Stories behind the smiling faces

My 5 months in Kenya have been full of lessons for lifetime, heartwarming moments and exciting experiences. I get to do what I love the most - work with people, especially with kids. 

One of my projects that actually awakes the most conflicting emotions is the opportunity to carry out health assessments and provide treatment opportunities to children supported by Mondo’s Brilliant Fund. There are moments when I hear the stories of the kids and they bring a big smile on my face and warmth to my heart, but there are also moments the stories create a lot  of frustration.

Mondo started supporting the primary school children in Kenya since 2010. and today there are more than 150 kids in primary school who get to access education thanks to that help. 

The program doesn’t only emphasize education for all boys and girls, but it also supports child health and nutrition and the protection of children from violence and exploitation. 

Interacting with these children has challenged me in so many ways. Of course there are practical hurdles I’ve had to cross - such as connecting with them without a proper understanding of their language and using the help of a translator, but then there are those challenges that cut deeper, yet build higher. These are the challenges of understanding their stories, sympathizing and finding the right words to say. How do you console a child whose father is imprisoned for life, who’s mother died and who lives with an HIV-positive grandmother whose health is getting worse and worse everyday. How do you console a 12-year-old who’s biggest dream is to become a lawyer, but has never had money to walk through the school doors? What are the words that you can possibly say to make them feel better, yet won’t give them too high hopes, hopes that you can’t help them reach? These are the challenges that once overcome, will leave a mark to be carried with for a lifetime. 

Working with those students and seeing how fast they’ve had to grow up, difficulties they’ve had to face, the work they have to do and how heavy the rucksack of responsibility they have to carry on their backs are, makes me understand the importance of giving children the opportunity of being children. It reminds me the meaning of the word childhood. They have taught me so much about being brave and building a castle up from nothing. And in the end of each day, no matter how emotional, buzy or chaotic, my heart is filled with gratitude. Gratitude for the opportunity to be here, gratitude for being able to actually do such a rewarding work and interact with those beautiful souls.

Oh the warmth, oh the welcoming!

It was a bit over a month ago, when I arrived in the village called Shianda, in western Kenya. Kenya is a country where I’ve found it extremely easy to feel like home. Now, what makes a country feel like home though? Turns out that it  has nothing to do with the climate, comfortable bed you’ve gotten so used to, unappreciated luxuries like running water and stable electricity, or the home-cooked meals and available food in the super-markets. It is actually all about the warmth of the people, that you’re surrounded with, that makes you feel so welcome and comfortable - like home. And boy, oh boy, how much of it you come across here in Kenya. 

Statistics say that about 17.4 million of the poorest people in the world live in Kenya. And assessing based on the economy, living conditions and funding of education and health care, I do believe that number is correct indeed. However, these are the things that we consider as wealth, not necessarily what they do. The definition of wealth to them, is a whole different concept.

They embrace the little they have with such grateful hearts I’ve hardly ever seen before. They find something worth of a loud jabbering laughter even in the poorest of situations (which I sometimes find odd though). 

They have this calmness in them and smiles on their faces, even if they barely have funds for their kids’ school fees and have no idea how to pay for the next day's dinner. This real “hakuna matata” attitude. There’s been moments when it has freaked me out a little and made me want to ask them how can they be so careless, naive and irresponsible. But the truth is, they’re not. It’s far from that.

It’s not that they don’t understand the gravity of their situation (meaning economical), it’s just that they’ve accepted the fact that there’s not much they can do about it. They’ve learned to cope and trust in what they believe in. They believe that tomorrow will be a better day and they’re not stressing over all the ‘what if’s, which is so common for us, Europeans, to do. 

They really do master the art of embracing ‘the now’ and finding peace and happiness in what they currently have, not missing what they don’t or envying what the neighbours do. So, huge learning point for us Europeans.

Don’t get me wrong here though, it doesn’t mean that they don’t want to have it any better. Oh, they definitely do. They’re, for sure, trying to grasp every opportunity for improvement. They are longing to see the change for better. But they do it in a way that we don’t know how to. They do it with a peace of mind, yet hope of heart, without a glimpse of self-pity or constant complaining. With this calm and stress-free approach, which I would never be able to maintain, if I was their situation. 

It is, without a doubt, a beautiful, humbling experience to see and learn from their mindset, especially for me, since ‘impatience’ could easily be my middle name and worrying for no reason is not exactly rare either. I am very much looking forward to my next months in Shianda and hope to take on at least a tiny bit of the locals’ approach on life. 

So much for now. I will definitely write about the health care situation in rural Kenya, work conditions for nurses and my work here in my next post. 

If you'd like to read more about the living conditions and everyday life, as well as education and nutrition in our village, I highly recommend to read the blogs of my fellow-volunteers Hanna-Marta, Panagiota and Birgit (blog in Estonian). Links to their blogs can be found in the top right corner.