Jarvin

A few weeks ago while having drinks after an afternoon spent in Kibera with Beck, we got to discussing our future wishes in terms of family and marriage ect.. It’s funny how I am so comfortable now talking of such things, and how they are such common topics of discussion now. I am always the youngest of my friends here in Kenya, merely twenty, while the rest are all approaching thirty. It didn’t surprise me when she commented that she doesn’t think she will have kids for a long time even though she is ready and willing to do so. “Of course I want a baby, but I have two teenage boys to send to school, the library, how could I afford to have a baby now? And what if Francis and Jannes want to go to college?” That’s who she is, taking care of everyone else first before she seeks to meet her own needs and fulfill her wishes. She didn’t have to sign up to pay for two teenage boys secondary school fees, and to care for them while they were on term break. She didn’t have to spend so much time dealing with and taking care of their families and the boy’s needs, but she chose to. We recently spent one night calling back and forth to Jannes’s school and to the police station trying to report a teacher that was caning kids at Jannes’s school, him included (physical abuse used as discipline is common in Kenyan schools). After several hours of yelling and arguing over the phone to get the situation taken care of, she could finally relax. She treats those boys like her own, and that is common ground here in Kenya, people take care of one another. It’s hard to believe at twenty six, she has taken on this much responsibility, has given up and offered so much, before she even started to get her own life on track. She doesn’t just fulfill the financial agreement for sending these boys to school, but is always there for them and their families emotionally, putting their needs first.

My parents are always offering me money while I am here for me to put towards wherever I see a need. When Beck got to talking about Jannes’s family story and how his younger brother Jarvin was unable to attend school I knew where I wanted to put their money towards. Jarvin’s family story is interesting and saddening, yet intriguing in a way. I have met most of Jarvin’s family and they are quite open and easily ready to share everything that has happened within their family. Beck first met Jannes in Kibera, who is now nineteen, as a young teenager during her first stay here in Kenya as a volunteer. She bonded with him quickly and jumped at the chance to send him to school. When Jannes first asked Beck to be sent to a boarding school in Western, far away from Nairobi, she hesitated since she did not understand the motivation behind Jannes desire to be so far from home. Later she learnt that Jannes’s mom, who is Luo, and the second of two wives to her husband, had been subjected to regular beatings and verbal abuse. Jannes, a young teenager at the time felt hopeless and constantly anxious and wanted to be far away from the family home in Kibera. Jannes’s younger sister, fifteen at the time, was raped by a neighbour, and Jarvin is her son. Jarvin is being raised as Jannes’s brother, and not as his nephew. Eventually, his sister was sent to a boarding school by an organization, having never been given the chance to attend school. It’s hard to believe she is my age and already has been through so much at twenty and yet at the same time, it is not, since we see this every day. In Kibera, many families cannot afford to send their children to school. The lowest school fee for the school in Kibera is 1200 shillings a term, about fifteen Canadian dollars. The school, called Olympic, is right on the edge of Kibera overlooking it from above and the school fees cover the academic term which is three month in length and regular lunches. Since my family was able to pay the full fee, which is 4000 shillings a term, approximately fifty five Canadian dollars, that money supports the children who can only pay the minimal amount.

A lot of the time I have spent here in Kenya, I feel more of a student than a volunteer, constantly learning and exploring every day, learning from the locals and people that surround me. When I do participate in volunteer work it is experienced more as an observer, being present, helping in small ways. Being over here and witnessing the hardship every day and especially recently seeing everything in the news concerning the drought affecting so much of East Africa, it makes you feel pretty helpless most of the time. Sure, I am over here to volunteer and help, but I will not be really able to make an impact till I am much older. I understand that my time here is important, and it is the reason I know I will keep returning hopefully with more to offer. I will carry with me everything I have learnt and experienced as I complete my own education, and then hopefully return to Kenya with more resources to help. However, through my family being able to support Jarvin obtaining an education I feel as if in some little way I did contribute this time around and some of that feeling of helplessness is taken away. I hope I can be as good as the example set before me by Beck. After only a month of knowing Jarvin and watching him attend school for the first time, knowing he no longer has to wander around Kibera all day while his mom is working, I have already started to internalize the emotions that come with witnessing him starting something new. I feel the responsibility, the anxiety, the excitement, of knowing I will have to see him through, to see him through every event and obstacle that will come up during his schooling. I know that I will not be able to witness most of his journey but revel in the thought of all this new possibility and opportunity that can come to this little five year old boy, a new beginning for him, a chance that every child should be offered.

Kibera

Jarvin after I brought him his new pair of socks, sweater, and uniform.

Beck in the library. Her library is at Olympic, the school where Jarvin is attending. She has held many fundraisers back home in Australia to pay for everything and is only waiting for her shipping container from Australia with books and academic materials to be sent over.

Beautiful Meloy at the school.