A special gift

I received such a special gift today.

A couple of months ago, I heard from a woman who was going to Kenya and offered to take my child Murugi a doll or something.  It would be something she would buy because she had no room in her suitcase for me to make up a package, as I did for Fred.  I thanked her but said that as Murugi is 19, she wouldn't be interested in dolls.  But she said she would try to take some pictures of her for me.

I actually had forgotten all about that.  I remembered briefly, when I heard from Fred thanking me for his gifts, but I had not yet heard from Murugi.

Tonight I received an e-mail from the woman who had gone to Kenya, apologizing for not having contacted me sooner and telling me about her visit with Murugi.

In my talk with her, she wanted to know why you weren't able to come but hoped that you would be healthy and be able to come visit her one day as she wants you to be proud of her. Her dreams are now to be a businesswoman rather than a nurse. She is in college program and she hopes to become rich so that she can help others like herself. As we talked, she wanted to know if it was true that we Americans kept dogs in the house! She and her friend were laughing so hard at the thought.

They asked too if we Americans would call her, a black person, a dirty N---- and tell her to go away. This shocked me as I couldn't imagine what brought on this thought, but I reassured her that if she did come to the US, it might be hard but that not everyone was this way and that the church would accept her with loving arms and help her.

She mentioned the idea of becoming rich a few times - so if I were her sponsor and I tried to be her mentor, I might remind her that rich is good but gently remind her that "love of money" can quickly take over ....though I have a hard time trying to say such a thing in the face of my own wealth and such poverty around us.

She really wanted me to share email information with her, but I told her that I was sad not to be able to do so but wanted to follow guidelines. It would appear as though she does have some access to email, so that is a thought for when she graduates.

Embu is very rural and is considered a village. There are some things that you might find within a town but it takes some time to get to this project but they are taking care of their girls and boys

I loved the photos especially.  I had only seen one photo of Murugi since I began writing to her and she was so solemn.  It's so nice to see her smiling and to see her with the photos and letters I've been sending her.

It makes me feel more like she is a part of our family.

The woman who visited her promised video some time when her life settle down again.  How special that will be!