The Strike (Kenya)

The Strike

"May the misery of your neighbor

not keep you awake at night" 

It has been three weeks since I got here, but it really feels like an eternity; this culture is just amazing, the area is fantastic, and the Umoja project makes me feel that I really have a purpose, in a way that I have never felt before. 

The phrase above is something that Pastor John, one of the Umoja staff, shared with me when he was explaining about how people behaved around here: sometimes they did not really care about their fellow man. But he also shared that in the past few years, thanks to Umoja, that way of thinking was changing. Eighteen schools working together, congregational leaders coming together, different denominations uniting to help the orphans and vulnerable children. I wonder if reading this will insight you to behave as this community did before or if the suffering of your neighbor may keep you awake at night...

Umoja project is sponsoring over 360 children (primary, secondary, and university students) which includes school fees, uniforms, blankets, kerosene, hygiene products, etc. Plus, they are feeding 3,000 students everyday! AMAZING, HUH??

So, I started on the home visits, in the company of the wonderful Pastor John and we spent hours in the students' homes: getting to know their families a little bit, their challenges and struggles, and most importantly we got to pray for them. We do not have money to hand out, but what we do have, we give and it is our prayers and our time; families really appreciate that. Even though they have no food in the house, that doesn't stop them from seeing God's love for them through our visit. Taking that time and care is of utmost value to them. But we are faced with heart-breaking realities too: like this grandma who has three grandchildren and she can not take care of them. Actually, they are taking care of her and she said to me, "Please take my grandchildren with you and offer them a future..." I was silent and thought, "I know that sometimes it may seem like it is not enough, but by helping them with school, Umoja is giving them the possibility of a future". Thank goodness, Pastor John was there to save me because I had no idea what to say!... Wow, I am learning so much from this experience. I don't believe there is any seminary in the world that can prepare you for something like this!

Now, the difficult thing is that the schools are on strike, which I totally understand and support since the government is not paying fair wages nor are they being true to past promises. So the schools remain closed and schools closed means no lunch program. Without the lunch program, the children do not eat. Take a moment to truly understand the depth of this statement: the biggest problem with this is that, for many children, the meal that they have at school is the ONLY MEAL that they have in a day... So schools being closed is no longer about education alone, it becomes a much BIGGER ISSUE!

The Umoja staff got together and came up with some ideas. Hopefully the strike will end soon, but if not, one idea is for the church congregations to start offering a daily meal for the children in the community. Pastor John and I are still visiting students with the help of some teachers, but we cannot do more than five or six visits per day. Distances are quite long between the schools and some of the children's houses. We asked the schools to provide us with maize and beans to at least take food to some of the families. Some of the schools were responsive, others were not. We are working with the latter group to "help them" change their minds, since the food supply that each school has is a provision of Umoja Project.

We visited several people yesterday and there was a disabled grandmother who was barely able to walk and her granddaughter (9) who is HIV positive. This little girl is so beautiful, you would not believe it, I still have the image of her smile locked in my brain and on my heart. Her grandmother was ready to bow down before us in gratitude when she saw the food we brought. Obviously, we would not allow her to do that and then she started singing a song of praise to the Lord for the blessing... CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? She didn't have food, yet she was not angry with God because of that, she was praising Him! That only reminds me of all the stupid reasons we use to be angry with God and to fight (as Christians) with each other, when we could be using our time to help people like this. What an example of great faith this grandmother showed.

To support a student here, it is only $35/month. If you calculate it out, it's not much: that could be just one night a month that you don't eat dinner out. Without that dinner out once a month, we can change the whole life course of a little one here. What kind of neighbor are we going to be?

From the most wonderful place in the world....

Fede