At IDP the volunteers are basically in charge of community development.
I've been really enjoying the projects I'm in charge of – besides the chicken coop and finding the orphans new homes, I've been helping in the clinic every Tuesday and Thursday. After the volunteer nurse sees each patient, they're sent to me where I fill their prescriptions and hand out stickers to kids with booboos. Then last week I was in charge of the distribution of several bags of kids shoes, and helped give rice, beans, and corn to families when the food trucks arrived. The hospital is crazy enough on clinic days with desperate mamas pushing into the door crying and screaming, positive that they've been waiting longer than all the other crying, screaming mamas. Then when I walked out with a huge bag of shoes it was utter chaos. Naomy and Njoroge helped me pass the shoes out (god bless them) but it was still insanity. Mamas were snatching the shoes out of my hands, kids yelling “mzungu give me shoes!”, all while they created a mass around me that almost knocked me over a few times. Eventually, though, all of the shoes were given away.
Then later that day I heard cheering and applause as the food trucks pulled up carrying tons of rice, beans, and maize. Everyone on camp divides into sections and forms a “line” (a big groping mass) with plastic bags to collect 2 bucket fills of rice, 1 of beans, and 3 of maize per household. I was in charge of the maize and rice for one of the sections, a job that was thrown onto me as I was walking around taking pictures. If a bucket of rice wasn't filled to the rim, mamas were clawing into the bag to collect fistfuls. If 5 pieces of rice fell on the ground, kids were running to collect each grain from the dirt.
This Tuesday was one of the most stressful, heart wrenching of my life...while it felt great to put a new pair of shoes on a baby, or give a shosho medicine for her stomach cramps, my stomach cramped when I looked at the mass of mamas who hadn't been seen by the nurse, or the kids who were still walking around barefoot. What a day.
I took my group of 5 orphans to Nairobi to their new home. It's not a home, rather an orphanage in Nairobi, but at night they sleep in a bed, are dry, and have 3 meals a day..compared to camp, it's a palace. Finding the orphans on camp was a struggle. There's an existing list of “Orphans on Pipeline IDP Camp” but it's a couple years old, and half of the kids on the list had either been relocated or had died. So, I went from tent to tent visiting the remaining orphans on the list, and adding new ones as I met them. Sidai Childrens Rehabilitation Center in Ngong Town, Nairobi asked for 5 children ages 2-10. On the list, there were some 50 orphans, but only around 20 within the age requirement.
I “interviewed” each of the families, asked about the child's parents, took a picture, and picked the most “needy” 5...not that every family on camp isn't needy. I was really looking forward to taking a 1 year old, Victor, (Sidai said they could make an exception) to the orphanage, and I had him packed and ready to go when some random aunt called the grandmother and insisted that he stay with the family. Victor's mom had been run over by a matatu when she was drunk wandering around the highway next to camp.
Victor is the most malnourished child on camp because the mom would sell all the food given on food distribution day for alcohol and drugs. So there I am about to take him to a new, fantastic home when some random relative calls off the whole operation. If she really planned to take care of Victor, she would have already been DOING it! I realize the mom didn't know what she was doing, but apparently neither does Victor's grandma or any other relative on camp cause otherwise he wouldn't look the way he does! I was really worked up about this for several days until I finally got to meet the aunt, Sally. She's pretty young and speaks extremely limited English, but she's not stupid. She understood everything I was saying about the orphanage but was still really shaken by her sister's death...and then the more I watched her holding Victor, and the way his grandma looked at him...
I dunno, maybe that is better than 3 meals a day...
And I found out that he was born a couple months premature, so that's why he's SO small...he's still malnourished, but at least that explains his size. I still check on him every couple days and if the family ever changes their minds then Victor will be on my lap to Nairobi in an instant, but I support their decision I think. They really love him.
So, Solomon, Michael, Gladys, Samson, and Ralphael went to Sidai last week. We piled in a matatu (THAT was stressful trying to keep track of 5 kids) to Nairobi then took a bus to Ngong Town. Samson sat on my lap to Nairobi, and once we had sufficiently explored outside the window, played with the sliding glass, sung the alphabet, and tickled each other, he fell into a deep sleep...I wanted him to sleep all day because it was so precious. I had him on my lap, holding him with my arms, and he had nestled his face into my neck. He's 3ish, and beautiful. We finally arrived to the orphanage after 5 plates of french fries and 5 orange Fantas...and the place is absolutely magical. It's not squeaky clean and clothes aren't sparkling white, but there is laughing, singing, dancing, learning, and family. The 5 kids joined the existing 40 at Sidai and seemed to jump right into things. Ralphie had some trouble because his grandma told him that he was just going on a trip and would be back that night, so when we headed toward the door he flipped. Njoroge came with though, and was able to calm him down. Gladys, too, started to tear up when we were having dinner, but just as her little chin started to wrinkle 2 other girls took her hands and led her upstairs to play. We left the orphanage feeling like the lives of those kids were definitely changed for the better.
I was able to visit Sidai this past weekend when I was in Nairobi to give my 5 toothbrushes, 10 shilling each, and to make sure they were 1) being fed, 2) not being beaten, 3) making friends, 4) going to school, 5) happy...and while Samson, Ralphie, and Gladys are too young to understand most of what I said (when I asked Samson who his best friend was he put on a huge grin and said “YES!!!!”), I got all positive feedback from Solomon and Michael. Halleluiah!! :D
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