Wednesday in the bush...

Wednesday in the village began with fresh mandazes made by Silas, (the man that owns the shop that I talked about), lemongrass tea and mangoes. The only 'program' that we had for that day was for Brent to accompany Mr. Carrier(Marc) on a mission.

Brent witnessed several baptisms..

After they left, we developed a plan for the rest of us for the day. Shoe organizing and shopping.

Charlton, Natasha, Tara and I sorted and organized shoes for the jigger clinic. There was a follow-up scheduled for Thursday and our job was to pack up the sizes of shoes that we would need for that.

Jigger clinic was held the two weeks before with Charlton, Wanda(his mom) and the team going from village to village, removing jiggers from toes and feet of old and young alike. Follow-up would consist of several teams walking thru the village, spraying pesticide in the homes. Another team would set up shop in a local church and all those treated in that village would come and get fit with a pair of shoes.

Jiggers are a sand flea that first attaches to the foot, then burrows into the foot, laying eggs as it goes, which hatch and burrow deeper into the foot. Since many of the people in this area have few/no chairs and beds in their homes, they spend a lot of time on the ground and infestation is rampid.

So we packed the shoes in the sizes that we needed and organized the shoe room. A donor had given 1000 pairs of shoes for the jigger project. Don't picture individual shoe boxes, but rather cases with 24 pr of shoes in each case. Men's, Ladies', and children's.

[Natasha and I sorting shoes]

When that was finished, we piled into the van. All the Sweazy's, all the Rosenberry females, and Mrs. Carrier. We travelled the 35 minute drive to Kitale, and I noticed my eyes were less wide than the first few days in Kenya. But still I took in the sights along the way. 

We ate lunch and shopped in two nice 'department' stores. The shopping alone was rather chaotic with the large group. Inside the buildings, it didn't strike me as so very different from what I was used to. Cindy told me later that we were in very nice stores. Sometime I want to go to the market and experience that style of shopping.

Natalie and her new friend, Ava, posing in the dept store in Kitale. 

What felt VERY different was the moment that we left the building and came into the street. Vendors and trash and noisy cars and honking. It felt very different crossing the street. No crosswalk signals here. Charlton led the way and we all stuck together. Still, it was not a safe cozy feeling.

And then there were glue boys...

street boys who sniff glue to kill the emotional and physical pain in their lives. They beg for money, wear ragged clothes and walk barefooted thru the streets. They came to our van, three of them, I'm guessing ages 11-15, wearing huge smiles and empty wasted eyes. Holding out hands for shillings. Wanting bread or possibly more glue.

Charlton bought their glue from them.  He gave them 10 shillings(11 cents) if they would hand their bottle over to him. Two of them chose to do that, the third valued his glue too much. Charlton said he prefers to buy the glue bottle in exchange for bread, but he didn't have the bread, so he gave the shillings, hoping they would feel the hunger enough to use it on food and not glue. Sniffing the glue makes life on the street tolerable, they don't feel the hunger, they don't feel the cold...My heart simply went out to these boys whose life seems such a waste, wondering what chance they ever have to hear about Jesus, the only One who can free from such vices...

We travelled home and had chicken (that was being butchered as we left for town) scuma and cabbage, and mashed potatoes for supper. We all went to bed early that night.