Survivors

On Thursday we crisscrossed tea plantations and coffee farms to reach Thika, an old town north of Nairobi, Kenya. Some might remember The Flame Trees of Thika, one of my favorite books of childhood and later a TV series. Today colonial remnants are hard to spot (as are flame trees) but Thika is an industrial and agricultural center—in fact, Del Monte has a pineapple processing plant there and roadside stands were stacked high with them.

But we were in Thika to visit Joytown Special Primary School for the Disabled.

There 340 kids live and go to school under supervision of five therapists (5!!) and about a dozen teachers and dorm mothers. These are some hard working heroes, as many of the children are severely handicapped and in this culture often neglected or cast out by their families.

 Francisca helps to run the school and told us her story. She was born with spina bifida and her grandmother several times tried to kill her...with rat poison. Her father described her as "useless" and her extended family thought she might possess an evil spirit. "No one understood me," she said. "I had problems with my bladder, and my legs would not bend. I was always alone and always wet. I had no peace—at home or at school." Ultimately her mother ran away with her and took her to a Catholic priest, which turned out to bring only temporary respite. But when an uncle became a Christian, he helped get her to Kijabe Hospital, the Africa Inland Mission outreach that specializes in treating childrens' disabilities. She was 19.
There doctors amputated her right leg from the knee down and treated pressure sores that can be fatal in spina bifida victims. And they taught her to catheterize herself, which proved life-changing for her. She was no longer an outcast who always smelled bad. They also shared the gospel: "My life completely changed."

Francisca went on to work at Kijabe Hospital for 10 years before she began mentoring children at Joytown. Many of them suffer from spina bifida, cerebral palsy, or other birth defects, and Francisca understands how isolated they feel. Now she is married. And she is expecting a baby. Doctors at Kijabe have treated thousands of spina bifida cases, but one told me today they've never known a survivor who went on to have children.

 Francisca here is comparing her cane with a student's.