Mother Teresa's

"Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work." -Mother Teresa

The sisters at Mother Teresa's home live these words out every hour of every day. 

Mother Teresa's is a home and safe haven for disabled women. The age-range of the women who live there is rather vast. I would say the youngest could be around 10 and the oldest around 40-50. I am not exactly sure. The majority of the girls that live there have physical disabilities, often combined with mental challenges and some have multiple handicaps. I know for a fact that most of the girls have Cerebral Palsy. I also know that a few have autism, Down syndrome, are blind, and/or deaf. 

When you first walk into the home, you are greeted with warm handshakes and smiles from the sisters. Then you put away your belongings and put on a green apron. The red ones are for sisters only. Work time. First, you tidy up the bedrooms while the girls get their teeth brushed. Many against their will. I get the impression they do this routine every single morning. In order to clean the bedrooms, you move around all the crib-like beds so that the sisters can dump buckets of disinfectant-diluted water on the floors which you will mop around with bundles of sticks. These bundles work better than any other mop or broom I have ever used and I am sure they are much cheaper as well. Then the sisters soak up the water with giant rags as they repeat The Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary's, and other Catholic prayers in a beautiful and quiet chant-like way. As they are soaking up the water and wringing it into buckets, you make the beds with colorful uniform sheets. Then push the beds back, let down the curtains and to top it off, spray each bed with the sent of a lavender air freshener. 

Then you will do another task like hanging up freshly cleaned laundry or chopping up massive amounts of green beans for dinner. One thing I love about this is that along with the sisters and other possible volunteers, a few of the girls who are not as physically disabled help out. I love that these girls are expected to help out around at the home, doing chores, and how happy they get when you tell them they are good workers. They really are. One girl named Sara can whip up a freshly made bed in half the time that I can and twice as well done. Plus, it seems to me that she would rather continue with her work than strike up a conversation with me. She is quite dedicated...or maybe I'm just weird. :) 

Lunchtime! This is by far the best part of the day, and sadly the last thing before you are politely asked to leave at noon. Noon is when "everyone awake is either in school or at prayer." Volunteers are welcomed to come back at 3:30 after prayers are done, but the bus schedule doesn't allow us to go back in the afternoon. Now, back to the food. The sisters make quite a good lunch for these girls. They get a heaping plate of mixed veggies, some ugali, and a few hunks of fried fish. For desert they get hot chocolate. Many of the girls are able to feed themselves or help feed their friends, but a majority must be fed by volunteers or the sisters. The first time I went, the girl I was feeding preferred sleeping. She was just not having it. In order to get her to take her food, i would have to tap her face to wake her up, quick squeeze her mouth open and shovel some food in. We weren't the best of friends that day, but the next time I was there she was quite chipper and took her food like a champ. I also was able to feed Lucy. Lucy is a gem. She has CP and is blind. She is verbal but does not say much and repeats herself a lot. Also, she mostly speaks Swahili  She called me Mom and Dada a lot which was kind of hard to handle, but I enjoyed the little conversation we had. She LOVES hot chocolate. She would open her mouth and say "AHHH" then take her drink and say "MMMM." It was too funny and she knew it too. I would giggle at her and she would crack up right back at me. 

There is also a girl named Immaculate. She is a hoot. She has quite the chomper on her. She likes to play this silly game with the volunteers. She will hit the seat next to her and make you sit down, then she will go to bite your arm or push you away. What a joker! She thinks it is too funny. Don't tell her, but it actually is. I'm not sure if she likes me or not, but I really like her, so hopefully the feeling is mutual.

There is another girl who loves the radio and sings and dances along to the beat. It warms my heart to see her love for music. Pauline has the most beautiful smile I have ever seen and whenever I tell her she gets so shy and rolls away in her chair blushing. A girl named Lucy speaks fluent English so her and I had a pretty lengthy conversation about America, Obama, and being Mzungu. She told me that she wants me to stay in Kenya forever. I told her not to give me any ideas. I also told her that when I first got to Kenya that my hair was darker but that mzungu hair changes color from the sun. I did not think anyone else in the room was listening but everyone surrounding us busted out in shrill squeals of joy and laughter at the fact that my hair changes color. It's really the little things like that that make my day at Mother Teresa's. 

This is Ann. She got up out of her chair, leaned on my waist & walked me around to her favorite spot outside to sit. 

This girl's smile is contagious. She loves to shake my hand and greet me, as do many of the other girls. 

On the car ride home last Friday, I asked my friend Aubrie what she thought about everything we saw and experienced while at the home. She told me many things but one thing that really struck me was that she said that being at Mother Teresa's really reminded her of our dependency on God. In the same way that these girls depend on the sister's for every thing they need, that is how we are with God. Everything we have comes from him. We rely on him for everything. He cares for us, loves us, supports us. He is our rock. The sister's at Mother Teresa's are the hands and feet of Jesus to these girls. 

Mother Teresa's is truly an amazing place. The sisters are some of the most dedicated and loving women I have ever met and the girls are so well taken care of. I wish I could spend a whole week at the home getting to know everyone but as of now I will continue my weekly visits. This place gives me such joy, inspiration, and hope after every visit. I can not say enough how wonderful it is. May God bless them and their amazing ministry.