We are just back from tea with our neighbours, Sanford and June. What an amazing couple. They were both born and raised in Kakamega and have lived in the states for the last 14 years or so. They shared their story by saying they came from humble beginnings.
June's father is a bishop in Kenya with about 75 churches. She was able to go to the U.S. to study because her parents sold their land so that she could go to school in the states. Once there she worked two jobs to pay her tuition and went to night school. She was in the U.S. for five years before Sanford decided to join her. She had gotten a professional job and was doing quite well for herself. Sanford, who was raised by a single mother, was doing quite well for himself in Kenya. He had a masters in Finance and Project Management. The company he was working for did not want to lose him to the U.S., so they offered to match June's salary if she would stay in Kenya and not take Sanford away to the U.S. June was working on her master's degree and was not willing to sacrifice her education. Strong woman!
Sanford took the risk and moved to the U.S. Because of his black skin and strong Kenyan accent, prospective employers did not take him seriously. So he took jobs working in a gas station and as a cleaner -- you didn't need to have a clear accent to clean toilets. Sometimes the manager of the gas station would have trouble posting accounts at the end of the day and Sanford would help. Ah, who are you? She eventually promoted him to assistant manager, which involved a $2 and hour raise. And he rose from there until he eventually got a professional job where he was doing quite well for himself. As was June. They struggled so hard those first couple of years and now that they are successful, most of their money is sent home to assist in Kenya.
They have to be "quite mean" sometimes and say no to their family. They used to just give money, but now they expect the family members to have some contribution. For example, Sandford will be willing to assist with school fees for a child, but he asks what the parents are willing to sacrifice. "If you are willing to go without sugar in your tea, then you will save approximately 13,000 Ksh per year."
June and her sister want to help a cousin who lives in a shanty home in downtown Kakamega -- just two rooms, living room and kitchen, with a pit toilet outside, for a family with five teenage children. June asked the cousin to come up with a plan of how much it would cost to build a three bedroom home -- one bedroom for the parents, one for the girls and one for the boys (right now all five siblings sleep on the floor in the kitchen). She wants the children to have their own rooms for their dignity and self esteem. They came up with an agreeable plan and June first sent 30,000 Ksh for the timber, then followed with installments as each stage was ready. She went just three days ago to pay the final 10,000 Ksh (about $100) and almost cried when she saw that the new house has only two rooms with a kitchen. Terry asked what had happened with the rest of the money, was it spent because someone was ill. June said that she just used some of the money for luxuries like rice and clothing for the children. 30,000 Ksh is just too much to be tied up in mud walls.
She is now considering a way to expand on this new little house as she feels it is important for the kids to have gender separate bedrooms.
More stories to come... we are on our way to Daisy School to follow up on some school desks we had built through Rotary and donations from friends last time we were here.
I am so grateful for everyone we meet! Still need a secretary to get all of this down!!!
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