Today, being our last Sunday in Machakos, we threw a party for the girls. Every day, the girls eat one of two meals; muthakoi (beans and corn), or rice and beans. The government only has enough money to provide for necessities, so the girls haven't enjoyed sweets or alternative meals since they lived at home. So yesterday, we went into Machakos town with our friend Lucy, and bought ingredients for stew, rice, chapatti, and mandazi.
We bought most of the ingredients for the stew in the open market, where Lucy has many vendor friends. We spent a while just hanging out in the market with all the women selling fruits and vegetables. When a man carrying a stereo walked by us and we started dancing, we heard an enormous burst of laughter and cheering. When we looked around, we realized that literally, every person in the market was looking over at us and cheering. Mzungus aren't common in the open market.
Before doing our shopping, we spent the afternoon at Lucy's office with her support group for orphaned children who have AIDS. Twenty children and their care givers (usually grandmothers) gather at Lucy's office once a month to enjoy a delicious meal that she cooks for them, toys, television, and music. We spent a long time talking with many of the caregivers and were really impressed by the sacrifices that they make for the children. It's not easy for them to provide for themselves, let alone their grandchildren who have many additional needs because of their sickness. One of the caregivers even contracted AIDS herself from caring for her sick daughter who had the virus, and now, despite her own malady, is caring for her HIV positive grandaughter. After leaving the office, Lucy took us to the area where most of the children and their caregivers live; the Machakos slum. One of the caregivers showed us her home, where she and her three children live. It was one room with a dirt floor and mud walls, that was only large enough to fit two twin sized beds and a desk. She told us that she struggles to pay the rent every month (700 shillings, approximately 8 dollars). Despite her obvious struggles and poor living conditions, this woman, along with the rest of the caregivers and their children, seemed to carry a surprisingly positive attitude.
We spent this morning in the kitchen with the oldest girls and the cook preparing mandazi, chapatti, stew, and rice. It was interesting how all of the girls knew by heart how to cook each dish. We realized that even now, neither of us know how to cook any specialized dishes, while these ten and eleven-year-old girls have at least six under their belts.
Earlier this week, the manager of the center, Olive, expressed her concern that if we threw this party for the girls, they might "starve". After discussing with other staff members about the quite stressful and frustrating conversation that we'd had with Olive regarding the party, we realized that her expressions of concern for the girls' "health", were just an excuse to ruin their one fun day. Francis has informed us that Olive's only concern is money, and that she has no care whatsoever for the children's wellbeing. Even the girls have told us numerous stories about Olive's mistreatment. Apparently if she catches them playing or having fun, she punishes them (cleaning the toilets). In fact, the one time that we've ever seen her interacting with any of the girls, was when she walked by about five of them and found reasons to scold each individual girl there. We almost feel like we're witnessing the real life version of Matilda, in which Francis is Ms. Honey, and Olive is the evil principle. However, we certainly proved Olive's "concerns" wrong as each girl got six mandazi with tea, a huge lunch and dinner, and so much chapatti that they were actually giving them away after dinner. On a normal day, the girls would be scraping their plates clean and sometimes even eating roasted grasshoppers.
In the afternoon the girls did various activities such as a dance competition, relay races, and bible trivia. The girls knew the answer to all the questions that Christine prepared, while we struggled to even understand her questions. Everyone we've met here is Catholic, and we've gotten used to their prayers before meals, although we still don't know whether we're supposed to close our eyes or not when the prayer is being said. On Friday night we had dinner at Lucy's house along with one of her colleagues, a volunteer from Japan. As we sat down for dinner, Lucy's husband suggested that one of the three of us lead the prayer. After looking around awkwardly, we each declared our very non-catholic religions; "independent lutheran...jewish...buddhist." Lucy's husband decided it best that we just not pray.