Kenya!

This is from an article written by KJ Roelke.

“Mzungu! Mzungu! China!”

These were some of the first words that I heard out of the street boys’ mouths. After Pastor Shadrack had finished talking to them, they immediately ran towards where the food was being set up.

They knew the drill.

And here we were, a bunch of Americans stuck in a country full of poverty with a stampede (for it certainly was a stampede) of homeless boys running towards us, sticking out like a sore thumb. And then there was me. Not only was I one of the Americans, I was also the only Asian, not to mention someone with a defected right hand. I felt out of place. Leah jumped right in when she saw a baby, but me? I didn’t know what I could do. I thought to myself, all I can do is sing, dance, and play hacky-sack. What do I have to bring to the table? And the next thing I knew, I was on the ground teaching some kids how to dance: true-blue break-dance. I don’t really remember how I got there; all I can remember is wanting so desperately to distract these kids from the pains and suffering they had to go through, that I would do anything for them. I remember playing volleyball and giving them high-5s every time they made a good hit. They all understood that we were there to play with them for however long they were allowed to stay at the compound of Bridges International.

The boys inhabited a corner on the street, and many of them had glue bottles somewhere on their person. I found out during the trip that one of the reasons it is so popular is because the glue’s aroma dulls the hunger pains that they had. And when we stopped at a store really close to get Leah some girly accessory like eye-liner or something, a couple of the boys that knew me from the meal days (Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday) came up to our van and started waving. I had never imagined I would see them anywhere outside the compound (unless we were arriving there and they were waving at us through the windows), yet here they were, waving at me because I taught them how to dance, or kicked a sack of beans around with them? No, they waved because somewhere inside of them, they knew that God cared about them, and that I was one of the people God decided to use to tell them that. And they might not have known it at the time, and they might not know it now, but that is what I know, and I would go back in a heartbeat to play with them again."