Despite wanting to rush to the home, Cary and I knew we had to drink our coffee and have some fresh fruit and eggs for breakfast, given that neither of us had eaten the night before. After feeling replenished, we headed to the children, who saw us before we saw them. Soila nearly knocked me over in her glee. One by one, we hugged, kissed and laughed at this reunion. Grace, Peresia, Kanai and Anne are noticeably taller. Mturi has lost another tooth and Jer, looking up at me with a toothless grin, waited for my acknowledgement. As soon as I remarked about his 'gap', he started to jiggle the remaining one, to show me that it, too, was not long for the world. He knows I get the creeps from this, so he brought it to my attention for the remainder of the day. Devil.
Because we are here for only 2 weeks, I decided I needed to structure the constant needs of the children in an organized manner. Thus, I wrote their names on the blackboard next to 2 columns:
NEED and WANT. I instructed the children to write in the boxes what was most important vs what they really want. I promised to purchase the necessities, and maybe, just maybe, we will get to the 'wants' if we have time (and money).
David and I then headed to the shamba (garden) so he could show me what was happening after Agnes had shut the water off when we were here in January. The two volunteers that had spent 6 months clearing, tilling, planting and nurturing this shamba would be sick if they were here to see what had happened to their hard work and efforts. Everything was gone: fruit trees, watermelon, sekuma, lettuce, maize, squash, tomatoes, carrots, onions and spinach. Agnes let the shamba die.
It was a malicious and deliberate attempt to get someone (me or Patricia and Reini) to pay the electricity bill. No one would, so she cut off the water. In typical Kenyan fashion, David shrugged and said " It's okay, Auntie Simmie, we will grow everything from scratch". I just shook my head, there are no words.
We headed back inside, as an African storm was brewing. It had been only 10 minutes and the kids had gone to work:
On the blackboard, Gideon wrote 'legos' in his 'need' box and 'trousers' in his 'want' box. When I asked Gideon if he had 'mixed this up' he answered 'no'. I really had to laugh. To Gideon, legos are life. Trousers are something that he has to wear to school. Gideon is 9. We didn't bring more legos on this trip, but I guarantee you we will be looking for them in Ngong very shortly.
I wish we had time for some pictures today, but there simply weren't enough hands, given that our laps were full with kids the entire day. The only time we didn't have the kids on our laps was when we watched the skies ~ in awe ~ unleash their fury in the form of torrential rains. It is rainy season, after all. First stop tomorrow? The market for gum boots, so that we don't break our necks in the 6" of mud!
Nawapenda all, it's been a wonderful day, but sleep is calling ....
Simmie
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