28 Kid Sleepover.

After spending Friday morning at Oasis, Ina and I walked to downtown Kitale and hopped on a matatu to Kiminini, where Hope Bright Future Home is. TI sponsorts most of the kids here, and it's where we spend most of our Saturdays. Technically it is an orphanage, but it’s run with a healthier family-style approach than most orphanages here. Ben and Viriginia are the young Kenyan couple who parent the kids, with Elvis, 5, and Daniel, 1, their two biological children. All of the others, from age 3 to 16, are complete orphans, with both parents deceased. Among the 24 there’s Teddy and Navenda, two gorgeous teenage twin girls, siblings Mwangi, Veronica, and Martin, whose parents both died of AIDS last year, and Shiro, whose uncle put her into sex trade when her parents died until a social worker found her a place at HBF.

When we arrive (sharing 1 boda boda because the other boda drivers were harvesting corn that day), everyone runs out of the house for hugs; the shyer kids will shake your hand, the bolder ones will climb up onto your back and play with your hair. A few of the kids bring us guavas to eat from the tree outside; we talked with them about how their week was and cuddled with a few of the younger ones who had coughs and fevers (malaria). As soon as it gets dark, Ben lights a kerosene lantern and puts it in the middle of the livingroom, the kids say grace, and we all eat our big plates of rice and cabbage. Afterwards the kids ask Ben and Viriginia questions, about homework, things that happened at school, anything they want to talk about. After this everyone stands up and starts clapping together, and one of the girls starts a song thanking God for the day, while all the kids dance and sing/shout along (hands down my favourite part of the night). The boys head to the boys room and girls to the girls room, each with 8 bunk beds. Ina and I brush our teeth and washed our faces in the rain water outside, which all the kids found odd and entertaining. I share a bed with Valentine, who didn’t cough as much as the others but had a knack for yelling out random things in Swahili in her sleep, which was exciting.

We wake up at 6am to scrubbing noises, and find six kids helping Ben wash the walls and floor of the livingroom. The rest of them are mopping out the boys or girls rooms, or washing their school uniforms outside, or doing dishes by the mud hut kitchen. For breakfast we eat bread and butter and drank sweet, delicious chai. When the rest of the TI interns arrive for the usual Saturday visit, there are more hugs and the usual afternoon soccer game, with the younger girls playing enthusiastically with the teenage boys who could probably play professionally.

At 4 the bodas come to pick us up, we get sad hugs goodbye and remind everyone we’ll be back next Saturday.

The weird thing about HBF is that there is no chaos. You would never sit in the livingroom and think “Wow, there are definitely 26 kids living here.” Maybe it’s Ben and Virginia’s parenting, maybe it’s what some of the kids have been through, maybe it’s a God thing, but nobody bickers, all the big kids are always loving on the little kids, everyone’s looking out for each other, sharing things, playing together. You would never be able to tell who are biological siblings and which kids are there without any other family members, because everyone acts like they’re related. Ben and Virginia’s biological kids are treated exactly the same as all the others, except for maybe Daniel, who is spoiled rotten by all of the others because he is the baby of the house.