Saturday
Dec202008
Christmas in Kenya - Recap 2
Saturday, December 20, 2008 at 01:08AM
Ah, the kids from the BCC. The ones I met for the first time in December of 2005, and the ones I’ve thought about every day since. I love these children and finally, after almost 2 years, I was able to return and see them once again.
If you just want to see photos, jump to the "Photos" page for a sampling, using the link at the top of the page, or go to my SmugMug site for the entire complement of BCC Kids photos.
By way of background, here’s a very general outline of the BCC and the children who live (or lived) there:
The BCC – Baptist Children’s Center – is located in Nairobi, a little bit on the edge of town. The BCC property (a compound, really) sits in the middle of a an “informal settlement” slum called Maili Saba. Amazingly, I was able to find the BCC on Google Earth:
As you can see, it looks to be a pretty hard-scrabble place. There isn't much grass, it's located in a pretty rough part of town, and the infrastructure (water/power) is practically non-existent. That being said, it's a God-send for the kids who make their way there. As I've explained repeatedly, these are children orphaned by AIDS, typically. Many were abandoned or left alone, forced to fend for themselves at a very young age. Most were malnourished when they arrived at the BCC, and many were sick. A few arrived infected with AIDS themselves. Some of the stories I've heard have caused me to almost fall down with heartbreak. (For example, one child was found alone, about 5 years old, naked, living in a trash pile in a slum. No one knew his name or where he came from. The social workers figured he was about a week away from dying. They named him Musa (Moses), brought him to the BCC, and he's now a strapping teenager with a quick smile and gentle heart. And he loves the Lord.)
One of the primary goals of Buckner and the BCC is to place the kids in foster care. This allows them to learn all the things kids learn when part of a family: how to fetch water, clean house, obey parents, clean up after themselves, etc. The BCC is great, but it is much more desirable for these kids to be placed with a family. Some of the kids we visited are in foster care, scattered about the country, but they return to the BCC over the Christmas break so they can come to Brackenhurst and have Christmas.
Most of the children, though, live at the BCC in one of the dormitories. As for school, the BCC is in the process of building a school complex, and is currently set up to school younger kids. The older kids must travel by foot to school, sometimes walking back and forth quite a distance. The grand plan, as I understand it, is to construct enough school buildings to accommodate all of the BCC children, up to 8th grade. This will be a major accomplishment and will benefit the kids enormously. After 8th grade, the hope is they can move on to High School, typically a boarding school. I will write more about the BCC in my next post, so I'll move on.
Our visit with the BCC kids occurred at a retreat center outside of Nairobi called Brackenhurst. I wrote about it in one of my recent posts, so I'll skip the boring repeat of details. I did, however, also find Brackenhurst on Google Earth (I love Google Earth!):
As you can see, there is quite a difference between the BCC and Brackenhurst. Brackenhurst really is a treat for the kids, a lush playground that is very much a luxury in their lives. (I've heard a story about the very first group of kids to travel to Brackenhurst. They stepped off the bus in wonder, not really knowing what to do. Suddenly the kids all burst forward, laughing and rolling around in the tall, green grass, something they had only heard about.)
As at Seed of Hope, we did VBS, games, activities and visiting. Unlike Seed of Hope, however, we stayed at Brackenhurst alongside the kids. This afforded us much more time to be with them, more free time to just hang out and visit. We ate all our meals with the kids as well, which was a blast. All in all, it was less rushed with the BCC kids, more relaxed. As a result, and despite a bit of a slow start, we ended up probably digging deeper into the lives of these kids that those at Seed of Hope.
One of the joys of traveling to Kenya repeatedly has been the chance to see the same kids, and to be able to see them grow and mature. This was really brought home on this trip as I hadn't seen them in almost two years. (There were no trips to Kenya last Christmas as the country was shaken by violence surrounding a presidential election.) I was a bit curious if the kids would remember me, and if I would remember their names, but it really was as if I had just left. Many of them called out to me by name as we arrived, and their names came to me, in most cases, pretty easy. As I said above, I've been thinking about these kids every day since December 2005.
And they've grown! The little ones aren't quite as little, and the older ones are now well on their way to becoming young men and women. It was so very encouraging to see how the kids had progressed, how their English had improved, how their frames had filled out, how their confidence had grown. It was very, very satisfying to sit down, after 20 long months, and catch up, listening to their stories of school and life and everything.
Josephine: 2005
Josephine: 2006
Josephine: 2008
As I sat listening, and, later, as I ran around playing, I was solidly struck by the overwhelming feeling these were MY kids. Not my biological kids, of course, but the kids, above all others, I know and love. I hope to come to know the Seed of Hope kids just as well, but for now, the BCC kids have my heart. It was heaven on earth for me to just see them again, to hang out and play, to goof around, to hug and tell good night. I hadn't realized how much I had missed them. Thank you Lord!
As always, time flew. We did VBS, played games, went to the tea fields, watched the Polar Express (the kids would laugh at the oddest things...very different than watching the movie with American kids), and prepared Christmas gifts. The morning of our last day, I donned the Santa suit again, made my appearance (these kids weren't quite as frightened...more amused, I'd say) and watched in joy as we delivered the gifts so many (of you ) donated. Oh, the kids loved it! The toys, the clothes, the stickers, the candy, the dolls, the books...everything! They were so very, very excited and happy. I couldn't help but tear up watching the kids, old and young, dig into their gifts with such excitement, such appreciation, such wonder. I particularly watched some of the younger kids, a few whom I knew had never before had Christmas. Man, what a party. What an absolute joy to be there.
Unfortunately, we had to shortly thereafter hit the road. Tough, tough, tough. As always. We said our goodbyes, got in the vans...and waited. And waited. So a few of us got out and said goodbye again, threw around a few more hugs, gave our addresses out a few more times...then got back in the vans, this time to leave.
I'll be back. I hope to always go back, God willing, to go see "my" kids. It's a sacrifice - it's expensive, and a long trip, and tough on the body - but it is always, always worth the effort. Perhaps there will come a day when I don't go back, when I have taken my last trip to see the BCC kids. I can't imagine such a thing, but I suppose all things end at some point. For now, however, God has given me a heart and passion for these children, and the countdown to December 2009 has begun.
Next post: BCC Campus and AIDS Baby Home
If you just want to see photos, jump to the "Photos" page for a sampling, using the link at the top of the page, or go to my SmugMug site for the entire complement of BCC Kids photos.
By way of background, here’s a very general outline of the BCC and the children who live (or lived) there:
The BCC – Baptist Children’s Center – is located in Nairobi, a little bit on the edge of town. The BCC property (a compound, really) sits in the middle of a an “informal settlement” slum called Maili Saba. Amazingly, I was able to find the BCC on Google Earth:
As you can see, it looks to be a pretty hard-scrabble place. There isn't much grass, it's located in a pretty rough part of town, and the infrastructure (water/power) is practically non-existent. That being said, it's a God-send for the kids who make their way there. As I've explained repeatedly, these are children orphaned by AIDS, typically. Many were abandoned or left alone, forced to fend for themselves at a very young age. Most were malnourished when they arrived at the BCC, and many were sick. A few arrived infected with AIDS themselves. Some of the stories I've heard have caused me to almost fall down with heartbreak. (For example, one child was found alone, about 5 years old, naked, living in a trash pile in a slum. No one knew his name or where he came from. The social workers figured he was about a week away from dying. They named him Musa (Moses), brought him to the BCC, and he's now a strapping teenager with a quick smile and gentle heart. And he loves the Lord.)
One of the primary goals of Buckner and the BCC is to place the kids in foster care. This allows them to learn all the things kids learn when part of a family: how to fetch water, clean house, obey parents, clean up after themselves, etc. The BCC is great, but it is much more desirable for these kids to be placed with a family. Some of the kids we visited are in foster care, scattered about the country, but they return to the BCC over the Christmas break so they can come to Brackenhurst and have Christmas.
Most of the children, though, live at the BCC in one of the dormitories. As for school, the BCC is in the process of building a school complex, and is currently set up to school younger kids. The older kids must travel by foot to school, sometimes walking back and forth quite a distance. The grand plan, as I understand it, is to construct enough school buildings to accommodate all of the BCC children, up to 8th grade. This will be a major accomplishment and will benefit the kids enormously. After 8th grade, the hope is they can move on to High School, typically a boarding school. I will write more about the BCC in my next post, so I'll move on.
Our visit with the BCC kids occurred at a retreat center outside of Nairobi called Brackenhurst. I wrote about it in one of my recent posts, so I'll skip the boring repeat of details. I did, however, also find Brackenhurst on Google Earth (I love Google Earth!):
As you can see, there is quite a difference between the BCC and Brackenhurst. Brackenhurst really is a treat for the kids, a lush playground that is very much a luxury in their lives. (I've heard a story about the very first group of kids to travel to Brackenhurst. They stepped off the bus in wonder, not really knowing what to do. Suddenly the kids all burst forward, laughing and rolling around in the tall, green grass, something they had only heard about.)
As at Seed of Hope, we did VBS, games, activities and visiting. Unlike Seed of Hope, however, we stayed at Brackenhurst alongside the kids. This afforded us much more time to be with them, more free time to just hang out and visit. We ate all our meals with the kids as well, which was a blast. All in all, it was less rushed with the BCC kids, more relaxed. As a result, and despite a bit of a slow start, we ended up probably digging deeper into the lives of these kids that those at Seed of Hope.
One of the joys of traveling to Kenya repeatedly has been the chance to see the same kids, and to be able to see them grow and mature. This was really brought home on this trip as I hadn't seen them in almost two years. (There were no trips to Kenya last Christmas as the country was shaken by violence surrounding a presidential election.) I was a bit curious if the kids would remember me, and if I would remember their names, but it really was as if I had just left. Many of them called out to me by name as we arrived, and their names came to me, in most cases, pretty easy. As I said above, I've been thinking about these kids every day since December 2005.
And they've grown! The little ones aren't quite as little, and the older ones are now well on their way to becoming young men and women. It was so very encouraging to see how the kids had progressed, how their English had improved, how their frames had filled out, how their confidence had grown. It was very, very satisfying to sit down, after 20 long months, and catch up, listening to their stories of school and life and everything.
Josephine: 2005 Josephine: 2006 Josephine: 2008As I sat listening, and, later, as I ran around playing, I was solidly struck by the overwhelming feeling these were MY kids. Not my biological kids, of course, but the kids, above all others, I know and love. I hope to come to know the Seed of Hope kids just as well, but for now, the BCC kids have my heart. It was heaven on earth for me to just see them again, to hang out and play, to goof around, to hug and tell good night. I hadn't realized how much I had missed them. Thank you Lord!
As always, time flew. We did VBS, played games, went to the tea fields, watched the Polar Express (the kids would laugh at the oddest things...very different than watching the movie with American kids), and prepared Christmas gifts. The morning of our last day, I donned the Santa suit again, made my appearance (these kids weren't quite as frightened...more amused, I'd say) and watched in joy as we delivered the gifts so many (of you ) donated. Oh, the kids loved it! The toys, the clothes, the stickers, the candy, the dolls, the books...everything! They were so very, very excited and happy. I couldn't help but tear up watching the kids, old and young, dig into their gifts with such excitement, such appreciation, such wonder. I particularly watched some of the younger kids, a few whom I knew had never before had Christmas. Man, what a party. What an absolute joy to be there.
Unfortunately, we had to shortly thereafter hit the road. Tough, tough, tough. As always. We said our goodbyes, got in the vans...and waited. And waited. So a few of us got out and said goodbye again, threw around a few more hugs, gave our addresses out a few more times...then got back in the vans, this time to leave.
I'll be back. I hope to always go back, God willing, to go see "my" kids. It's a sacrifice - it's expensive, and a long trip, and tough on the body - but it is always, always worth the effort. Perhaps there will come a day when I don't go back, when I have taken my last trip to see the BCC kids. I can't imagine such a thing, but I suppose all things end at some point. For now, however, God has given me a heart and passion for these children, and the countdown to December 2009 has begun.
Next post: BCC Campus and AIDS Baby Home
Reader Comments (5)
Dave...this post was wonderful. I love reading your words that express your heart for these kids. They are blessed to have you in their lives if even for a moment. I am sure these moments are as precious to these kids as they are to you. It is so obvious that you genuinely love them. Thank you for sharing this with me.
Wow. Just looked at your pictures. You have such a talent for showing the beauty of these children! I can't get over Siste! (Josephine) It makes me want to cry to see how wonderful she looks. Thanks for having the heart that you do for these children!!!
Dave, Dave, Dave. One of my favorite people on the planet I barely know.
Thank you so very much for letting me read your words and hear your heart. It is a privilege.
Can't wait for the next time you pop up on my feed reader. Bated breath, I tell you ... bated breath.
Super - I get teary eyed every time I read one of your Africa posts. Your love for those kids is so sweet - I know they love you just as much.
Dave-what beautiful pictures of Josephine and beautiful thoughts of those children-brought back so many amazing memories and some tears. I loved reading about your trip!