A Visit To A Student's Home

There is a family of boys at St. Gerald who I knew very well when I lived here in 2005-2007. Their mother died when the boys were very young and their father is an alcoholic and unable to care for them. Years ago, the third boy was permanently expelled from St. Gerald for discipline issues and they sent the oldest brother (in 6th grade) home with him to take care of him.

Once the oldest was ready to attend high school the sponsor that was helping agreed to only pay for one of the two oldest boys (secondary education is not free in Kenya). Since the oldest one was living at home taking care of his younger brother and attending the public school his grades were very low. Therefore, they selected to pay for boarding school for the second brother who had been at St. Gerald for all of his primary school and was performing well.

The oldest one is now in his second year of high school at the local day school. I was told that I needed to go assess the situation, as it is not good. So when the schools closed I had two of the brothers take me to their home. We stopped in Nyeri to get some basic food items which I knew they wouldn't have at home. Then we took the matatu to their house. We arrived at their village and walked down the side of the mountain to their home. It is a traditional wood home with mud floors and surrounded by many green banana trees. I was instantly greeted by a warm, welcoming smile of the boy I hadn't seen in 6 years with feet that hadn't seen shoes in possibly as long. I asked him how school was going and he said not very well as he is often sent home from school because his father cannot afford to pay the school fees. Then he went on to say "and things are difficult".  I asked him, "what is difficult?" and his response was "often there isn't any food". It's hard to explain the emotion I feel when I hear this directly from a child. First it's anger- how can someone allow their child to go without food? How can the neighbors allow this? How can God allow this? Then I question "why was I given so much yet there are kids without food?" And then the answer is as clear as can be "I was given much in order to help those without".

You might ask why he doesn't get a job, but in Kenya jobs are few and jobs for students without a high school certificate/diploma are basically nonexistent. The best they can do is try to have a small garden on the plot they do have to grow something.

As you can see education is very important just to qualify for a job. But even more importantly for our underprivileged children is the safety and meals that are provided in school. When they are in boarding school I know they are at least fed and safe for 9 months of the year.

This boys is one of many that we have in similar situations. If you are interested in sponsoring one of our students for high school or a one time contribution towards their school fees, go to kenyaeducationfund.org and click "donate now". Include a note that it is for Sheila Murphy's kids.

Items to Send

In response to the questions I've received about what people can send- unfortunately shipping is very expensive. If you would like to send anything I suggest sending items that are lightweight. A few of the things that we could use:

-Dental floss
-Deodorant
-Backpacks
-Socks
-Soft-backed books (ages 5-high school)
-Cards (uno)

Craft Items:
-Glue sticks
-Construction paper
-Markers
-Yarn for knitting
-Colored string for friendship bracelets
-Old magazines (making jewelry to sell for our dental fund)

Otherwise it is quite cheap to buy items here, especially clothes. My sister sent $75 and I was able to buy 35 pieces of clothing including many Nike and Adidas jackets & hoodies (there is a big used American/Europe clothing market here).

Address:
Sheila Murphy
PO Box 64
Endarasha 10107 Kenya

Clothes I was able to buy here for $75

Or to make a contribution towards clothes and shoes you can mail a check to:
Sheila Murphy
301 Murphy Dr
Pacific, MO 63069 USA

18 Days Later

The six day midterm break turned into a 17 day holiday for our high school students. The Kenyan teachers are on strike so the schools have been closed. The strike has not been settled but the schools that our students attend are reopening today.

I had thought having the kids for six days would be a good way for me to slowly get used to having kids in the house but I should have known better than having my own plans! 

Despite the additional days it really has been a pleasure to host the kids. They were very helpful and respectful; it was fun to watch them become comfortable in the house and to see their personalities as they danced, joked and just acted silly. We were even surprised by a hidden skill of one of the boys- he is great at knitting (was raised by his grandmother) and knitted a scarf for me in just three days!

It will be nice to have a bit of a break before the one month school holiday in August but I am certainly going to miss the laughing and giggling of the boys late into the night as they were supposed to be sleeping.

Lazy Sunday - kids sleeping on the couches

Intense game of Scrabble

Kariuri washing clothes

5th Trip to the Dentist

Today is our 5th trip to the dentist. It seems like we ended up with 3 root canals, 1 pulled tooth, and maybe 15 cavities for the 3 boys. It's interesting, the dentist never really tells me the total damage. He picks the big issues and works that one and tells us to come back. I try to get a list of exactly what the issues are and how many more return trips but they don't really seem to work that way.... The good news is the boys are out of pain! We still have many more trips to complete all of the work but now we can do it slowly and when they are on school break.

Trip to the dentist

For the root canals the dentist has all of these pins that he is using. They are stuck in the kids mouth and then the dentist sends us for x-rays. This means we have to leave the dentist office and take either a motorbike or a matatu to the hospital to get the x-ray and then return to the dentist for more work. Seems a bit dangerous  to be running around with pins sticking out of their tooth but I guess there really isn't another option.

The downside of the one pulled tooth is that boy wanted to join the army or become a police officer, but a requirement for both army and police is that you must have all of your teeth.... so he will have to choose another career.

I am now working on prevention with the other kids! I am trying to teach them to brush and floss every day and am making sure they have toothbrushes and toothpaste. However, I can't find dental floss here in Nyeri. If you are interested in sending some it would be a great help!

Sheila Murphy
PO Box 64
Endarasha Kenya 10107

My New Look

My new look, always in gum boots (rain boots) due to the mud.

Update

The small kids have returned to school and it is much more quiet with only the high school kids. In 6 days we survived their visit with only 5 wet beds, 1 broken water pipe, many misc items "accidently" thrown down the out house toilet, and one kid locking himself in the bathroom. The youngest reminds me of a cross between Dennis the Menance and Curious George.... nothing inside or outside the house went unturned. The first evening after they left even Mama Mwangi was falling asleep sitting up before 9pm. 

Although full of endless energy there were times they would just sit and chat. As they were helping mama make chapati one piped up "my mom and dad are dead. I never knew my mom and my dad was really old". Then another responded "my mom is dead too".  Mama M assured them they will be okay because we are here to take care of them. It breaks my heart to hear this from such young kids. I think of their mothers looking down on them and being comforted knowing we are caring for their babies.

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

I love to ask kids what they want to be when they grow up. Two of my favorite responses were from my cousins Peter (now 21) who wanted to be an ice cream man and Tad (now 18) who would say he just wanted to live with his mom. 

Now I have two more to add to the favorite list; Karanja's is sweet and Ian's is hilarious. Karanja age 11- "I want to be like Bochi so I can have my own car so I can drive to visit you" awe :) Ian age 5 when he got back to school after staying with us was telling everyone "when I grow up I am going to be a maziungu (a white person)!!" 

ha! Im going to take that as a compliment!

Trip to the Dentist :(

We were eating dinner the other night when one of the boys flinched while chewing. When asked what was wrong and he said he had a tooth ache. I asked how long he has had it and he kind of shrugged "a long time". So I asked the other boys how many of them have tooth aches. Well today I'm at the dentist with 3 boys ages 16, 18 and 19- their first trip to the dentist.

We left this morning at 8:30 for a dentist in Nyeri town. We arrived at the dentist by 10. The nice thing here is you don't have to have an appointment. The down side is you wait your turn. Around 1:30 the three boys and I were all called into the exam room. As the dentist was examining them he had me look and was showing me the issues he was seeing. Upon first look it took all I had hold back my tears. Imagine if the cavities you have had over your life had never been treated and you often don't brush your teeth because you don't have toothpaste or a toothbrush...

As the dentist and I were discussing the treatment plans which include an incredible amount of fillings, 2 root canals and gum treatment, I asked him "how much pain are these kids in and how do they handle it so well?" his response, "they've experienced a lot of hardship and unfortunately this is something they have gotten used to..."

House full of kids!

All of our hard work has now paid off! We have finally been able to have some of the kids stay with us over their midterm break. We have had between 7-11 boys depending on the day. We have the 3 youngest boys from St. Gerald ages 5, 8 and 11 and also some of our high school boys.

The small boys having breakfast- tea, bread and porridge

Making popcorn

Rare occurance- Ian being still

Karanja reading to me- thanks to my niece Rhyan (2nd grade) for collecting and sending books for us!

Playing our favorite game "Blockus" sent by my mom.

Njenga and Karaiuri in the kitchen

Although we have a kitchen, Mama Mwangi insisted on also having a traditional kitchen where she can cook on firewood (which she says burns very hot). This is Mama M and the kids in the kitchen making chapati.

Serving dinner. We dish out the food on all of the plates to make sure everyone gets the same amount and we don't run out.

"Family" dinner

Our 5 year old brushed his teeth but forgot to wipe his face. Without lights we didn't notice until he had fallen asleep on the couch :)

The small boys were so excited to come! When I went to pick them up from St. G they we waiting at the fence for me with grins from ear to ear. Once we go to the house I was showing them around. Since they have never used a toilet (only the outhouse) I was explaining that you can do a long call and short call (#1 and #2) in the toilet. Karanja looked at me with huge eyes and asked "Everything???", yep, everything. As we were all standing around the toilet for instructions the 5 year old thought that would be a good time to put the toilet to use and started urinating right there- ha! They were so excited about the toilet I think they each used it about 25 times the first couple of days.

Then I had to show them how to brush their teeth inside. At St. G they just have a tap outside that they use. So as they were brushing their teeth they were spitting the toothpaste out on the floor!

When making up the beds I was putting sheets on, which they have never used. Karanja asked, "every bed gets one of these?" yep, every one!

Every day is a new adventure for both the boys and me. I wake around 6 with the small kids and I try to keep them busy so the others can sleep a bit longer. So we usually start by stripping the sheets from the bed wetters and soaking the sheets so we can wash (by hand) later in the day. Then we feed the chickens and do some work around the farm. By then breakfast is ready. After that the day is full of playing, cooking and cleaning. I'm not sure where the time goes but by 9:30 I'm completely exhausted! It's such a different life- having a house full of kids. But the laughter, chatter and smiles beat any day in the office.

Some of our boys on their mattresses with blankets, getting ready for bed!