With a smile one can go far...all the way to the heart

When one receives a genuinely happy smile...nothing more is required. It does not matter, whether one speaks the same language, the big smile tells everything. Smile rockets straight to one's heart.

On Monday we had our third community day. We went to St. Anthony's Small Home in Kiptangwany , which is the home for mentally handicapped children.

In Kenya there prevails an old belief that if the child is handicapped, it has been touched by the devil. The parents are often the worst ones when it comes to how they treat the handicapped children. Some of the children are sent to the street to beg, as their parents think that they are not fit for anything else. Other parents lock the handicapped children into a room when ever guests come. These children never get to go out of the house either, as the parents do not want to show that their child is in one way or another handicapped. Abuse, mistreated and ignored - that is rather normal in those cases.

Others just dump their kids somewhere to a street...and then comes Father James and his team to rescue some of these children. The St. Anthony's Small Home lies by local terms "just outside" Nakuru. If one has a pick-up truck that is the case, but going with our matatu...it took us 2 hours of a very bumby ride. The road is literally something between holes in the street and half done. We were jumping those 2 hours in the van and I felt sorry for our driver, John and his disco matatu. But we were on a mission, there were children waiting for us...so the bumps became a minor things on the list of things.

After the weary drive, with all the bumps giving an intestine massage, we got to meet the children who permanently live at the St. Anthony's Small Home. The place is really isolated from anything.
At the Small Home there are currently living 12 children in the age between 6 - 16.

The children greeted us, each in their own way showing that they were happy to have us there. One of the younger kids was purely jumping out of joy and shaking our hands over and over again...and already all of us had forgotten all about the bumpy ride.

The children didn't speak much English, but that did not stop us from socializing.
They sang us songs and we sang also our team song (Jambo Bwana).

We went to see the school, which is short walking distance away from the home. The kids were showing proudly what they are learning. We had puppets with us and they were a hit. Burst of laughter was in the air, when we were playing with puppets.

Junko, our team member from Japan, had again her great Polaroid camera with her. She took pictures of each child with one of our team members. That itself brought a big smile to the children's face...to see their own picture.

Time for outside games...football, throwing ball, rope skipping and singing. One of the boys had such a strength, when he kicked the ball...it flew far. He was also showing his happiness by giving a big hug. Krisha, our team member from Australia, was the target of his hugs most of the time.
Each one of the children showed their happiness and affection differently...but they showed it.

We were told that one of the girls, who we were playing ball tossing with, does not speak, nor smile. With us, after a while, she reacted to the ball and she smiled!!!
I had one little fellow holding my hand most of the time. He talked non-stop in swahili and I replied in English. We had discussions about everything possible...probably not all the time about the same subject, but that is a minor thing. The whole time when he held my hand and talked, he had a big smile on his face. That is what was important in my opinion. It is a good reminder that it is not only words that make the social communication, gestures, facial expression and singing even works just fine, if one does not have common words.

Sugandha, our team member from India, showed a whole new side of herself. She formed the other schoold kids into a circle and started singing along with them. Must say, I could not tell who was enjoying more, Sugandha or the kids ;o) It was great to watch.

After playing under the hot sun, it was time for lunch. The water bottles we had taken with us became a big hit. The kids gulped them in one go. Had we thought about it, we would have taken some more. Bottled water tastes of course different than rain water.

Despite the sad nature of the children's story, being abandoned by their parents and the perception that to outside the home did not look much more than a storage building at someone's summer cottage...but the fact that they had a home where they are loved, they get proper meals and they are able to play, express themselves and run outside, that made me really happy.

Father James and the caretakers are doing a great job. The meal we got for lunch was great and the kids emptied their big bowls of food.
We agreed to help them to get proper bedding for the kids...which we did. Imagine this for 20 euros from each person, we managed to get (thanks to Krishna and Dave negotiating with the local super market) each one of the kids a proper mattress, mattress protection, pillow, blanket and sheet. That will help to keep the sunny smiles on the children's face when they can have a good night sleep.

Father James said to us that he wanted to offer us soda before we go. One does not say "no" to that...even if it meant that he actually walked to the village shop and bought two cases of soda, which the local "courier guy" delivered on his two wheeler and then went back to get Father James as well. Such does not exist anymore in the modern cities that someone would want to offer you a soda and walks to get those. It was the best Coke I have drank.

We left again bags with toys and books to the children and they got a football as well.

In the car on the way back...the atmosphere was again filled with mixed emotions and that was not due to the very bumpy road. To know that you have made a difference to someone's life made me happy...but at the same time to acknowledge that those children were abandoned by their parents...that brought tears to eyes.

Luckily there is at the moment lot of education being done by the church to the adults about handicapped children. They are trying to gain the parent's understanding that those children are to be treated just like a normal children, they deserve a happy childhood and the possibility to go to school.

I will never forget the joy those children posses and gladly share if one is ready to take it on ;o) The image of my little friend holding my hand, talking to me about everything between the earth and the sky in swahili...and most of all having this big, big smile on his face...what more could I ever ask for.

Great News Update Friday 22.7.2011:
On Friday we got the news that from Egerton University, the Eucossa team got inspired by our community days - us going around on top of the assignment work and sharing our know-how, time and what ever is needed to make a difference. Eucossa team has promised to develop and host a website for St. Anthony small home and they will also work with New life to revamp the website.

This enables that more and more people become aware of the great work they are doing and the fact that both organizations are not following the path of the well known big charity and aid organizations, where the admin costs are already so big that from the donation one does not get much to the target itself.
Thank you Eucossa for catching the ball and continuing what we started.

(As usual, just as I get the story done and want to add photos...the connection is getting slow...so - more photos will follow. Will try to update the photos tomorrow morning)