Where Are They Now- 10 Years Later

This month is the 10 year anniversary of my arrival in Endarasha, Kenya! When I arrived, my thoughts were simple, "How can I help this community over the next two years?".  I never imagined the people would steal my heart, significantly impact the course of my life and I would be committed to Endarasha for life! Many members of the community have become life long friends, altered my view of what a "normal" life is, taught me about courage, how to laugh and enjoy life even without electricity, running water, sugar, soda, electronics, vehicles etc.

So much has happened with the students I have had the honor of meeting over the past 10 years.  This month alone, we have two students graduating from university and one who has just completed the Kenyan Bar exam!  I can’t think of a better way to celebrate 10 years!

Graduation! Dec. 18, 2015
Kimathi, Njoroge and Mama Mwangi

Over the years, I have provided updates on a few of the students I met when I arrived in Endarasha.  They are still part of our “family” and I am excited to share with you where they are now.

John Njoroge

One Sunday in December of 2005, I walked to St. Gerald Children's Center to spend the day with the kids. When I arrived, I only found one boy, Njoroge. I sat down to chat with him and he told me everyone had left for church. I asked him why he wasn't in church with them. 

His solemn response, "because I don't have shoes". 

We continued talking and it was clear he was a very bright kid. He told me he had just finished standard 8 (8th grade) and was hoping to attend high school, but wasn't sure if the Children's Center had money to pay his tuition. (In Kenya, high school is not free.)  I knew then he belonged in school.  I made a commitment to make sure he had funds to complete high school. Four years later, he graduated at the top of his class of nearly 200 students and qualified for university. This Saturday, Dec 18, 2015, Njoroge will graduate with honors from the Technical University of Kenya with a degree in Business Information Technology!! He owns his own IT company. If you need website or programming assistance you can contact him at njorogeek92@gmail.com, he accepts payment via paypal.

2005- Our first Christmas! Njoroge bottom left,
Karanja being held in the back, Peter in blue shirt in front.

2007 John Njoroge in maroon blazer

2015 Njoroge

Ann
I met Ann when she was in 8th grade at St. Gerald. She was extremely hard working, polite and responsible. Ann was always at the top of her class and we sponsored her for high school. After high school, she went on to college and is now finishing the last sections of her Certified Public Accounting exam!

2006 Ann standing behind Karanja

2015 Ann and Kelsie

Kimathi
Kimathi has always been a dear friend and I so clearly remember the day I told him he had a sponsor who wanted to pay for him to attend college! He is so intellectual, follows US politics closer than 90% of Americans and is always up for a fun debate.  Kimathi finished the Kenyan Bar Exam last week!!

2006 Sheila and Kimathi registering for school

2007 Kimathi and Karanja

2015 Kimathi

Peter
Peter arrived at St. Gerald the same month as I did in December of 2005.  He was in second grade. We currently sponsor him for high school where he is starting his 3rd (junior) year. He could use special prayers for improved academic performance as he is finding high school quite challenging. He would like to complete with a B average so that he can apply to the seminary to become a priest.

Christmas 2005- Peter on the left

2007 Peter (light green uniform)

2015 Karanja (front left), Peter (behind Karanja),
Mama Mwangi (maroon shirt), Kelsie and Sheila

2015 Peter (2nd from right)

Karanja

Many of you know our sweet boy, Karanja:)   Karanja also came to St. Gerald in December 2005 at the tender age of 4. At that time, he was unable to walk or talk. Karanja is now a strong, healthy teenager.  He is super laid back and is always found with a smile on his face. Despite being so gentle and passive, he is a protector and has been known to standup for friends/loved ones (even if it meant a school yard brawl).  Karanja wants to be an ambulance driver. This is the kid that makes a soul know that everyone is connected and we are all meant to help each other regardless of race, gender, religion or distance.

2007 Karanja and Sheila

2006 Sheila, Karanja. Mama Mwangi to right.

2006 Sheila, Karanja and friends

2006 Karaja, Mbogo and Njuguna (we sponsor all 3 of them).
Mbogo and Njuguna are starting their 2nd year of high school.

2008 Sheila and Karanja

2015 Martin, Ian and Karanja (far right)

Famous author/speaker and orphan, Dr. Wayne Dyer, shared a story/joke about himself that applies so well to our students:
Before I came into this world God asked, "What do you want to do in this lifetime?" and I said, "I'd like to teach others about self-reliance." Then God said, "You want to learn self reliance? Then we better get your little a** into an orphanage.  There is no better place to learn self reliance than an orphanage!"

This is spot on with each of these students I've featured above.  They have mastered self-reliance.  Although school fees were paid, the things they have had to endure on their own are beyond imagination. Yet, they have embraced their situation and have excelled. I am extremely proud of each of them and can't wait to see how they continue to flourish in their lives.

We do have students who are planning to start high school in January who are in need of sponsors. The cost is $600/year to send a student to high school. If you are interested please email kenyaamini@gmail.com for more information.  Assistance to these kids would be much appreciated and donations can be made via check to the address below, paypal or credit card.

I want to thank each person who has helped us in our journey to ensure these students receive love, education and basic needs.  They say it takes a village to raise a child but for our Kenyan "family" it has taken a world-wide community!

Kenya Amini

301 Murphy Dr.

Pacific, MO 63069 USA

Kenya Amini is a 501c3 tax deductible organization.

January Trip with Kelsie

I made the trip back to Kenya for the month of January but this time I had my little sidekick with me, my 4.5 month old daughter Kelsie. Mama Mwangi has been running the house and taking care of the kids for the past several months. Since they were still on school break I wanted to get back there to visit and see how everyone is doing.

Of course everyone is doing well but growing up so quickly. My little Karanja is now a teenager!! How did that happen??

Karanja

Kelsie and Me

The kids were so excited to meet Kelsie! Though at first they were a bit scared of her because she is so little and doesn't walk yet. The first night we found the small kids staring at her as she was falling asleep. They said they wanted to see what a white/foreign baby looks like when she sleeps:) The same as every baby! We get quite a few visitors but we have never had a small baby visit us. The youngest visitor we have had was my cousin, Kevin Birk, when he was in 6th grade . When he walked past the elementary school in town all of the kids came running and were trying to touch him. You would have thought he was an international celebrity and of course Kevin just took it all in stride. So you can image the attention Kelsie got and she loved it!!! She basically enjoyed everything about the trip and fit right in with the Kenyan culture. She loved being held by everyone and was always full of smiles (until the camera would come out). She is very observant and enjoys watching everything going on around her. Usually when I take visitors to town (Nyeri and Nairobi) they are overwhelmed by how busy everything is. Well Kelsie thought it was great and it provided endless amounts of people watching. As a result of all of the attention, excitement and entertainment she basically didn't sleep much for the whole month. It was difficult to get her to sleep before 9pm and she was always awake by 6am. And for naps, she rarely ever took one more than about 20 minutes. She just couldn't miss out!

In town with Bochi

Kelsie's in her bed- her travel bed in the suitcase with mosquito net covering it.

Checking everything out on the plane

The boys playing with Kelsie

St. Gerald Children's Centre taking tea with the Catholic Brothers

 

Visiting her Auntie

St. Gerald students

Mama Mwangi

When she was at the house, the kids would take turns pushing her in her stroller/buggy (which they had never seen before but thought it was pretty cool). They would even push her two at a time when they were too excited to wait.

The kids were on the tail end of their school break when we arrived. So we spent a few days doing back to school shopping. This means you go to about 15 different shops, no Super Walmart or Target.... Different shops for shoes, uniforms, toiletries, books, belts etc. And of course we shop around to find the best prices, so it takes a few days to get all of the shopping finished.  Kelsie went with us for all of the shopping. We would take turns taking her in some of the shops or staying with her in the car. But at least this time we had a car to transport all of items rather than taking the matatu and then carrying everything all the way to the house!

We have four new students joining high school this year and are really proud of their performance on their standardized exams! The results on this exam determine which boarding high school the students attend and they were each selected to good schools, although they are at four different schools. We typically like having them all at one school as it makes it easier to visit them on visiting days and to keep up with them. But when they get called to a good school it's a must for them to go.



Endarasha was really dry which is good as it's easy to get the vehicle back and forth to the house but bad for the crops. When there are few rains the piped water gets rationed and there isn't enough water for watering crops in the garden. Therefore, the garden is really dry and not producing as much food as we would like. But we are still getting enough cabbage, spinach, kale, carrots, green peppers and beets for cooking in the kitchen, just not really enough to try selling.

We have quite a few animals at the house now, chickens, four sheep and a cow. The kids are pretty excited about our cow! We finally got the cow in June and it produces enough milk for consumption at the house and to sell a few liters each day. This means they milk the cow in the morning and keep that milk. Then in the afternoon they milk again and either the gardener or the kids carry it to the road to sell it to the dairy co-op milk truck. The kids enjoy when they get to take the milk to meet the truck. According to Mama Mwangi a house isn't a home without a cow, so we now have a home:)