Cross-Culture Ministry in Kenya, Part Eleven

I would like to introduce you to five orphans I met in Kenya. The descriptions are written by Rev. Erick Peter Omondi. He is the newly ordained pastor of Othoro Parish. The orphans live in his parish. He interviewed the orphans and the guardians in their homes and sent this report to me.

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DIANA AKINYI

Tender, cool and cheerful, brown Diana was born in 1987, if she remembers well. However, she agonizes the fact that her life has been exposed to too many hostilities because of being parentless. Despite the odds, she believes that with support, she wants to be in a college just some day!

She can not remember when her dad Mathayo Onyango died but with tears rolling down her cheeks, she recalls vividly when her Mother, Teresa Achieng, died. "It was in 1999," she asserts. "I feel like being a nurse at the end of everything," Diana says. "My grandma has inspired me to work exceptionally hard. I am thankful to my uncle who has been providing my grandma with what we can survive on for food although many time with difficulty."

Diana Akinyi is actively involved in Church activities. She is not only a member of the church youth group but also a devout member of Lwanda Lutheran Youth Choir. Her class performance has been thrilling. For instance she was ranked seventh in the last term's examinations of grade seven of 30 students. Diana is in fact promising girl.

MILKA ANYANGO

Milka was born in 1989. Her father James Ogega died in 1998 while her mother Agnes Awuor demised in 2001. Milka is an active girl in grade five.

Besides living with grandma, she still heavily relies on her jobless and desperate brother because grandma cannot provide adequately for most basic needs. She has to forgo school sometime in order to do menial jobs so as to get money for buying books and the other school levies put on students.

Despite these challenges she was number six out of 30 in the last terms examinations.

Her interest is to become a high school teacher after college. Milka hardly sleeps properly during rainy season because her grandma's grass-thatched roof is ragged and is leaking terribly. Despite the odds, she is satisfied that her grandma has done more than she should do and laments that due to hard work, the old woman has of late deteriorated in health which has made her abnormally old.

"Going hungry is an impediment to my success in school and social interaction." Milka laments.

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