Home Visits, part 3
As our whirlwind trip was winding up, we had three more kid visits to do. The first was with Agnes. As it turns out, Agnes wasn’t actually at home. She was taking her Class 6 final exams at the school and we didn’t get to see her. But we met the rest of her family.
Above is their home. The door on the left is the neighbors’ place. They have only the space to their door on the right. It is about as deep as it is wide. The yellow jugs are for water. There is a faucet in the courtyard to my back as I take this.
Their home has 7 people living in it. Agnes’s mother took her four kids at the time and escaped from a domestic abuser. They are in hiding. Mama Agnes was pregnant at the time. She had the baby. Soon after, her oldest daughter had a baby as well.
Three of the kids are in school. Agnes is the oldest of these. Her older sister is Ruth. She had to drop out of school after Class 8. Their mom had a complicated delivery and recuperation from her youngest child. Ruth had to drop out and care for her siblings and mom.
Ruth told us she would like to go back to school. Agnes’s sponsor immediately stepped up to support Ruth, as well as Agnes and the rest of the family. We are exploring options for how the two babies can be cared for while Ruth attends school and her mom provides for the family.
Below is Mama Agnes, her son, and Ruth.
They also shared with us that they didn’t have any food for the family. The kids would have been getting some at school, but the school year ended, and that’s only three of the 7 family members. Our approach to child sponsoring is that the sponsor, with our help, is providing some for the family, as well.
We walked over to a nearby shop to get food and toiletries/hygiene products. Virginia ordered the food. Below is the shop.
We got beans, rice, flour (lots of corn flour for ugali), tea, milk (packaged as to not need refirgeration), laundry soap, cooking oil, sugar, drinkable yogurt for the kids present, and other items. It was a big collection.
We then carried all the food and supplies back to their home. It was clear some of the neighbors were aware how hard up the family was. The neighbors were thanking us and blessing us as we walked by.
Behind us in the picture below is the main drag of the town. If you ignore the trucks and cars, the town was one town drunk short of a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. And I’m sure we could have found the drunk if we’d looked around. It was dusty, without clear lines where the street was. Dogs and kids wandering freely around. Cattle strolling by.
Below is Mama Agnes, holding her youngest, me, Wangari, Claudia, and another of Agnes’s brothers in front.
Below, Mama Agnes and Ruth, with their babies.
Our next stop was to visit Francis. We have two young men named “Francis” sponsored through Tuko Pamoja. The first is sponsored by Tom Anderson and his family.
Above is Francis’s mom, Naomi. She is married to a casual laborer. She also does casual labor when she can, which isn’t often due to a lack of child care.
She had her first child at 15, so was married some time before that. She is 33 now. Francis is the second at 16 years old. He just finished Class 8. His younger sister, Neema, is also in Class 8. Francis started school late due to not having the money for the fees. Naomi has 6 kids ranging from 18 to 2.5 years old.
Above is Francis leading the way on the path to their house. We drove as far as we had road, then walked. This is common for the area. The families usually don’t have cars, so there are no roads.
Below is their home. They rent it for the equivalent of $12 a month. It has three rooms. There is no electricity and no water. They carry water from a well about half a mile away. But the well is steeply downhill from the house, meaning they have to carry it back up.
Francis spends most weeknights at a teacher’s house in town. The teacher has electricity so Francis has light to read. He doesn’t get that at home.
Below that is Wangari sitting in the main room. A door to a bedroom is behind the empty chair on the right.
Much of the furniture is locally made. It is very sturdy and will last a long time. The fabric and, especially, the padding don’t last nearly as long.
Below are the members of the family who were present. Francis, Neema, Naomi (Francis’s mom), and a friend. Two younger siblings are in front.
Our third kid visit was to our other Francis. This young man is sponsored by Nathan Szalewski and Jaime Lewis.
Our visit to Francis was more than just random mzungus showing up at their home. We were invited to attend the day and a half long celebration of Francis’s circumcision. This rite is performed in Maasai culture to mark the transition from childhood to manhood. Thankfully, we were invited for the celebration, not the actual circumcision.
(FGM is still performed in some families in the area. We would not have attended if it had been a girl, and would have explained why. It is also illegal in Kenya.)
Traditionally, the circumcision is performed by local tribal leaders. We were pleased to hear Francis’s parents had his done at a hospital.
The tradition has it that the young man can’t cry, scream, shake or otherwise show pain.
Below is the road to Francis’s home. After driving down this a ways, we turned onto a single-person path, which made this road look like a freeway.
We met some of Francis’s family at the home.
Below are a few siblings and step-siblings of Francis. I’m not sure who the woman in blue is. A family friend? Another wife?
On the right is Francis’s father, Joshua. He doesn’t know his age, due to there really not being a calendar in the Maasai culture. It has been imposed on them by outsiders. Looking at him, he has to be at least 80.
Joshua has four wives. Francis’s mom, Joyce, is the newest, and is 34. She has four children. The other three wives have a total of 18 children, for 22 total.
The doorway where the kids are standing is the entry to the home for Joyce and her kids.
Below, I’m with Joshua and Francis’s younger sibling or step-sibling. Notice Joshua’s earlobes. This is traditional for Maasai.
Joshua used to have many cattle. The multi-year drought of a few years ago killed them all, except two. He has a small plot of land to grow food, but the rain is too sporadic to make that very successful. He is pushing to get all his kids educated.
I was allowed in the house to visit Francis. Adult women were not allowed, including his mother. He is attended by young men his age, who have already been circumcised.
Below, two women tend preparation of what I believe is a poultice for Francis. It could be food, but I don’t recognize it. I think they have special status, allowing them in the house.
The home is below. No windows. Just the one door. The women above had a cookfire in the main room, which created an incredible amount of smoke, which the young men inside just dealt with.
There is one other room, which is divided in two by a hanging blanket. Francis was in the bed in one room. He had a solar lantern, but I don’t believe any other electricity. There was no running water.
We chatted a bit. I met his friends, who were piled deep in the other bedroom all on top of each other. I’m not sure how many there were. My eyes didn’t adjust to the darkness well enough.
Francis has to stay in the house for two weeks. Then he can go forth. Now that he is officially a man, he can’t sleep under the same roof with a woman, even his mother. So he will bunk with other young men around his age in a separate dwelling.
Below, Joyce on the left, Joshua, and Agnes. Agnes is the mother of three kids sponsored through Tuko Pamoja, including Shaleen, Stephen, and Abigael. She and Shaleen came to drop off a letter to Nathan while we were there. (Nathan and Jaime are also Shaleen’s sponsors.)
We were inside the home of another of Joshua’s sons, but from a different mother. Joshua shared his story there, as I related above. Interestingly, he only speaks Maa, the language of the Maasai. The only person in the room who spoke both Maa and English was Shaleen, and she quickly figured out that she couldn’t understand Joshua’s dialect well enough to translate.
So Joshua spoke to Agnes in Maa. Agnes translated to Swahili to Virginia. Virginia translated to English from Swahili for Claudia and me.
