Of all the things I have seen.

I have seen some very sad things here yet at the same time have experienced such love from these amazing children.

My favourite little boy is Patrick , he has HIV and suffers from a dreadful skin condition, he is always sick and at times cant even manage a smile. On the walk home from seven hours at the hospital he was holding my hand softly when he heard a car coming around the corner...this precious boy tightened his grip and steered me off the dirt road. he was "looking after me" and did this again as a crazy bike rider hurtled around another corner. The tightening of his hand on mine is one of the sweetest memories I have of my time here.

Today he was feeling better and when I took him a new warm jacket he was smiling so brightly I thought I would cry....but then , one of the lowest moments here occurred.

I had prepared an African meal for my host family as Lillian was attending a funeral all day, I dont think I have mentioned the poor, tormented "goat" at the orphanage ( he is really a sheep)... he lives on virtually nothing , is tormented with sticks by the kids and has hooves about ten inches long...he is one sorry looking animal who lives only so it can be slaughtered and eaten when (more like if) he ever fattens up. So today I took the following scraps for him. Maise husks , potato peels, onion skins and one tough old cob of maise .

The little grade one kids got home at the same time as I got there and watched transfixed as I emptied my bag of scraps for the "goat" in his pit..... I went to organise some games and looked up to see what the commotion was around the pit , here were five or six little children fighting and sratching around getting the food scraps amongst the stinking rotting old grass and rubbish which is in the pit.

Some of the kids had gotten onion peels and were sucking on them whilst the lucky ones shared the raw tough old corn cob !!!! As for the potato peels they just disappeared .

This absolutely broke my heart , but can you imagine that these kids were smiling as if they were eating hot dogs and fairy floss at the show !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had arranged a local lady to buy 200 bananas on my behalf from the local growers as the "Pastor" didnt come to collect the fruit from the market as we arranged, so I had no way of transporting anything back , so typical of the bastard to not care about the kids needing food , not to mention that they know what day I bring it for them

.

Well , where there is a will there is a way , and I think I have just introduced the concept of "home delivery" to Kenya.

A lady carried them on her head and bought them to the Orphanage.

So , as is probably fitting , in a space of a few days I have felt elated and loved and then helpless and distraught............................. as my good friend Denise would say ...THIS IS AFRICA ...........