"Tumaini" (Hope)

"The soul is healed by being with children."

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

It’s been quite a week at Tumaini, and it is gorgeous here. The orphanage is back dropped with an amazing mountain range, farms, and Kenyan countryside. Also, it gets very chilly at night: around 50 degrees. But, the kids are amazing! The typical day (and I use that term loosely) always involves breakfast with tea, work of some sort, lunch of potatoes beans rice cabbage, and dinner/discussion with the caretakers (Cecilia and Lawrence). There is so much that I want to tell everyone, but I also don’t want to drone on; so, I will try to keep it as short as possible with bullet points of things that were particularly interesting or funny.

- The “shamba” (farm): I farmed Thursday and Friday last week, which consisted mostly of tilling the land and planting potatoes. It was hard work that left me with several blisters on my hands, but God says it is good to work; and, it was.

- “Selfless and servants”: It was simple, but one of the kids Esther took over my tilling, while I went to get a drink of water, so I wouldn’t fall behind. All of the kids are so disciplined and live with servant’s hearts. Selfless acts are abundant here at Tumaini.

- “Sabina”: she is one of the older children, and has a heartbreaking story. But, her hope in God and her love for singing combine into amazing melody. She asked me to play guitar while she sang two songs she created. The lyrics almost brought me to tears, but her spirit and voice kept me going and were so pure. I felt like my guitar playing actually made the songs worse.

- “Kenyan Church” (aka exercise): It is an exercise of the mind, body, and spirit. From Tumaini, it begins with a 35 minute hike uphill to the church around 9:30. After arriving, everyone stands and sings songs, mostly in Kiswahili. Lots of fun to see the energy: dancing, clapping, and singing at full throttle. Then, Lawrence, a caretaker at Tumaini, spoke for over an hour on forgiveness. I’m not sure that I forgive him for that yet haha (considering that wasn’t even the sermon). Following this, Adam, Katie, and I had to introduce ourselves since we were clearly visitors and the only wazunguus (white people) in the congregation. Then, more singing and dancing, followed by another sermon. Around a 3 hour service, with another 35 minute uphill hike back. All in all, it was great, and I should be in shape after repeating this every Sunday.

- “Humbling”: Learned how to wash my clothes by hand two days ago. I thought I knew what I was doing with the buckets of soapy water and one to rinse. But, when it came time to wash my jeans, Jamlick informed that I was doing it wrong, and threw my jeans to the ground and poured water on them and began to scrub them for me. It worked like a charm. Amazing what a college education won’t get you. It was also a lesson I have been learning throughout this week. The value of learning from children.

It still ceases to amaze me, the community and welcoming nature of Kenyan culture. I am still shocked and encouraged at how much joy these children possess. They are always willing to help, learn, serve, and love…not typical American values. I can only hope that some of these traits will rub off on me, and that I will have half the effect on the children as they have had on me.