Today we were privileged to meet some CUEA students that were taking a leadership course. The majority of the students were nuns and there were a few priests. We discussed our cultures and the topic of marriage came up. When one of the sisters asked about the dowry we said we didn't have one. She said, 'you just let yourself go free of charge?' It was interesting to say the least. After this class session we made our way to Good Samaritan Children's home in one of Nairobi 's other slums called Mathara.
Good Samaritan was probably the most difficult sight for me to see. It was so clearly one of those cliche depressing orphanages. Hundreds of children and youth with just a few bedrooms. Children all vying for your attention. We brought them some cookies as a treat and I noticed multiple children pocket their cookies for later and put their hands back out like they didn't get any. Several of the children, but one in particular, would run up for hugs or ask to be picked up or would just make themselves comfortable in someone's lap. This kind of indiscriminate emotional attachment that makes visitors feel so welcome in an orphanage is discussed in a book I got from my dad for Christmas. The author, Dr. Samantha Nutt, writes that this type of behavior is symptomatic of the failing institution of voluntourism but I can see it in the failed institution of orphanages, on which she also writes. With this information floating through my head I almost couldn't stay any longer. We were introduced to an infant, Daniel, just a few weeks old, who had just been dropped off at the door of the children's home that morning. At that point I could not hold back my tears and cried silently against the wall. That infant no longer had parents. The possibilities of his orphanization scrambled my mind. What happened to his parents? Was he really orphaned or was his mother in such desperate poverty that she turned him over to the orphanage with the knowledge that he would get at least get a meal a day that she knew she couldn't provide for him. Why was this his only alternative? If orphanages are known to be such failures why do we continue to support them? Why isn't there a better organization that can help him? Is a better-than-nothing orphanage his only option?
After touring Good Samaritan we took a walk through the slum. The heat pounded on my skin as little kids ran by us singing, "howayu?! Howayu?!" Like kibera, the streets were full of waste and filth. A small boy tried to steal one of my rings and was later chastised by an older man. Another man begged for money and followed us through the slum back to the orphanage where we were to say our goodbyes.
I made my way into the van with a heavy heart, a sniffly nose, teary eyes, and a headache. I sat down and immediately put my headphones in for the journey home to CUEA. I slept until our reflection time and skipped dinner. Even though I went to Kibera yesterday, my mind's eye was more fully open to the conditions I saw in Mathara at the children's home.
I wish I had an alternative to the orphanage to offer the children there, but I wouldn't even know where to begin.
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