Chris showed up at Paul’s house on his motorcycle, “The Ambulance” as it is known by local neighbors, and suggested that we visit a number of Blessed Family beneficiaries on the way back to his place. Though we had four people on the little motorcycle the previous day, we decided to walk through the “neighborhood.”
The first stop was the home of Lizbet Agutu, an 80 year old widow who greeted us with kisses, an ancient song of blessing, and a celebration in a traditional dance of praise. She honored Belinda, her “daughter from America,” with a gift. Like last year, it was the finest of her feathered flock, a red hen.
Our celebration with Lizbet ended when we continued to the next house on Chris’s route. It was the home of Berta. The young mother’s eyes met ours as we approached. She sat motionless, making no move to cover her burned body. She suffers from epilepsy which caused an unexpected seizure while she was cooking for her two children the previous week. She had fallen into the fire, burning her neck and chest severely. Her mother smiled as she came out of the small mud house behind Berta and greeted us.
We all entered the house and heard the story. Berta’s mother, a widow, had been working in a nearby garden when the accident occurred. Berta’s young son had run for help, calling Chris to come and help his mother out of the fire. Chris took her for treatment as soon as she was able to travel on the motorcycle, but she really needed to go to the hospital rather than the local clinic due to the severity of the burns. Now, as we chatted with Berta, her mother requested that we do what we could to assist her daughter who was often “thrown into the fire” by seizures. As we examined scars from previous burns, we were told that she had been “seized” by local men in the area and taken behind the bushes to be injured in other ways.
We learned that Berta had been sent to a distant school to receive special education services for a number of years, but was now staying at home with her mother who helped her care for her two sons. She and her family receive $11 worth of food from sponsors in the United States each month. They expressed gratitude for this saying they would not survive without it. Though it is gratifying to be able to purchase salve for Berta’s burns, and give food to the children, at times these seem like little more than a bandaid for the overwhelming problems they face daily.
As we continued our rounds, visiting people in the area, we arrived at the home of Angeline. She returned to this area when there was no one to assist her 85 year old mother. Angeline led the old woman out of her room to meet us. It was immediately obvious from the cloudy color of her eyes that she can no longer see. Angeline thanked Huruma House for recent assistance in re-hanging the front door on her mud house. It had fallen off the hinges and had to be propped against the door frame each night. She also thanked Chris for repairing the latrine. The previous month, when everyone had gone to attend a funeral, Angeline’s mother had been led to the outhouse by a small boy. He did not realize she needed further assistance inside the latrine where several of the floor boards were missing. Neighbors ran to assist the old woman whose arms held her from going through the hole. She was saved!
Our interaction with these loving people underscores a continuing need for assistance for some of God’s children in Western Kenya. Some of our goals are oriented around the initiation of sustainable projects in agriculture and employment opportunities for younger widows, but the relief work for older individuals is a beautiful manifestation of the love of God through expressions of love for neighbors.
Our trip “around the block” is a snapshot from our short visit, but it certainly appears to be an excellent representation of everyday life in the Bwaliro neighborhood.
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