More About Faraja

There is no running water at Faraja. Clutching a 2-liter plastic bottle in each hand, the children – the five year-olds included – shuttle back and forth daily between the orphanage and a water pump some ten minutes away uphill behind the orphanage. They make multiple trips to fetch the 200 liters of water that the orphanage uses everyday.

Neither is there electricity. The children, according to Moraa, would normally have an early dinner before it gets too dark to see. Rarely can the orphanage afford to light lanterns or candles inside the house, so the children often cannot study at night.

Congestion is a problem – the boys and girls live in two separate bedrooms, with more than ten kids to each room. One sick child is all it'd take to initiate a mini-epidemic. There is no quiet study space. No wardrobe where they could keep their clothes organized. No bookshelf for their books. Everything was haphazardly stuffed into several rice sacks.

Moraa also worries constantly about eviction, which I believe has happened before when they were in Kibera and couldn’t afford to pay rent.

Despite these challenges, not once has the orphanage pressured the volunteers for money. Moraa and Omari appreciate the presence of volunteers for the simple joy it brings to the orphanage. Visitors, Moraa says, “donate their time” to make the children, most of whom have suffered some form of abuse or abandonment in their lives, feel special and loved.

Nevertheless, volunteers have been donating somewhat generously to the orphanage. An American volunteer, Marc, paid for water to be delivered twice weekly to the orphanage while he was here for a month. He also bought a wheelbarrow (to fetch water) and two weeks’ worth of beans for the orphanage just before he left. Others brought toys for the kids on their last day at the orphanage.

The presence of foreign volunteers, moreover, seems to have stirred the local conscience. Last week, one Kenyan volunteer remarked to me, “If people come all the way from America to care for these children, how can we who live here not do anything to help?” A local woman, Catherine, volunteers at the orphanage regularly.

Most amazingly, these kids never have to be told what to do. They are not your average kids. They help Moraa with the chores and keep the orphanage running – fetching the water, doing the dishes, washing the laundry, cooking the meals, feeding the chickens etc. These kids, inured to poverty and hardship, have learned to be independent and resourceful. They understand the value of hard work, of sharing, the importance of looking out for each other. A previous volunteer, Gloria, calls them the “good” kids.

I will upload pictures soon, if internet speed willing.