Oh the places you'll go, the stories you'll hear

Tonight I was reminded of a Dr Seuss book about "the places you'll go". I have been spending a lot of time with the AIDS orphans this month. It's been busy, but good. I am trying to get to know them better and learn about their aspirations - their hopes and dreams for the future. Part of this effort was a Career Day that we held with the Marianist Development Project, which offers vocational courses to young people at a reasonable price.

Today was my last "office day" before Christmas. The next two days I'll be paying school fees and buying books and school supplies. I spent the day visiting with a number of the children and guardians and even a few new people looking for last minute assistance before the new school year starts on January 3rd. So the book I would write from today would be called "Oh the stories you'll hear ... "

The missioner who led this project before me told me that it is a ministry of listening. Sometimes all I can offer is an encouraging word and prayers for a way forward for them.
Some of today's stories:

• A mother of four now caring for three more of her siblings children, one just 3 yrs old and HIV+
• Parents who died not just of AIDS, but of poverty since they couldn't buy enough food or make it to the clinic.
• A young man who watched his sister die last week.
• Another boy who is struggling to pay his way through high school and worried about his mother who traveled three weeks ago to get his birth certificate from their home area and hasn't yet come home
• A girl who loves biology but isn't doing well and was having a hard time putting words around her struggles.
• Another boy who, since his mother's death, stays with a elderly step-father who is partially paralyzed and spends his days begging by the side of the road.
• A boy who has to transfer to another high school due to lack of funds for boarding school and says that he doesn't mind since he'll reduce the financial burden on his sister.
• Another who has great passion for cooking and wants to be a caterer so badly - but if he's missed the deadline to start a course this year, will take any other course so he can find work.
• A student whose dream it is to be a television broadcaster with grades that could take him far.
• A young girl who's top of her class in a competitive high school and dreams of being a lawyer.

The days have been hectic and the stories many. I have to leave these young people in the hands of others and in my prayers. This season is a time of many memories of the stories of my own life and the story of a baby born so long along who changed the world. It is a time of hope - hope in a love so much bigger than us which has, can and will continue to change us, to draw us deeper in love. May this love change your world this Christmas.

Career Day - Dec 9th

Dreaming and drawing about our future ... to be an artist, a tour leader, a pilot


I'm pondering how we can start a successful local greeting card business while Neema is planning to become an international doctor.

John from the Marianist Development Project shows the students who've just finished 8th grade some of the Metalwork equipment.

We brainstormed a bit about careers.

Hoping for a bright future ...

One of our success stories - top in her class in two subjects

Some of our guardians literally making a joyful noise (singing in Swahili) at our guardians' meeting last week.

The time of advent is coming to a close. Here represented by four candles - four weeks of anticipation for Christmas. For us it is a reminder of our interconnectedness, with evergreen from our Muslim neighbors and a native tray woven in Kenya and given by dear friends.

Hoping this is a sacred time for you and your loved ones!
Mary