Change of school

A lot of things happened and changed since our latest newsletter, which is less than three months ago. One of these changes is that the kids switched to a different school. We did this because the other school could not offer the children what they need. Some children have a big learning gap, which made it difficult for them to keep up with the others in class. Also we did not agree with the obligated extra classes all the children of the school had to attend to. In those extra classes they had to work out an assignment. Most of the time the teacher was not even there. Despite this we did have to pay money for these ‘extra classes’. Eventually we found a school where there are 25 children in one class in stead of 80 till 100. Before this the children had a lot of homework. Sometimes they were still doing homework after bedtime. Now they just have a little bit of work to do at home. Now the children are getting the attention they deserve. For example, James became number 3 in his class! We are so proud of the children that they adapted so well and that they are performing better and better each day.

Butterflypark

We celebrated the start of our holiday with a visit to Butterfly Park. Actually, this was two weeks before the real vacation, but the school could not make up their mind about when the children had to have their holiday. Butterfly Park is rich in forest, has a few animals and breeding rooms for butterfly’s. You can walk and cycle there as well, which is really fun. We rented six bikes and the children switched every time, so that everyone got their turn. This was a wonderful day! The children had so much fun and it seemed that they became a lot more calm. Nature can perform miracles. Meshack and Mombasa learned to ride a bike with the help of the other boy’s! It was so special to see how they boy’s were helping each other.

Runaway/come back and new children

It was a turbulent period for some of the boy’s. To some children the streets are still very attractive. On the streets they can do whatever they want. No rules, nu punishment and no worries. Saïd decided to come back after a ‘holiday’ of three months. He also brought another boy who was bullied a lot by other children on the street. Meshack and Saïd, welcome to our home. It looks like Saïd is going to stay for good this time. He is now more calm and feeling good. Meshack was like a little bird in the beginning. He fluttered around and did not understand a single word of what you were saying. But now he has grown a lot and he is beaming again. He even understands and speaks English now. Three other boy’s ran away. When we were looking for them they told us they did not want to come back. So we placed a different boy in our home. His name is, how original, Saïd (8/9). Welcome to our home Saïd. He recovered from his chickenpox at our home and now he is healthy again and doing well in the group. Saïd speaks little English, but we can communicate with our hands and feet as well. On the sixth of May he had his intake at school and from the seventh of May he is going to school as well. He was really nervous, but eventually he is liking it a lot at school. The three boy’s who ran away all came back. This is their last change. Every child has three changes. Meaning, when they run away for the third time it is sadly enough exit BeHoCa for them. We are hoping they will change and stay. We will try to help these boy’s the best we can! With all these extra boy’s we are over our monthly budget. We now have 13 boy’s. The more the merrier. And we now have more children of the same age. This forms nice groups and they can support each other better and have more fun with each other.

Holiday

Finally the boy’s got their holiday on April eleven. The plans we had were destroyed because of a broken water pump. We did not have running water for two weeks of the three weeks during holiday. Every day the boy’s had to get water in jerrycans so they could still take a shower etc. It did not make the kids any happier, neither for us. The house was dirty and smelly. It brought a lot of extra costs and stress. The first plumber that came was not reliable. Thankfully the second one was. Within two day’s we received a new pump which was installed right and we had running water again. We celebrated this with a few water games! Despite this we made the best out of our holiday. We celebrated Easter and had an Easter lunch. We hid easter eggs and the boy’s had to find them. This was hilarious. There was screaming and laughing everywhere. This was so nice after all the nagging and cranking over the water. We also recorded some kind of Lipdup. The song the we had chosen is from Bob Marley, Three Little Birds. The children did not really understand what the meaning of it all was, but the end result is good. When we are finished with editing the movie you can see it on our Facebook, YouTube canal and our website. We ended our holiday with celebrating Melissa’s birthday at the campfire. Luckily we could end our holiday in a nice way between the downpours (the raining season has finally begun). The kids performed an acrobatic act with music and dance songs. The marshmallows and bread dough tasted really good at the campfire. It was a great evening!

"My Secret" and newsletter boy’s

As mentioned before we posted an article in the magazine ‘My Secret’. It came out on April the 15th number 14/08. It is an amazing story and we would like to thank Elke Wolfering for this. Elke, thank you so much for the beautiful phrasing of everything! The boy’s like to work on the computer. Because of this they also made a newsletter. This newsletter shows their perspective on everything. As soon as it is finished we will mail it to you and of course you can find it on our website then.

Marja speaking:

Meanwhile I am already half way in my intern period. Time is flying, but I am having such a good time. It is great to do this work. Every day is different and the boy’s are so thankful. The group work, activities, going to the beach, there is alway’s something to do. It is not alway’s easy, but in these moments I learn the most. Not only in a professional way, but also personal. A special intern place with a lot of special happenings. Thankfully I can still experience a lot more happenings in these few more months!