They were both saying more or less the same thing about street children, that we can't and shouldn't judge other countries by our standards and customs. But surely its not right even by third world standards for children to be thrown out of, or run away from the home ?
When I first went to Africa 43 years ago, the one thing that impressed me more than anything was the sense of family among the Africans we knew and the joy that children bring to the extended community of peoples related by blood and by marriage. True, children were expected to help around the homestead, and little girls had to look after the babies, just as small boys were sent out to care for the goats and sheep. All part of training for adulthood. And the other thing that impressed was that people were happy with their lot in life; laughter and conversations were always to be heard ... people would be walking along a path in the bush, and the conversation would start from a distance as they walked towards one another; a brief hand shake and personal greetings were exchanged, and then the talking and the laughter would continue as they passed and continued walking until they were out of hearing.
What I am trying to describe is a sort of togetherness; an intimacy, a joy in ones friends that we don't have here ... you try shaking hands with everyone you pass on a walk even if you know them extremely well !
So with this sort of background, a tradition of concern for each other, its strange that street children even exist. Its not the African way ! So it would seem that there has been a breakdown in tradition ... why ?
Well, having been back to Kenya for a month, and seen the way people are, still friendly, welcoming, generous when they have nothing by our standards, then I think what I wrote originally several months ago still partly stands ... see http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2010/07/empire-or-independence.html
In the month I was there, we encountered hospitality, generosity, gifts, friendship beyond anything we would have expected. Can I quote one example of what I mean ? We employed a lady called Lilian, recommended to us by Paul as someone who was an excellent cook and totally trustworthy. We paid her the recommended amount, I forget exactly how much, but she was delighted to be earning what to us seemed totally inadequate. (We gave her a very generous bonus when we left !) The day before we left she invited ... insisted ... we went to her home for tea. So we did. She was living in a one roomed house with her husband and two children ... the room was about the size of the average bathroom.
Lilians house ... the door on the left is the next door house; there were three in the row.
This picture may give a better idea of the size of her house; the white knees (!) are Nigels, sitting with Gill with their backs against the wall. The blue curtain behind Lilian screens off a single bed, where the whole family sleeps. The total furniture in this room was four chairs, the table you see, the hidden bed, and a sewing machine ! (She is a superb seamstress.) In an alcove hidden on the left was a tiny area where she cooked. Toilets are somewhere outside, and used by the whole neighbourhood, water has to be carried from a short distance away.
While we were visiting, she gave us cold drinks, and biscuits she had bought specially. But note this ... she had bought TWO packets of biscuits (together probably a days wages because they are a luxury item) and the second packet was shared out by her and her daughter who had just come home from school, with the children from the other houses around who were gathered outside her open door to watch us !
Waiting for the biscuits !
Put this 'tea' party into an English context ... hard to do, isn't it. Lilian gave us, and the children of the neighbourhood, the equivalent of a days wages ... because she had become our friend.
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