the world is my mollusk.: It Happened at the Supermarket...

On Monday, I was picking up some things at the supermarket when a girl about 12 or 13 came up and timidly asked in English how I was. I said fine, and she walked away. 5 minutes later, as I was about to leave, she approached me again and asked if she could come home with me --not an uncommon request here; kids assume you can just stuff them into your suitcase and take them back to America. When I explained I lived in Kitale, she told me her name was Joyce, her father was dead, her mother had left her, and she had no place to live. Noting her good English and plain but still clean, new-ish clothes, I asked where she was staying now. She said with an aunt just outside of town, but she treated her badly and refused to pay her school fees.

This combination of life problems is the typical formula for a street kid – no parents, relatives who don’t care, and no school to keep them educated or occupied, so they turn to the streets, and consequently glue, drugs, alcohol, and prostitution, as their only alternative. I told her to meet me the next morning and we’d talk.

She never showed up the next morning, so Ina and I headed to Oasis for a few hours. When we returned to town to meet up with Daniel, Joyce ran up and hugged me, saying she’d been waiting there since 6am. The 4 of us went out for lunch and Daniel asked Joyce lots of questions about her situation. When we finished, Dan said he wanted to take Joyce to talk to Anne, TI’s social worker.

The next day we found out that Anne went all the way out to Joyce’s home with her, only to discover she lives in a house with her birth mother, stepfather, and younger siblings. The school Joyce said she used to attend did not even exist, nor did the small town she said her aunt lived in. Also, her name is not Joyce, it’s Noise. (Yes, Noise.) However, Anne said as soon as she’d started walking down the road to Noise’s village, there was an overwhelming smell of alcohol. The house itself was in a swampy, slum area, and Noise’s parents were totally indifferent to their daughter and her whereabouts. When Anne confronted Noise about lying, she was very apologetic, but also seemed genuinely confused and disoriented about her situation. Anne told us she suspects that whenever Noise’s mother leaves the house, her stepfather gets drunk and rapes her, forcing Noise to stay away from the home as much as possible.

Even though Noise’s original story was a bit fictitious, her real situation is enough to make her a viable candidate for the street girls home. Ironically, the same day I met Noise, Lillian, who was been at Nema House for over 4 months, ran away, meaning there are just 4 girls there currently, with room for more...

Party On..

The TI Christmas Party yesterday was a huge success. Around 260 people showed up, the majority of them kids that TI sponsors. Massive amounts of rice, cabbage, beef stew, chapati, and bananas were consumed, pictures taken, songs and skits shared, and – interestingly, to me – all the kids mingled easily with each other versus staying in their own groups.

The highlight of my day was having Linda on my lap most of the time, seeing her eat a huge meal, laugh at Mama Virginia on a teeter totter for the first time, and go down the slide with me. For all the ways it can ravage the body, I am thankful HIV allows those it affects to have some happy days that outweigh the hard ones.