Our Kids

I am sitting on my front porch with Mavine, Michael, Father & Uncle. They will help me write this blog but first I will tell you a little about them, and a few others.

Father is 9 years old…no wait; he is 8 (he says). He is the brother of Uncle and his real name is Antony Owuor. He lives in a small house with his mother, 24 year old sister, his sister’s baby Whitney, (who is 3 years old and has hydrocephalus) and 4 others. Uncle’s other sister, Lydia has just finished class 8 and is waiting to have an invitation letter to join secondary school. Her class 8th test results placed her number one in her school so she will be invited to attend a good school. She will still have to pay for her education. Father’s father died a few years ago and he left 6 children. His mother sells vegetables at a street side kiosk. We were invited to their house the other day and we were served sodas and “bisquits”. It was very nice, but I felt badly that they spent the little money they had to buy us those things. His family is very nice and loving. Father attends a school called Christ’s Gift. He is ranked number 6 in his class. This is a private school where every child has a sponsor from the United States. He is a lucky one because his class only has 28 kids and he has a nice uniform and a good pair of shoes. The students also get to eat lunch at school every day. Father likes to play football; he likes to eat and always seems to be hungry. He says “I like to eat, very much”! He and Junior have been washing our dishes in the lake this week and they do a very good job! He likes to play “Go Fish” or in Luo “Go Lupo” with our cards. We have colored pencils that we let the kids use and Father likes to draw airplanes. He drew some airplanes and we sent them to Adam. When he grows up, Father would like to be a pilot just like Adam. Father likes to swing in our tree from a rope and an old tire. He also loves to swim in Lake Victoria. He would like to come to America with us and I will be very sad when I have to leave him.

Uncle is 11 years old and his real name is Maurice. (Some people call him a space cowboy…sorry, I couldn’t resist). His brother is Father. He does not attend the same school as Father because there were no openings for him. He and Father have huge smiles that light up a room. They are really sweet and kind boys who are always keeping us informed about what is going on with the other kids. Their English is very good. Uncle is very funny and told me that he was going to bring a knife and fork over tomorrow to eat the extra flesh that is hanging down from my upper arms!

Junior is 12 (a.k.a. Erik) and has a huge smile that is indescribable. Junior should be in the Olympics with all of his gymnastic moves. He is always doing back bends and flips in the air especially when we are swimming at the lake. Junior wants to be a pilot and likes to draw airplane pictures. He loves school and is fortunate to be sponsored by mzungus from the USA so he attends a private school down the road. He is so sweet and very bright.

Collinse is a small, quiet boy who we don’t see as much as we would like to, but he is so adorable. As you can see from his picture, his smile is amazing. He tends not to be able to come to play as often as the other kids, but I think his mother requires him to be at home to help with the chores. He works hard for his family. We recently heard that his mother made his father move out of the house. We have seen his father sail by in a fishing boat on the lake. Collinse had to go down to the lake to fetch part of his father’s sails (?) and had to carry it up a big hill with Morgan’s help. He is not a very big boy! Collinse loves to be thrown into the lake when we are swimming and loves to play fake fighting with Nick. They throw air punches at each other and their heads go backwards in slow motion, just like in the movies.

The first time we met Mavine was down at the shores of Lake Victoria. He greeted us with a fabulous Chuck Norris karate high-kick followed by a series of other moves. Did I mention that he was naked??? He is 8 years old and absolutely hilarious. Our favorite clothing of his is a pair of tight blue pajama bottoms with dinosaurs on it and a blue short sleeve t-shirt. He is in his own little world of karate, climbing poles, climbing trees, selling scrap metals in town and collecting pop bottles that he returns for Kenyan shillings. They actually recycle bottles here! Mavine is very moody but when he is happy there is no one happier. He likes to pout and go away, but he usually returns the next day and everything is forgiven. We are never really sure what he is upset about but what can you do?


Michael (12) and Mavine (8) are brothers and they have a sister named Eunice (10). Their parents both died and the sister of their mother is caring for them. Paul and I were invited to their house two nights ago but their “mother” was not home yet. They live in one room with mud walls, two chairs and a bed. The children sleep on the floor. I went to a fundi (a tailor/dressmaker) yesterday with all three kids to order new school uniforms for them because when we asked the kids if they needed any of their clothes mended, Eunice’s dress almost had to be remade. I collected the kids and met their Headmistress (she happens to be on our school board committee) who helped me get set up with the tailor. They seemed pretty happy to be getting new uniforms and we are taking them to town on Thursday for new school shoes. The three uniforms are custom made for them and cost me a total of 1250 KS (about $13). All of the kids love school even though they go to Mbita Primary Public School that has about 500 kids and about 9 teachers.

Eunice is a very quiet girl and within the first few days we were here, she decided that she was going to live with us. I think I mentioned this in an earlier blog…we had to have Elly talk to her and explain that we could not take her to the USA with us. It was all quite sad, bud I think she was the most sad. She always wants to help us sweep and she does our dishes a lot. She said she wanted to help me wash my sheets in the lake today and she is so much better at hand washing than I am. Eunice has a big gap-tooth smile and tries very hard to talk to us in English, but she is not quite as good at English as her brothers. She is not around as much as the boys are so we try to pay a lot of attention to her when she is here.

We also have Magdeline and Byron. (That's Marvine, not Byron in the picture) I wrote a story about Magdeline on our blog, so if you want to know more about her, you can read that. Unfortunately, she is missing again. This is the 3rd time she has left her grandmother since we have been here. Magdeline’s sister is a prostitute and I have only met her once. She appears to be about 15 years old but I don’t know much about her. I don’t have a lot of hope for Magdeline. She is a very troubled 11 (?) year old and her grandmother is very old.

Byron is 3 and Father Charles says that he will be a gangster when he grows up. He has a stare that would scare anyone. Apparently, he and another 3 year old had a stare down out on the road when Morgan, Travis & Ashley were walking to town. The 3-year-olds both came out to greet M, T & A when the incident occurred. They both reached out to shake hands at the same time (everyone shakes hands here) and locked eyes. After the unknown kid shook hands he ran off instantly because Byron gave him the death glare. He is so funny and he just loves Morgan and Ashley. Byron likes to wear girl’s clothes. Actually, I don’t think he cares as he is lucky just to have some clothes…most of them are in tatters. Byron has huge dimples and a big belly. He is soooooooo black! He has learned a handshake that is hilarious. It is a 5 step process. You slap the front of your hands (instead of a handshake) then the back of your hands. You pound your fists together, pound your chest then raise your fist in the air. On Byron’s first day of nursery school he taught it to the old nun, Sister Adrian (just picture a tiny little wrinkled African woman with huge Mr. Owl glasses) who runs the school. That is quite a sight to see the two of them together doing this handshake. Byron told Sister Adrian that they must greet each other that way every day. We will try to get a video!

Well, these are the kids that are going to be hard to leave. Other kids have tried to work their way into the inner circle, but they don’t get too far. I spent the last two afternoons playing Bingo with a bunch of kids and giving out prizes (toothbrushes were the favorite!)

Respectfully submitted,
Joyce