Kelvin comes home every night with a new story about the boys. After each practice, he usually has a conversation with one or two of them concerning things other than soccer. Sometimes he learns things that are absolutely heartbreaking and sometimes he hears stories that are heartwarming. I love when he comes home, we sit down to eat dinner, and he shares the stories with me.
A couple days ago he came home with a heavy heart. He had finally got the chance to sit and talk with certain young man on the team. Upon finding out who the boy's father was, Kelvin's heart broke. The father is a well known junkie in the community. His mother sells viazi (fried potatoes) and uji (a millet porridge) on the streets to support the family. Amazingly, the boy is incredibly healthy and even finished high school this year. Big up to the mama's in this community! But this is the story of so many youth in the communities who have fathers who are...duds. Complete duds. That's why Kelvin has such a heart to raise young men who will love their wives and children.
Then he told me of another story of one of our boys who was struggling to pay his rent yet neglecting to tell us. He had been running up and about trying to find work but just couldn't make ends meat. He hadn't paid rent in over two months and had a debt of $45. His landlord went and locked his door with all his stuff inside (hence why he wasn't practicing for weeks - all his gear was inside). So Kelvin sent someone to go pay the rent. Sometimes they just need a small break in life to get them going again.
However, the next night Kelvin came home with the sweetest news.
In August, we sponsored one of the boys to attend an agricultural school on the other side of the country. The boy lived with his mom who is a widow. She works hard to provide a life for her and her 3 boys. Right now, all of her sons are out of the house doing well for themselves. Since she had some extra space in her house and few extra pennies in her pocket, she decided to take in two of our boys. One of them we sponsored to go to art school so she just provides him a place to sleep and some food for his belly. But then she took another one in and put him into school! Yes, she took what little she had, took in some young man, and gave him a chance to do well for himself. Not only that, she put him in a Christian school where he does bible study every night! I am always amazed at the generosity of the people who have nothing. I love the 'Let's take care of each other' attitude so many people have in the community. We took care of her son and she took care of a couple of our 'sons'. Such good teamwork.
I am anxious to see what story Kelvin will come home with tonight.
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