Hekima Place is not just a home for girls, it is also a working farm, complete with animals, both adult and their offspring. We have two registered Herford milk cows, Lulu and Hilda named for the donors’ mothers at the donors’ request (the mothers are safely in heaven and don’t know there are two big old milk cows named for them here in Kenya). Between them, they have two babies born in the past 5 months. Sunrise is a heifer, born at dawn. Nicodemus is a boy calf, born at night. Nicodemus will be sold to a relative of one of the Hekima Place employees, destined not to be steak, but to sire future generations. Sunrise will stay on here to be a third milk producer for the girls.
Billy Goat and Judy Goat also had a baby. Nobody at Hekima Place drinks goat milk or makes goat cheese, so Billy and Judy’s only function is to produce more little Billys and Judys for the girls’ Sunday dinners. Judy bore a female kid (VERY CUTE!), born a week after I arrived here. This girl kid will not end up on the dinner table but will be going to live elsewhere. A neighbor wants her for her herd of milking goats (don’t know about the cheese) and will trade us a boy kid for her that ultimately will end up being a Sunday dinner (nyama choma!).
Kate has tentative future plans to get some chickens, but for now our eggs and chickens come from the market in Kiserian. The hope is that ultimately Hekima Place will be completely self-sustaining with regards to vegetables, milk and meat. There’s a start on a fruit orchard, too.
One of the resident mums, Mum Lucy, is leaving us. She had begun a masters degree program before she took the job here and thought she could do both and still finish her degree. However, it is not working out for her – the two days off per week is not proving to be enough time for her to finish her thesis. Mum Lucy is a very sweet gentle soul, and I, for one, will really miss her. In addition to being a resident mum, Lucy also performs the duties of social worker. Kenyan law requires that orphanages like Hekima Place employ a social worker/counselor for the girls. So we need to hire a resident mum who, in addition to being a loving mum to the girls is also qualified to serve as the social worker.
Kate had quite a few resumes already from people who have come to Hekima Place looking for jobs over the past two years. I reviewed all the ones in the file and between Kate and me we selected four to interview. Kate interviewed one woman on Saturday and both of us interviewed the other three on Monday. Kate really liked the one she met with on Saturday, but she is 60 years old and we want someone who will stay with the girls for several years (the retirement age in Kenya is 55). Two other women were good, but one seemed perfect, even having the social work training and considerable experience counseling children in the Kibera slum of Nairobi. Kate offered her the job via email on Tuesday and we’re waiting to hear back. Please pray for us that we get someone wonderful.
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