Kenya Diaries: Mathare

"Hear their stories"


Mathare is one of the many slums in Nairobi and is home to nearly half a million people. After landing in Nairobi that first Saturday night, we stayed the night and headed to Mathare the following morning before going on to the Baby Center in Ngata.

This entry is taken straight from my journal...

I can never get "used to" the garbage lining the streets, the sewage running down the sides, and the kids scavenging for water in the mess. The mental picture haunting me today was seeing two little girls squatting alongside the sewage running down the street with a plastic bottle cap in hand and two straws. They had the straws down in the mud trying to catch the water flowing down the street in the cap so they could drink it. Yet the smiles on their faces as they saw us coming in to just love on them says it all. These kids don't care that they live in a slum with little electricity, little fresh water, and sewage all over. All they want in the midst of all that is to be loved!

We stepped out of the vans into a muddy mess and soon found ourselves sliding down the path to the orphanage. Because it had rained, it was an absolute mess and we were sure it would only be a matter of time until one of us wiped out! Luckily, we all kept our footing. As we continued to walk (slide) along, we were welcomed by more smiling faces followed by shouts of "how are you?!" (the only English many of them know).

The kids slowly began to fill the open-air cement room and immediately started singing and dancing. They were anxious to touch our hands and ran away giggling after they managed to. There were so many stories represented in each orphan. There's "Robyn's boy" who came to the orphanage with swollen feet, face, and stomach from being severely malnourished. Today, he was smiling, dancing, laughing, singing...perfectly healthy and happy thanks to the incredible care and love he had received. There was a little girl brought in doped up on alcohol. Her mother was an alcoholic and didn't have food to give her girl, so she gave her alcohol every night to put her to sleep. Now, that little girl has food and is loved more than she could imagine.

We didn't have much to offer these kids. We told a story, sang some songs, gave out coloring sheets and crayons, and simply held them...and that seemed to be enough. To see the look on that girl's face when she received her very own box of crayons was priceless. To see that little boy take a bite of his half a peanut butter sandwich and then save the rest in his sweater pocket for later was heart-breaking. To hear that little girl crying because of the massive ulcers on her bottom just rips at you. Yet in the midst of all that stuff, on top of being orphaned with no parents, to see those kids smiling, laughing, coloring, and being loved was life-changing.

These kids have so little - virtually nothing compared to our lives - so how can we possibly make a difference? I can't end poverty or AIDS or starvation in the world, BUT, I can make a different for at least one. There's a lot of people in this world, but if all of us made a difference for someone else, that would be a HUGE difference.

Aside from playing with, singing to, and holding these kids, we took peanut butter sandwiches. They formed eight lines and each kid only received half a sandwich. Not even a whole one to try and fill them up. There weren't enough leftover to give them each another half, so there we were ripping the halves into thirds! As I handed the kids their additional third, I felt so helpless for them. The pieces even looked small in their tiny little hands. I wanted so much to be able to give them more, but it was all we had. Yet isn't that exactly what we're called to give? We may not have a lot, but even giving the little we have is better than giving nothing at all. I'm confident that we all left that orphanage different than we had come in.

There are Mathare's all over the world, even in our own neighborhoods of people who virtually have nothing, of people who have been abandoned, of people who others may consider unlovable. You don't have to go overseas to see much of what we found in Mathare, maybe it's just a matter of opening your eyes and looking across the street, across the classroom, across your desk, across the cafeteria.

"I wanted so much to be able to give them more, but it was all we had. Yet isn't that exactly what we're called to give? We may not have a lot, but even giving the little we have is better than giving nothing at all."

You don't have to be filthy rich to be able to give to others. You don't have to be a great speaker to share with others. You don't have to the best at a sport to use it to impact others. You don't have to be a counselor to sit and listen to others. You may feel unqualified, unequipped, and unworthy...but all God asks is that we be available, He'll take care of the rest.