A Tale of Two Girls

Here is my attempt at summarizing 14 hours worth of activities into a short blog...

Late in the night on Sunday I got a phone call from the guardian of one of our football girls. Madam Colletta said her girl had told her that one of our girls had run away from home. She said that her parents back in her homeplace had found a school girl wandering near the market and they took her to their home a couple of days ago; and from the description she could possibly be the girl that we are looking for. The girl was trying to leave for Sori on Monday morning so we needed to act quickly.

So Colletta and I agreed that we could go early in the morning to the homeplace to confirm if she was the one that we were missing. Hopefully we could do it quickly and then both get back to our jobs before missing any of our lessons (Colletta is also a primary school teacher). So I headed out of the house by 5:30 a.m., collected Colletta by 6:00 at the Luanda market and then we drove 45 minutes into the bush to reach their homeplace. This place is literally "in the bush." You can't get more rural than that.

We arrived just as the sun was coming up and the girl was still asleep. I had many conflicting thoughts in my head. I was hoping with all of my heart that she would be Sharon, but I was also trying to be realistic that it probably wasn't. We sat in the sitting room of the main house with a group of relatives doing the formal Kenyan introductions as we waited. Finally, she arrived; but it wasn't the right "she." My emotions got the best of me and I couldn't speak at all. I didn't even want to speak because I was annoyed that we hadn't found Sharon. Another dead end

The family members started interrogating this other girl about who she was, where she was from, and what school she was learning at. She had showed up on Saturday and this family had taken her in, given her clothes to wear, food to eat, and a place to sleep. She was a young girl, athletic looking and a very good English speaker. She told many stories about being an orphan and talked about many different places. She said she was learning in Kisumu but was sent away because of school fees, and then she had a sponsor who promised her another school in Luanda (not far from Mbita). When she was brought there she was just kept in the house and when the man's wife came home, he claimed she was his maid. After that she ran away from that home. She said she took all of her things and got on a motorcycle taxi. Her cousin had sent money to the motorbike boy through the phone so that he could take her to Sori, but once he got the money he dumped her on the side of the road and took all of her things. That is when she walked to Nyatoto and Colletta's family had found her. Earlier she had said her name was Pauline Otieno and that she was learning at Nyamasare Girls.

Later we found out this whole story was made up, but as the story went on I finally snapped out of my doldrums and decided that if I wasn't able to find and help Sharon, maybe God had brought me here to help this girl. So I joined into the conversation and began my own investigations. I began trying to find out the number for the principal at the school in Kisumu she was claiming to be from. We wanted to take her back to Nyamasare girls in Luanda to confirm if they knew her, but she was unwilling to go. Everyone tried to convince her, but the more they tried, the more she resisted. Finally I pulled her outside the house and tried to talk to her very nicely. We talked about sports and about school and other things. Finally after about 15 minutes she agreed to go with us. After a couple of photographs with the entire family and receiving a live chicken as a gift (which ended up pooping all over the inside of my vehicle), we headed back out.

When we reached the school we found there was a girl at that school with the name Pauline Otieno. When the teachers called her to come, she identified our new friend with the name of Mary and said she was a cousin of hers. They had learned in the same primary school and sat their National Exams at the same time. She said she was a student at Waondo Secondary. Mary admitted some of those things but denied other parts of it such as insisting she wasn't a student at Waondo. Some of the teachers and other people there began to get harsh with her (and rightly so for all of the lies and stories she had told and even tarnishing the name of their school). They began threatening to take her to the police or the chief because she was insisting she wasn't a student at Waondo and wouldn't give them her admission number.

Again, I was able to take her outside for a few minutes and talk to her alone under the tree. She began opening up and telling me some of the truth. She admitted to being a student at Waondo and said she was suspended from school because of spending a night out with a boy. I asked her if she had a relationship with Jesus and she said she did some time ago, but had backslidden because of some big mistakes in her life. I tried to give her some advice from scriptures and talk about forgiveness. I asked her if we could pray. She agreed to pray first. I couldn't believe what transpired next. This lying, deceitful girl who has been getting into sexual relationships with boys prayed the most amazing, heartfelt prayer I have ever heard. She was honestly confessing her sins, quoting scriptures and just pouring her heart out to God. It was amazing. This was obviously a girl that was having a battle between the spirit inside of her and her fleshly desires.

Finally I reached the headteacher from the school in Kisumu that she claimed was hers. He knew the girl very well and said she was a good girl, very bright in class and good in sports last year. He was interested to know where she was because he had not seen her since the first week of school when she was sent away for school fees. He gave us the number to the guardian in Kisumu. I was able to reach him and find out that after leaving that school she was sent to stay with her grandfather in Waondo. He didn't have the number, but gave us the name. We were able to go through the education office to get the number of the grandfather because he was a retired school teacher.

We then proceeded to the chief's office. They found the motorcyle taxi boy and interrogated him. We stayed for several more hours. The grandfather, who is a retired school teacher, showed up and gave us the suspension letter from Waondo secondary. It turns out she is not an orphan, but she is staying with her grandparents in a very nice house and attending Waondo Secondary. She was suspended for two weeks from school for spending a night out with a boy. When she was suspended she was afraid the grandfather would beat her, so she decided to run away. She was trying to go to a former boyfriend in Sori. If she would have reached there, her life probably would have been spoiled. He would have taken her as his wife and her chances for finishing her education would have been gone.

After finishing with the chief, the girl and the grandfather both requested that I drive them back to their home and see where they live. That wasn't an easy task because of the hard rain they had just received. I had to use the four-wheel drive to get through the muddy road, although a few times it didn't seem like we would be able to get out of the deep ruts, especially with very little control of the steering wheel. When reaching, we narrated the whole story to her grandmother. They prepared some lunch around 3:00 (which was great since I hadn't eaten since 5:00 that morning). Mary showed me her report forms and some of her exams from school. She does so well academically, usually in the top 5 of her class. I also discovered that she is only 14 years old. She will turn 15 next month. Imagine this very young, bright, athletic girl was ready to leave school and get married.

I was able to counsel and advise her on several things. She was very open and honest with me. She promised that she would not run away again, that she would stay in school, and work hard to seek first God's Kingdom and His Righteousness. I promised her that I would come and visit her in school sometime this term and that when she was playing her next football match, I would definitely come and watch her play. After talking with her mother on the phone, we said our goodbyes and headed back to Mbita at around 4:00 pm.

I dropped off Colletta in Luanda and then picked up my friend Paul in Mbita so we could drive out to Rusinga to look for Sharon, since that was my original goal for that day. A shopkeeper had seen her passing through the market on the way to Rusinga Island Saturday. So we drove all around the island looking for her. We stopped several times when we saw people we knew to ask if they had seen her. I had done the same thing yesterday, but had no success either time. We finally reached home around 7:45 pm, victorious and defeated at the same time.

I had set out early this morning to find one girl, but I guess God had a different plan. Funny how he does that sometimes. I am still discouraged and bewildered about Sharon's disappearance, but I am thankful that God used me to help bring another young vulnerable child back to her family, back to school, and most importantly, back to Jesus.

The search for Sharon will continue tomorrow.