Their little faces
Originally Posted on September 16, 2011
Reposted April 2021
I was finally here, meeting the child I had sponsored for six years from the age of 10 and he was now 16 years old. After meeting Njamba and his family at their village, I had a moment, took a deep breath and realized after 4 months of concentrated planning, I was finally here and very happy.
I then asked where all of the little children were as I had been told through my correspondence with David from World Vision that there were 16 children in the village and 12 children under 5 yrs. They brought me my big brown suitcase and the children all sat in front of me on the matt and I started handing out the cars & stuffed animals I had brought from Toronto. David and I had decided that it was best to give the little ones their gifts in the village, but take the rest back to the guest house and Mrs. Kazaka could decide whom to give the clothes and other items too.
When I looked down at their little faces I saw the commercials you see on TV with the runny noses and they were all coughing. A Kenyan man on the plane home told me the runny noses were from the dust from the sand as it was everywhere. That some how made me feel better as I worried they all had TB.
They looked well fed and clothed for the most part. Njamba’s niece, about 10 months old was in a what looked to be a new frilly pink dress. I tried to give her a little pick rabbit to match her dress but every time I leaned over to give it to her she cried and hid her head into her mother. And every time she screamed & cried all he woman laughed. I tried three times and each time it was the same. I finally just gave the bunny to her mom. I think she was afraid of my blond hair as she had probably never seen some one with blond hair and maybe had never seen a person with white skin.
As the little ones got there cars or stuffed animals, the bigger kids started to gather around.
I gave them Daniela’s dolls with the long curly hair. I have a picture of Njamba touching the hair of one of the dolls, I guess to see what long hair felt like as they all had short cropped hair or it was in tight braids close to the head. I have many pictures and video ( see below) to show all who have so kindly donated to these beautiful children.
I also asked one of the little boys who had a dinky car if I could have it for a
minute. I ran it along the flat arm of the chair and said” vroom, vroom like the sound of a car and they all laughed. Heather had also sent a little toy that when you wound it up if flipped right around and landed on it’s feet. The kids all thought that was great
After the gift giving I was anxious to go spend time to get to know Njamba but as I was leaving the hut I looked down and saw a 50lb bag of rice and two stocks of bananas still on the branch. I was then told by the ADP manager that this was a gift from Njamba’s mother.
I was shocked and amazed and grateful. Then they produced a live brown chicken as well as a gift. I gave Mum a big hug and thanked her and we proceed to go towards the WV Van.
As I approached the vehicle Max asked me if I wanted to leave the pots & mattress now which I had forgotten about. I said yes that would be a great idea so I presented mom with the pots and we had a picture together and then a picture with Njamba and his new mattress. He walked away carrying it like a strong man carrying the world. I didn’t feel comfortable taking the pictures with the pots & mattress. I was doing it for them, not the recognition.
See you in two weeks for the next episode. I finally got to give them the gum balls I had carried all of those miles!
