weddings and worms

Susan and I just compared notes on wedding preparations vs auction preparations and even though I downplayed my list she suggested my job is tougher and more stressful (as she pointed out, even though she doesn’t know who will show up on Saturday and how much they’ll give her, she’ll still achieve her goal).

Just saying.

Anywho- today I got a pedicure (for $4) and got my hair braided for the wedding (just cornrows in the front so I can leave the rest ‘open’- Susan, like the rest of the universe, loves my curls).

I also had lunch with a friend who works at the school I attended back in 2001- when I first came to Kenya. She and her husband have been in Kenya for maybe 20 years; she’s fluent in Swahili and genuinely loves these people.

At my request she gamely helped me search for this children’s centre I visited a few years ago. When Justin, Beth and Michael came to Kenya with me, we visited the centre. It is run entirely by Kenyans (no western influence; no western money!) and they have a nursery school for about 60 kids and then a feeding programme for kids coming from all over. They also have a clinic where they test people for HIV, and a shop where old women come once or twice a week and weave baskets, which they sell to support themselves, and to help with the kids. (Caylan, this is where your baskets are coming from!)

After saying goodbye to the kids I commented that several of them had worms and that I’d love to help them eradicate them. My friend pointed out that though it’s a seemingly easy solution, it still costs money- and the centre holds around 200 kids.

She’s right- though I am comparatively very wealthy here, and though the medicine is relatively inexpensive, I don’t have enough money to help these kids. It was a nice thought- right?

But then I got home, and started making dinner, while listening to Chris Tomlin, and thinking, and praying...

And, well- you (maybe) know what came next. I realised that I have several HUNDRED facebook friends, and that just about any of us have enough money to help at least a FEW kids.

So I ‘put it out there’, as they say- and wow. Within an hour or two, enough of my friends had donated to Visible Grace through facebook, to buy medicine for ALL two hundred kids.

The internet is amazing- and you people are generous.

I’ll be heading there on Monday to administer the medicine and take a ton of pictures.

What a blessing it will be for these kids, who can so quickly become malnourished because of parasites that enter their body- often through their feet- because they possibly can’t afford shoes. Or because they share a pit latrine with their neighbours. Or because of any other myriad reasons.

And though this is not a permanent solution, it is such an easy way to help.

Two hundred kids thank you.