AHHHH! More Kids!, Christmas, and a Farewell

In the first 18 days of December the House of Hope has taken in 19 new children! On the 18th alone 10 new children were brought home. Welcome Francis, Ndichu, Mondo, Regina, Joseph, Wanja, Nancy, Rosemary, Monica, Charo (yes, Charo), Ruguru, and Chege (pictured in order):






































With the amount of new children I haven't been able to hear all of their stories and for that I apologize. All of the new children are acclimating with the other children well. They are great, great kids!


Christmas at the House of Hope

Below is an excerpt from our January Newsletter:

Have you ever prepared a Christmas morning for sixty-three children? It’s a daunting experience but completely worth it! The preparation began with preparing for each child a bag with his or her name on it. Of course we thought plain black magic marker on brown paper bag was too boring so we decided to add some flair by drawing full color pictures on bag with mulit-colored Sharpies (Thank you Krista Vossler!). Drawing sixty-three pictures takes longer than what you would think and we still had to stuff the things!
We proceeded to fill the bags with candy, chips, and fruit juices as well as items picked from the busy market, which Tammi loved! We purchased gifts from lists given to Margaret from the children. Most of the gifts were modest: sandals, shoulder shawls, purses, toy cars, and a Bible. Others were a bit more outlandish: a piano (they have a piano) and an “air piano” (we had no idea where to even begin!). But we were able to get the bags completed a full day before Christmas! Now came the task of sorting through all of the clothes lovingly donated to each child earlier in the year.
Margaret, as well as Tammi and I were amazed at the great amount of clothes donated. We had an amazingly easy time assigning outfits to each child and we even had enough to accomadate all nineteen of the new children. How amazing is that?! On Christmas morning we distributed to each child a new outfit, which they rushed to put on. They looked so handsome and beautiful, you could see them beaming with pride in their new clothes.
Next we handed out each child’s package. They were so excited that they almost couldn’t wait to tear into them. When each child had it’s package, well, I can’t even begin to tell you what happened next. I know there was a blur of motion, screaming, laughter, and then it was all over. The children had a great time and it appears that they got everything that they wanted (except that blasted air piano!).
While the children were opening their packages they gorged themselves on the candy and juice in their bags so by the time lunch was served the children began to crash. Luckily the rice, meat, and soda were enough to revive them for the church service that followed. During the service, Christopher, the plumber, rededicated his life to the Lord. Afterwards he told me “You know Michael, I thought being a Christian was enough, but it’s not”. That really meant a lot to me because sharing in this culture, especially between men, doesn’t happen to terribly much.
All in all, Christmas at the House of Hope was a great experience but not one I would want to do everyday. It was so tiring, but rewarding at the same time.



A Farewell:


Just after the New Year Tammi and I will be leaving the House of Hope to go volunteer in Mwanza for almost four months at the Montessori Training Center of Tanzania. We will be leaving with the blessings and encouragement of Margaret and the House of Hope Family. It will be so hard to leave all of the children, but we feel this is something that God wants us to do.

At the Training Center, we will be able to use the skills that we have both been blessed with to a greater extent.

Please keep us in your prayers as we make the move to Tanzania.

Hey! Guess What? NEW KIDS! -plus- Look What Tammi Has Been Up To!

So we have a couple of new boys at the House of Hope. One is named Ndishu and the other Joseph. I think they are both closed to five. It gets difficult when a bunch of new kids start showing up. You kinda lose touch with who they are and their ages and their stories (all heartbreaking). Tammi went with Margaret to rescue the boys, but didn't get the chance to chronicle the experience. I know she was really tired when all was said and done. Since I don't have the back story for the boys, I will put up more interesting pictures of them rather than the regular "brick wall mugshots" (plus, I have yet to take the pictures on the wall...sorry Pam). The first one is Joseph and the second Ndishu. They are really quiet but really sweet.



On the domestic front Tammi has HAND-STITCHED another quilt! This time it covers our ful size bed. It is very warm. It was made entirely from fabric purchased in Mwanza. I am very proud of her! Check it out:



Plus here is a photo I took of a sunflower that hasn't bloomed. It's my desktop wallpaper:

I love it!

Have a great week!

Ps. I have also posted the lion-share of photos to flickr. No more catching up for me!

Three New Kids and the Boys Emerge...Sort of...

In the past week the House of Hope has gained several new children, all boys.

Last Tuesday, when Margaret was picking Tammi, Kelly and I u from the Nakumatt we were met with a young child in the van. His name is Amos and he is five. Like Njeri, Wanaina, and Wanjiro, Amos only speaks his mother tongue, Kikuyu. We don’t know much of Amos’ story except that he spent a lot of time on his own in his village roaming around. Hopefully we will learn more as time goes on.

The two other boys, brothers Victor (6) and Eric (4), came a few days later, also a surprise. A couple of months ago they lost both of their parents to AIDS. They were then moved to their Aunt’s who also died. Finally they reached their grandparents house about a month ago. Shortly thereafter their grandmother passed as well. Having his wife die caused the grandfather to become overcome with grief and he disappeared. The boys were taken in by a local priest and his wife a couple of weeks ago only to have the wife die. Where the boys were finally left at the Village Chiefs office. This is where Margaret got them. Victor and Eric have had a hard road and though they are rescued they still have struggles ahead of them. The boys also only speak their mother tongue, but their dialect, Wikamba, is only spoke fluently by two people at House of Hope, Peter the Herdsman and Agnes Muthoni, the cook. Margaret speaks very little Wikamba. On the bright side, Victor and Eric have already been circumcised so they were able to move into the boys dorm to become more quickly integrated into the House of Hope. The first boy pictured is Victor, the second, Eric.

Last Friday we a ceremony for the boys coming out of seclusion, or so we thought. We had some visitors come so, one an evangelist from New York and one from Nairobi, who has been a friend of the House of Hope for a few years. The guests came with food and sweets for the children. The food brought will be used for Christmas and the sweets, well the sweets were metabolized as soon as they were given. After all the food and fun, where were the boys? Back to their room! It turns out the men believe the boys still need more time in seclusion, that some of the boys still haven’t healed properly.
That was last friday and the boys, while making a few appearances a day, still remain in seclusion. Hopefully we will see them soon.

This was supposed to be my week to really get all of the pictures uploaded but it ended up being Kenyan Independance Day so I had a window of four hours at the Sarit Centre to get it all done but it turns out that three of those hours the internet was taking a nap. So in this last hour I am rushing to get at least the oldest pictures put up, the Mwanza pictures. Tammi, Kelly, and Margaret went to a market and I came here and now they are done, so we will see what gets up!

Four New Kids, A Moment, & Tear Gas

In this past week the House of Hope has been blessed with four new children! During the week Caroline’s, one of the already existing children at House of Hope, aunt and sister, Grace, came for a visit. Tammi and I thought this weird. If Caroline’s aunt is capable of taking care of Grace (and another brother, we found out later) then why couldn’t she take care of Caroline as well? Well it turns out that she has grown weary of the children and was coming to talk to Margaret about placement. Margaret thought it best that the aunt continue caring for the children, but would allow Grace to stay with us for a week.

Grace, who is twelve, has been nothing but a joy to be with since she has been here. She is extremely helpful and friendly and has already blended well with the other children. I hope she is able to stay.
On Friday Margaret told Tammi and Kelly that they were invited to go with her to pick three more children in a village a few hours away. I wasn’t invited because the mother was single and still an active prostitute, and it might look bad for me to go into her home. I understood completely and stayed home and cleaned the house and did laundry anxiously awaiting their return. They had departed about nine in the morning and did not return until almost eight that evening. With them they returned with three beautiful children, two girls and one boy, Wanjiro, Njeri, and Wanaina.

Wanjiro is not yet two years old and is so tiny, but she can walk and feed herself, to the amazement of all the children. Loise, who is four, just recently began feeding herself.

Njeri is six, she is beautiful. She was born with only three fingers on her right hand and limp from what we think is a shorter right leg, but at first glance these differences aren’t apparent because she has adapted so well to them and acts just like every other child. Margaret didn’t even notice them until the next day!

Wanaina is the boy and he is nine but has the body of a four year old. Tammi says that on the way back to House of Hope he kept talking about different foods he had never had, and was hoping to have. Things like bread, rice, chapati, meat, all things that are normally served here, were delicacies to him. By chance Muthoni, our cook, had prepared chapati for dinner that evening so the children were met with meals of chapati, rice and meat. They were so excited.
Of course there is some apprehension with the new children. I can only imagine how overwhelming it must be to leave a place that you pretty much only took care of yourself and siblings and enter an environment filled with children to play with and actually knowing that your meals will come at certain time everyday. Their second day here, one of the existing children asked Njeri what was wrong with her hand, and she broke and started crying and went outside and refused to go back inside. We know the child who asked wasn’t trying to be malicious, only curious, but this sensitivity is normally with every new child who joins the House of Hope. Tammi and Kelly asked Margaret if Njeri could come up to Kelly’s room to just get away from everyone, Margaret, allowed it. Njeri stayed up for about an hour and did art and ate sweets and eventually went back down stairs and has been fine ever since.
Oh yeah, Wanjiro, Njeri, and Wanaina only speak Kikuyu, the language of the people group of the same name. Luckily Margaret, some of the Aunties, Cyrus, several workers and few children speak it enough for the children not to feel left out. So our English and the little Kiswahili we know is absolutely useless in communicating with them. Grace speaks English very well.

Something happened last night that made our time here completely worth it: Tammi and Kelly have a weekly girls night in Kelly’s apartment. Usually I go down stairs and watch a movie with the boys, but since the majority of the boys are still in seclusion I stayed in Tammi and I’s apartment and went over some of our pictures. A few minutes into girls night Tammi came over with Mary to get something and out of nowhere Mary points to Tammi and says “You are my second mother,” then she points to me and says “and you are my second father”. I flinched at her openness. I asked her if it was okay for me to give her a hug, and after much giggling she walked over and hugged me. It was the best thing to happen to me since we have been here.
I know this is unprofessional of me, don’t tell anyone I said this: Mary is my favorite.

This morning on the way to town Margaret and Cyrus told us that there may be riots in the city today. I wore flip flops today, I am not prepared for a riot! Anyway, we were told that it was due to rivalling political parties and demonstrations and such. With the boring two party system of the states, this is new to us (not that I am attempting to incite riots over our electoral process). So after having to pay high customs fees Tammi and I had to go to the bank to get some more money. On the way there I saw a group of people (just business people, not rebellious youth ala the WTO riots in Seattle) running towards us and hearing what sounded like a drum circle. We just got out of the way and proceeded to the bank. Upon entering the bank there was a fine smoke in the air, as well as people covering their faces with their shirts. Then there it was: the burning in the eyes, nose, and throat. We had walked into tear gas. Apparently a few blocks away the police (or military, who knows, they all carry machine guns) had released tear gas and the wind had carried it our way. Exciting but mostly scary.

Welcome to Africa.

Ps.I am trying to load as many pictures as we can. We have almost five hundred pictures to load and while the Sarit Centre is quick but not that quick, our battery might run out! Maybe when we have more time I will bring our power converter and have a go at it! Sorry.

Pps. Also sorry the last entry being posted four times! That blasted Nakumatt!

Ppps. The first photo is John Felix after the, ummm, ceremony. All the boy's had matching khangas (the wraps) that we picked up in Mwanza. Hopefully Mwanza pictures will make it this week!

Here's Tammi:

Week 11/30-12/4

We drove up to a small village that was right off a main road. From first glance it just looked like a few run down shops not really worth stopping and looking. As we drove up we were met by a well dressed woman who spoke English fairly well, she got into the van and said we were allowed to park at her house that was higher up on a hill. Her house was amazing, small in size by American standards but very large for the village standards. Inside her house was handwritten quotes written all on the walls. Some were scripture others were just very powerful quotes. She was very educated. She said her specialty was helping “special needs” children. My heart rejoiced at the sound of an African saying “special needs” most people just say things like “they are not right in the head”, or “retarded”, or “lame”, or “stupid” so you can see my need to rejoice over this women who lives in a village where most everyone has AIDS and she knows what “special needs” is and wants to help them. So she tells us that one of the three children that we took found out that we were coming that day and had not left her house out of fear he would miss us.
We were then lead to the house where the other children, mother, aunt, and grandmother were at. The room we entered was no bigger then a walk-in closet, Kelly and I were asked to sit down but we almost could not fit. The mother and aunt were in the room, they did not look as bad as I made them out to be in my head. They seemed pretty peaceful but very skinny and their bodies were shaking. On the bed was the baby, the two year old that looks no more than twelve months, and the aunt puts the baby on my lap. She was just wearing a small shirt and no bottoms, not a diaper or a cloth, nothing. The baby gave me a look over and then crawled down and walked to Margaret and grabbed her hand and never looked back. She went everywhere Margaret went and never cried, not even when we were leaving or saying goodbye to her family. The boy could not stop smiling and laughing, he just keep saying in Kikuyu all the food he was going to get to eat. He was so excited about being in a car for the first time in his life and about the juice he got on the way home. He has a really bad cough that sounds horrible but he does not let that slow him down. He is a little aggressive at times but who can blame him really. Njeri the middle girl is so sweet, she cried once in the van but it was not because she just left her dying mother, aunt and grandmother, it was because the van was going very fast and she did not understand it or like it. She told Margaret it felt like she was falling. No tears were shed at the children’s departure, I think Kelly and I were about to cry more than the mother was.
It’s hard to explain but I think they were rejoicing at the thought that their children would not end up like them. I think the image we saw on our way out put the whole experience into perspective. We left looking out the window at a man that was building a small coffin.