Guest Blogger

1/26/2010
Day 19/Day 5

Hello everyone, guest blogger, Ben, here. I’m writing to give you all another flavor of life here in Kijabe. We are taking a departure from the medical field to describe some other fascinating and truly amazing tales of African life. Matt (Julie’s boyfriend) and I have recently met a saintly individual named John. John, a 29 year old Kenyan man from the local town, is truly a renaissance man, to say the least. An accomplished mechanic and part time employee of the Rift Valley Academy, he recently moved to Kijabe town with his wife, 4 yo daughter (with spinal cord disease), and 5 “street kids” that he has taken into his home.

We were put in touch with John by a missionary woman here who thought he might need some household assistance. It turns out, he is building a new fence and doing other various home improvements. We were enlisted to help out, and what an experience it has been. The first day (yesterday), John came to meet us at our place on his “piki piki” aka off-road motorcycle. This is the best and really only way to travel to his home approx. 3 miles up a steep, sheep/goat-lined and highly unpaved road. I was nominated to drive one of the 2 pikis up and I have gotten quite the hang of it. A wazungu on a piki is a sight to see.

Once up to his home, we met his 5 “street boys”, ranging in age from 7-17, mostly orphans or abandoned by their parents. They were “living” in a town 15km down the hill from Kijabe, Maie Maihu. Matt and I like to refer to the town as Sodom and Gomorrah, as it is quite the Kenyan sin city. Drugs, extreme poverty, prostitution, etc are its principal exports. Anyway, the boys are now living with John in his small 3 room home, complete with rainwater collection tank (a luxury here), and outdoor latrine. John has started a ministry which targets these children to “rehabilitate” them and teach them skills to survive and live a productive life. Most of the 5 here have taken to John as a father figure and have been working with him on home improvements in exchange for shelter, food, and safety. One boy, though, was found sniffing gas from the piki while we were working. Needless to say, he will need a little more rehab than the others.

John has opened his home to us by offering traditional Kenyan meals at lunch and the chance to experience unfiltered Kenyan life. We eat meals in his small “living space”, big enough only for 2 small sofas, a cupboard, and a propane cooking grill in the corner. There is a DVD player on a chair powered by a car battery. (Rush Hour and Jackie Chan are favorites here). Today, we had traditional ugali-a cornmeal cake served with spinach. Total cost of this meal for his 9 household members and us: approx 70 shillings (~$1.00).

Today, after another day building a fence (think barbed wire on the inside, reused, petrified wooden planks and rusty nails on the outside) and installing a clothes line, we traveled down to Maie Maihu (Sodom and Gomorrah) to meet more street kids. John travels down there several times a week to talk with them, provide guidance and a meal. We found them together playing games in the slums. We then were honored to treat them to some traditional roast goat (tastes like chicken if it ate a goat) and Cokes at a local butcher/eatery. As they scarfed down the food, we talked with them about future aspirations (mechanic, mason, driver) and soccer. After eating, the boys gathered the goat bones to bring back to their equally homeless dog, Rex. Heart sinking yet? If we (Matt and I) already didn’t feel like American take-everything-for-granted bastards, we sure did now. It puts life in perspective to say the least.

Each day John tells us how grateful he is for what he has and what he is able to do for others. In a word: incredible. I just feel grateful to have met such a man and to be able to help out in any small way I can. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough. There’s a fence to finish, chicken coop to be built, mouths to feed…