German visitors at "Wajibu wetu"

August 2008 - August 2006

August 2008

My visit to Wajibu wetu – Impressions of a journey in August 2008

When I arrived the children looked rather sceptical – Who is this visitor?

It´s not easy to give every child the suitable lot of all the useful stuff and clothes we´ve brought. Each child is waiting for his or her own share.

Some rituals are the same all over the world: together the girls are reading and commenting the news in the paper.

You can´t imagine having tea in Wajibu wetu. In the living room there is no space left. People sit wherever it´s possible. It´s incredible which amount of food has to be prepared and is eaten. And as you can have fresh lettuce or vegetable from the garden everything here tastes really nice. There´s a great variety in the weekly menu, but meat or sausages – the children´s favourite dish - is served only on special occasions.

There is a lot of laundry every day – all over the place.

It is good that these daily heaps of laundry need not be washed by hand any longer. The Franz-Marc-Gymnasium organized a sponsored run and they made the money for a really big washing machine. You can see what it was like without a washing machine.

We were also allowed to visit one of the primary schools. The grey sky and the cap show that it is really cold – even for the Germans.

There are no fees for primary school – but you still have to buy the school uniform and you must bring your own lunch. It is quite usual to sit in a classroom with fifty other pupils and there is hardly any teaching material.

At the end of the trip Daddy is waiting for us. The boys have so much to tell, and George is interested and he is listening patiently.

There aren´t many men in the Kenyan society who look after their children and show their responsibility as a father. So where are the role models for the boys? The children in Wajibu wetu have got Mummy and Daddy, and the way they live shows them that it is possible to live in a family with father and mother – and they learn what a father´s responsibility is.

Going on a “matatu” is usually a nightmare for Europeans, but our boys especially liked it.

Talking about cars: How many people can you squeeze into one? There are always more people in a car in Kenya than in a car in Germany no matter what car it is.

People often only think of slums and riots in Kenya, but you can find something different outside of Nairobi.
First you see a huge cactus, and then you let your gaze wander over the Rift Valley...

And later you can hardly stop looking at Naiwasha Lake. Its vast dimension is overwhelming. There are about 1500 hippos and many other wild animals. Unfortunately during the last twenty years the lake has become smaller and it will probably get worse in the future.

But at the moment it is great fun for the girls, on the water and on the grass.

There are many girls in Kenya who have got a child at the age of 15 or 16 and they are without a qualification. For the Wajibu wetu family education is very important and it is much harder to get than in Germany. The schools are very different and you have to pay for it. So the children have to think what they really want and what aim they can reach. From time to time Jane and the girls have talks about what matters to women, and George and the boys have talks about what matters to men. These talks are very important as in Kenya there are so many teenage mothers, so many people infected with Aids and above all so many orphans because of Aids.

Unfortunately this fascinating week is coming to its end too quickly. The last day there is a farewell party and a service in the project. The girls are practising a special dance, the ladies are choosing the songs and the boys – are playing football.

It was great, Asante Sana, thank you to Jane and George and the complete Wajibu wetu family, you are a wonderful family!

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