I had an interesting morning today - we went to an outreach for street children. Many of you know that Eldoret has a large population of street children. There are several organizations that work with these kids, notably one called Tumaini Center, which is a drop in center for the kids. There are a lot of reasons why kids end up on the street - some are orphans, others live with relatives and enjoy the freedom of the streets day to day, others are homeless and have no one.
The outreach today was a soccer game for the older boys, and several of us played ultimate frisbee with the younger kids - probably 7-13 yearolds for the most part. The kids were all very friendly and seemed to enjoy the game, once they figured out the rules. One thing that really bothered me was the amount of substance abuse among these kids - glue sniffing is rampant. Almost all of the kids had bottles of glue, and many of them were playing ultimate with while holding the bottles in their mouths. Many of the kids were bright and engaging; the glue sniffing just seems like such a waste!
It was nice though to meet the kids on their own terms and to see them having a chance to play and be kids After the games we passed out bread and milk. Afterward we saw a few of the kids on the street in town; they seemed happy to see us. I hope I get to go back again, just to hang out with the kids. No pictures of this event - both out of fear my camera would be stolen and not wanting to come off as that mzungu who just wants pictures of the kids for my own purposes- maybe another time.