Little Orphan Anniesheqwa

Yesterday, David and I went to go work at one of the Orphan programs here in Maseno. Orphan programs are supported by the church and serve as something like an outdoor Sunday school to sing songs, learn some school subjects, and even get a hot meal. An orphan is any kid who is missing one or more parents-now unlike the US, usually it isn’t due to divorce that these kids are missing parents-it is usually due to death or abandonment. On the drive there down unpaved dirt roads, I asked Nan Hardison about the rate of HIV in the orphans and she said they have all been tested and it was only about 1%-but many of those with suspected HIV had already died.

On arrival to the orphan program, there were dozens of small children all gathered around a tree and singing songs in Kiswahili. As David and I got out of the car, little heads began to swing around to get a look at the Mzungus coming over to them. David and I watched them sing for awhile and then we were told we were to help them serve their 10am tea. Enormous buckets of steaming hot chai tea were brought out and David, Nan, and I each used as a mug to scoop up some hot tea into their cups. Each child had their own cup, and those who couldn’t afford a cup used an empty margarine tub.

After tea time, the blackboards were brought outside and the kids were separated into their age groups for math and language lessons. Nan went off to teach the preschoolers while David and I were taken off the site of the orphan program and brought to Khwiliba secondary school and were thrust in front of 40 8^th graders with little idea what to do. We asked them what they were learning: Kenyan Social Studies…oh uh. So we introduced ourselves and let them know what we were doing here and allowed them to ask us questions. The students asked us some absolutely excellent questions-such as the US’s role in nuclear disarmament, how President Obama was perceived in the US, I also learned that the Obama family was treated at the very hospital I am working at. David and I asked the same question 4 times-“If you could do one thing to change Kenya for the better, what would it be?” The first few times, no one answered. Eventually someone said something like “preserve our animals” and one kid even said “help the people rise up and overthrow them”. When I asked “who?: he wouldn’t say.

Over time, I changed the subject to HIV and asked them what they knew about protecting themselves from HIV. The kids were sharp and once the shyness of talking about such a topic started to wear off, the questions about HIV poured out. We had an amazing dialogue about how to protect yourself from HIV. What was shocking to me was how few kids believed condoms could protect them from HIV. Tonight at dinner, Cynthia, a woman who is teaching Anglican studies at St. Philips theological college told me in the Congo many still believe that HIV is a curse that someone puts on you. What saddened me the most was that not a single kid knew that there were medications to take for HIV so that you don’t have to die from it. I could see the look of disbelief on their face when I told them that medications exist so that you can live to be an old man or woman with HIV. They asked if it was a cure and I explained that it suppresses the virus but doesn’t cure it. They were puzzled so I gave this analogy of the drugs being like a freezer and putting the virus “on ice” so that it isn’t replicating and making you sick and that your body can usually recover-but if you stop taking the medications or not take them correctly, the freezer doesn’t work and the ice turns to water and makes you sick. They understood this. Then we talked about how using the medications and getting a c-section can keep mothers from transmitting HIV to their babies and the kids seemed amazed.

After 40 minutes we were told our time was up and shuttled from the room. Later that night David told me he saw this passion unlike he’s ever seen in me when I was discussing HIV with these kids, and that he would have been worried about doing the same thing considering all we know about religion and government suppressing knowledge about HIV here.

When we got back to the orphans, they were on break from their lessons, so David and I thought it would be a good idea to teach them some English songs. At first I tried to get the kids to do animal sounds by imitating a cow, pig, rooster, monkey, etc so we could sing Old Mcdonald. They couldn’t really emulate the animal noises, so we taught them the E-I-E-I-O part instead which worked swimmingly. On the final verse I said:

Old McDonald had a farm

E-I-E-I-O

And on this farm he had a wife

E-I-E-I-O

With a Nag, nag here and a nag, nag there, here a nag, there a nag, everywhere a nag, nag.

Nan Hardison looked up at me with this look of shock-it was priceless.

Afterwards, we sang “row, row, row your boat”. David and I divided the kids into 2 groups so we could do the offbeat harmony version of the song. Well, my group was just a little more boisterous, not to mention I was screaming like Ozzy “Louder! LOUDER! I can’t hear you!” until my group absolutely drowned out the other group singing “row, row, row your boat”. After David gave up, I cheered “YEAH! We win!” Competitive nursery rhymes can be brutal.

After song time, David and I wanted to take some photos of the kids…big mistake. If there is anything I already knew is that kids here LOVE getting their pictures taken and seeing the picture on a digital camera immediately after. When you have 50 kids, this can be an issue. When David and I took out our cameras, we got absolutely MOBBED by the kids, crawling on our backs, midget moshing us to get a hold of the camera in hopes they could see themselves in the group shot. I was even able to teach some of the kids to appreciate the awesomeness of the huge rims on the land rover we arrived in!

Soon it was lunch time, and the ladies who run the orphan program had been stewing red beans and maize since 6am. We served the kids in much the same way we served the tea and they gobbled it up voraciously. We than sat with the ladies inside and ate the same food we were feeding the orphans in hefty portions, as my stomach groaned in disapproval, I pointed to my chai tea and told David “this is what my bowel movements are going to look like tonight.”

Before leaving, I grabbed some of the school books the kids were reading and took some photos. Apparently the birth of Jesus was dependent on 2 black kids playing soccer in the ocean. If they only had the 3 wise men as goalie and wings they would have a team. Also, I learned that you can worship God by playing a synthesizer, and that the band Kraftwerk will probably be sitting at Jesus’s side in Heaven someday.

It was such an amazing day being around all those loving kids, and I hope I have an opportunity to go back before I leave here. I did manage to video tape the entire teaching session and will be posting that to a video sharing site when I get back to the states. In the meantime, let’s learn some more Swahili!

Hard lessons in Swahili-Let’s see you try to say you don’t do curtains…in HELL!

Yaya aliyemwumiza mtoto amejificha

The maid who injured the child is missing

Remember, ALL of the translations I have featured are in a CHILDREN’S Book on learning Swahili pictured below. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a copy of the book, but will try to photocopy it before I leave.