This morning my throat was hurting when I woke up, and I think I have the cold everybody in the house has had. I was able to do my devotion sitting in a chair that overlooked the whole Rift Valley. It was beautiful.
We headed over to IDP after breakfast. We got there earlier than we did the last time we went, so the kids were still in school. A little girl Lindsey was holding, named Beyonce, had her little brother there with her. He wouldn't say a word or smile the whole time. No one knows his name, not even the teachers. People in our group said him and his sister don't go to school at IDP, they just live in one of the houses. They are too young to be in school. After someone who was holding him put him down, he came to me for me to pick him up and hold him, and for the rest of the time he was attached to my hip. It broke my heart. Even while I was holding him, trying to get him to smile, tickling him, playing with him, he wouldn't smile. Not even a little bit. He broke my heart by how sad he looked. His pants were at least two sizes too big for him. They were somehow sewed or tied to fit his waist, and was very noticeable. His shirt was two sizes too small, which is probably worse than being two sizes too big. Over his shirt, he was wearing a pink and purple little girls jacket that was too small for him too. Him and his sister weren't in school there, so they weren't allowed to eat the porridge being served to all of the other kids. That tore. me. to. pieces. Beyonce looks about four or five years old. I'm not sure if she is not in school because she is too young, or because she has to take care of her little brother.
While at IDP, one little girl randomly started petting my hair. As soon as the others saw they ran up to me and started petting my hair too. Then they all started braiding my hair. hahaha my tender headed was not happy, but they were too precious to tell them to stop. While my hair was being braided, I was talking to the little boy I had been holding all day, and was still working on getting him to laugh. FINALLY I got a teeeeny tiny smile and giggle out of him when I tickled him. It was exciting to see. I ended up letting him down for a second because I had been holding him a while at that point. As soon as I let him down he pulled his pants and undies straight down and peed for probably a minute straight. I promise I really think he was holding it in, trying not to pee on me. haha..... because another little boy there peed on this guy Matt twice while he was there. So I guess that's a good thing it didn't happen to me haha. After he finished, I held him in my lap and hugged on him, kissed him, and cuddled him up in my arms sitting down. I also poured some of the water out of my water bottle onto his feet to wash off some of the pee that got on his feet. With any kid in America, I never would have held him if he had pee on his feet and pants. But with this little boy, I didn't care. I couldn't. When we left, I was on the verge of tears. Especially when we were pulling away in the car.. becuase this little boy who would hardly smile, and wouldn't say a word started waving at us and jumping up and down!!!!?! My heart broke leaving this little boy.
ian
they like to braid white girl hair hahahah
We went to eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch back at NV with the rest of the group. Then group B ended up going back to IDP so that Joseph (one of the guys at IDP who has been there since 2008... he is in charge of a lot there) could tell us the story of how IDP came about.
At IDP, there are rows and rows of cinderblock houses that are about the size of a kitchen, probably smaller. It looks like a little neighborhood of all of the same houses. IDP's story is such a God-thing. We had the opportunity to go into Joseph's home. He shared the awesome story of how IDP began. He is in charge of a lot at IDP. He explained to us how IDP began in 2008 when the presidential elections were going on. In Africa, the elections cause so much violence, and cause hundreds and thousands of murders. I can't remember which country these people came from, but the government in their country wanted them to leave to the point where they paid for a bus to drive them to a field 8 hours away from their country.. to Maai-Maau, Kenya. They purchased land to sleep on. There were at least 200 families who came to Kijabe. Remember how many kids Africans tend to have on average. These people slept on the bare ground for two weeks. They had no clothes, no food, no personal items. Absolutely nothing. After two weeks of sleeping on bare ground, the government gave each family 1-2 tents. [These aren't like tents in America that keep water and bugs out... Africa also tends to be really windy at night... so they would wake up many nights with the tents blown away.] After a year of sleeping in the field with all of these tents, a group of Americans were driving down the main road in Maai-Maau and saw the people gathered. They thought it was some sort of party or get together, so they went to check it out. They soon found out that this was no party... this was these peoples homes, their lives. They made friends with these people at IDP. Take a guess at WHO these people happened to be.... PEOPLE WORKING WITH HABITAT FOR HUMANITY. Without saying a word to the people at IDP, the group returned to America. A few weeks later, the people with Habitat returned to the field in Kijabe. They told the IDP families their plan. They wanted to build a house for each family there. For free. Like how funny is God?! That he sends people to Maai-Maau, Kenya.. in the middle of NOTHING, that these guys with Habitat are driving down the road and see hundreds of people they don't know and tents gathered everywhere, and they want to go check it out because they think it's a party? Things like that don't JUST HAPPEN. Every word that came out of Joseph's mouth was praise to God for all that has happened the past 5 years. every. single. word. Slap in the face.
the houses at IDP.
When Joseph finished telling us the story, he showed us around some, and then we walked back to Naomi's again. The rest of the time at Naomi's, we helped Ann (NV worker) shuck the vegetables for the kids' dinner, and then we went back to the house.
