Installment 15
The following 5 paragraphs are from Installment 13. My Editor asked if I would re-write it and try to make some sense. “I’ll re-write it” I said, “but it still won’t make sense.” So, re-read Installment 12, or if you happen to be one of the more discerning types, read 12 for the 1st time before you read the following
When I left you last, I promised to tell you of a miracle. I will tell you two….one is that you are back reading this slop…it must be from God, as you know that you wouldn’t do it on your own. Now shortly after the repair crew left, the power came on. “Ring, ring--this is Alex, have you the opportunity to see that your power is back?” Jeff, “yes, and thank you.” Alex, “If only we had known earlier, we would have come and saved you all the cellular telephone time that you wasted. Please, if on the off chance that the power should fail again, call me personally, no sense bothering the president….maybe we can help each other.”
7:00.…and hour later…..Yup. Jeff, “Hello, Alex, this is your soon to be best friend.” Alex, “I am currently building my new house just outside your property….you have not called the president?” An hour later, the power was back….and that’s another miracle
Later after picking up …well not picking up,,purchasing and having placed in Toyota 2-120kg (about 160lb) bags of potatoes and some other food stuffs, we wandered around the grocery store until we found the electrical generator section….yes, in the grocery/hardware/tool/plumbing/you name it store…kind of a super Walmart with an ‘old west’ twist. Finding a small generator, Jeff says “looks like this one is on consignment from KPLC“. Long story short (that will be the day) back at the ranch, we took the rest of the afternoon to string some wire and get some lights in the baby section of the compound…which as it turned out, was a good thing as it got dark. The Aunties were ecstatic, and the kids had their jammies on more or less correctly…most of the buttons were on the front. So the generator ran all night and the babies were taken care of. Next morning, J & I got to work refining the system and actually put in a parallel system for in the veranda and baby wing so ‘if’ the power goes out, were are ready. So, last night the jammies looked pretty good.
During the 47 hours of the eclipse, the main issue became the water. Since it is hard to drop a bucket 300’ into an 8” pipe, we had no way of pumping water up into the 2- 1000 gal tanks that provide for the compound. One tank feeds the outside, including the supply for the local community and the other feeds the buildings. After the first tank emptied, and notifying the locals that there was no water until the power came back, we were careful with the second supply. By the way, the locals were pretty discouraged because they have seen KPLC work (well, not work) before. So, hour by hour the tank continued to provide water and then at about midnight on Monday Jeff said sounds like the water is done. Carla did what she does best and prayed, thinking that maybe God could move KPLC…big order, and He didn’t seem to respond. But oddly enough, when the cooks came, they went to the tap and drew water for breakfast…in fact water kept coming as needed all day. When the power did come back, Jeff went up to the tanks and observed that the water in the tank was below the outlet….but there was still water at the tap….who needs KPLC when we have our God. Believe what you want, but this place lives on miracles. God loves his kids.
So now it is morning. Time to face the mob. Rumor has it that Children’s Services called and has an 8 month old that her father has been abusing her and her mother is incompetent. Looks like 91 is on the way.
PS, the builder whom I talked to last Saturday that promised he would come Monday…..didn’t show. This frustrates me to no end. This guy has the opportunity to get involve in a multi-year, buco bucks project and he blows me off. “Typical” says Jeff, “but he will have a good excuse…count on it.” I wonder if Victor knows how to build….maybe he and Alex could team up.
Installment 14 gave the lowdown on baby….Mary Riviki….who is doing better.
Now….Installment 15.…really!
Carla does a newsletter fairly often and the one she just posted was really good. She writes really well and has promised to give me lessons if I will give up writing for other people to read..”OK” I said, “I don’t think anyone reads my stuff anyway.”
I know that this will make this a really long letter, but I am going to paste her letter into this….just think of it this way, you know can justify reading Safarislim. Some would call this plagiarism, but I call it borrowing
Jambo Everybody!
Where to start….. We have been back in Kenya for just over a month, yet it seems like much longer than that! We have had some major challenges, which I don’t feel comfortable getting into in such a “world wide web” type forum. Suffice it to say that we have been absolutely consumed with dealing with these issues, for the protection of the children and the ministry. As He always does, our Great Defender has put the right people in place to advise us and help us make some necessary changes. It has been exhausting and challenging, but I think we have gotten through round one with our head above water! We are praying that round two never materializes and we can just move forward with our newfound knowledge and experience!
New babies are coming at an alarming rate! I find comfort in knowing that God is in control! Otherwise I would worry myself to death over how we are going to deal with this continuous growth! We agreed a long time ago that if God sends them, we will not turn them away. We are sticking to that, no matter what (right LLH?), but still can’t help but wonder how He will keep this big ole boat afloat as we grow!
On top of that, the growth is twofold; we grow in number, while at the same time the kids continue to grow up! Funny how that happens! So where we used to cook eight or nine cups of rice for supper, now we need twenty! What used to be six packs of spaghetti, is now sixteen! We use four cans of formula every day plus almost eighty cups of milk! I try not to think about how it will be when all the kids who are now two or three years old are thirteen or fourteen! I do better to remember not to worry about tomorrow, for today has enough worries of its own!
We had been back for about two weeks, when we got a call from the police boss of an area about an hour away from us. He explained that there was a ten month old baby boy at his station, who desperately needed a home. Jeff was already off and running, so Eliud and I headed out to pick up the baby. Over the phone, the police boss had made it sound like the child had been abandoned; he had been found along the side of the road by a Good Samaritan and had been brought to the police station. (Not an uncommon story.) The officer failed to mention that the baby wasn’t alone, but had been found along the side of the road with his mother who was lying in the ditch, unconscious! Baby Emmanuel never left his mother’s side!
This particular police station happens to be right next door to a medical clinic, where they were treating the mother. When I realized that the baby wasn’t alone, I quizzed the officer as to the situation. After all, we can’t just take in every kid who has a sick mother! I explained how we take orphaned and abandoned babies, not ones who have family. After the officer finally agreed that when the mother recovered, the child would be returned to her, I went into the clinic to meet her and assure her that her boy was in good hands.
I have never seen anything more pathetic! This woman was just skin over bones! There wasn’t an ounce of meat on her frail little body! I could not believe she was still alive! She was too weak to even sit up. Her whole face was swollen to the point that she could hardly open her eyes and she couldn’t close her mouth because her tongue was so swollen! I must admit that my first thought was how silly I must have seemed to the police officer as I was so adamant about making sure the child would go back to his mother when she got better. One look at her and it was obvious that she was not going to get better.
The nurse in charge told me that they were transferring the woman to Kitale District Hospital, but that the hospital wouldn’t admit her with the child. I told her that we have a good relationship with the hospital staff, so I would be checking up on her the next day. At this, the nurse and her two colleagues looked nervous and stepped around the corner to have a private conversation, after which the nurse in charge came back to me to explain that their ambulance was in disrepair so they really had no way to transport the patient to Kitale! At this point, I had to bite my tongue to not call them on the fact that it was very obvious that their plan all along was to just let her die on that dirty mattress thrown down on the floor of the clinic!
We moved the dirty mattress, with Mama Manu still lying on it, into the back of the vehicle and took her to the hospital ourselves. I did insist that the clinic send a nurse along to care for her in transit. I wasn’t sure the woman would survive the journey and sure didn’t want to show up at the hospital with a dead woman and her baby in my vehicle, without any medical personnel to back my story!
On the way to Kitale, we stopped back by the home to drop Manu off. By that time, Jeff was there so I shared the whole story and we prayed for Mama Manu, before sending her and the nurse, with Eliud driving, on to the hospital. Nobody expected her to survive the night, but she did. Then nobody expected her to survive another day, but she did. The third day, she slipped into a coma and we all knew she wouldn’t last much longer. Two days later, she woke up from the coma and started eating and drinking! Each day since then, she has gotten a little bit stronger than the day before! She is still quite ill, but is out of the woods! She will be reunited with her son, after all! Praise God!
This case has been especially emotional for me because of the woman’s obvious love for her son! Most kids we get have been abused or abandoned by their parents, so it’s easy to be glad that they will no longer be with them. But every now and then, we get a child whose parent loves him like a parent is supposed to love their child. Mama Manu is one of those parents. I will never forget how she, so weak and sick and pathetic, would call out for her son. Her tongue was so swollen, it was an effort to speak at all, but she was still mindful of where her baby was and wanted to know he was ok. When she would call for him, I would get down close to her, place my hand on her face, and tell her that I have Manu and will take good care of him for her until she is all better. Tears immediately started flowing as she sunk back down into the mattress and slept. Oh how my heart went out to her! It will be a happy day when she is released and reunited with the joy of her life!
Because she was so emaciated, we thought she was succumbing to TB. She does have TB and is now being treated for it, but the doctor said that wasn’t what was killing her. Plain old starvation was the problem. This shocked me because Manu, although he shows signs of not eating a balanced diet, isn’t really thin or malnourished looking. It appears that, in her poverty, whenever she could get her hands on food, she would give it to her son, leaving herself to go without. She just about starved herself to death to feed her baby!
(I wrote the above story yesterday afternoon. This morning, we got word that Mama Manu passed away in her sleep. As soon as I got the news, I went out and scooped Manu up and took him for a long walk. I cried over him. I prayed over him. My heart grieved on his behalf, as he is too young to understand what’s happening. Monday morning, Jeff will start the process of getting all the proper permits, coffin, etc. so that we can bury her properly. When Manu is old enough to understand what happened, I want him to know that we did what we could for his mom. I am heartbroken. She really, really loved her son. In the end, she died for him.)
Baby Blessing came late one evening last week. She is almost four months old and was abandoned at birth in the hospital where she was born. At first, the hospital staff hoped that Mama Blessing would return for her, but she never did. Although this particular hospital also operates a children’s home, they don’t take infants so the baby was placed with us. Blessing is very healthy! I’m pretty sure that the nurses, and probably other mamas at the hospital, held her and gave her lots of attention…. even now, every time an adult walks past her, she cries to be picked up. It’s taking her a while to catch onto the fact that she’s now one of 90… not the only baby in the place! She is a sweetie, though; a very happy (if she’s being held), healthy baby girl!
Three days ago, another baby girl came to join us. She is almost eleven months old and two weeks ago was raped by her father. Her mother is mentally ill (I’m not exactly sure what that means, but the fact is even noted on the immunization record of the baby), so was helpless to protect her daughter. After the father took the baby from the mother, the mother’s sister went to check on the baby and discovered what had happened. She kept her head about her and went to the police to report her suspicions. The police accompanied her and the baby to the hospital where the baby was examined and it was confirmed what had happened. The police went directly to the man’s house and arrested him.
The baby’s name is Mary Riziki. We are calling her Riziki, partly because we already have a Mary and partly because “Riziki” means “Destiny”, which I feel has tons of meaning for this precious little girl! “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” Jeremiah 29:11. We have also claimed Psalm 91 for her, which is all about God’s protection over those who love Him. Since she is child #91, it seemed appropriate.
Riziki has absolutely haunting, sad eyes! I have seen a lot of suffering children in the past almost eight years, but I have never seen eyes like hers! When you look into her eyes, you actually feel her sadness. Talk about the window to her soul… it’s eerie, but at the same time, it just makes you fall in love with her and want to make everything ok, which of course, you cannot do. It’s a helpless feeling. Physically, she is improving daily; she’s eating pretty well and seems to be getting used to the constant activity all around her. She whimpers through diaper changes, which is understandable…. but even that is lessening slowly. She’ll be ok.
I’m sorry this hasn’t been the happiest letter I’ve ever written. We are ok; it has just been an emotional few weeks. We have been experiencing some pretty serious betrayal, which is obviously very emotionally draining, plus the stuff with the kids (especially Manu and Riziki), and a few other disappointments which I don’t want to get into. I keep finding myself singing, “I am pressed but not crushed, persecuted not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed. I am blessed beyond the curse, for His promise will endure: His joy’s gonna be my strength!” As I sing the words, I know everything will be ok!
On a positive note, Grace and Peter have both started high school! Both got accepted at reputable boarding schools and are all settled in and studying hard (I hope!). We get to visit Peter next Friday at the school’s “orientation for parents” day, then we’ll see Grace on the first Saturday of every month, which is her school’s visiting day. I imagine that the orientation on Friday will let us know when Peter’s visiting day is… I hope it’s not the first Saturday of every month! The two schools are nowhere near one another!
Building of the clinic and the dorm house is getting underway! Our friend, Terry Kiser, is here for another month or so and has been working hard at interviewing builders, writing construction contracts, etc. Hopefully, he’ll get everything rolling on auto-pilot before he leaves! (Probably a bit of wishful thinking there….) It’s great having him here! He has been a huge help around the place (it has gotten to be too much for just Jeff and I), plus he’s been building stuff (my honey-do list continues to grow… I’m not sure how many things he’ll check off of it before he leaves), I already mentioned his involvement in getting the building going, and it’s just nice to have a friend here!
The kids are doing well! They are what keep us going! Such innocence and love! So far, unspoiled by this corrupt, cruel world! When I’m tired or down, I just go spend some time with my beautiful kids, all 91 of them, and remember why I’m here! It just makes everything ok!
Thanks everyone! We love you all!
GIGATT!
Carla and Jeff
So, what else it there to say. TIA…..This is Africa. I know that it is an emotional thing to read what Carla just wrote, but it seems harder when you live it. So again I tell you that J & C have willingly given up their planned life to live this one for the rest of their lives. But, you know, along with all the hard things and discouragement comes James…little James…if he can’t make your day better, then you must be dead….I know, you thought you’d never hear me say anything like this, but there are 89 snot factories here and Gracie and Peter at school…that all make the trials seem to fade….but NEVER turn your back on any of them!!!
Just so you know, Mama Manu’s real name was Sarah. Women here take their firstborn’s name as their own….Sarah’s firstborn was Emmanuel…therefore, Mama Manu….She literally gave her life for her son…not so common here. Riziki is starting to fit in and eating better….got a little smile tonight.
Looking forward to Monday the 28th, as my friend Dale Herrigstad is giving up his agenda and coming here to do ‘surveyor’ work to enable us to speed up the building process.
I want to tell you much more,,,,but I can’t think of any of it right now….maybe tomorrow….yeah, that’s it: “I can’t think about that today,,,,I’ll think about it tomorrow (Scarlett O’Hara) Pray that I can get my brain started in the morning..
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