Options and Opportunities

I’ve been in Kenya for 3 weeks now, and I’m finally feeling somewhat settled in. There’s so much I could write about, but I’ve decided to limit it for now to this one recurring train of thought I keep having during my time here. It’s about options and opportunities.

I’m spending a lot of my time with a group of 30 orphans who are all a part of a house family. They are being raised at a children's home along with 3 other similar group families. Each bunch of 30 kids has a house mom and house dad who look after them in a way that’s part like a parent, part like an RA in a college dorm. The kids are ages 3-18 and are loving, funny, cute, sweet and all around as entertaining as kids can be. And they are so curious about everything. They ask me lots of questions, and one of the favorite questions is this: “What do you eat in America?” I feel a little pang of guilt every time they ask me that question, and I try to limit my answer to a few things. “We eat potatoes”, I say. “And hamburgers and spaghetti and greens”. When they press for more details I tell them we also have corn and beans and rice and eggs. I try to only talk about foods they are familiar with, because I can’t stand to paint a picture of the vast amount of culinary choices we have in the States. These kids are happy with their daily meals. They eat the same slice of bread with tea for breakfast every morning, the same beans and maize for lunch in the afternoon, and the same cabbage and ugali (a thick corn flour and water paste) for dinner every evening. They have other foods here and there on occasions (like meat on Saturdays, or a special meal on holidays), but for the most part, these three meals are their life. And in a part of the world where malnourishment frequently claims young lives, they are fortunate to have these meals.

And so I have been thinking a lot about options as I take my meals of ugali and cabbage with my new Kenyan friends. I think about my life in the States and how I have the opportunity to make so many choices big and small. I can choose whether to take this job or that, whether to live here or there. I can choose between 20 different lunch options and 37 different brands of bread at the grocery store. I get to choose the direction of my life, and I can even choose to leave my life of options and opportunity and go to a place where choices are limited, just to see what it’s like. And when I’m tired of beans and maize, and I’m ready for a change, I can choose to go back to my world of plenty. But I will never forget these kids, and what I am learning here in Kenya. I’d like you to meet them, so here are a few pictures to round out this post. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be here with them.