Soar Kenya

Hi!
We’re in Nairobi now, and I have had a very pleasant day. Calvin, one of the Hopewell grads we are helping go to college, decided that he could get several Hopewell grads who are in Nairobi together. We all agreed to meet at the Sarit Center, which is a huge shopping center, complete with a food court and movie theaters. I was quite concerned, because Calvin doesn’t have a phone, and both Johnny and Ian had spent the entire night and morning fighting over the toilet and barf bag – bad peanuts, we decided, since I didn’t have the same problem. Since I had no idea how to drive to the Sarit Center, and my chief navigator (more like nagivator) was not up to anything, I decided to take a cab. I met 6 kids there, bought them lunch, and caught up with their progress. One is working in a bank, one is working in a computer shop, one is waiting to go back to college to major in journalism, one is a D.J., having finished a course and awaiting classes to start again to do music production and video editing, one is doing information technology 2 hours per day, and Calvin, who is getting his diploma in actuarial science. It was very gratifying to see that they are continually trying to better themselves. They all insist they would have had no chance without Hopewell.

We discussed several other students, most of whom were working. It was very gratifying, believe me.

Below is a letter from Denice and Alfred, who had to have a huge painful bump removed from behind his ear. He was so uncomfortable that he was going to go to a “traditional” healer, but when I heard about it, I called him and sent him the requisit money to go to the hospital and have it taken care of properly. We had met in Nakuru, when I saw the sizeable bump, and I flat-out told him that he would have to send some kids home. There is no way H.O.P.E. can feed 794 kids on a daily basis, although we would continue to sponsor the teachers. With 600 of those 794 kids being orphans with no outside support, feeding them daily is not possible, especially with the current price of maize. Cruel, true, but better than having an orphan-Auschwitz on our hands! His letter to Denice tells of the response.
Darleen
Read on -

Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 09:17:30 -0700
From: mosotamangoa@yahoo.com
Subject: Fw: thank you
To: johnsondarleen@hotmail.com

Darleen,

I am very pleased to hear that you came to the rescue of Alfred.Thank you! I love your generosity.Be blessed.

Denice.

— On Sat, 9/19/09, HANFORD SCHOOL wrote:

From: HANFORD SCHOOL
Subject: thank you
To: mosotamangoa@yahoo.com
Date: Saturday, September 19, 2009, 4:12 PM

Denice,

Thank you for forwarding my last letter to Darleen.She felt so touched that she telephoned me promising she would send me the shillings 6800 needed at the hospital.And yes,she sent the money on Thursday,so I was able to visit Busia District hospital for the operation.But it wasn’t an easy task for the 3 qualified docs who attended to me.You can imagine what would have happened if I were in the hands of the old lady……..I am feeling better now and I am so grateful to mama(Darleen).Thank you too for your prayers and the 1000 shillings you sent to me.

We held a long day meeting with the kids’ guardians yesterday.In the meeting,we discussed a number of issues but the issue of lunches topped the agenda.So far,only tomatoes and sukuma wiki are ready for harvesting in the school’s farm.Darleen,who has taken over the crucial role of paying my teachers,cannot single handedly feed the nearly 800 kids.My efforts to get other wellwishers to sustain the feeding programme have not been successful yet.This is what I told the parents and I went further to suggest that the programme would stop at the end of this month until perhaps we get donated food or wait till the other crops become ready for harvesting.Denice,what followed was tears from the kids and their parents It was indeed painful .I understand quite well that most of these kids largely depend on the programme for their daily meals and this abrupt,yet important action will affect them.I had no alternative,friend.Since we reopened this term,the kids have been feeding on ugali and sukuma wiki from the farm.Darleen sent me shillings 22,000 which I used to get a few bags of maize for the flour.This is what has sustained us for this long.The kales really did very well,and you can imagine the same feeding our 794 kids all this long! How I wish the farm was bigger!

Anyway thank you for the bronchure.I haven’t got time to go through it yet.I will keep you updated.Say hello to Keyi.

Alfred.