Today in My History

2000:  Stressed? Who's Stressed?
2001:  at the Drive-In
2002:  Pride Goeth Before the Fall
2003:  Boink
2004:  Ok, Well Maybe One More
2005:  My New Role
2006:  An Appointment with Death
2007:  From L-empress
2008:  Crying to John Denver
2009:  A Birthday and an "Old" Friend
2010:  Blackberry Summer
2011:  "Day Sleeping"

Bitter Hack
Updated: 6/2
"How I Learned to Drive"

Books Read in 2012
 Updated: 6/2
"The 6th Target"

Most Recent on My

HAIKU OF THE DAY

My sweet Murugi
Finally I see your smile
I wish we could meet

A SPECIAL GIFT

8 June 2012

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!

Speaking of family, I drove down to have lunch with my mother today.  Hard to know how she is doing.  She still forgets lots and repeats herself lots, but I'm getting used to it.  I filmed her talking about the story of her mother getting a car and trying to learn how to drive it.  I've heard this told many different ways with many different people actually giving her the car, but it always ends the same way.   I do "stealth" video on these stories so she doesn't know she's being filmed, which is also why her head is cut off in most of them!)  Check the video of the day on the left.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

 

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