Happy Chrisnnakah

Hope you all are having a nice holiday! It doesn't really feel like the holiday season here. There isn't the onslaught of consumerism here. Looking around town you'd hardly notice it was Christmas, just a few shop windows decorated, a couple of mechanical dancing Santa's in the grocery store dancing to "The Yellow Roads of Texas" and other non-Christmas type tunes. Also the weather. It's very warm here, like south Florida. We did have a very successful Chanukah party, however; lit candles, exchanged presents, drank a lot, ate a lot. Gladys made an attempt at potato latkes that we hope will be better NEXT year, but all in all everyone had fun.

We made a stop at the YGC orphanage with another Expat family, sang some Christmas carols (yes, I know, but whatever, it was fun and the kids enjoyed it), made a donation. Which brings me to talk about the "neediness" factor here again. It definitely intensifies around the holiday season and Kisumu is no exception. For example this guy John who has started coming to our gate from time to time. Seems he lives in the slum next to the orphanage, they told him to talk to me about his problem. He showed up or I should say 'wheeled' up to the gate two months ago in his inverted bicycle thing, which he uses as a wheelchair since he doesn't have use of his legs. He must have 'biked' 5 miles just to see if I was at home. He tells me he is trying to start a business; raise chickens, sell the eggs, but the chicks are sick, can I help him with purchase of medicine for the chickens, which I did, hard to refuse a soft-spoken, handicapped guy living in the slums. The next time it was feed money, the next time it was some skin rash he had, can I pay the doctor bill. And yes, I helped; I do say no to him for some things but it's not that much money really. We know others like him, and we help them as well from time to time. You might be saying 'boy am I a sap!" and maybe I am. But the way I look at it in New York I had no problem stepping over homeless people in the street and not giving them money even though I knew many of them were legitimately needy. I knew there was plenty of infrastructure in place to help them and paid for by my tax dollars. But here, here is very different. There is no infrastructure for needy people. Nothing. So if a guy comes to me for $20 to keep his chicks alive to keep his business going I have no problem.

Even the middle class is not exempt here. We had a guard who, a few weeks ago, came to me in confidence to ask our help. He and his wife were supporting two kids, one of which is severely disabled and needed special and expensive schooling. His income was very good, but his wife, who was a highly educated and qualified social worker could not find a job! They decided they would open a Montessori school in Kisumu but first she needed to be certified. They wanted our help with her school fees. On top of all this he tells me he is HIV positive (he got the virus from his first wife) and is very concerned about what would happen to his family if something were to happen to him. It was a compelling argument but after some thought we decided not to help. Then, two days before Christmas, he was laid off. No severance pay, no unemployment compensation, nothing. It was incredibly sad, he came to me on his last day in tears. There may be a job his wife can apply for with CDC but there is really nothing we can do to guarantee it, maybe take up a collection for the family or something. I guess my point is, something I've written about before, that there are some many good people in real need here. On one hand it's good to feel I can have such a direct impact in helping people, on the other hand it can feel heavy on you too.