July, 2011: Back in My Hot Home

I am glad to be back to my hot home, and I am having fun with the kids - they are all home for school break - well, 5 have gone for visits with relatives, but that still leaves 18 plus 5 puppies and 3 kittens. The kittens live in my room so the bigger dogs don't eat them. Another lively addition to our family is Queenie, now 7 months, the granddaughter of our chief mama, Violet, whose daughter Hawa has come to live with us. The children, including the boys, all fight over who gets to carry her! This young mom works so hard that I feel guilty for not putting her on the payroll! We do have a program in the works to accept young pregnant rape victims, and I believe that Hawa and Queenie will be able to make them feel at home when that happens.

I have made some adjustments to the daily routine and pushed the dinner hour from close to 8pm back to 6:30 because we all go to sleep early, and those rice and beans dinners sit heavy on the digestion system! So, I created a schedule for evening activities. What do you do at night with no tv, you may ask... Tuesday we all play various card games. The smallest with flash cards, then regular cards, a type of Jr. Uno and for us older competitive types, Uno. I introduced the big guys to Yatze, but they gave up and brought out the checkers. It was great.

Stories is another activity, and I can tell you, reading Winnie the Pooh out loud in English to 12 non- English kids (with Swahili subtitles interjected) is something everyone should try doing at least once. I thought they would get bored, as the pictures are small and few, but they kept me going for four chapters, and it was I who closed the book! So besides having the older kids read to the younger ones, we will have story telling with no books too. I started the Drama activity on Saturday: each week a group will create a story (with a clear lesson) to present. Musa was so excited, that despite having asked Kiza if he would be willing to start things off, Musa's was the first group to perform the first Saturday. They have cleared a nice practice area under a cashew tree just out of hearing distance from the house, and have been busy there. This activity is sure to generate some interesting video footage!

At the annual golf tournament in BC, we invited people’s questions. I will answer them here:

How many children are in care at the orphanage?

Currently there are 23 children with 3 older boys are studying secondary in boarding schools. Of the remaining 20, one older girl attends secondary school and 19 children (14 girls and 4 boys) attend primary school close to the house.

How do you choose out of so many deserving children?

This is a difficult question to answer, and a more difficult issue to solve. Our screening process guidelines are that the program is for children living in DANGEROUS situations with a max. age for entry for girls - 13 yrs and boys - 10 yrs (exception to this is if the applicants are a sibling family. We take requests from local government officials or Vijaliwa Vingi Board members and there is an investigation of the child and his/her relatives. The child can be accepted into the local school and the child and his/her relatives accept the House Rules.

Each case is reviewed carefully, as there are so many families that would love to have one or more of their many children accepted into our all-inclusive residential program.

Are all the children orphans or do some have parents who cannot care for them?

Most of the children have lost at least one parent, and all have relatives who cannot care for them in a safe environment. Each case is different. For example, Joan's grandmother made a request to our chairman, 3 years ago, to admit Joan. The grandmother said that both parents were dead, but we later learned that they both are alive, have drug habits, AIDS and had disappeared. The grandmother told Joan that both her parents had died. Joan visits her grandmother 3 times each year and has not heard of/from either parents.