I awoke early this morning, just like every other morning. Sleep and I just don't seem to be compatible, the cock begins to crow at 04:00 which quickly wakes the dog, who howls in protest, the dog sparks the ducks and turkey into life, and the crickets.....well I think one just lives in the roof cavity above my bed and chirps 24/7, and then around 05:00 along come the doves on the roof.
Around 06:00 my family back home and I made numerous attempts to wish each other a Merry Christmas, all with little success, they couldn't connect to my Kenyan sim, the Internet connection was too poor for Skype, so eventually we resorted to a Q&A style email conversation. It would have been great to talk to them, but I know they a safe and well and that is all that matters.
After a light breakfast of avocado on bread (OMGosh, the avos here are enormous) the sister of my home stay and I walked across the track to the children's home (HH) Upon arrival the atmosphere was one of a little bewilderment, tinged with excitement of the unexpected/unknown
The house mums must have been hard at work since sunrise, with the fires burning hot in the ovens, the dining area was swept and washed clean and the smell of food cooking was mouth watering.
Before long the three key players of the days events arrive, and under their instruction we all kick
into action, dressing the dining area with balloons and streamers, the tree is placed in the centre of the
room and is quickly swallowed up by a sea of gifts.... Its just fantastic, there is a brightly wrapped gift and a goodie bag for every child at HH.
Each individual gift consists of a hand knitted bear donated by a generous group of knitters somewhere, many thousands of miles away from Nakuru, along with a sheet of stickers, and a small toy, be it a bead necklace, a book, a toy from a long forgotten McDonald's Happy Meal or a used toy car that has made its way to Kenya in a charity box.
Before too long the children are lining up to come inside, and as all seventy eight of them are ushered in through the main doors of the dining area, dusty and hot from playing outside in the baking sun of the early morning, the look of wonder on their little faces as they enter is priceless. And for just a moment there is near silence as they look at each other as if to say
"Is this all for us?"
And then excitement takes over and there is running and squealing, laughing and chatter, a few of them circle the Christmas tree and all its treasures, others appear too excited to know what to do. before long one of the gamer boys takes a sneaky peek inside a goodie bag, all the adults both Local and Mazungu alike look on with a sense of privilege, honoured to be part of such a beautiful event. Here are children with so little and for just one day you would think they had the world.
Before too long Father Christmas comes stomping down from upstairs, armed with some shared presents, large boxes of Lego and other construction toys generously donated by some kind soul in our global community, if only that person could see the joy their simple gesture was bringing to these children. Santa and his helpers started by giving the children their goodie bags. Simple brown paper bags with a few coloured pencil, stickers, a small carved wooden animal and a few lollies inside, you
would think they had each been given a PS3...
But then the amazing thing happened, as Santa started to give each child his or her own personal gift, each and every child held the gift on their lap, not one attempted to unwrap it... I thought maybe this was customary, or maybe what they had been instructed to do, but as the staff began to see this they encouraged the children to rip open their gift, it soon became apparent not one of them knew how to open a gift.... I can only assume this is because they had never received one to open before. The little sweetie next to me looked up and asked "whose is this?" when I said "its for you" her smile could have lit up Las Vegas, but immediately she turned and offered her gift bag to me!
The house mums are fantastic, they had made an extra special Christmas lunch for the children and they all received enormous servings of a meat stew, with potatoes, rice and chapatis... Followed by a soft drink! Something totally unheard of to them, and many couldn't finish their bottle. Now these children certainly don't go hungry, I've seen the servings they get at meal times, beans and rice, beans and ugali, and we are talking African servings, a serving that even I can't finish, but never do they get such treats as they did today.
As the excitement of the day began to die down and they day wore on songs, face painting, balloons, glow stick and games rounded off a day I hope the children of HH won't forget this Christmas Day in a hurry, I know I most certainly won't...
Whilst the children had been devouring their feast, I had struck up a conversation with a visiting mazungu, who began to share with me some of the work he is doing within the IDP camp. Pipeline IDP camp is the camp/community that neighbours the school and children's home, Pipeline is where a large number of the learners from Aberdare Ranges school reside. Here was a man with a passion to help this desperate community improve itself. Improve and assist but not by means of a handout, not by giving them something for nothing, but through a partnership, he began explaining to me a pilot programme he is introducing, one of an individual self composting choo (latrine/toilet) for each family within the camp. Families buy, through a similar idea of micro finance their very own choo.
The more we talked, I became more and more intrigued to see this innovation for myself, so as the festivities drew to a close, he invited me to walk with him to the camp, and he offered to show me the latrines in-situ. Having not yet visited the camp I was keen to visit, but also a little dubious as to what I might see.....
That is another whole post unto itself.......
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