click here::
a recent interview
turn off the HD if you have trouble streaming.
(this interview was done by darryl augustine.)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
an article written about us...
The Greatest Field Trip Ever
By Jessica Pratezina
I bumped into the blog of a sister parishioner at Little Trinity and was immediately struck by gripping photographs of her two small Canadian children frolicking in Kenya. They ate sugar cane by the roadside, hung out with chickens and cattle, and played with kids their age on the other side of the world. Looking at those photos, I knew I needed to connect with Kathryn Gray, their mother, and find out what made her decide to take her children, by herself, to Africa for three weeks.
Gray, 34, sits on a Toronto park bench and tells me her story between admonishing her five-year-old daughter Anna to keep her shoes on and her three-year-old son Joseph not to throw sand.
"Street-involved people in urban centers in North America have always been my gig."
Kat had been working with marginalized people for the last ten years in one form or another. But this changed with her decision to home school her two small children.
"As a home-schooling parent you're looking for opportunities to expose your children to the world. My approach to home schooling is to let the kids explore and experience the world.
"Being a mother opens your eyes to children and mothers all over the world, so that's probably where it started. I began to think about the state other women raise their families in all over the world. I began to be interested in Africa because, as a continent, it seems to be riddled with almost every social ill. I began reading about development. I like to understand problems and look for good solutions.”
Gray is not happy just doling out money to aid organizations, though she has done that.
“I started reading up on economics and looking at comprehensive solutions for Third World countries and I started to get excited about it, which is funny because economics is not at all my bag. I spent a year and a half reading and talking about social justice and hammering out ideas. And I just felt like it was time for me to put my hand to something. I'd been retired for two years and I felt it was time to do something."
The opportunity to do something came when friends who operate a small, non-profit organization which focuses on supporting orphans and vulnerable children called ReACT Kenya, asked her if she would like to go to Kenya with them for three weeks. Kat said, "Yes, but I want to bring my children."
In an age where we don't let our kids cross the street alone, this woman was carting her children off to the other side of the world.
"Needing to bring the children is hard for me to explain but since having the children, my experience with people living in poverty has been enriched.”
Gray has people living in her neighbourhood whom she used to know when she was Assistant Director at the Salvation Army Gateway. They now stop to talk to her about her children.
“I'm able to connect with women living in Regent Park because we have children the same age. I knew that if I took them to Kenya that my experience would be enriched. I would see things through their eyes and be able to connect with people faster because I have children."
When children are small, even a trip to the grocery store can require a lot of preparation. But Kat wanted to stay laid-back.
"My approach to the whole trip was to not prepare them a lot. If something became difficult we would deal with it. I think sometimes we want to caution our children too much and we actually make them anxious. But if you let them just roll, for the most part they roll.”
The only thing Gray really spent a lot of time preparing them for was the two-day plane trip. But beyond that she didn't tell them a lot.
“I didn't want them to have preconceived notions or stigmas. I didn't want them to notice that they were different from everyone.”
Gray and her children stayed with Daniel Lipparelli, the founder of the non-profit organization Transformed International. He owns a compound that had space available and was able to give the three of them a bedroom, a tree-house and a see-saw. Each child took a book, one stuffed animal and colouring pencils. The kids had a blast.
"That's all they had for three weeks and they were in heaven."
But as enchanting and as exciting as Kenya was, with its immense flatness, bustling urban centres and rides on a boda-boda (bicycle taxi) there was still the heartbreak of a country that is struggling to stabilize its economy, politics and society. Only now, four months later, has Anna started talking about Kenya on a deeper level. She's starting to ask questions about the slums. The other day Anna asked “Why don't we build them houses?”
“I was so stumped because that is such a complex question. And there is no real answer. This would happen to me when I was working at the shelter. People would ask me 'What is the solution to homelessness?' And I couldn't answer them.”
In the end, Anna decided she wanted to send money to Daniel Lipparelli, the man they had been staying with in Kenya.
“I hope that these experiences will foster in them a thirst for justice and a motivation to do something about injustice. But I also hope that they learn how complex these problems are and that just shipping some money off to Kenya isn't always the best thing. But for us sitting here in the West, it's the easiest. I'm not saying people shouldn't send money, but I am saying that we can't just send money."
But being an adult with a firmer grasp on the larger world and the principles at work in the suffering she saw around had a different effect on Gray.
"There were difficult things. I tucked it all away and all these months later I'm still processing. The good thing was that the children didn't see anything really difficult. I went on a tour of the slums and didn't take the children. Most of the difficult things were hearing people's stories.
"I'll admit that at times I don't always know what God wants of us. What I know is that God's heart is for justice. You can't ignore that. Christians love to compartmentalize and say 'we need to save souls.' And I kind of shrug my shoulders and say that if someone doesn't have enough to eat, no place to live and can't live safely... that's not okay. I try to look at everything holistically.”
It took the young mother a long time to realize that Christianity is something that's meant to be lived out in community with other people and it's more holistic than just one’s 'soul.'
“God has called me to seek justice. Realistically, I'm just a stay-at-home mom who's trying to figure out how to be involved in my community and my world while I raise the children God gave me. Figuring this out with the kids is an ongoing process. And it does slow me down. When I was in Kenya I couldn't be just 'go, go, go' and be meeting people and exploring as much as I wanted to. But I wouldn't trade it for the world.”
By Jessica Pratezina
I bumped into the blog of a sister parishioner at Little Trinity and was immediately struck by gripping photographs of her two small Canadian children frolicking in Kenya. They ate sugar cane by the roadside, hung out with chickens and cattle, and played with kids their age on the other side of the world. Looking at those photos, I knew I needed to connect with Kathryn Gray, their mother, and find out what made her decide to take her children, by herself, to Africa for three weeks.
Gray, 34, sits on a Toronto park bench and tells me her story between admonishing her five-year-old daughter Anna to keep her shoes on and her three-year-old son Joseph not to throw sand.
"Street-involved people in urban centers in North America have always been my gig."
Kat had been working with marginalized people for the last ten years in one form or another. But this changed with her decision to home school her two small children.
"As a home-schooling parent you're looking for opportunities to expose your children to the world. My approach to home schooling is to let the kids explore and experience the world.
"Being a mother opens your eyes to children and mothers all over the world, so that's probably where it started. I began to think about the state other women raise their families in all over the world. I began to be interested in Africa because, as a continent, it seems to be riddled with almost every social ill. I began reading about development. I like to understand problems and look for good solutions.”
Gray is not happy just doling out money to aid organizations, though she has done that.
“I started reading up on economics and looking at comprehensive solutions for Third World countries and I started to get excited about it, which is funny because economics is not at all my bag. I spent a year and a half reading and talking about social justice and hammering out ideas. And I just felt like it was time for me to put my hand to something. I'd been retired for two years and I felt it was time to do something."
The opportunity to do something came when friends who operate a small, non-profit organization which focuses on supporting orphans and vulnerable children called ReACT Kenya, asked her if she would like to go to Kenya with them for three weeks. Kat said, "Yes, but I want to bring my children."
In an age where we don't let our kids cross the street alone, this woman was carting her children off to the other side of the world.
"Needing to bring the children is hard for me to explain but since having the children, my experience with people living in poverty has been enriched.”
Gray has people living in her neighbourhood whom she used to know when she was Assistant Director at the Salvation Army Gateway. They now stop to talk to her about her children.
“I'm able to connect with women living in Regent Park because we have children the same age. I knew that if I took them to Kenya that my experience would be enriched. I would see things through their eyes and be able to connect with people faster because I have children."
When children are small, even a trip to the grocery store can require a lot of preparation. But Kat wanted to stay laid-back.
"My approach to the whole trip was to not prepare them a lot. If something became difficult we would deal with it. I think sometimes we want to caution our children too much and we actually make them anxious. But if you let them just roll, for the most part they roll.”
The only thing Gray really spent a lot of time preparing them for was the two-day plane trip. But beyond that she didn't tell them a lot.
“I didn't want them to have preconceived notions or stigmas. I didn't want them to notice that they were different from everyone.”
Gray and her children stayed with Daniel Lipparelli, the founder of the non-profit organization Transformed International. He owns a compound that had space available and was able to give the three of them a bedroom, a tree-house and a see-saw. Each child took a book, one stuffed animal and colouring pencils. The kids had a blast.
"That's all they had for three weeks and they were in heaven."
But as enchanting and as exciting as Kenya was, with its immense flatness, bustling urban centres and rides on a boda-boda (bicycle taxi) there was still the heartbreak of a country that is struggling to stabilize its economy, politics and society. Only now, four months later, has Anna started talking about Kenya on a deeper level. She's starting to ask questions about the slums. The other day Anna asked “Why don't we build them houses?”
“I was so stumped because that is such a complex question. And there is no real answer. This would happen to me when I was working at the shelter. People would ask me 'What is the solution to homelessness?' And I couldn't answer them.”
In the end, Anna decided she wanted to send money to Daniel Lipparelli, the man they had been staying with in Kenya.
“I hope that these experiences will foster in them a thirst for justice and a motivation to do something about injustice. But I also hope that they learn how complex these problems are and that just shipping some money off to Kenya isn't always the best thing. But for us sitting here in the West, it's the easiest. I'm not saying people shouldn't send money, but I am saying that we can't just send money."
But being an adult with a firmer grasp on the larger world and the principles at work in the suffering she saw around had a different effect on Gray.
"There were difficult things. I tucked it all away and all these months later I'm still processing. The good thing was that the children didn't see anything really difficult. I went on a tour of the slums and didn't take the children. Most of the difficult things were hearing people's stories.
"I'll admit that at times I don't always know what God wants of us. What I know is that God's heart is for justice. You can't ignore that. Christians love to compartmentalize and say 'we need to save souls.' And I kind of shrug my shoulders and say that if someone doesn't have enough to eat, no place to live and can't live safely... that's not okay. I try to look at everything holistically.”
It took the young mother a long time to realize that Christianity is something that's meant to be lived out in community with other people and it's more holistic than just one’s 'soul.'
“God has called me to seek justice. Realistically, I'm just a stay-at-home mom who's trying to figure out how to be involved in my community and my world while I raise the children God gave me. Figuring this out with the kids is an ongoing process. And it does slow me down. When I was in Kenya I couldn't be just 'go, go, go' and be meeting people and exploring as much as I wanted to. But I wouldn't trade it for the world.”
Sunday, May 31, 2009
bikes
our family loves bikes.
our family loves malawi. (we have 3 sponsored children there.)
and so to ride in the Bikes Without Borders ride yesterday to raise money for bikes for health care workers in malawi was perfect.
we raised enough money for one of the bicycle ambulances pictured above.
thank you thank you to all our sponsors!!!
may
it's been months since we left kenya.
i didn't really have reverse culture shock coming home. i live in a constant state of culture shock here. although, the everyday culture shock i live with became heightened. i've had a difficult time engaging in ordinary interactions with people. everyone else wants to talk about their week or their dog or their hair and i'm screaming inside because i want to talk about darfur or sri lanka or mogadishu. i've realized that perhaps i'm not the easiest person to have around because i'm always thinking and always questioning and rarely just 'hanging out'.
i've also kind of resented my own everyday life. being at home with kids means that the bulk of my day and mental energy is eaten up by cooking and cleaning and negotiating and the like. i love this stuff...truly i do...but i've wanted more.
and then something new started to happen a month ago. anna (5) started asking questions about things we had seen in kenya. she started asking about poverty in new ways that floored me. they were the same questions that adults ask me and i found i could be more honest with her and i found my answers moved her in a way that desensitized adults can never be moved. her and i together started to say, Hey...let's do something about all this! and then one day we walked down the street past a bike shop and saw a poster.....
i didn't really have reverse culture shock coming home. i live in a constant state of culture shock here. although, the everyday culture shock i live with became heightened. i've had a difficult time engaging in ordinary interactions with people. everyone else wants to talk about their week or their dog or their hair and i'm screaming inside because i want to talk about darfur or sri lanka or mogadishu. i've realized that perhaps i'm not the easiest person to have around because i'm always thinking and always questioning and rarely just 'hanging out'.
i've also kind of resented my own everyday life. being at home with kids means that the bulk of my day and mental energy is eaten up by cooking and cleaning and negotiating and the like. i love this stuff...truly i do...but i've wanted more.
and then something new started to happen a month ago. anna (5) started asking questions about things we had seen in kenya. she started asking about poverty in new ways that floored me. they were the same questions that adults ask me and i found i could be more honest with her and i found my answers moved her in a way that desensitized adults can never be moved. her and i together started to say, Hey...let's do something about all this! and then one day we walked down the street past a bike shop and saw a poster.....
Friday, February 6, 2009
pictures III
1. this is how we roll in kenya2. i can't even tell you how ridiculous the names of shops were. my favourites were a shop called Plan B Consulting and a church called Gospel Explosion
3. seriously, this is how much kenyan children eat in one sitting
(some of the pics i'm posting are worth double-clicking on to get a better look)
Thursday, February 5, 2009
pictures II
1. in the chicken coop
2. eating sugar cane at the roadside
3. anna with joseph, the boda driver
4. a snack before carting more water
5. village life
Friday, January 30, 2009
pictures
1. at the school for children with hearing impairment
2. a dolly made with plastic bags and string
3. faith and eunice - orphaned during the clashes - these girls are mustard!
4. joseph and i walking home along the train tracks
5. laundry drying
more pictures to come!
Monday, January 26, 2009
hope
one thing i saw in kenya is how far money can go.
a canadian woman dreamed up an idea for widows. she bought a sewing machine, a serger, and material. she got a pattern so that the women could make cloth menstrual pads. (ok...let's set aside how rad microfinancing is and just say that a product like that is one that makes me stand up and say, Yeah!).
5 women are now employed. they make the pads and sell them for less than a dollar each (and they're going like hot cakes). they do mending for people in the community and they do serging for other tailors. the whole business is self-sufficient.
total cost to set up the project: $250.
doesn't that make you say, Yeah. ?
a canadian woman dreamed up an idea for widows. she bought a sewing machine, a serger, and material. she got a pattern so that the women could make cloth menstrual pads. (ok...let's set aside how rad microfinancing is and just say that a product like that is one that makes me stand up and say, Yeah!).
5 women are now employed. they make the pads and sell them for less than a dollar each (and they're going like hot cakes). they do mending for people in the community and they do serging for other tailors. the whole business is self-sufficient.
total cost to set up the project: $250.
doesn't that make you say, Yeah. ?
Monday, January 19, 2009
clashes
when i was young and idealistic, i had a stance on everything. i knew what side of the israeli-palestinian conflict i was on. i knew what should be done with pinochet and milosevic. the world was black and white to me.
then we lived in belfast, northern ireland for a year and my world got turned on its head. in many ways i have never recovered from that year, and certainly my ideas of civil conflict have never been the same. i saw exactly how complex war is. i saw how deep hatred can run. i saw that there was no black and white answer to solving conflict and this really disturbed me.
kenya experienced what they call 'the clashes' a year ago after a corrupt election. the stories i heard and the images painted for me were heartbreaking as i saw how far-reaching the violence was.
i met two sisters under the age of 10 who had witnessed their father murdered in such a brutal way that i couldn't even think of repeating it here. they were left orphans (and are now living with a kenyan family and being sponsored by friends of mine.)
i spoke at length with a mother who has taken in orphans and who lives in the countryside. she had to flee into the forest with her 30 odd children while people stole their livestock and raided their huts. they lived for 2 weeks in a church and were without food. when i asked what that was like she talked of how hungry the children were and how weak they were by the time they finally got food.
different people ReACT has given microloans to had to use up their repayment just to live during the weeks of the clashes.
it goes on and on.........i wrote earlier about being shocked by how many orphans there were in kenya, but i was probably more shocked by the number of children orphaned during the clashes.
i just can't imagine how people can turn on their neighbours just because they're from a different tribe. similarly, in northern ireland i can't believe that people murder each other because they're from a different denomination. same for so many countries in the world.
i'd like to believe that i'm above all that...that if i had a gun to my head or if my children were in danger i would never even strike another human being.
the truth is, it's never as black and white as all that, is it...
then we lived in belfast, northern ireland for a year and my world got turned on its head. in many ways i have never recovered from that year, and certainly my ideas of civil conflict have never been the same. i saw exactly how complex war is. i saw how deep hatred can run. i saw that there was no black and white answer to solving conflict and this really disturbed me.
kenya experienced what they call 'the clashes' a year ago after a corrupt election. the stories i heard and the images painted for me were heartbreaking as i saw how far-reaching the violence was.
i met two sisters under the age of 10 who had witnessed their father murdered in such a brutal way that i couldn't even think of repeating it here. they were left orphans (and are now living with a kenyan family and being sponsored by friends of mine.)
i spoke at length with a mother who has taken in orphans and who lives in the countryside. she had to flee into the forest with her 30 odd children while people stole their livestock and raided their huts. they lived for 2 weeks in a church and were without food. when i asked what that was like she talked of how hungry the children were and how weak they were by the time they finally got food.
different people ReACT has given microloans to had to use up their repayment just to live during the weeks of the clashes.
it goes on and on.........i wrote earlier about being shocked by how many orphans there were in kenya, but i was probably more shocked by the number of children orphaned during the clashes.
i just can't imagine how people can turn on their neighbours just because they're from a different tribe. similarly, in northern ireland i can't believe that people murder each other because they're from a different denomination. same for so many countries in the world.
i'd like to believe that i'm above all that...that if i had a gun to my head or if my children were in danger i would never even strike another human being.
the truth is, it's never as black and white as all that, is it...
Sunday, January 18, 2009
water
i like water. i drink a lot of it every day. i like swimming in lakes and i like washing my hands. i'm pretty thankful for water. (i have a friend who thanks God for water whenever she's in the shower.)there are things that upset me about water. i'm upset that our actions are causing the ice caps to melt. i'm upset when i see some joker pouring toxic slop down the storm drains in toronto. i'm upset that we're bottling up our water and selling it for $3 a pop.
here are some completely unrelated experiences i've had with water in kenya:
when we arrived in nairobi after being on airplanes and in airports for almost 24 hours, i didn't have any local currency. it was midnight and we had to get to sleep and be up at 4:30am to get back on an airplane. i didn't have any water. my children went to sleep thirsty and woke up thirsty and there was nothing i could do since we couldn't drink from the tap. i admit that i felt actual desperation. the difference was that my desperation was shortlived because i was able to obtain both money and water. it was only for a few hours, but i experienced a snapshot of what many parents in the two-thirds world live with.....trying to explain to their children the fact that they are empty-handed.
i've only had one moment of feeling real, visceral anger here. we were passing a slum area and i saw a woman carrying water. it was in a large, yellow, plastic container. a rope was tied to the top of it and slung over her shoulder. she gripped the rope with her two hands and she was bent over as she struggled along the side of the road back to her family.
we visited a village area where people women were washing their laundry in a stream that fed into a river where men were washing themselves. as i looked at the mirky, grey water flowing from both those places, i had to wonder what the impact on the water system was.
there was a water shortage at the place where we were staying and so i became conscious of every drop of water i used. my children were bathed in next to nothing every day and i tried to wash our clothes in as little as possible. when you have to boil all your drinking water it's interesting to see how much you drink in a day. i became very thankful for our seemingly endless supply in canada.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
the people
i call my children ‘the people’. the first time i did so to manon she laughed so hard that i decided it would make a good name for the blog.
it’s been interesting having the people here in kenya with me. my approach has been to let them observe what they observe and not overload them with explanations of things they see. i’ve been happy at their response. no-one has really commented on the poverty or the injustice we have seen. no-one has really seemed to notice the difference between themselves and the children they’ve been playing with. this makes me happy. don’t get me wrong….i want my children to recognize injustice when they see it and i want them to grow up believing they can do something about it, but also want them to feel that on some level we are all the same.
anna and joseph have spent many of their days here playing in the dirt with small children who speak little english, who play with toys they have made themselves out of garbage, who are dressed in ragged, dirty clothes, who live in rudimentary housing, and of course, who are tremendously happy.
not until today did i catch a glimpse of what i expected has been happening….that they are thinking and processing on a different level and likely won’t communicate it until we are long home in canada.
me: would you like to go to town today?
joseph (who’s 3): yes.
me: what would you like to do in town?
joseph: i would like to buy a kenyan child i can look after.
(i then asked him a few questions about this idea….)
joseph: maybe when i grow up i can have a child to look after.
yes, joseph, maybe you can.
it’s been interesting having the people here in kenya with me. my approach has been to let them observe what they observe and not overload them with explanations of things they see. i’ve been happy at their response. no-one has really commented on the poverty or the injustice we have seen. no-one has really seemed to notice the difference between themselves and the children they’ve been playing with. this makes me happy. don’t get me wrong….i want my children to recognize injustice when they see it and i want them to grow up believing they can do something about it, but also want them to feel that on some level we are all the same.
anna and joseph have spent many of their days here playing in the dirt with small children who speak little english, who play with toys they have made themselves out of garbage, who are dressed in ragged, dirty clothes, who live in rudimentary housing, and of course, who are tremendously happy.
not until today did i catch a glimpse of what i expected has been happening….that they are thinking and processing on a different level and likely won’t communicate it until we are long home in canada.
me: would you like to go to town today?
joseph (who’s 3): yes.
me: what would you like to do in town?
joseph: i would like to buy a kenyan child i can look after.
(i then asked him a few questions about this idea….)
joseph: maybe when i grow up i can have a child to look after.
yes, joseph, maybe you can.
thursday january 8, 2009
my sister, maureen, lives with severe disabilities. for 35 years she has lived with my parents and for 34 years i have witnessed the joys and pains that have come along with that. it hain’t been easy, but it’s been Good.
yesterday i had the privilege of meeting kenyan parents who have lived with the same joys and pains, but magnified.
there is no support for such families here, and in fact there is animosity where there should be support. i talked to a mother with a 6-year old daughter who seems to me to be autistic and a 16-year-old cousin with downe’s syndrome. this mother told me how people had responded to her family, telling her that they were cursed, that she was making the children disabled so she could get money, that she had taken drugs and caused the defects. she told us these things knowing they were untrue, but still saying them questioningly….wanting us to confirm for her what she hoped: that she had done nothing wrong.
most families hide their children with special needs. this is why i was so moved when i saw the lineup of parents waiting to have their children assessed to go to school for the first time. i saw hope in the eyes of mothers and i was so proud of them for stepping into an unknown world by entrusting their children into the care of others.
(canadian donors sponsor children who are deaf and children who are developmentally challenged to go to school. people who work with ReACT here in kenya recently drummed up 26 new families who wanted to send their children to school.)
truthfully, i haven’t done as much crying as i expected to do while here. but at the end of the day parents came, shaking our hands and thanking and thanking us so much and the tears filled my eyes (and they are as i write this now).
yesterday i had the privilege of meeting kenyan parents who have lived with the same joys and pains, but magnified.
there is no support for such families here, and in fact there is animosity where there should be support. i talked to a mother with a 6-year old daughter who seems to me to be autistic and a 16-year-old cousin with downe’s syndrome. this mother told me how people had responded to her family, telling her that they were cursed, that she was making the children disabled so she could get money, that she had taken drugs and caused the defects. she told us these things knowing they were untrue, but still saying them questioningly….wanting us to confirm for her what she hoped: that she had done nothing wrong.
most families hide their children with special needs. this is why i was so moved when i saw the lineup of parents waiting to have their children assessed to go to school for the first time. i saw hope in the eyes of mothers and i was so proud of them for stepping into an unknown world by entrusting their children into the care of others.
(canadian donors sponsor children who are deaf and children who are developmentally challenged to go to school. people who work with ReACT here in kenya recently drummed up 26 new families who wanted to send their children to school.)
truthfully, i haven’t done as much crying as i expected to do while here. but at the end of the day parents came, shaking our hands and thanking and thanking us so much and the tears filled my eyes (and they are as i write this now).
Thursday, January 8, 2009
orphans
everyone in north america knows the stories of african grandmothers caring for their grandchildren because a whole generation is disappearing.
(the average life expectancy for a kenyan is 47.)
i knew, coming here, that we would be visiting orphanages and foster homes, but i didn’t expect that everywhere we turned would be children and young people without parents. the youth workers with the organization that is hosting us, the gardener, the boy the neighbours took in, the foster father. it’s almost as though there is an entire cohort who will grow up feeling like it’s abnormal to have parents. and they’re not only missing parents…..many of them have stories of being taken in by aunts and uncles, only to lose them also.
i know that as teenagers we sometimes feel that parents are overrated, but hearing the stories of the parentless generation brings a real sadness to me.
and then i look at my own children (and i’m glad to have them here to give me perspective) and imagine what life would be like if the were orphaned. no doubt, it would be devastating to lose scott and i, but there’s a critical difference:
they have friends and family who would care for them.
they have free health care and education and some money in the bank.
basically, they would manage.
the same can’t be said for people in so many african countries.
while i may not be a fan of typical ‘white man handouts’, sitting here it seems to me that we have no option but to come alongside these children who are orphaned and offer them our hands somehow.
(the average life expectancy for a kenyan is 47.)
i knew, coming here, that we would be visiting orphanages and foster homes, but i didn’t expect that everywhere we turned would be children and young people without parents. the youth workers with the organization that is hosting us, the gardener, the boy the neighbours took in, the foster father. it’s almost as though there is an entire cohort who will grow up feeling like it’s abnormal to have parents. and they’re not only missing parents…..many of them have stories of being taken in by aunts and uncles, only to lose them also.
i know that as teenagers we sometimes feel that parents are overrated, but hearing the stories of the parentless generation brings a real sadness to me.
and then i look at my own children (and i’m glad to have them here to give me perspective) and imagine what life would be like if the were orphaned. no doubt, it would be devastating to lose scott and i, but there’s a critical difference:
they have friends and family who would care for them.
they have free health care and education and some money in the bank.
basically, they would manage.
the same can’t be said for people in so many african countries.
while i may not be a fan of typical ‘white man handouts’, sitting here it seems to me that we have no option but to come alongside these children who are orphaned and offer them our hands somehow.
sunday january 4, 2009
i’ve spent a lot of time thinking about rights. we are obsessed with our rights in the west, but so much of what we call rights are actually luxuries. i’ve come to believe that very few things are actually rights. access to clean water and proper nutrition, access to health care, safety….might be at the top of my list. the rest are things we feel we are owed. this curse of entitlement is what’s killing us all. and sitting in canada thinking about the developing world it’s easy for us to feel that people here need to be at a standard of living we can fathom.
we visited an orphanage started by an american guy who lives here and as we stood and chatted while surrounded by beautiful kenyan children, he explained to me his philosophy. he is careful not to have the children raised believing that everything they have comes from mzungus (white people). he doesn’t bring them candy or toys when he and his team go to visit. they don’t know that these mzungus are funding the orphanage. “they just think we’re they’re friends who come to hang out with them.” and “we’re not trying to westernize these kids.” he explains that they purposely don’t have running water or electricity and says that that would be doing a disservice to them. all of the children come from a village setting and he wants to make sure they continue to grow up in as close to a village setting as possible.
as i was preparing to leave for this trip, different lovely people asked me if i was taking any goods and if they could send anything. at the time i just smiled politely, thanked them for their interest, and told them i wasn’t bringing anything to give out.
today i had it articulated to me exactly why. i saw that it’s not inhumane that children are playing with dolls they made themselves with plastic bags and string. i saw that perhaps electricity is a luxury and not a right (?!). i also saw the benefit of avoiding the perception of white man handouts. this doesn’t mean that westerners shouldn’t financially support people in poverty, it’s that they shouldn’t judge for themselves what are rights and luxuries and needs.
(if you haven’t checked out the ReACT kenya website, you should. it explains how ReACT comes alongside kenyans in need.)
we visited an orphanage started by an american guy who lives here and as we stood and chatted while surrounded by beautiful kenyan children, he explained to me his philosophy. he is careful not to have the children raised believing that everything they have comes from mzungus (white people). he doesn’t bring them candy or toys when he and his team go to visit. they don’t know that these mzungus are funding the orphanage. “they just think we’re they’re friends who come to hang out with them.” and “we’re not trying to westernize these kids.” he explains that they purposely don’t have running water or electricity and says that that would be doing a disservice to them. all of the children come from a village setting and he wants to make sure they continue to grow up in as close to a village setting as possible.
as i was preparing to leave for this trip, different lovely people asked me if i was taking any goods and if they could send anything. at the time i just smiled politely, thanked them for their interest, and told them i wasn’t bringing anything to give out.
today i had it articulated to me exactly why. i saw that it’s not inhumane that children are playing with dolls they made themselves with plastic bags and string. i saw that perhaps electricity is a luxury and not a right (?!). i also saw the benefit of avoiding the perception of white man handouts. this doesn’t mean that westerners shouldn’t financially support people in poverty, it’s that they shouldn’t judge for themselves what are rights and luxuries and needs.
(if you haven’t checked out the ReACT kenya website, you should. it explains how ReACT comes alongside kenyans in need.)
Thursday, January 1, 2009
new year's day
we have arrived and we are delighted.
the red earth, the smell of burning garbage, fresh bananas from the roadside.
joseph climbing trees and hugging the guard dog.
anna finding slugs and feeding the rabbits.
me sitting in the equatorial sun washing our clothes in a bucket and being incredibly grateful that our 36-hour journey to kitale went brilliantly.
all of us riding on the back of boda-bodas (bicycle taxis) watching sheep graze by the side of the road.
and i am starting to hear the stories, though i have yet to see anything first hand. stories of girls from the slums learning to make and sell cards in order to keep them from lives of prostitution. stories of boys from orphanages finishing high school and getting hired as youth workers. stories of 26 more families looking to have sponsorship so their disabled children can go to school.
it is new year's day here in kenya, and it does feel like a new day indeed.
(as it turns out, i will have limited access to the internet, so may not be updating regularly. )
the red earth, the smell of burning garbage, fresh bananas from the roadside.
joseph climbing trees and hugging the guard dog.
anna finding slugs and feeding the rabbits.
me sitting in the equatorial sun washing our clothes in a bucket and being incredibly grateful that our 36-hour journey to kitale went brilliantly.
all of us riding on the back of boda-bodas (bicycle taxis) watching sheep graze by the side of the road.
and i am starting to hear the stories, though i have yet to see anything first hand. stories of girls from the slums learning to make and sell cards in order to keep them from lives of prostitution. stories of boys from orphanages finishing high school and getting hired as youth workers. stories of 26 more families looking to have sponsorship so their disabled children can go to school.
it is new year's day here in kenya, and it does feel like a new day indeed.
(as it turns out, i will have limited access to the internet, so may not be updating regularly. )
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