A Celebration of Life

Today, we went to the Nyumbani Children’s Home for mass. Instead of gathering in a church or cathedral, we gathered in a schoolhouse.

Instead of sitting in pews, we sat in rows of plastic chairs. And instead of listening to an organ or a piano, we listened to the voices of 100 children singing their praises to God. It was one of the most joyous melodies I’ve ever heard.


As the singing started, about 10 children filed in to the center of the room and began dancing.


A Bible verse was read and then Father Rodrigues began reading the story of Moses. Once he was finished, Protus Lumiti, the center’s administrative manager, asked the children what they learned from the sermon. The children shouted out “trust and obey God”, “be patient”, “depend on God”, “don’t be afraid” and “for God, everything is possible”.

Then Father Rodrigues, Protus and Sister Mary, Nyumbani’s executive director, announced that today’s mass was dedicated to Mia, who was a volunteer at Nyumbani in 2002 for three months. Towards the end of her volunteering, Mia, who was from Baltimore, went on a safari in Masai Mara National Park for a few days. Once she returned to Nyumbani Children’s Home, she began to have symptoms of malaria, which she had contracted in Masai Mara.

She went to the nearby pharmacy to pick up some medicine for malaria. In Kenya, a person does not have to have a prescription to get any type of medicine. All anyone has to do is tell the pharmacist his or her symptoms and the pharmacist will then give them medicine. Mia returned to Nyumbani and took the medicine for malaria that was given to her. A few hours later, she knew something was not right. She told a fellow volunteer that she did not feel well and needed to be taken to the hospital. Her friend drove her to the hospital, but it was too late. Mia had already gone into cardiac arrest and died at the hospital.

Mia had been taking a daily preventive malaria medicine, such as Malarone, like every Westerner who visits Africa. And what happened was the preventive malaria medicine counteracted with the medicine she received from the pharmacist to treat the malaria. The pharmacist didn’t know all of the ingredients for the two different medicines and didn’t know they would counteract.

Mia’s family waited for her body to be sent to the U.S. and did not come to Kenya in 2002. They wanted to visit Nyumbani for years but weren’t sure if they would be able to emotionally handle it. But today, five years after Mia died, her family finally made it to Nyumbani.

Two teenage girls who were close to Mia when she was at Nyumbani sang a song for Mia’s family. As they sang the lyrics, “She’s in her place where there is no ending. There’s happiness with her without pretending”, tears rolled down the faces of the family, the children and the Nyumbani staff.

After the song, everyone followed the family in silence out to the cemetery behind the schoolhouse.

There are about ten graves in this small cemetery from the first children that died at Nyumbani. Eventually, the Kenyan government would not allow Nyumbani to bury the children on their own property anymore. Instead, the children began being buried at a nearby cemetery. But when Mia died, Nyumbani planted a tree in her honor. And today, they rededicated the tree to her.

It was one of the most powerful sights I’ve ever seen. It was a struggle for me to fight back my own tears. As the family gathered in front of the tree, the 100 Nyumbani children circled around them as they all remembered Mia.

You could tell that losing someone is something all to common for the children at Nyumbani.

Protus explained that at Nyumbani life is celebrated no matter if someone has past on because it was a life and that life is to be celebrated. He said Mia’s life might have been a short life but it was a powerful one.

Mia’s mother thanked all of the Nyumbani children for giving Mia the greatest life a mother could ever hope for.

She told the children that Mia was the happiest she had ever been when she was at Nyumbani, and now Mia’s family was so grateful to be able to witness first-hand the special place where she spent her last days on Earth.

Celebrating life is truly the feeling you get when you walk into the gates of Nyumbani. The staff members have this particular focus because there’s always the chance that a child could die from complications of AIDS so while they’re alive, they want their life to be celebrated. And even if they die, they still want to celebrate the life that they had. And as an outsider just visiting Nyumbani, I feel like celebrating life whenever I walk into Nyumbani. The children are just absolutely amazing and fill you up with so much joy that there’s nothing else you really want to do but just celebrate the opportunity you’ve gotten to meet these kids.

There's no better feeling than to be walking down Nyumbani's driveway and have Adelle (pictured above) run out to meet me yelling "Jennifer, Jennifer" and jump in my arms.

And while all of the children are incredible, I have fallen absolutely in love with one little three year-old girl named Winnie.

She’s so cute and willing to give anyone a piece of her heart.

If someone is looking to adopt, PLEASE think about Winnie.

She needs a home and more importantly a family.