Some of my favorite human beings on the planet! Meet the school kids of Ribui Elementary School
This month’s blog is dedicated to the hundreds of Kenyan children I’ve met over the past 16 years traveling to Kenya nearly 30 times. The journey started for me in 2003 with a single global friendship with Mercy Chidi Baidoo who came to the States looking for support to help AIDS orphans. She and I knew instantly our hearts were “one with the kids”. Maybe the abandoned child in each of us recognizes when a kid is in trouble. And as adult women, our “inner protective lioness” wakes up screaming “whatever it takes, I will do it.”
Today, Mercy’s operation, Ripples International, reaches thousands and I get to visit some of the most life-giving balls of energy, twice a year on our Women’s Journey to Kenya.
On any given grumpy news day, I give my numb brain the gift of imagination allowing it to drift over the oceans where I see in my mind’s eye all of the kids waving at me and I say “Hi! I’m back! Want to play?”
A wide-eyed Samburu baby with his young mother living the nomadic life in the High Desert of Kenya. The Samburus are known as “The Butterfly People” for their exotic, multi-layered necklaces that float when they dance, like a butterfly’s wing.
In her prim pink dress and carefully braided locks, this beauty lives in the heart of one of Nairobi’s largest slums called Mathare Valley. Her mother was close by and she gave me the “thumbs up” to take the photo. We exchanged a smile of “knowing” like women do.
This little rascal lives on the lush Eastern slopes of Mt. Kenya. His mother picks tea every day with a self-organized group of women called Balm Touch who belt out traditional songs (in perfect harmony I might add) working in the hot sun.
Several years ago, I saw this young woman sitting outside of SHOFCO (Shining Hope for Communities) a girls’ education showcase in Kibera, a massive slum in Nairobi. This past year, they won the coveted Hilton Humanitarian Award enabling them to give more girls living in poverty a free education. When I see her all I see is peace.
Joyce is my girl. She keeps me company every single day. I set her radiant self as my computer wallpaper to help my heart remember what “joy” looks like. Every time I visit her orphanage we hug, giggle and tickle knowing that’s just what we do and we’ll keep doing it until we can’t anymore. She lives in abject poverty in the slums of Nairobi but good women are giving her a lifeline.
