetings are held at the church on HIV related issues and education and training as well as worship takes place. On the other days Sam and Esther visit the program participants at home to provide support including food support.
I visited two homes. The first had people from neighbouring houses and a meeting with five took place over about 1 ½ hours. At the end each participant was given a voucher for 150Kes at a local food store.
The next visit after a thirty minute walk was to a shanty house where a woman named Margaret lived. She looked as though she had lost a lot of weight. She has TB in addition to HIV and the other three ladies there are providing support and encouragement despite also being HIV+. Then I took both Sam and Esther to lunch while waiting for Bernard to collect me from the town called Banana. Esther is unpaid and does this ministry six days per week.

From there to the church where I spent the afternoon with Margaret whom I had met on Sunday. She co-ordinates the OVC program which is not exclusively HIV related. Koinonia has support for children from Romanian Baptists. There are currently 170 kids in the program which ranges to support in the way of food, education fees and uniforms, health and renatl support. The philosophy is to keep kids with any family in preference to them going to institutions. We walked from the church to 3-4 houses where people lived in rooms perhaps 10 feet square. Fred had six children and cared for them alone after his wife left him. He gets what day labour he can for half days so he can be home in time to prepare the evening meal. I met a number of women from Western Province for whom this life was preferable to their life there. After hearing of the cultic way people with HIV are treated there I can understand why these women have let their homes. Of the three one woman was married with a husband who was working.

Margaret is a qualified Social Worker who assists in the OVC program daily. Like many of Kenya’s graduates she is unable to get paid employment. We spent a long time talking about the program and its need for a co-ordinator so it can be extended. All children are visited monthly to monitor their progress.

We visited James on the way to dinner. He had eaten with us at Bernard’s place on Sunday night. He appeared then to be fairly sullen and uncommunicative. When we arrived however he had a big smile on his face and welcomed us into his room. The room is perhaps one of six in a long corrugated iron building (a big garden shed) divided into rooms of about 3m2. Inside were two double bunks, at the end of one was the cooking pot (charcoal) and a table James had made. There are four boys here ranging from 12 to 17 who are abandoned. Bernard had arranged the room for them and they basically care for themselves. James has an apprenticeship as a carpenter and should earn an income in a few months once he has learned sufficient. The other three boys are at school. All school fees, rent and food for these boys are covered by the OVC program otherwise they would be on the street. I could not get over the difference in James and how chatty he was.

Dinner that night was to a Chinese restaurant. I had invited the Kabarus and also Sam and his family to be my guests. Nine of us in a 4WD was manageable.The restaurant was in the Village Markets where we had stopped on Sunday for groceries. I had failed to appreciate for either family how special this night was. Sam’s three kids had never before seen a shopping centre (modest by Aussie standards) and to see the look on the faces of these kids (Patience 9, Dennis 5 and Joy 2) was unbelievable. Apart from Bernard none of the others had ever been to a Chinese restaurant. Bernard did the explaining of how it all worked. Some spring rolls to start and then three different rices, and three different main dishes including two sizzle plates. Ordered another sizzle plate of chicken. It was a pretty special evening especially to watch these kids in a restaurant and eating ice cream at the end.