Friends of David’s Hope — What a week in Kenya! Let me try and get you all caught up in a few non-business areas:
Somalia Return: Thanks for all the prayers, Pastor Steve’s wife Mary returned from Somalia alive and kicking. Check these highlights: flying on an airplane for the first time (an extremely choppy 8-seater); working from 6:30a to 9:30p each day, accompanied 24/7 by armed guards; treating gunshot wounds, burn victims and other war zone injuries; performing solo surgeries and assisting on others; and lecturing/training medical students to establish some medical infrastructure in war-torn Somalia.
Eburru Feast Week: Rest and recuperation are not in Mary’s vocabulary. Since returning from Somalia, she has done an incredible job maximizing the impact of the $1,200 raised by my medical mission teammates. Tuesday was the first of two major food runs to Naivasha. Huge bag of potatoes, multiple 50-pound sacks of maize, dozen bags of flour, pounds of cooking fat, meat, fruit, collard greens … you name it, we bought it. On Wednesday, Mary fed a 50-person strong women’s Bible study group — many who had walked 3, 5, 10 miles from Morgan. Several of the most needy were sent home with maize to feed their starving children. On Wednesday, we visited a school in Morgan, sending the stick-thin girls home — backpacks overflowing with maize. Thursday was a second food run down the mountain, before a feast for the children living around the camp. We’re talking the usual suspects: David, Julius, Rose, John, Jinsenta, James, Mary and a several others. Today, we returned to Morgan to deliver flour and cooking fat to men, women and children. Everything was handed out, even my nutrition bars, bags of nuts and snacks. Expect to hear much more about feast week and specifically Morgan – ‘ground zero’ of Eburru’s drought and famine. Still trying to absorb the experience.
Update on David: Good and bad news about the destitute boy behind the name of our foundation. Good news, Mary cleared up David’s financial history with the Eburru school treasurer. Turns out he owed money from last year, in addition to accumulating debt this year for educational essentials. Total back-log of charges: Four or five bucks. Shockingly low, yet way too many children are wasting time in Eburru during the day because they can’t afford to pay the nominal (to us) school fees. This is why Pastor Steve and Mary’s plan for their school is to cover teacher salaries and food so the penniless orphans and destitute can leave a literate and hopeful life.
The bad news? Well, David has five times flunked a grade (yes, five), meaning his classmates are 7-year old children. He is extremely shy, ashamed and doesn’t speak up in class. While Mary says his teachers no longer try, we all say give the kid a break: David suffers from severe cognitive damage caused by years of malnutrition and lives knowing his older sister Mary died of the same thing in 2004. Making matters worse, his mother re-married a few months back and left the little guy in the dust for the second time time in his life. Isolated and living with a sick grandmother incapable of providing food or adult supervision was where we found him several short weeks ago.
For the past three weeks, David has eaten regularly, stayed in school and once again is back in the camp. He has gained weight, added color in his face and has little spring in his step. He is set up to receive at least one meal per day and special educational attention. Since his schooling is paid through this year, he will remain in public school for the time being. Mary will monitor his progress and put him full-time into the ministry facility if he does not improve. I’m excited he is back on track.
