Land of a Thousand Hills

Saturday, January 23, 2010

pics from Lamu

I decided to take a short trip upcoast to Lamu, the oldest town in East Africa to celebrate the New Year, and my birthday. I traveled with some Kenyan friends, and this was our bus. Even though Lamu is only roughly 180miles from Mombasa, it took our bus 8 hours to get there! The roads were that bad! But it made for an eventful journey, having our heads bump up and down on the ceiling of the bus! And once we got there, we boarded a tiny, rickety boat to shuttle us to the island. Many people who visit Lamu, say it was the highlight of their entire trip to Kenya, and I can see why. Residents of Lamu call their town, "Kiwa Ndeo", which means, "The Vain Island." And there was plenty for them to be vain about. Ridiculously yummy and cheap seafood, the white sand and the salt-kissed wind, no motorized vehicles...(it's only donkeys who roam the narrow alleyway streets,) traditional dhow sailboats on the water....there's just a lazy air about the place. It was wonderful.

A cute girl in front of us on the bus, holding her chicken in her lap....all the way to Lamu!

Our dinner the first night there....fresh crab! Seafood was enormous, delicious, and so cheap in Lamu!

A quaint Muslim house outside our hostel window, on the waterfront.

Lamu port

I'll post a couple more pics in a sec....these are the last pics that I needed to post from Christmas.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Precious Wema girls

Esther Sandra telling us to peaceout!

Binit, Carina, and Nancy soo excited about plums!

Beautiful Whitney, without her front teeth. :-)

Sonya and Whitney

So cute!

It was such a joy being back there, seeing the same adorable faces that I've seen for the past 3 years. I remember when Whitney was so tiny, and now she's in Class 3, too smart! I had a blast relaxing underneath the coconut tree, letting them braid my hair and playing jumprope. Getting to spend prayer time with them on Friday nights was a special highlight. The best birthday present ever was hearing their sweet voices. 2010 is going to bring many changes for these girls that you can begin praying about if you will. The government of Kenya, after pressure from their donors (USAID), has decided to shutdown all childrens' homes beginning this month. Due to corruption and misuse of funds for the children in many homes, big donors have said they will not give to any childrens' home in Kenya. So the government is shutting the homes down, and soliciting the help of social workers to find and track down any relatives that these girls might have so they can reunite the children with them. When the children are reunited with their relatives, then and only then will they be given aid for schooling, clothing and food. And this money will be given to the relatives. Why is this a horrible idea? Yes, it's true that some childrens homes in Kenya are corrupt in different ways, and not all the support is delivered into the hands of the kids. But shutting them all down is NOT a solution. Most of these girls don't have any relatives at all to be reunited with, and the ones that do, they are definitely, definitely not at all suitable for the kids to live with! That's why they ended up in the homes in the first place! So now, theres still going to be corruption. If you take a girl back upcountry to the poor rural village and hand her over to a long lost uncle who doesn't even know her name, and give the uncle money to take her to school and buy her food...how miserable will this little girl be??! Now, the money has to go through another set of hands to get to the child, and this will most likely not happen! And the children will suffer. These are the current plans. It infuriates me. There are many things I didn't agree with about Wema, and Wema was a great childrens' home compared to many others in Kenya. But at least the girls were safe, and together. They all become sisters when they're plucked from the streets and taken to Wema. They stick together. They all look after each other. They are family. And now it was so sad looking at them, playing with them, and wondering what 2010 will bring for all of them, where will they be in another year? The ones who don't have any living relatives, I think, will be the lucky ones because they will be placed for adoption. But you just wonder. Some of them have lived together for 12 years or more. This is their family. It breaks my heart to think of little Whitney, Diana, and Sonya not being together anymore. They are as tight as they come. :-) I have to have faith that wherever they end up, they will be in God's hands and He will look after them even if no "parent" ever will. Will you pray with me?

Wema kids

My precious children!

I love this face!

And this one too! Pure joy over receiving a plum!

Excited about posting her work on the wall!

I love them!

Grandma Bibi

The road to Grandma Bibi's place way out in the sticks.

My shoes after I got there. :-)

With Grandma Bibi

My travel buddy Paul and his Grandma Bibi

A funny forex bureau :-)

pics from Moshi/Marangu

We had fun swimming beneath the falls.

A freshwater crab watching us as we swam. :-)

This is called "mbege", the official "drink" of Tanzanian...otherwise known as very thick, potent banana brew. I'll have to tell you later all the steps it takes to make this stuff! They spend days cultivating the banana, mashing it up, and letting it ferment. And it tastes NOTHING like bananas!