No, the Black one

January 20, 2003

Kenya has changed its laws, and to adopt, the courts appoint a guardian from the Kenyan Child Welfare Society to oversee how you raise the children. She was scheduled to come to our home, but at the last moment she asked us to come to her office. For those of you old enough to remember the old Batman show, her office looked like an abandoned factory now used for nefarious means by criminal masterminds. It was scary to go inside, and there was no signage anywhere, so we had to knock on closed doors to find where we were supposed to go.

We finally found it, and as we looked around at the dilapidated office, with broken windows and holes in the floor, it was hard to imagine what would happen next. After two hours past our appointment time, a very nice woman came and talked with us for an hour. She then said that she would come and do a home visit in the next week.

The following week she came, and we had a very nice visit. There was somewhere nearby who she needed to visit, so afterwards, Nancy drove her to that home. When she got out of the car, she saw a large dog coming at her. She is a large woman who has had a bad experience with a dog, so her response was to jump on Nancy's foot and duck behind her. The dog was harmless, and Nancy only got a slight bruise, but she might now forget the experience for a while. The next step is court; we hope that will be soon.

I went to Nyakinyua today to help prepare the lunches and see how the program is going. Kenya has declared free education for all primary school students, which has caused a huge increase in the amount of students attending. The schools have been set up to accept tuition, and have received no monies as yet from the government, so it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. At several schools, the amount of students has tripled. Nyakinyua has seen an increase of almost 100 children.

I was trying to find the headmaster, and although other friends of mine have had similar conversations, I never thought it would happen to me:

Me: Where is the headmaster?

Them: Just there.

Me: Which one? That one?

Them: No, the black one.

At this point I must point out that I was the only white person for 20 miles.

Me: They all look black to me.

Them: They are brown! He is the black one!

I found him (he WAS blacker) and we went to prepare the food. They had three big pots cooking the maize and beans, and empty butter containers for the children plates. They had no forks or spoons; everyone ate by hand.

If you have ever seen five hundred children eat maize and beans with their hands like they have never eaten before, it is as sobering an experience as you will ever experience on this planet.

Your Pal,

Steve