Matt's Guest Entry: US saying: “Hammer looking for a nail,” Kenyan saying: “Machete looking anything”

Hello Julie’s followers, this is Matt writing and today I’m providing a guest blog entry about what I’ve been up to the past few days (Mon-Wed) while Julie has been working in the hospital. In summary, Ben (Aurelie’s husband) and I have met a wonderful man named John Njane who provides mentoring, shelter, and training for “street boys” in order to give them opportunities and have better lives - we’ve spent the past three days doing various home improvements alongside the street boys and this has been a truly wonderful experience, providing an authentic insight into Kenyan culture that I would have otherwise missed, but I’m getting ahead of myself…

Sunday evening, following dinner, Julie called a missionary woman who is the head of welcoming and familiarizing new doctors to Kijabe, to inquire about volunteer/service opportunities that Ben and I might participate in during our week in Kijabe. It was arranged that we would meet with a man (John Njane – pronounced “John Johnny”) who runs a ministry that provides services for “street boys” (kids living on the street, who don’t go to school, and whose outlook is bleak) and orphans. Without knowing much more, the missionary arranged for Ben and me to meet John Njane the following morning to build a fence at his house (where there are five street boys living with him).

At 7:30 am on Monday morning, John (who is also a mechanic) arrived on a dirt bike/motorcycle (or a “piki piki” as they are commonly called in Swahili). John asked if Ben or I had any experience riding piki’s, at which point we both indicated that our experience level was very limited, but were also confident that we could ride a piki without much trouble. Ben and I later confessed to one another that by “a little” experience on a piki, we really meant “none.” Nonetheless, the three of us rode about 5 miles up to John’s home on two pikis (Honda dirt bikes) via a steep, rocky, rutted, red dirt road - Ben driving a piki while I rode on the back on John’s bike.

When we arrived at John’s home, we were introduced and warmly welcomed by the street boys (Steven, Steven, Mark, Anthony, and George who were ~13-15 years old, with the exception of a little Mark ~9 years old). John (29 years old) had recently moved to this new 3-room home with his wife, daughter, his wife’s young cousin (a 13 year old girl who helps with the daughter), and the five street boys. The house is extremely modest - I would estimate it to be 600 square feet. It has an outdoor latrine and no indoor water, though it does have some “luxuries” for amongst other homes in the area – which include i) a solar panel to power one small fluorescent light in each room (similar size to a desk lamp), ii) a large (10’ diameter, 6’ high), concrete, water storage tank that collects rainwater via PVC pipe affixed to the corrugated metal roof, and iii) a car battery connected by jumper cables to power a mini DVD player (we watched 15 minutes of Rush Hour 2 over lunch during out third day of working – John loves Jackie Chan and thinks Chris Tucker is hysterical… so do I!). Also, when they found out I was half Chinese, the boys thought I looked like Jackie Chan… but they all also thought Ben and I looked like brothers, go figure…

The five street boys living with were chosen from a larger group of street boys living in the nearby city nearby or Maii Maihu, which Ben and I refer to as either “Sin City” or “Sodom, Gomorrah, and Maii Maihu” – as it appears to be run rampant with unsavory characters, drugs, prostitution, and poverty (as opposed to Kijabe where we’re staying, which is owned by the mission and more akin to a wholesome Utah town).

At any rate we began building a new hybrid barbed wire/wooden fence using very limited amounts of tools and supplies (i.e. reusing boards, reusing bent and rusty nails, and using a machete for both digging post holes and “sawing/hacking” wood). It is amazing what you can do with a limited supply of tools when that is all you have available. Over the three days that Ben and I have spent working at John’s, we’ve both managed to get a little sunburned, have built several sections of fence, gates, a clothesline, done some work to make an improved and safer walkway to the latrine, and been welcomed into a Kenyan home for several wonderful, lunches consisting of Kenyan fare ( i) rice and vegetables, ii) ugali and sukumi wiki (corn paste/”bread” that is used to pick up and eat a spinach/kale mixture, and iii) maize and beans).

Today John is working at his mechanic job, so Ben and I may get a late start but are looking forward to another day working alongside the Kenyan street boys…