The last week of our trip may have been somewhat blighted by the looming threat of a teachers strike, meaning examinations were brought forward in most schools, resulting in our schedule being constantly adjusted. Yet by the close of the week we had still coached and interacted with 4,000 children across the three regions we touched in our two week trip.
I’m sure that our ABC messages will ultimately help in saving lives, though one life we definitely can claim to have saved was the cyclist in Thika who suffered a seizure or fit and collapsed under his bike on the main road. Julian and I were walking back from the local supermarket to the hotel and it happened about 10 yards in front of us. I saw him wobble and then collapse, thankfully falling pavement side rather than into the line of oncoming traffic. I hauled him out of the road with his bike whilst Julian got him into the recovery position and helped him regain consciousness. With a crowd of locals soon encircling us we tried to get them to call an Ambulance but later discovered that their reluctance was not due to apathy but to the fact that such a call would result in a “bill” for our mystery patient and they doubted he would be able to pay. A sobering thought indeed.
Another highlight for us in week 2 was getting the opportunity to meet Eva and being her guests on a visit to KENWA (the home where she lived as a child suffering from HIV AIDS). Ten years ago when Ed and the other Trustees first met Eva, she was 8 years of age and literally only had days to live. Today she is 18, studying towards a qualification in nursing, and the picture of health and happiness. She joined the other children in a game of rapid fire, and as much as we tried to orchestrate a repeat of 10 years ago where Eva hit the winning runs unfortunately this time it was not to be as her team fell a few runs short of their target. In the home itself Eva showed us the bunk where she used to sleep and in some ways it brought memories flooding back of Nelson Mandela returning to Robben Island and viewing once again his cell in which he had spent so much of his adult life.
One of the most moving moments of our final week was when the orphaned children sang a song for us, which although was in Swahili, later was translated for us to explain that they were singing to forget about the past and focus on the future.
What the future holds for these little ones and others like them across Kenya no one knows. What I do know though after spending two weeks visiting the more remote areas of this beautiful country is that our two countries are miles apart; not just geographically but in terms of living standards and development. Julian summed it up perfectly when he described it as “Britain 200 years ago”. The gap between the wealthy and the masses living in poverty is so extreme that it’s difficult to know just how that gap could ever be closed. Yet despite their ragged clothes and school uniforms bearing holes, despite their daily battle to buy even the bare necessities to survive and despite the fact that they school or board in tin shacks or crumbling buildings never have I seen as many smiling faces and such exuberance. How a simple tennis ball can illicit such joy brings it home to you as a father how spoilt our own children are back home.
Yesterday morning, being her first day back at school after half term, my daughter moaned to me “Why do I have to go to school?”. I replied, “Because you are privileged. There are children in Kenya who can’t go to school because they can’t afford to, whose only wish is to be able to go and learn. You are fortunate to be able to go to a nice school and have the facilities to learn”.
Like most people I will buy a UK Lottery ticket on Saturday hoping to become an instant millionaire. This week though, whether my ticket wins or not I thank the Lord that I won in the lottery of life as any of us could just as easily been born into a slum or shanty town in Kenya. It is now up to those of us that have been privileged, to help ease the pain of those that were not so lucky. I hope that in some small way I have helped to do that for the children I have met over the last two weeks.
This two weeks I will never forget. I urge anyone reading this who has not yet signed up to do a CWB trip, to delay no longer. Get your application in now. The experience will enrich your life, but more importantly your involvement will enrich the lives of hundreds or thousands of children where ever you visit. And for that there is no price tag as happiness wins over money.