Child Bride

The summer months have been full of joy as we’ve hosted more than 100 visitors at The Well!  We’ve loved the curiosity, creativity, and energy these enthusiastic folks have carried in through the front gate.

We’ve also had the blessing of having some fantastic college students intern at Oasis, one of them being our own daughter, Rachel!  Here's what she has gotten her fingers into.

Meet, Jackie.  She’s around 12 or 13 and is sweet and shy mixed with determined and smart. She’s comes from a community where only half of the girls attend school and where most of them are married off at an early age as one of multiple wives.  She’s among those who have not had the opportunity to attend school. But she walked to the local school one day, on her own, approached a teacher and begged for help. She was slated to be married, as another wife, to a much older man and she wanted out.  Thankfully, this teacher had the resolve to step in and completely alter the course of Jackie’s life. 

Jackie arrived at The Well last month and joined the preschool class.  She had never heard English spoken and knew only a few words in Kiswahili. When Rachel arrived, we paired them together and the two began a life-altering journey together. Within a week, Jackie had learned some simple commands, the first half of the alphabet, and her numbers though 15. By week two, she knew her shapes and colors, could do simple addition and subtraction, and could answer a few questions in English. Last week I cried as she read a few three letter words and understood they had meaning! 

Both Rachel and Jackie are resolved to learn and it’s been fun to see their friendship flourish and their joy in spending time together! She's also been helping in the science and social studies classes. We're so thankful to have her around this summer!

She Bit Me!!!

Jesus is talking to a crowd of Jewish people. They’re perched on stones on the hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. He throws out this pearl, you know, divinely summing up the entire sacred writ as they know it. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” A collective sigh of understanding sweeps the global audience, including myself, from this moment forward, as this profound ‘Aha moment’ sinks in. Our actions carry weight. Our behaviors and attitudes come full circle.

 

I was asked to join a ‘cluster’ in town a few months ago. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s a highly active group of super citizens who become aware of local issues and work to bring change. In the last few months, the 160-member group found a wheel chair for a crippled boy who was scooting around on his knees, helped four children from one family start school by donating uniforms and school fees, helped a lost child find his mother, helped a special needs child connect to the special needs group in town, helped an abused child get to the hospital and receive counseling, helped a crippled mother with her child’s hospital bills, and advocated on behalf of children being caned in school, oh... and warned everyone of buffalo on the loose!  It’s been an absolute joy to join them! This is the kind of ‘Do unto others…’ I have in mind when I hear the phrase.

But generosity, kindness and love become surreptitiously flipped on their heads when a hurting child does as has been done to them. A precious girl walked into our lives a few weeks ago. She’s seven, but is the size of a five-year-old, and has only attended school intermittently. She’s a survivor.  She’s determined and bold. And she’s scared and lonely. Abandoned at birth she was taken in by somebody who ended up being her nemesis.
 
This. Child. Has. Struggled.
 
 “Auntie Ann, Bee bit everyone in the class and is abusing us (hitting and calling names).”
 
I wanted to say, “Yes. Of course she bit you. That's all she knows. The in-human who was housing her, treated her like garbage. She is deeply scarred in every way from regularly being bitten, beaten with a pipe, and verbally abused.”
Instead, I whispered, “She doesn’t know it’s safe here yet.  Do you remember how scared you felt when you came?  Will you help teach her it’s safe here by being kind, even if she’s not.” They nodded, knowingly.

They have been kind and it's making a difference.
 
Bee is finding her true self living among the adored and is soaking it in. She has good days and bad days but the good days are starting to outnumber the bad. Yesterday, was a good day. I found her helping one of the smaller children clean their lunch plate.  She's trying new attitudes and behaviors and we're so proud of her!