connecting with Compassion

What a joyful, wonderful week! From Saturday, the 17th to Saturday the 24th, I had the real treat of shadowing the staff at a Compassion International project in Waithaka, a “suburb” of Nairobi (and when I use the word “suburb,” don’t picture anything like the suburbs in America).

The project, Jipe Moyo (Take Heart, in swahili) is located at a church in Waithaka and hosts 313 children through their programs. Through the week, I was exposed to the real nitty-gritty inner-workings of a Compassion child development centre. The four-person staff really took me in as one of their own and gladly introduced me to the multi-faceted field work of Compassion.

I first visited the project on a Saturday, when all the children came from 8am -5pm. I sat in on their worship and devotions, and part of their health lessons. I was allowed to take several of the update photos that are going to be sent to the children’s sponsors and briefly meet the teenager’s class.

Each morning was a one hour journey to reach Waithaka. A 20-minute walk to my bus stage, where I catch a matatu to Nakumatt. There, I head south on a different matatu, all the way to Waithaka. On Monday and Friday, the staff does morning devotions, which were very special to share in. Wednesday and Thursday gave me to opportunity to do ten home visits. Among the most notable was a home way up in the green farm fields where the sponsored child had just undergone tonsil surgery. His is happy and fully-recovered. Compassion covers full medical expenses for their sponsored children.

Another home visit was to a boy that recently lost his mother, leaving him an orphan. He now lives with his grandparents, in a small room with no adequate lighting or study space. He is 16 years old, and the project health worker took me on this visit to assess how they can best help this boy in his current situation. The last home belonged to a widower who has six children. His wife died suddenly eight years earlier, while he was doing night shift at his job. He has no job now, and struggles to earn money to support his family, which now includes four grandchildren. The father just graduated this weekend from a cookery class at the Compassion project. He now knows how to make multi-purpose soap, juice, shampoo and cakes, and he believes this will be a great asset to him as he tries to provide for his family. The health worker came here to look at the family’s garden and water supply, so that he can assist them in efficient farming which will hopefully give them surplus to sell.

Compassion offers a variety of courses for the sponsored children’s parents, including: sewing, cookery and beading and assistance in starting their own businesses.

I also went with the social worker to purchase some children’s birthday gifts, and sat in on a women’s HIV support group. I took a bookkeeping lesson from the project accountant and an overview of the health programs from the health worker there. And throughout the week I met many children and parents. It’s awesome how excited kids can be about meeting a muzungu. On Saturday, the last day of my involvement at the project, I briefly addressed an assembly of all the Compassion parents on the issue of sponsorship. And after that I rehearsed a poem with the teenagers – a poem we will present on World Aids Day next weekend, December 1st. Five Compassion projects are gathering at Jipe Moyo for a full day of events, and I am happy to have one last chance to see my Compassion friends!

I also met a British neighbor in Lisa’s apartment complex. We’ve enjoyed dinner and tea together three times, and she even gave me a lift to my bus stage a couple mornings. And now, the depressing news of the week … on Friday, while shopping for the birthday gifts at the Kawangware market, my digital camera was stolen out of my backpack. I took wonderful pictures this week that I was excited to use both to tell my stories and to further promote Compassion’s work (as well as the ministries at the Word Fellowship Centre) – but they’re all gone, never to be seen! I was, and still am, truly upset about that. Maybe the only plus about this experience is that it made me put my guard up again. It served as a reminder that this is not a safe city, and I need to be smart and aware of that.

But to end on a better note - I really learned a lot this past week. I am now in Kajiado - a town near the Tanzania border in Masai land, at a children's home. I hopped in a volvo/taxi and came down here yesterday. This is a definite change of pace from Nairobi, and I think it'll take some adjusting to get used to it. More coming soon!