Big girls...

Best laid plans always change... it's important not to get to attached to what is supposed to happen next. Wednesday, for instance we were supposed to go visit Ruiga Girls Secondary School. The headmistress called to let me know she was ill and we should come the next day. We called Justin (the best taxi driver in Meru) and changed our plans so he would come in the afternoon and take us to Nkabune. Judie did laundry and I went to Ripples to help Victor the communications director with their annual report - it seems no matter where I am there is an annual report waiting for me :)! In the afternoon Justin took us to Nkabune, where Judie is from.

Now I know in previous years I have have written about the road to Nkabune because it is quite frankly not a road, because that would imply that it was actually passable. Nkabune road is notorious in Meru... when people describe interior roads in other villages they always compare them to Nkabune road. It took us about an hour and a half to drive about 12 miles. First we went to Judie's grandmother's compond. Justin actually drove there... I've always gone most of the way from the "main" road on foot... but Justin's Toyota Carolla is magic  and invinsible and well, there just are no words to describe his skill as a driver.

Anyway, Grandma wasn't home. So we went to the market to Judie's auntie's hair salon to let her know we were going to pick the box that Judie left with her.

The "box" is what every boarding school student takes to school. It's a big metal box that locks. You keep all your personal items in it. Getting just the right box is a big deal.

When we got back from Nkabune Wednesday evening, I sent Judie and Justin to buy a box... in this case being white impeds the price negociation, so I stayed in the car.

Judie said that her auntie's house was, "just off the road," it turned out to be about 3 km off the road, luckily we had employed Justin the magnificent taxi driver who never complains and delivered us everywhere we needed to go.

Last but not least we went to find Mary Kathambi, four years ago she and her grandmother came to the convent where I was staying looking for medical care for Mary, who we later found out had stage 4 AIDS. She was small, covered in sores and her skin was a shade of grey I had never seen before.

Today, Mary is nearly as tall as I am, her skin is clear and bright and she is healthy and in school. I took her to Ripples International who enrolled her in their program for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) program. They provide support for her educational, physical and pyschosocial needs. Mary is in a peer support group with other children who are living with HIV/AIDS.

Mary has always been a moody child. So I'm never sure what to expect when I see her. I haven't been able to see her in about a year and a half because Nkabune road was impassable the times that I was here before.

Judie walked ahead of me into their small compound. And then Mary saw me through the door and I heard a shriek and then a few more and then she flew past Judie out the door of her small hut and into my arms. We hugged and laughed for what felt like forever. I didn't realize how much I had missed her or even how much she meant to me. We didn't stay long because we didn't want to keep Justin waiting. We took picture and delivered all the things we bought. Food and hygiene products mostly. We also took orders for what they still desperately needed. Grandma Ruth need shoes, Mary needed a backpack. We will leave them at Ripples and they can pick them up the next time they are in town.

Justin I think knew at this point that he was going to get a nice big tip, so he agreed to accompany us to the Nakumatt, which is a bit like our Walmart. We bought about $60 worth of "stuff" Judie would need for school. Then we had tea at the cafe next to the store and Justin took us home.

Later that night after sukuma and ugali (yum), and after Judie had unpacked the old box and packed the new box, she came in the room where we sleep in bunkbeds and said, "Mom, I feel like sleeping with you." If I hadn't been so tired, I might have melted into a big puddle right then and there. But instead I let her lay down with me for a minute and then told her that neither of us would get any sleep if we crowded onto my bunk.

Getting that much love from two such extraordinary young women in one day, filled me up to over flowing. I can't imagine life getting any better than this!