01.31.2015
I have to say that being back in Africa is such an amazing feeling! As soon as I landed and saw the outline of the trees, the sun rising in the background and the hills and mountains in the distance, in a way it felt like I was back in my second home. I was so ready and excited to ditch the cold and unpredictable Saskatchewan weather and embrace some warm Kenyan sun! It was difficult arriving in the middle of the week because I needed some time to get over jet lag but also wanted to jump in with both feet and get doing things!
I was lucky to be able to spend the last few days of the week out in the slum of Marurui getting to know some amazing teachers and some of the greatest most adorable kids! Although I say that now I’m quite sure that any story I share from any school or area I go to is going to be filled with those same “amazing teachers” and “adorable kids” so don’t hold it against me! Last time I was in Kenya I did no work in slums at all, my time was spent out in the stunning Rift Valley doing food relief work with the Massai people. I have a million stories I could share about those people and that adventure but I’ll save that for another time! However, this made me even more excited to be able to spend this trip working with children, and working in slums around Nairobi.
During my last trip slums were always the places you drove past with your windows rolled up, doors locked and for the most part not looking out your window or making eye contact. Yet at the same time, each time we drove past a slum during my last trip, seeing the poverty, dirtiness, and the conditions with which they lived, part of my heart broke for them and wanted so badly to be able to stop the car and go help them, talk to them, let them know that I didn’t care that our skin was different colours and that I would love to just spend the day with them learning about them, but that was going to have to wait for another time.
Now is finally that time. I got to spend the end of my first week here in the slum of Marurui where I will be spending the majority of my time for these first few weeks as they have lost one of their teachers and need a replacement! They didn’t know this teacher was leaving until ten days ago so you could say it’s a bit of a blessing in disguise although I know I will never be able to fill her shoes! I’ve been told that Marurui is the nicer slum of the ones I will be experiencing and was told that the other ones will make me cry. I’ve barely been holding it together in this one so to say the rest of my experiences will be interesting is probably the understatement of the year!
I wish I could share with you all how it feels to sit in a classroom of children and let them touch your skin and look at your blue eyes, running their fingers through your hair saying “so beautiful”, or listening to them sing and dancing with them at break time, walking around and wishing you had more hands for the children to hold because they simply want to be close to you, it’s unlike any feeling I can explain to you. For anyone who has experienced this I know you’re reading this nodding your head with a smile knowing exactly what I’m talking about. You see the condition these children have to live in and your heart breaks and you wish you could cry, but you know crying isn’t going to help anything and if anyone should be crying about the situation it’s the kids and they are undoubtedly the happiest ones in the room!
Instantly that sadness and heart break you feel turns into an unexplainable joy and happiness. I know that during my time here I’m not going to be able to change these children’s living conditions, I’m not going to be able to guarantee them an education that will give them a promising job in the future so they can pull themselves out of the cycle of poverty, I can’t clean all of the water these kids come in contact with and I most definitely can’t change the past that many of these children have experienced and suffered through. But I can love them. I can spend every minute of my time with these people encouraging them, letting them know that they are loved and cared about, that God loves them and that common ground is enough to make us like family. I can raise awareness of these situations back at home and I can put in time and effort to make sure that as many children as possible are sponsored to keep them off the streets of the slums, out of trouble and on the path to a better future. At times it might seem or feel redundant, that I’m just going to be one of the many people that spend time, effort and money in these places and never see improvement or feel like it was effort wasted. If I can assure you of anything it is this, once you experience these people, their smiling faces, their warm hugs, the feeling of a small child slipping their fingers in between yours, holding your hand and never wanting to let go, you will know that loving them and sharing God’s love with them will never be effort or time wasted. As much as I can do tangibly and physically to change their circumstances I will, and yes it may only be a temporary fix for a little while, holding them over and not yet finding a permanent solution to the problems they face, I know that the time and effort spent loving these people and sharing God’s love with them is far from a temporary fix, and it is something I know will stick with them long after I’m gone, much the same way that each and every one of them will stick with me long after I have left.
(Nicole Andrew (20) of Carlyle is currently living in Nairobi, Kenya, where she is working with Jacaranda Community, a mission founded and run by evangelists, Garry and Brenda Kean. While here Nicole will be working alongside single mothers and their children helping them overcome the cycle of poverty in the slums of Nairobi. During her time in Africa she will be sending The Observer weekly letters about her experiences and is also keeping a blog; follow her at https://nicoleinafrica2015.wordpress.com.)
