This past week I have been helping out at Nyumbani. They care for many, many HIV/AIDS children from ages of not even 2 to 22. It is an amazing program. The first day I went was last Saturday to color with the children and play. This week I have gone to help out in the kitchen which consists of sorting beans, rice, and other vegetables in preparation for cooking.
Sitting looking diligently at large amounts of rice isn’t anything glamorous or exhausting yet it is something that is needed. “I’m volunteering at an orphanage in Africa.” That statement seems packed with so much compassion and adventure. This experience and the past experiences here in Kenya have been quite humbling. Not that I saw myself as anything close to a perfect moral being but I had the idea that I did enough.
Sister Mary who is the head of the orphanage has worked at Nyumbani since 1969. In the early days without HIV drugs 3 to 4 children would pass away a week yet she persistently loved every child like they were going to live to 100 years old. How does someone open their heart to loving a child who is most likely not going to make it? Momma Christine’s caring heart keeps her at Nyumbani away from her own children for 4 day shifts at a time. How does someone care for an orphanage as equally as they do their own child? Sister Julie, an American from Philly, has moved to Kenya and loved these children for the past 5 years. How easy would it be to give up a comfortable American life for an African one?
This women and men give so much of their time, work, attention and love to these children who to many are the most undesirable of all the children in Africa. Anne, Nicholas, Canary, Anthony, Edel, Winnie and all the others were the children who were abandoned by their own families. Yet, walk around Nyumbani for a few minutes and you would soon forget that they were once not loved or cared for. When I look at their faces I don’t see any illness; all I see is a happy loved child.
Coloring books, some clothes, a few random other items and a little of my time was all I had to give them. After the goodbyes, the walk down the drive and a long wait for a matatu, I realized I’m not doing enough.
2 comments:
oh kate! think about those people you mentioned who have given their lives to these children. do you think they believe they have given enough? no matter how much you do, i feel as though you will always feel like you have never given enough. and that's a good thing because there are so many people who believe that world hunger, AIDS and violence are not their problem. you are doing something. and that makes the lives of those children so much better. hope you are enjoying your time. try not to get too down on yourself. :)
love swimmer :)
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