an awakening

thursday- our first full day in kenya! this morning we got up and had breakfast at the jesuit residence at about 7:30 (which would become our normal routine) and headed over to nyumbani first thing. of course we wanted to leave at about 8:30 and didn't get going until about 9:15 (something else that has developed into somewhat of a routine- on average we are about 45 minutes late to everything we do here- nothing is ever set in stone and things in kenya and africa more generally just operate on a sliding scale, independent of time. it's kind of like island time- things will get done when they get done)... anyways, Nyumbani ('home' in Swahili) is an organization that was started in 1992 by Fr. D'Agustino, S.J. with the mission of serving HIV positive children, who have almost all been abandoned and then orphaned as their parents have passed away. although 'fr. dag' passed away this past november, he is a legend here and his legacy is still being carried on as nyumbani is now a very stable and well respected organization in nairobi that does amazing work. Nyumbani is the name of the organization as a whole and there are three projects within the organization- the Children's Home (the primary part), Lea Toto, and the Village. The Children's Home is an orphanage that takes in and cares for abandoned HIV positive children (right now about 100 children are living there). There are children ranging from less than six months old up to 18 years old. The kids live at Nyumbani home, in cottages, and each cottage is a 'family.' Within each cottage there are kids of all ages, with the intent that the older ones will look out for the younger ones (and when the kids get to be 14 or 15 they move out of the cottages and into apartment style living, still on the same site but where they now cook for themselves, do their own laundary, etc.). Because of the success and support Nyumbani has had and has received, they have been blessed with several donors and now have amazing facilities for the children. There is a great playground, a basketball court, and a futbol field is being built. There is also a preschool and nursery and when the kids get past preschool and are ready for Standard 1, they start taking buses to school during the day...The second part of Nyumbani is Lea Toto (which means 'to raise a child' in Swahili), a community based outreach program that provides services to HIV+ children and their families in the Nairobi neighborhoods of Kangemi, Waithaka, Kawangware, Riruta, Mutuini, Ruthimitu, Kibera and Kariobangi (these neighborhoods are predomantly all 'slum' areas where extreme poverty is the daily reality for all). Started in 1998, this program was a response to the belief that the orphanage couldn't address all of the concerns surrounding HIV+ children. An arrangement was established where these children can continue living with their families (usually a grandparent or auntie or uncle, as their parents have likely passed away) communities of Nairobi, which HIV+ children could remain with their caregivers in their communities. Within each neighborhood, Lea Toto has a central office that provides several social services for the families in the area, including income generating services, couseling and psychological support, spiritual guidance, educational services, testing facilities, and food relief services (through World Food Programme and US AID). All of these services are free and available on a daily basis (they are fully funded by private donations, grants, and the support of volunteers). And in addition to these services offerred through the offices, Lea Toto workers routinely make 'house visits,' where they go visit all of the different families caring for HIV+ children in that neighborhood (and over time, they begin to develop a relationship with these families)....Finally, the third branch of Nyumbani is the Village. And the Village was developed in response to the need for an alternative way to better respond to the needs of everyone affected by HIV/AIDS, not just those who actually have the virus. Meaning that Lea Toto does an incredible job of working with the children, but often the grandparents or aunts and uncles that care for the children, as well as the other siblings, aren't given support (even though they too are struggling and living a life of extreme poverty, discrimination, and marginalization). So the idea behind the Village was to take families of HIV+ children, usually siblings and grandparents, and bring them to a village setting outside of Katui (the eastern rural, desert region of Kenya- about 3.5 hours southeast of Nairobi). And although the Village is still in its first year of having families live there, the hope is that at the end of the fifth year, the Village will be completely and fully self-sufficient! So, sorry about that long outline of Nyumbani, but it's absolutely essential to understanding anything and everything about my experiences here, because the general outline of our trip is to spend time working with each of these three branches...Anyways, on Thursday morning we went to visit the Children's Home. We spent a few hours there in the morning meeting with Sister Mary (who once was a secretary and assistant for Fr. Dag, but is now the Executive Director of Nyumbani) who spoke to us extensively about Fr. D'Agastino, his mission, and the current state of Nyumbani. Then we had a tour around the orphanage and met some of the younger children (almost everyone was gone at school). This first introduction to Nyumbani was moving and I could already tell that there was something holy about this place, but I could never have anticipated how affected I would be by some of the kids I would later meet when we returned... After the morning at the Children's Home, we visited two the slum neighborhoods that Lea Toto works in, first touring their offices (very modest, but adequate) and then walking through the neighborhoods themselves, with a few of the social workers, attempting to make a few house visits. Walking through the slums was a very uncomfortable experience. There was something that felt wrong and dehumanizing about what we were doing. Regardless of where our motives may have been, it seemed that the situation could have been portrayed in an extremely problematic manner (our group was too big to have any personal house visits and it almost seemed as if nothing more was going on than 14 affluent white people parading through slum neighborhoods to 'observe' the extreme poverty)...However, after some reflection and discussion this evening, i felt some sort of comfort and peace. I still believe that the experience wasn't ideal, but i am beginning to understand the ways in which aspects of the experience may have been meaningful- at least for us (as with anything I believe the first step is awareness, so just for some people in our group to even see this kind of poverty and begin to understand that there are people who are forced to live like this, is important and significant, in breaking down barriers)...Later we found out that the two particular neighborhoods we visited were the two poorest in all of Nairobi- the poverty we witnessed here was absolutely unlike anything i have ever experienced, including the townships in South Africa. Not only is everyone living without electricity or running water, 'houses' consist of cardboard or sheet metal built on top of dirt floors, and the 'streets' are covered with and are full of garbage...To say the least, this was a pretty overwhelming first day and by the time we got back to the Jesuit residence, we ate, had reflection (*another routine for the trip- every night after dinner, we all gather around and share about our experiences that day, what happened and how we feel at this point), and then crashed. for more on the history and mission behind Nyumbani, the work that is currently going on, or the support you can give, go to: www.nyumbani.org.