Sharing the Vision

Walter gives Karen, Parham and me a tour of Nyalenda, specifically to see the second site for our water collection project. In addition, Parham and Karen have decided to sponsor school fees and uniforms for a few children in Nyalenda, so Walter invites selected widows and their children to the building site. Karen becomes the proud “mother” of Akinyi, a 9-year-old girl who has 7 siblings. Parham takes on three other kids. After inspecting the building's progress, we spend the next two hours looking at water sources and millet drying in the sun (which will then be fermented into the local brew) while collecting a vast group of curious children. Walter's Mom is here today, attending the funeral of a friend. It's lovely to meet her but the circunstances are regrettable.

Walter shows us an open well surrounded by three mud houses. Parham decides the well should be cleaned and covered, the water shocked and a manual pump installed. With the backing of Parham's friends in Canada (and fueled by Parham's enthusiasm), this well project will begin soon. Walter also demonstrates how the ladies make coal balls from coal fragments and burnt white ash. They mix the coal chips with moist ashes and roll them into tennis ball-sized chunks. These sit in the sun to dry and harden. Six or seven of these coal chunks are used to heat a pot for cooking.

Walking through Nyalenda with Steve, a Pamba Zuko member who looks like a bodybuilder (we all feel very safe when Steve is around), we see hogs and cows and goats and ducklings. We also see two sweet, nude babies, twins, playing in the doorway of their home while their mother washes dishes outside. “The next time you have visitors,” Steve tells me, “I'll give you a goat to feed your guests.” “Wow, Steve,” I say, “that's terribly generous. The next time I have visitors, I'll take your goat!” As we're headed toward Ring Road and out of Nyalenda, Parham says he's thinking about foregoing his trip to Mt. Kenya next week and, instead, spending his time in Nyalenda working on the well and other water projects.

“Man,” Parham says, “I can't believe I've wasted a month in Kenya.” While I'm thrilled to hear Parham thinks that there are many worthwhile things to be accomplished in Nyalenda, he's certainly wrong in thinking he's wasted his time in Kisumu. On the contrary, he and Karen have done so many wonderful things for people while working at the hospital, visiting orphanages and examining widows in Chiga. Now he and Karen are sponsoring children through Pamba Zuko and they want to take the kids shopping for uniforms, shoes and school supplies. Wasted a month in Kenya?! Never. Impacted destinies is more like it.

A very small boy takes Parham's hand and he walks silently next to Parham, his little legs pumping hard to keep up. Walter reminds us we need to leave the children in Nyalenda, however. We turn the small crowd of children toward their homes, before they've gone too far and lose their way back. The funeral is still going on, people are ulogizing the deceased woman. An elderly Mama, who's obviously enjoying the local brew, begins talking very loudly to us. Walter calms her down. Another young man who's drunk tries to shake our hands, but Walter tells him he's not sober and is, therefore, wasting our time. Parham walks quietly, contemplating the well and the children's needs, taking little notice of the drunks. We're leaving the slums, the funeral songs and the little nude babies behind.

“The next time you have visitors,” Steve reminds me, “I'll give you a goat!”