What a day

Wow. Words cannot do justice to what I saw/did today. I suppose I’ll have to try anyways and let the pictures I post speak for themselves. Thus, today’s blog will be pretty long so bear with me!

This morning, we went with Rhoda to the Little Angels Adoption Agency. We met with a woman who is on the adoption team and is part of the group that handles the parent’s side of adoption while New Life Home (the orphanage we’re working with) deals with the paperwork for the child. It was really neat to learn about the other side of adoptions.

Some things I learned from her:
-if all goes smoothly (which is hardly ever) the process from application to taking home the baby is about 10 months
-some adoption cases from even as far back as 1999 are still be processed because of many legal complications
-the most popular country for international adoptions in Kenya is Holland
-the UK doesn’t allow any adoptions out of Kenya
-from an adoption agency’s perspective, the most difficult part of the process is dealing with legal issues and the unpredictability of the courts
-there is only one public orphanage in Kenya and it is mostly a transition home until it is decided which private orphanage the child will go to
-they handle about 10 adoptions a month
-this particular adoption agency has never had a single male apply to adopt (part of the reason there are so many boys)

After the adoption agency we rode another matatu (bus) to downtown Nairobi. While on the bus, I was listening to the radio with the “Top 40 Countdown”, I was amused to hear that the “Macarena” was number one today haha. We followed Rhoda to the Children’s Court, High Court, and the Registry of Births/Deaths in Nairobi. Our final stop was the hospital where many of the abandoned babies are found to be taken in by an orphanage. We were allowed a tour of the newborn unit by another social worker of the hospital. I was almost nauseated by what I saw. You enter into a room that can’t be bigger than my bedroom and it is filled of mothers breastfeeding. The hospital has no air conditioning so it was swelteringly hot and smelled of sour milk and dirty diapers. This room was also where they kept the abandoned babies. There was one baby who was 1 and a half years old, he was not allowed to leave the hospital because his uncle claimed him almost a year ago though is not willing to adopt him. Kenyan law says that as long as a relative has been identified, the baby cannot be declared free and is not allowed to go to an orphanage. So, this baby has had to stay within the walls of the hospital until the uncle can be tracked down to declare the child free. The nurse said that he rarely is allowed out of his crib and sleeps all day for lack of space to crawl around. All of the children had to share rusty cribs held together by plastic bags with one or two other babies each. They are not clothed or diapered and just soil themselves until a nurse can clean them. Needless to say, it wasn’t appropriate to document this image with a camera but it is will be etched into my mind for a while. This was the nicest hospital in Kenya and sterile isn’t even close to how I would describe it.

Ok, so that was our morning. Our afternoon is where our day drastically changed. We met a church group from Indiana working in the same orphanage we are a few days earlier this week. We told them we were hoping to go to Kibera, the biggest slum in Africa, but were afraid to go by ourselves. As chance would have it, they were going on Thursday to do some street evangelism and had space in their van. We met them at 2:00 and after battling an hour of Nairobi’s rush-hour traffic, arrived in Kibera. Words cannot explain what we saw. The physical houses and infrastructure were exactly what I was picturing (my only reference to go on here was Slumdog Millionaire haha). As far as the history of the slum, we learned today that it was settled by soldiers after the first war who needed payment for their services for the British. Kibera is Swahili for forest which is what it was before it became inhabited by immigrants and other low-income groups. Surprisingly enough, it is mostly Muslim which is a challenge for the group. Finally, we learned that to rent a 12 by 12 space for a home, it is 700 shillings a month. This equates to about 9 dollars a month , and each space houses about 8 family members.

What I didn’t expect were the people, they were so happy and joyful. I expected seeing the slums as a really devastating experience, it wasn’t at all; it was so fun to meet all of the people and swap stories. It was as if they had no idea where they lived was littered with tons of trash and no running water or electricity. We met with Preacher Sammie (the slum preacher) and he explained to us how he created Youngsters for Christ in the area. He explained that of the 1.3 million people living in an area smaller than Central Park, 75% of them were younger than 30. His program gets kids in the slums out of trouble and arranges weekly (or even daily) worship settings. He gave me his card to read on some of the testimonies of the kids he has met. One kid in particular was a Muslim, when he became a Christian his entire family denounced him and refused to see him ever again. If you’re interested in reading more about his work and other testimonies, his website is www.youngsters4christ.com. In speaking with one of the older girls in the program, I asked her how she liked living here. Expecting to get a response like, “well you get used to it” or “it’s really hard sometimes”- this is what she said: “I love it here, I would never move. We are so blessed to live here, God really watches over us.” I was lost for words. This 24 year-old woman was completely aware of her situation and returned to live with her family after studying Theology at the University of Nairobi. She claimed that it’s amazing how little illness and disease are spread despite the most inhumane living situation. She spoke of the awesome sense of community Kibera has.

After speaking with her, we proceeded to walk around the slum until we reached an all-girls school. The school is focused on purifying young girls and educating them about women’s rights. The group we were with had rehearsed a skit on salvation to perform to the girls. Then, Sammie preached the gospel of John and we all prayed with the girls. They even sang some of our favorite worship songs in Swahili which I videotaped on my camera. After our afternoon talking to the girls at the school we walked in the slum to the sanctuary they built a few years ago. Consisting of a mud floor and some wooden beams with a tin roof, I could tell the Kiberans were so proud of their church. One of the volunteers had brought candy and the kids came running from everywhere. Seeing their faces with just one piece of candy was priceless, it looked as if they had just won the lottery. The kids loved having their pictures taken, they were so polite and kept asking for us to take pictures of them. In hindsight, I was shocked by the kids approach to fun. It was obvious that none of them had a single toy, yet they all managed to have so much fun playing with each other. One kid even made a soccer ball out of one of the many mounds of trash in the slum. It was so humbling to see these people with nothing to their name so grateful to have the company they have and the leaky tin roof over their head. I couldn’t help but to think of all I’ve been given in the United States and still had the nerve to ask for more; as cliché as it sounds, I felt so ungrateful for what I have. This trip has certainly done an incredible job and putting things in perspective for me.

Finally, before we left (none of us wanted to leave!) Sammie requested that some of the American girls speak with some of the younger Kenyan girls about the challenges we face as women halfway around the world. I learned that, in Kenya, there is a lot of pressure for the women to be bigger (as opposed to in the US, where being thin is idealized). It was so interesting to swap stories with theses teenage girls of issues we all face as women. One of the biggest issues of for Kenyan women, also, was the issue of pregnancy. So many of their friends have illegitimate children and are pressure by men because they don’t feel they have the authority to say no. I couldn’t imagine living in a country so submissive to another gender. It was almost as if the girls live in fear of men.

Anyway, we all prayed together and hopped on the bus to come back to our apartment for the night where I had a lovely dinner of an energy bar and mentos, haha.

It was such a God day in the sense that, here I am, randomly sat beside this girl I didn’t know in a 400-person class on my first day at Carolina who was going to Kenya. We become good friends and I am then convinced to join her on this trip and twist my parent’s arms to come. We then randomly bump into a group from Indiana that decided to take the three of us under their wing and we end up swapping stories of self-image and confidence with Kenyan girls in a hut in the Kiberan slum. Never would I have thought I would have an opportunity such as today, I just couldn’t help but think I have so many things to be grateful for and to be humbled by. So far, Kenya has given me more this trip than I believe I could ever give back to Kenya. I am so grateful for obvious things such as a roof over my head, my bed, my car, etc. I am thankful for parents who didn’t abandon me at a hospital (though sometimes I’m sure they wish they had haha) and for a history and an extended family. The orphans I’ve been working with will grow up not ever-seeing a baby picture of themselves, knowing an uncle or grandma, or having any funny baby stories and histories of their childhood.

Phew, I know that was a lot so thanks to those who stayed with me and read the whole thing. I know my stream of consciousness isn’t always the most interesting read haha. Tomorrow is our last day at the orphanage in Nairobi before we move to the Kisumu orphanage and school.

So grateful for every last one of you,
Coty