Food for the Widows

For those of you who read my emails sent from here six years ago, you may remember there is a whole separate Kijabe about three miles below the Kijabe in which we live. Kijabe Town is the original Kijabe and was once a bustling stop on the Uganda-Mombasa railway line. Many years ago, the railway was re-routed up onto the hillside above Kijabe Town and since then the community has fallen into the depths of poverty. And when I say 'depths,' I mean it.

We have heard a lot about John Njane, a young local man who is running several aid projects--delivering food to/building houses for widows, rescuing street boys and supporting a sewing project to keep young women from prostitution, all in the town of Maai Mahui. A fourth project involves delivering food to/repairing homes for the widows in Kijabe Town. Today, after helping pack each of eight big burlap sacks with 3 cabbages, 2 bags potatoes, 2 bags carrots, 1 bag beans, 1 bag rice, 3 bags maize meal and 1 brick of cooking fat, we accompanied John down the extremely rough dirt road to Kijabe Town.

This is my third time in Kenya and I have experienced everything before--the paralyzing filth and poverty of Nairobi's slums, the hand to mouth existence of the Maasai, the forgotten and abandoned children, the horror that comes with the full realization of how very little the poor here have. Yet every time I am faced with these scenes, it seems everything is worse than how I remembered it. It was no different today.

Mary is a grandmother caring for 3 grandchildren whose parents have died. She was fortunate enough to have John oversee the construction of a second room so she can sleep separately from the teenage boys. She is also one of the widows able to grow maize and beans on her shamba. Mary is unbelievably joyful, and welcomes neighbors into her dirt-floored 'sitting room' for Bible studies.

Ann is a mother of 6 children. Her husband abandoned her and after he left, his family wanted Ann and the children to move out of the one-roomed mud house. When Ann wouldn't move, the family came and tore down the house. Ann built an 8' X 8' mud and stick room topped with a flat sheet of tin which she now calls home for her family of seven. Ann wasn't home when we stopped today because she was off with the three eldest kids, looking for work along 'HIV Highway' in Maai Mahui.

Tabitha is a grandmother caring for 3 grandchildren whose parents have fled. The oldest granddaughter, also named Tabitha, is seventeen. She is physically disabled with some sort of lower extremity paralysis. She was raped by her own father and now has a 14 month old son. The younger Tabitha has never been to school because no one has been able to arrange transport that accommodates her disability. Now she sits in a small patch of grass between the mud home and the chicken coop, breast feeding her baby.

There are more stories, of course. More variations on the same theme of AIDS deaths, abandonment and crushing poverty. John Njane is doing wonderful things--and he has no money himself. He relies on others to donate. The need here is so great, you find yourself wanting to give to everyone which, of course, is impossible. I am praying for wisdom to know how best to continue to help those I have met in Siyiapei and those I will meet here. It is not an easy prayer.

Photos: beautiful widow, Kijabe Town; John Njane, shamba; into the shambas; margaret's house, Kijabe Town; group photo, Kijabe Town; Mary's house; Mary's door, Kijabe Town; Ann's youngest; Ann's one room house, Kijabe Town; Tabitha and baby (in friend's arms); Kijabe Town.