What's my Story?
I'm Malvin, the May Child of the Month
My mom’s new husband didn’t want us to be part of their new family. My siblings and I were born before he met my mom and when they married, he didn’t want us around. My mom took us to our grandfather’s home so he could watch out for us, but he wasn’t always able to feed us.
Thankfully, my mom met Pastor Francis and he invited us to Shangilia. Now I have all I need and can go to school! I sing a lot these days and people tell me I have a kind heart because I love looking after the little ones at Shangilia.
* Note: This text is not directly from Malvin, but is a first-person description of his story of how he came to be at Shangilia.
C’mon, I want to show you what a normal day is like for me and the other children at Shangilia!
What's a normal school day like?
Early Morning Routine: We all wear uniforms for school every day, so I always know what I'm wearing during the week. If I don't wear my uniform, I can't go to school. We go to school six days a week, Monday through Saturday. On school mornings we wake up around 5:30am so that before breakfast and school we can do our chores of sweeping the dorms and picking up trash. Before the new well was built this year, we used to have to get water from a river, so now we have more time to study instead of gathering water! Usually we eat tea and bread for breakfast.
School and Lunch: I meet my friends at school in the morning. All day we work hard studying, and at lunch we get a break to walk the 15 minutes home to eat and play a little soccer. Usually we eat Githeri... You'll learn more about that later.
Dinner and Devotion: After a full school day, we all get together for dinner and devotion. Dinner is usually ugali and a protein. During devotion time we split up into two groups: the younger kids and the teenagers. We sing and take turns reading the Bible out loud, and praying. In the older kids group, we talk about what we learned from the Bible passage.
Homework and Bed: Before bed we work on homework and read. Lights are usually out by 10:30.
Hopefully this gives you a picture of life each day for the children of Shangilia. As Love For Kenya gets more child sponsors, the children will see improvements in several areas of their life. Currently, they don’t have a lot of variety in their diet as they eat the same foods which have limited nutritional value day after day. Supporting the children's' daily activity is a staff that loves them and provides cooking, structure, and teaching. Sadly they don’t always get paid. Also, without proper clothing, shoes, and uniforms the children are in danger of being unable to attend school each day. They also need to pay school fees and have enough supplies to do their homework each night!
Expand Your Kenyan Knowledge: Githeri, it's what's for lunch!
Githeri, also called muthere or mutheri, is a Kenyan traditional meal of maize and any type of beans mixed and boiled together. It can also be made into a stew with the addition of vegetables, meat, and potatoes. There are a number of health benefits that range from it being a high fiber dish containing no sugar to the fact that it’s prepared from locally available ingredients making it affordable to many.