The Weekend at Nyumbani Children’s Home
We spent our first weekend in Kenya at Nyumbani Children’s Home, the orphanage for children who are HIV+. We began the weekend by meeting with Sister Mary, the Executive Director of Nyumbani , who updated us on the Children’s Home as well as the other Nyumbani Programs, Lea Toto clinics in the impoverished communities around Nairobi and Nyumbani Village in Kitui. We learned that the programs now serve over 4000 children and in the case of Lea Toto, their families are receiving services as well. The children in the Children’s Home continue to thrive although 2 children had developed resistance to antiretroviral medications (ARV’s). In the past these children would have died but she was able to petition to get special permission to purchase the drugs for these children from outside the country as only first and second line drugs are available in Kenya. The major happening in the orphanage now is that there are 14 children looking for acceptance in to high schools. All are tuition based boarding schools in Kenya and acceptance is based solely on standardized test scores. Since some of the children have had periods of being unhealthy or difficult starts they don’t all score very well, so this is a time of high anxiety for them. We also toured the Nyumbani Diagnostic Laboratory which is a new freestanding facility and much larger than the small laboratory which Nyumbani previously had. There they do the most advanced HIV testing in all the country and provide services to a wide range of other organizations and facilities. BTW, Nyumbani was the first site of HIV testing in Kenya and the first AIDS orphanage in Kenya. I could say a lot more but on to the children………
The children greeted us with squeals and smiles and hugs and magnificent welcomes that were so heartwarming!
Lloydie with 2 Nyumbani kids
I have not been here for two years so one thing I really noticed was how some of the children have really grown! There are lots of names and faces to remember so I couldn’t remember them all, but was particularly surprised to see the growth in the little ones—some of whom you will recognize from my blog posts in 2010. I was amazed when one little boy who was in the ST Paul Miki Preschool the last time I was here remembered that I had taken his picture. And there are some new little ones as well.
Dolo, the little charnmer from cottage E
Baby Sharon
Innocent--remember him?!
The older children are genuinely kind and helpful to the younger ones.
Each of the volunteers was assigned a host cottage to spend time with including the children and the cottage mother. This meant hanging out with the children and seeing how the “family” (14 children and 2 Mommas) runs, having lunch with them, spending play time and getting to know them. I was particularly charmed by a spunky pint sized 3 year old, the youngest in my cottage, with a big personality, named Dolo. We will be back next weekend to spend some more time with them. And by popular demand I did another round of face painting which was so much fun! We also went to church with them on Sunday—Kenyan style with joyous drumming, singing, clapping and dancing. We also heard stories from the cottage mothers as well as other staff about some of the newer children and how sick they were when they arrived – some could not walk or talk and now they are racing around on scooters in the playground. You can’t help but think every once in a while that all of these beautiful children who are lively, thriving, very affectionate, little people would have died if it were not for the care they are receiving here. When you stand back and watch all this life around you it can move you to tears.
Lloydie and one of the boys from her cottage
I have some great video–you can get a peek at Dolo’s personality, experience mass at the Children’s Home and more, but I’m having some technical problems posting it. Check back later. Kwaheri marafiki!
Getting to Kenya, via Rwanda, and just a few traveling snafus!!
FINALLY……in Kenya!!
Well, my fellow travelers have kidded me that they couldn’t wait to hear what I would have to say about making our way here. I have to say that it was QUITE THE TRIP! I started out on Thursday morning the 19th at 9 AM and headed to Boston where I met up with Kristin and we flew off to D.C. together. We surpassed the first snag of having to check in and out security to recollect my 2 checked bags (100 lbs of luggage) that were only checked as far as DC instead of all the way to Kenya, all while toting our additional 4 carry-ons like an Abbott and Costello routine getting acquainted with a good many laughs about toppling luggage and how we already needed to” freshen up” after only the shortest flight of the trip. We connected up with the rest of the travelers at out gate to head to Brussels; that was when we first realized that our flight to Nairobi was to get there by way of Kigali, Rwanda….oh well, a little extra time added, we could handle that.
Then we learned that there was a problem with our plane. And time was passing… passing…and passing. And then came the announcements, one, then another, and another—about technical and electrical problems…and groans about the fact that that might be just “a little TOO much information to be giving everyone about the delay!” Then there was announcement that they were loading some additional software that the captain felt confident would fix it; then, well that didn’t work. Then an announcement that “well, they didn’t really know what the plan would be……” Yikes!! Now it’s about 3 hours AFTER departure time and there’s only one connecting flight to Nairobi per day. So our fearless leader Lloydie began making alternative contingency plans with the United rep: fly to London and spend a lovely day in London before the daily connecting flight to Nairobi (or not so lovely each our 2 stuffed carry ons and collective 600+ lbs of duffels), fly to Zurich and definitely miss the connecting flight, fly to Dubai for 15 hours and then get a flight to directly to Kenya…the next day. During the course of discussing our options, an announcement was made that we needed to go a new gate and we were shuffled off to a new plane where we were quickly issued new boarding passes and were about to board 4 hours late with a small hope and a prayer for reaching our connecting flight—but were told that there was no hope that our bags would arrive with us. So we took off!
The captain came over the loud speaker and said that he was going to do his best to make up time and get everyone to connecting flights…..Hmm, after taking off 4 hours late?! But we got to Brussels and were part of small mob racing to other gates and barely made it, but did succeed in getting to our connecting flight. After many, many hours of flying we landed in Kigali and got a glimpse of Rwanda, deposited some of the passengers there, picked up some others who were headed back to Brussels via Kenya. After about 2 and ½ hours of this process, refueling, etc) we took off for Nairobi. We were flying with 40 Swedish students going from Brussels to Nairobi and when we landed in Kenya, we joined in their clapping. Now about 32 hours from the original departure from home, we were finally in Kenya. And miracle of miracles (we were due for one) ALL of our baggage had arrived too!! Our driver Justice was waiting with a huge smile and a very exuberant Kenyan welcome (Justice has a very big and happy personality) even though it was well after midnight. And the 6 of the travelers—Lloydie, Deb, Kirsten, Lynne, Walter and myself—were exhausted, but brimming with excitement and had managed to do some pretty good bonding, laughing, storytelling and listening of prior experiences in Kenya, and getting to know each over the trials and tribulations of getting here. Finally, in Kenya, headed to Bed at 2AM and ready to go to Nyumbani Children’s Home the next morning.
Since getting online has been a bit of a challenge—I won’t bore—I started writing my blog entries but couldn’t post them. Much more to come……….
Lynn Ouellette
Watoto Wote Wazuri 
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