Precious Children

On Friday, we were at a primary school in Kibera that we go to every Friday afternoon. The January sun was hot and scorching and the dust of the school yard swirled around us. The Kenyan flag also flew bravely in the wind, along with my skirt, which I kept holding down and cursing myself for wearing a flowy skirt on a windy day.

The moment we arrived, we were swamped by a million little hands and hugs. The kids are always so happy when we come we can’t get enough hands to greet them all. The kids came running across the school yard to meet us with big smiles on their faces.
It’s a rough school building, donated by various partners and do-gooders. Sheet metal classrooms make up most of the school, while a few of the buildings are made of mud, badly damaged in the last big rain storm when the stream roared over its banks and washed through the simple mud walls. The school is in the middle of the slum. Its backdrop is the tall banks of the railroad track and the mabati (metal sheet) roofs of Kibera.

The kids at this school are here because they can’t afford to go anywhere else. (to put this into perspective…government school are “free”, i.e. all kids need to do is pay for their uniforms, books, and a tuition fee and food fee totaling around $50 a year…these kids can’t afford that). This school is better than no school, but even still, there is a lot lacking ( Like the other day when the first graders were being taught that they eat off of a “plat” and that a “basket” is “what we use to carry water”).

We tried to gather all the kids in the school yard. We were going to try something new with the kids today: playing games outside. We usually try games inside the classrooms but wanted to try something different today. The hundred or so kids of the school range from about three years old up to about 15 years old, forcing us to be very creative in our teachings and games. We tried to play a game called “hit the bottle” (i.e. two teams take turns trying to hit a bottle with a shoe for points…a very creative name) but just as we had separated the kids into two groups, I realized that even this game was too much for the preschoolers. We separated the preschoolers from the rest and tried to play “Bendy Bendy Bendy!” and they understood that ok (however playing it on a hill, I nearly fell over once) and then we played “I want, I want”. Most of them got that ok, though some still sat there staring and not sure what they were supposed to do.

Yet the sun grew hotter and the kids’ attention spans waned so we herded them into the shade of one of buildings and sang songs together. They remember the songs we teach them each week and will happily start leading themselves in songs…though sometimes all different songs at the same time. We taught them a new song, “One little duck, swimming in the water”. I think we need to work at that one a little more.

When the older kids finally finished their game, we all crowded into the biggest classroom. The big kids enjoyed their game so much they didn’t want to stop playing. The big kids carried in some wooden desks that they squeezed four kids each on. The little kids all sat on the dusty floor. I joined the little kids on the floor and immediately had two little kids fighting for space on my lap. They were especially tiny ones so they both fit. While I am not supposed to have favorites, this one little tiny girl is especially precious and so cute; I can’t help but be very happy to see her every week.

We sang more songs with the kids while Martin and Jane quickly put on their costumes in the next classroom. They came plodding in dressed as a very old man and a very old woman, hunched over with painted on grey hair and wrinkles. The kids all laughed and we immediately had their attention. Role playing as Abraham and Sarah, Jane and Martin told the story of their life, reminiscing on what they had experienced in their long years. Since the kids saw the story this week, next week we can expand on it and give them an actual teaching. Through our experience with the kids, trying to do a story and a teaching all in the same day has proven to be a bit much and they remember better when we split it up. This has been the fourth story we’ve gone through from Genesis and our team has really enjoyed putting together puppet shows and skits to illustrate the stories. Our sock puppets have been exceptionally awesome.

Martin and Jane did the skit in Swahili. While the big kids might understand the English version, the little kids would be completely lost (though the very little ones sometimes get lost even in Swahili and start falling asleep in the warm sunshine). Next week during our teaching time, we will split them into about four different age groups to teach them more effectively. The younger the kids, the less teaching time and more coloring time they get. Athena has been drawing some great coloring pages for the kids to decorate during our weeks of teaching.

After we finished with the kids, the kids followed us out and hung around us, not wanting to go home until they are sure we have gone. Our team was ready to go, but were still waiting for Emma.

When we had first arrived that afternoon and were being mobbed by kids, one little girl caught the attention of Emma and myself almost immediately. She was a lovely little girl, not more than six years old with big brown eyes. What caught our attention was her head. It was completely covered with white, pussy, oozing sores. Some were scabbed over with ugly, knobby crusts; others were still fresh and liquidy. It was a severe case of ringworms, more severe than I have ever seen.
“Emma, is that ringworm?”

“Yes. She needs to go to the hospital.”

“Take her. We’ll come up with the money.”

So Emma disappeared with the little girl and took her straight to a clinic nearby. The doctor had to run a few tests but eventually discovered, as we feared, that she wasn’t only full of worms externally, but internally as well. She needed immediate treatment, injections, her wounds wrapped, and then continual treatment every day for the next month.

The little girl was so used to pain that she didn’t even flinch at the injection. Emma bought her a lollipop and took her home to talk to her mother. We were all wondering what kind of mother lets her kid get so sick, when all our judgments proved unfounded.

The mother, a single mother of three, was abandoned by her husband a few years ago. She gets a living through working odd jobs, like washing clothes or anything else she can find. Needless to say, the family really struggles to get by. She was very worried about her daughter and had taken her to a local clinic several days before. The doctor at the clinic looked at the kid and gave her nothing but pain killers. (pain killers…I’m not a doctor…but how do pain killers treat worms?) The mother has been faithfully administering the prescribed medicine to her daughter and been distraught over her lack of recovery. The day before we met her, she had been so upset that she had been crying out to God for help and for healing for her daughter. She knew she didn’t have the money to go back to the clinic but her daughter was doing so poorly that she was at a loss of what to do.

When Emma brought the little girl home and apologized for taking her to the doctor without the mother’s permission, the mother was overjoyed. She found her prayer had been answered.

We are hoping to check on the progress of the little girl this week. We are hoping to see her quickly heal and no longer be so painfully tormented by a preventable and treatable disease. Yet my heart grieves to wonder how many other kids and parents also suffer from preventable and treatable causes. Next Friday, we’ll be back to the school in the hot sunshine once again.


***Epilogue*** Emma visited the little girl today (Monday). The wounds on her head have cleared up and she is looking healthy again. She visited the doctor again today. The doctor at the clinic was so touched at us taking the time to take care of this little girl that she has volunteered to deworm all the kids at the school for free every six months...talk about a ripple in a pond effect! What good was done to one kid can now impact all hundred kids at the school. Praise God!