We went to Nairobi today to visit Erick's cousins, Mary and Peter. It took three different matutu's and a "private" bus ride to get to their home. The highlight of the bus ride was listening to Jay Z's classic hip-hop rap smash hit "Big Pimpin".
Peter and Mary have a 10 year old daughter, Immaculate, with Cerebral Palsy. Because of Immaculate they have started a movement to fight the stigma of children with Cerebral Palsy in Kenya. In Kenya it is perceived as a shameful thing to have a child with a deformity or illness like Cerebral Palsy. More often than not, kids are abandoned and left to die. Even if their parents do keep them, the child has very solitary life. They are kept under lock and key and treated as if they were an animal. Peter and Mary have gone against the grain with Immaculate and take her everywhere. Their mission is to educate the public about CP, provide services and medical help to the families, and give the children a chance to live a normal life.
Peter wanted us to learn more about the difficulties of having a child with CP in a third world country. So he took us to visit a family with TWO kids with Cerebral Palsy. They live in the Nairobi slums in a one room apartment on the seventh floor. Can you imagine?!? That means they have to carry their 75lbs children up and down seven flights of stairs everyday. Think of that the next time you take an elevator to the second floor of a building carrying only your laptop.
When we walked in to their apartment the mother, Susan, was holding her 8 year old son, Paul, and hand feeding him. Paul doesn't have control of his esophagus, and therefore spits up more food than he consumes.
The other son, Alex, is 6 years old and is a bit more mobile than Paul. He is able to pull himself up to the window and look out at the neighbors. It probably took Alex 10 minutes to get positioned just right, but he was so happy once he was able to look out that window. He filled the whole room with his joyful laugh.
The entire visit I kept thinking how much they must sacrifice for their kids to be in a loving home. The part that I still can't wrap my head around is that they really don't have anything, so they are sacrificing more than what they have.
Both of these families actions and love for those in need, including their own family, reconfirms my belief that God created us to serve, therefore we must.
Think back over the last week. What have you sacrificed for someone else?
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