Consulata

Yesterday I met Consulata and her sister Cecelia, both Tutu refugees from Rwanda who have lived here for about 10 years. They are beautiful, intelligent women. Cecelia had asked the missionary wife that she works for if someone could talk to her sister as she has been extremely depressed and threatening suicide. By the way Cecelia is 29 is a widow (husband died of esophageal cancer which is endemic here) and has 6 children. Now my social work skills are a little out of date, but I agreed to listen to her which as we know from Stephen ministry is one of the most important things we can do. Her English was beautiful and so it was easy to communicate. Her parents allowed her to have a "Christian" marriage with a Kenyan after he promised that she could go to "college" since she had finished secondary school and had a strong desire to be educated. Her parents returned to Rwanda and were murdered. In the last ten years she has had 4 children with her husband and he has helped many of his relatives to go on to further education. However, he has not keep his promise to her and this is probably because the mother in law promotes others in the family.(mother in law problems are universal:) ) She finally could not stand the situation and left her mother in law (the husband works in Nairobi) and moved in with her sister. The husband has not contacted her in the month she has been gone. This is the cause of her despair....she is trapped. Now where do you start with a problem like this?

She is looking for work but it is very difficult to find here. She has checked into colleges and found that the tuition for the program she would like to take is 5000 shillings or about $220.00 a year for tuition, room and board ,food, and child care!!! By the way, she wants to be a pre school teacher and perhaps run an orphanage. Imagine how many lives she could effect. Imagine how her life could be changed for $220.00!

We have not contacted her yet, but we think we have found an anonymous way to pay her way to "college". We will work through a permanent missionary here and have the missionary pay the tuition. So stay tuned and I will let you know the outcome in the next few days. We can't solve most of the problems here, but I felt that this young woman had been placed in my life for a reason. I am grateful for her!!!!!
xoxo
mom and dad
micki and marv

ps. Presbyterian Women Circle Friends....They LOVE the pens. Thanks alot!