Something ...

So much to absorb today … three main stops (Oasis of Hope, Downtown & Sister Freda’s Medical Clinic) and site visits to three water well locations.

The Oasis of Hope is a “bridge” facility for the Kitale street kids which provides them with an alternative life style to living on the streets, sniffing glue and doing petty crimes. The Oasis offers them a safe location, as well as a meal, and a classroom environment. It’s an initiative which lets the children (ages 6 – 16) go to “practice school” to learn core curriculum (math, English, crafts & PE) so they may develop in order to be successful in regular school. For the older kids, the Oasis also offers vocational training (carpentry, mechanics, sewing) since they will be too old to go to regular school (public, private or parochial) after they master the core curriculum preparation classes.

This “bridge” plan is unique compared to many other programs which are providing direct links/support to regular school. The big plus of this concept is the relative success rate of the street children as they are better prepared when they begin.

Our second visit was to downtown Kitale. It’s an organized chaos of cars, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles and very quick & nimble pedestrians. Stores, stalls and street vendors are everyone’s attention. The difficult part of this scene are the “glue boys”; young boys who carry plastic bottles in their coat sleeves, partially filled with glue to sniff in order to get / stay high. Some are just glassy eyed while others are completely out of it as they beg for money and food. We offered them the Oasis (which 95% of them at least know about) as a way out. At first the scene is a very surreal setting until you realize the actuality and severity.

Sister Freda’s Medical Clinic (Freda Robbinson RN) was the last stop. This facility provides a surgical capable hospital, training & counseling services, and the 32 student nursing school will open in 60 days. On the “campus” is also a farm, and housing for the nursing staff, the grounds crew and Sister Freda & her husband. This wonderful operation is focused on the poorest of poor, and provides excellent services with the warmest of hearts. At the end of our tour we provided Sister Freda with three large duffel bags of Dallas donated medical supplies; from cloth diapers to towels & sheets, from children vitamins to Ibuprofen. She was so, so excited and repeatedly thankful … a humbling experience; relatively so little means so much!

As we worked our way through these locations, we also visited three water well sites. One well needs to be worked over and brought back to production. This is on the agenda for tomorrow and possibly Friday. Then we will have another location visit Saturday and Sunday. “Water is Life” – Sister Freda.

The take aways from today are a little hard to measure & fully understand at this point.

- First, I must reiterate about the lushness of Kenya and the beauty of the country – it really is a tropical environment. And the people; they are very friendly and welcoming. They are truly resourceful and hard working but daily face such uphill climbs.

- While large numbers of people, organizations and countries are passionately addressing the issues, making great strides & writing positive success stories, the different facets of the challenges remain many.

- The severity of the situation is what is overwhelming – the needs are so urgent.

- While the situation can be frustrating for a multitude of reasons; literally anything one can do is a plus and obviously much better than doing nothing. Let’s do something ! Stay tuned !