Back Packs

I really should back up once again. Have I even ever told you anything about the volunteer organization my daughter and I worked through while we were in Kenya?

MarafikiCommunity was established around the time Val was there in 2010. Izzo, who runs the organization, initially started the group to help the people displaced by violence following the 2007 presidential election (more on that another day). From those simple beginnings, Izzo’s group has spread out in several directions, sending volunteers to schools, orphanages, hospitals and clinics as well as the IDP camps.

A few days after we visited Maggie, Oliver and the children at Agape Hope Center, Val and I were given a daunting task. Izzo asked us to get together backpacks to give to the children at Agape.

The storeroom next to Izzo’s house was filled with donated supplies and it was time to start giving them out. Val and I spent nearly two full days going through the storeroom and finding enough backpacks and pens, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, rulers, and notebooks to fill those backpacks. Without nearly enough room to work and no good way to get out of the sun, we muddled through and got the job done.

And then we had the immeasurable joy of giving out those backpacks.