Ben and Mary Buhati took us to the feeding station in Kakamega this morning. Kakamega is probably 50 miles away from Eldoret. This area has been one of the hardest hit by HIV, so about 10% of the children in the community had parents who died of it.

The first observation is that feeding station is not an appropriate term – feeding school may be more appropriate, and it is an incredible rescue to orphans. Let me explain:

People who do not have any other resource or provision end up in the slums, where they usually make deals with people to get a thatch roof over their head. Then the mission of each day is to try to find something to eat. This is probably the most dramatic culture shock for me. Very few people at our home really struggle for food, and the norm is, “What do I feel like having?” Here, food is the precious commodity. People do anything and everything to scrounge for food. Well the people in the slums will end up scavenging through garbage piles just to see if there is anything they can get a little nutrition from, and then return to their one-room dirt floor thatch-roof hut. There are no government handouts.

Slum children do the same thing, and when it comes to school they usually can’t attend because they can’t afford the uniforms. If they can, they are rarely successful because they have no foundation. So they end up living on the streets learning how to survive with no language or job skills, and they usually don’t survive long because of the diseases they pick up.

The system Ben uses is to provide a preschool for 3, 4, 5, and 6 year old children. They find the most destitute children, and their invitation to the school is, “You will no longer have to look for food.” They are fed breakfast and lunch, educated, and loved 6 out of 7 days. They are given uniforms that are sewn by the School Mother, Rebecca. The children go home, wherever that is, at night and return the next day. Older children go to public schools but come back to the preschool for lunch. These children end up being very successful in school and have been able to go on to high school and college.

As the Lord provides sponsors for the orphans in the feeding schools, they move them into an orphanage which gives them a home and school environment where they are taught responsibilities and chores around the orphanage. We visited one of these homes yesterday.

The Kakamega Feeding School has 127 children in it, and was a beautiful experience. We arrived just in time for flag-raising, and they gave us a wonderful welcome as usual. Then we asked if the children would just continue what they would normally do so we could see their classes in action. They have two classrooms, both with 63-64 children with two teachers. One class was teaching math, using participative active repetition where everyone was participating, and the other class was learning the English alphabet using the same style of learning. The children were having a great time learning and the teachers had the full attention of their classes. It was so enjoyable to watch!




They gave us a great send off where we all were invited to dance, which we did, while the children did their rhythm dancing. It was so much fun and the children were beautiful.

It didn’t take long, though, to see the intense pain in their eyes. These children have ended up in the slums through no fault of their own and have stories that are worse than anyone at home can even imagine. Let me tell you two:
Washington Malika is 12 years old. He has a brother Nelson, 10 and a sister Brenda, 7. His father died of HIV in 2000 and his mother died of HIV in 2007. All three live in a one-room thatch hut in the slum with their aunt.

Twins Haggai and Erick are orphans whose parents died of HIV. They are living with a grandfather in the slum who is too old to care for the boys. They just came to the orphanage and both had distended stomachs, ringworm, and other body sores that had to be treated.

All of these children need sponsors quickly so they can move to an orphanage.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the teachers are certified, and some of the best, but they volunteer to do this and walk by faith for provision.
Much to dwell and ponder. These people are doing really effective ministry to orphans.

We had a farewell lunch with Ben and Mary, then boarded our Jetlink flight to Nairobi. The Lord was with us on that as well, since because of traffic in Eldoret we did not make it to the airport until 4:45 for a 5:00 flight. This would never work anywhere else but we passed through security, walked to the ticket counter, got our boarding passes and waited about 10 minutes to board the airplane. Akunamatata – no problem. We are back at the Hampton House in Nairobi tonight. Thank you, Lord.