So much more than meets the eye...

Today was like a mullet. Business in the front (in the morning) and party in the back (in the afternoon). : )

In the afternoon, we played music on the roof of Baraka house, danced, and played with acryclic paint that ended up as decoration ALL over our bodies--hands, feet, legs, arms--everything that could be painted got painted. It was a blast! : )

In the morning, though, we filmed interviews with some of the girls. I asked most of the questions as the official interviewer--and discovered that I`m going to require some practice-- and Lindsey did the camera work.

Mum Kate sat with the three youngest girls and talked about their lives before they came here. Two of them had been in an orphanage for children who have HIV/AIDS because when they were originally tested, they tested positive because their mother’s antibodies were still working in them. Their parents must have either died or abandoned them when they were born, which would be how they ended up at the other orphanage. But, as with what happens with about 80% of babies who test positive now that ARVs are so widely available to pregnant women (in Kenya, at least), after about 2 years their own antibodies had fully taken over and the test accurately discovered that they were, fortunately, HIV negative. However, while that’s good news for Vigi and Flo, there’s another problem they have to deal with--they can’t stay at an orphanage for children with AIDS if they don’t have AIDS. Fortunately, though, that’s where Hekima Place became a saving grace, as a much needed home for girls who do not have HIV (although 2 of them do).

The third girl, on the other hand, had a slightly different story. Her poor mother was so distraught and depressed and hopeless that she decided to take a can of gas and poor it all over her house and set it on fire with herself in it. A neighbor looked over to see a house up in flames and this little baby laying on the doorstep. Fortunately, somehow that good neighbor got her to the right hands that brought her here, where she is growing up in a loving environment and attending school.

It’s difficult to comprehend that those sweet little faces that want you to hold them and jump with them and play stones with them have been through so much tragedy in their lives. Behind the smiles and the laughter and the dancing and singing, I have no idea what is going through their minds or what psychological bruises they’re trying to heal. And these kids could be anywhere--they could be right back at home, the land of the free and the brave. I won’t leave it at that though, because there is a horrible “epidemic” of orphans here. There are 1.5 MILLION orphans already in Kenya. In just one country, physically about one and half times the size of California and with a total population here of 30 million. That`s one out of twenty people is a child orphaned by AIDS. Just AIDS. Not by anything else. One disease, that`s highly preventable and increasingly manageable--IF you have the money and availability. Can you imagine? I`m here and I still can`t.