Back to School

I suppose if I hadn't already roused my conscience and started thinking about reconnecting with the kids at PCEA Muniu Primary School, a story in this morning's Daily Nation newspaper would have done the trip.

That story estimates that 1.8 million Kenyan children haven't returned to school this week because they're too busy foraging in drought-stricken fields and forests for food. Another story noted that thousands of children have been abandoned by their mothers, and left with elderly, ailing grandmothers. Those moms just couldn't feed their kids anymore, when they themselves are starving.

You know, that's another challenge connected to Expat life in a developing country. I suppose if I were able to wear blinders and stay totally focused on the work at hand, it might not be so emotionally draining. But every day, there's a new absolutely mind-boggling statistic, or devastating natural phenomenon, or consequence of staggering poverty and squalor. My natural instinct is to try and figure out who's to blame and what they ought to be doing about it, or to think of a way I could help solve the problem.

But stay here long enough and you realize you can't. There's just too much that's broken to think about the situation writ large. There's no magic wand big enough to wave away drought and famine. So you scale down. You think of one thing you can do, and you do that.

So the kids at PCEA Muniu Primary don't know it, but they're helping me more than I could ever help them. I can't help feed 1.8 million Kenyan schoolchildren, but I can do everything in my power to see that 60 of them get to eat. And I'm doing it with help from the Archangel Julie's earthly representative, my brother-in-law Ron, who sent an extremely generous donation. My Zanzi-buddy Ron also kept the kids in mind when he made a contribution, as did my hometown friend, Joan.

This means the kids will have enough food to last a few months. I can't tell you how happy that makes me feel, when it would be all too easy to focus on the larger, vastly more desperate picture. And it even helped me finish running the final gruelling gauntlet at Posta Pay, to pick up the boxes my friend Simone sent. Now when I head to PCEA Muniu, I'll be bringing toys, clothes and books for the kids, too.

When I see them again on Friday morning, it'll be like I'm starting school again myself. I hope I make the grade.