Final week in Kenya

It is 6:30am here in London and although the time difference from Kenya is only 3hrs, I have been unable to sleep since 5am and Simon finally kicked me out of bed for all my tossing, turning, and singing of songs we sang with the kids in Kenya. After 15 hrs of traveling, we arrived to London yesterday afternoon and were greeted by snow and bone-chilling air. We had no jackets with us – why would we, we were in Kenya!? So our bodies were numb and in complete shock by the time we made it to a pub nearby to Simon’s friends’ house. The weather and the overwhelming Christmas dÈcor that covers the streets is unbelievable. It certainly didn’t feel like we were nearing Christmas in Kenya, so arriving and finding there is just over a week to the day has been crazy.

Ok, so we need to give you a recap about what was going on during our last week in Kenya. A tragic turn of events led to a very different end to our visit. On Friday, Dec 4, James N’juguna, the founder of the Fadhili Organization as well as Maddison House, was shot and killed. It was a car robbery gone tragically wrong. James was 31 years old, had been married just over a year and a half, and had an 8 month old daughter, Kelly.

James began Fadhili Community (the Kenyan org we were working for) in 2004, fuelled by his desire to help children. In 2007 he partnered with International Volunteer Headquarters (IVHQ) to develop the volunteer program we were on. Fadhili is now one of the most successful NGOs in Kenya, and brought in over 400 volunteers in this past year. In addition to his work with Fadhili, James was also heavily involved with his local church, Cornerstone Faith Assembly. He had been a preacher, and for over 10 yrs has been a missionary, traveling all over Kenya, introducing the local people to the bible and successfully opening over 30 churches. James was also a singer, and had recorded many wonderful gospel songs with members of the church.

So our final week was very sad and our time was mainly spent caring for and supporting those grieving – especially the children. We attended a large memorial service and the funeral, supporting the children and the Fadhili staff, and helping the orphanage continue to function as Fadhili struggles to continue without its leader.

The evening that the children were informed, was one we will never forget. It was no doubt one of the worst things I have ever seen. Our pastor/friend, Pastor John came over to tell the 34 children about the death of the man that has saved all of their lives, given them food, shelter, and love when no one else could. They were all sat on benches around a big table in the living room. He asked them to tell him all the people in their lives that cared about them. They named about 10 in total. Me, Simon, and Hilary being three of them -- which was touching. They of course also named uncle James. Pastor reminded them that all those people still loved and cared for them but one had returned to God, and it was Uncle James. You could not imagine the wails we heard at that moment, 34 pained children, screaming and crying with such force and pain. It was unbearable. I immediately burst into tears. Most of the children, even those as young as 6 and 7, had their heads on the table crying. Some of the older kids fell onto the floor, flailing their arms, screaming at the top of their lungs. This continued for over 20mins until the Pastor finally calmed them. For many of these children, this is the third 'parent' they have lost...

Since James was so loved and well-known in the community, there was a special memorial service held for him on Thursday at his church. Friends and family got up and spoke about him to an audience of over 300 people. The children performed a song, although many of them broke down halfway through. We had worked with James for about 2 months and knew about his work with Fadhili, and obvious dedication to the children. The memorial service filled us in on the rest of his life. The number of people who got up to speak about the impact James had on them was amazing. In his short life James had touched many many people. The burial the next day was in Kinale,, about 50 km from Nairobi, where James grew up, and was held at the home James had built for his mother earlier this year – a dream of his since a young age. He was buried on their land, nearby the house, a common occurrence in Kenya.

For the employees of Fadhili, James was more than just a boss, he was their friend and the visionary for the entire organization. Unfortunately, in addition to grieving for the loss of their close friend and boss, they were also left in charge of running the organization, a near impossible task for them last week. The head of IVHQ flew in from New Zealand to help out and to help deal with any volunteer issues. Unfortunately, all the bank accounts were in James’ name, so there was no immediate access to funds. Therefore, Simon and I chose to spend close to $300 of the money we raised on food shopping for Maddison House. We were able to leave the stock rooms full of potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, onions, etc to make sure the kids will eat well over the next couple of weeks. The day before the memorial service we also lost electricity. After some investigating we discovered this was because the last bill had not been paid – in all the confusion of the past week it had got missed. Fadhili was in no position to pay this so we decided it would be a very good use of our funds to pay this debt and get the lights turned back on. Many thanks to all of you who donated and made this possible.

So, our final week was not as we expected. It was challenging and emotional but also very rewarding. We are sad to have left at a time when everything is still so uncertain for the organization and the orphanage, but we are glad we were there to help the kids deal with their loss and to keep the orphanage running.

Nearing the end

It’s been a while since we wrote about the orphanage so here’s an update on the past few weeks.

As many of you know, we raised a significant amount of money from friends and family back in the US and UK to help the kids at the orphanage. Originally we planned to use this to just buy some new clothes for the kids as they had so little. However, due to the overwhelming generosity we have been able to start a number of projects that will help the house. Firstly, we did go and buy a lot of new clothes for the kids, including rain coats for everyone, and over 120 pairs of underwear (!) to make sure each child has at least 7 pairs. After discussing with the house mothers and the house guardian we decided to spend the rest of the money on 3 big projects: (1) building a covered outdoor kitchen behind the house, (2) starting a chicken project to provide eggs for the house and to sell at market, and (3) building a playground. A lot of our time has been spent getting these projects going and we will post a separate entry about them soon.

The kids finished school for the long Christmas holidays just over a week ago. The school year here runs from January to December so they had to complete end-of-year exams in November in order to progress to the next grade. Three of our children ranked first in their class, and everyone did well enough to move up a year so we were all very happy. As the end of term coincided with Thanksgiving we decided to cook a special celebratory dinner that weekend. We bought three turkeys, made mashed potatos, carrots, kale and spinach, and finished off with a cupcake each. Not exactly the same as Thanksgiving back in the States (although Em and Hilary tried to make their plates just as big!) but for most of the kids this was their first taste of Turkey, and it was also the most balanced meal they have eaten since we got here, so definitely a success.

Since there is no school, the kids have been around a lot. Luckily the playground was finished just in time so when the weather is ok they have been outside a lot playing on the swings, slide and climbing frame. We also had some of the older ones help us paint them one morning. It was fun to see how serious some of them took it. There have also been two 18-year olds visiting a couple of afternoons a week to teach the kids a dance routine… they already have way more rhythm than I do so it will be great to see the final product.

We have also had a lot of problems with water and electricity recently. Similar to our first couple of weeks here the power has kept going out, but more importantly, there has been no water pumped into our tanks since before we went to Mombasa. A man with a donkey and cart has to keep bringing us barrels of water every day which we then pour into our tanks. This has meant we have been extra conservative with water usage, including putting our toilet completely out of order. So, in true Kenyan style we have been using the outhouse at the bottom of the field, which has been quite the experience! I don’t think Em and I have ever felt closer than the time she escorted me to the hole in ground and we discussed the different ways to squat and the merits of each!


Pastor John, the house guardian, invited us over to his home again, but this time, to milk the cow! After his daughter showed us the ropes, i.e. cleaning each dirty, slightly hairy udder and smearing vaseline on it for lubrication, Emily, Hilary, and I took turns getting down there, close up to the nitty-gritty and milked that cow! It was quite the experience, really. It was a little slimy and gross at first, but what startled us most was the sheer difficulty in getting the milk to come out. You have to pull down REALLY hard on it! Im glad we didn’t have to fill up the whole bucket, especially since we kept aiming wrong and squirting milk everywhere.

This past weekend we also headed back to the KCC slum in Naivasha with a group of volunteers. It was good to see the kids again and learn how the project is developing. After the slum we visited Hells Gate National Park, which is next to Naivasha Lake and is home to zebras, giraffes, buffalo and occasionally lions. The parks geology comes from an old volcano close by so is full of impressive craters, ‘corridors’ of rock, and hot springs. We rented mountain bikes, complete with non-working gears, slow punctures, dodgy brakes (this is Kenya after all), and cycled about 5km into the park before going for a long walk through the rock crevices. Apparently Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones used Hells Gate as a filming location. Inspired by this, Em did her best Lara Croft impression by climbing up a very steep rock face, without harness. Our group leader told us of all the trips he has done only one other girl has ever climbed that rock. Of course, once Em had done it, I didn’t really have a choice but to follow her up. Going up was definitely easier than coming down, and im impressed Em managed it as even with my longer legs it was a challenge. By the time we got back to our bikes it was getting late so we cycled back as the sun was setting, which was a beautiful sight, until it actually set, and got dark, and we realized we were cycling past herds of buffalo who could decide to charge us at any moment! I’ve never seen Em pedal so fast! :)



So now we are nearly at end of our stay in Kenya - we have just over a week left before we head back to the UK on December 15th. We are definitely going to be sad to leave Maddison House and we don’t even want to think about saying goodbye to the kids yet. However, we are both getting excited about returning to the ‘easier’ life we have in the West with its consistent electricity and water supply, to planning our next adventure, and of course to seeing family and friends over the holidays.