Spirit of St. Francis

Happy Feast of St. Francis! In the spirit of the poor, here is a taste of what I see, and some begging...

I am continuously blown away by the way the people in the slum live, it is absolutely shocking to imagine living this way. The average house that I go into is a 10ft by 10 ft room. There is usually 1 twin bed with a sheet hanging to separate it from the rest of the room where a small charcoal stove burns, 2 wooden chairs and a table sit. In the corner of the room are pots and buckets piled up for washing clothes. There is barely enough space for the mom, student and 2 of us interviewing the family to sit. With that little space, the average family living in one of these houses is 8 people. 8 people sharing a 10 by 10- shocking. The children never have a bed to sleep on, let alone sheets or a blanket to use. I usually leave the house wondering WHERE does everyone sleep, there cannot possibly be enough space for 8 people to sleep. It’s still a mystery. I am sure at least 3-4 people share the twin bed though. The house is made of tin sheets ( or mud) with a tin roof and dirt floors. All the tin makes the house incredibly hot when the sun is out, and it also blocks all the light making it very dark. There is no electricity, so a candle can be found on the table for at night (imagine doing homework by candle night each day…) There is no running water so the mother has go buy 10 liters for about a nickel each day (but it is probably not clean and shouldn’t even be consumed). The average cost of rent for the family is $12-15 USD a month, but the average daily wage of the mother or father is 50cent- $1 so paying rent is a struggle, on top of having enough food to feed 8 people. Most families will eat 1, maybe 2 meals a day consisting of ground and boiled corn meal called Ugali. Luckily, the school has just implemented a feeding program that will feed every student 1 meal a day, including Saturday and Sunday and all Holiday’s so the children are guaranteed a meal now. These are the people you hear about living on $1 a day, and it still baffles me as to how they do it and survive. Family is very important and they all help their families whenever they have extra food, money or space for living.

With that being said I am super excited for my family to come over and visit in a month! Bridget comes in from Luxembourg and Mom and Dad from the states on October 30th. We will have a week together, and I am planning all the things and places I want them see-- including the slums to get a better picture of it. Since they are coming over I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to bring donations for the children and students here. I know in my house we have tons items that we need to get rid of and donate so I am requesting that they pack a 50lb suitcase full of donations for the school and orphanage. If you are in the Hudson or Pittsburgh area and would like to donate any items I would be very grateful, and the kids would be too. You can drop them off at our house or give them to my parents sometime before they leave, the earlier the better.
Some of the items we need are the following-- (anything is helpful that you have!)

- School Supplies (there are 1000 students at school, supplies go quickly)- pens, pencils, erasers, staples, calculator, math tools: protractors, ruler, compos etc. notebooks, folders, file folders

- Clothes of any kind- boys and girls, ages 2 though 20 yrs. (funny story: i saw a girl at school wearing a Harry Potter Festival shirt, and it was from Peninsula, Oh-- the town next to Hudson, pretty crazy!)

- White cotton socks girls can wear with school uniform (tall socks, not ankle)

- Underwear/socks for all kids

- Black shoes for school- girls and boys

- Sheets, to give to families in hope the children will use them to sleep when they dont have mattress/blankets

Asante Sana (Thank you so much!)