Allan age 6

Allan's single mom died when he was 18 months old. His siblings love him so much but living in a child headed house hold, they could not adequately take care of him. They were in school and had no regular source of income. To date none of the siblings have a regular job only casual work that does not gurantee enough money to include Allan's needs. Allan, together with Edna, are the pioneer children of Toto having joind the home in December 2005. 

Allan turned 7 years old in September and will join class one in January 2010. 

He inspires Ruth a lot with his tiny body but strong will to live!

Rhoda age 16

Rhoda is a very polite and respectful teenager.  She is in class 8, though she should be in Form 3 (grade 11).  She came to Toto love in 2007 when she was 14.  Rhoda was only 18 months old when her mother died.  She was raised by her grandmother who she thought was her mother.  She learned the truth in 2006 and after several hospital admissions she tested positive to HIV.  This news has devasted her.

Edna age 14

Edna is one of the original orphans of Toto Love. Edna was living with her HIV positive father who repeated raped her.  Her pleas for help were ignored by neighbours for about a year.  She was finally rescued.  When the judge asked her father why he raped her, he said that he knew he was dying and didn't want to leave his daughter behind as an orphan.  Basically he was trying to infect her so she would die too.

Edna is a quiet and gentle teenager who seems to love fashion!  She is very polite and respectful.  She speaks a fair amount of english.  She also has a wonderful appetite! 

Dereck age 12

Dereck is an incredibly bright young man.  He speaks 3 languages fluently, including English.  He is very outgoing and not shy.  He is also HIV positive.  Dereck loves soccer too.  He is in class 5 at St. Michael's.  When asked what he wanted to be when he grows up he answered "an airhostess" (flight attendant)!

Bancy age 13

Bancy grew up not being able to walk due to a leg deformity.  She would crawl out to the streets to beg for food to feed her sick mom, with Aids, and herself.  Unfortunately Bancy watched her mother die right in front of her, while feeding her.

She was sent to live with her aunts who were making illegal brew.  Bancy's aunts had found her a wheelchair and they would place her right at the front door to slow down any possible police raids.  They often "rented" out the wheelchair for money to town folk, leaving Bansy to crawl around.

Finally Bancy was rescued and brought to Toto Love in September of 2007.  She received surgery to correct her deformity and can now walk.  To see her you would never know that she just learned to walk a few years ago.

Bancy is illiterate, however is attending school in Embu.  She is currently in class 3.  She doesn't speak English yet....but I am sure she will learn quickly.  She does speak Swahili and Kiembu the local language.  

She is loving and caring considering her upbringing.  She loves to hold hands and play with and style people's hair.

Thursday, October 29th, 2009: London bound

Got up at 7:30am. Once again this hotel in Nairobi is noisy!!! Disco/music goes on forever, even on a weeknight. Then around 5 am, someone started to chant/pray over what I think was a loud speaker? Yikes. Even my earplugs didn't help.

Had a luke warm shower, but it allowed me to wash my hair atleast without giving myself a brain freeze. Got packed up..."Go day" today... Had our hot breakfast which is included in the $27/cdn per room! I guess for the price I shouldn't complain.

Paul picked us up at 10am so we could get to the airport in time. Said our goodbyes to Paul. He was a great driver and took good care of us. Something really important when travelling in Kenya. I would hire him again. He is also very knowledgeable of Kenya and safaris. The funniest thing though is he thought I was quiet. He kept asking if I was always this quiet.... oh my husband would totally disagree. But both Hillie and Denise are very animated (which is great) and know him better so they were very talkative. So I kind of took a back seat in the talking department...I know a shock for my friends.... this time atleast!

Virgin Atlantic is now oversold and we are on standby except for Hillie. Plan A was if only 1 could get on it would be me. Two reasons: 1 the hotel reservation was in my name in London, and 2 Denise knows Kenya better and more people in Kenya. She could get Paul to come back and get her. Plan B was if neither got on, Hillie would have to stay in London until we got there! We were hoping to use BA but we had not purchased backup tickets on them (ZED fares). Sitting and waiting till noon was painful. The ground manager spoke with us, so nice and so concerned. We assured him after 21 years of flying standby we knew the drill and we were prepared for the worst.

Well at noon he called us over and we got the last seats on the aircraft! Yay! We were all split up but I didn't care. Denise got Economy plus, I got an aisle. Just happy to be on!

Crew again were so nice and they were so happy to hear our stories. Andrew was one of them and he is originally from Toronto! He gave us special parting gifts!!! So nice.

Food was good again... chicken schnitzel. Talked at the back galley with the crew again and they poured us some camping drinks.

Only bad news: We are having some problems with Ndwiga who is to deliver the donated mattresses. He wants us to pay for the gas to get them from Nairobi to Embu. We want him to donate the gas as his brother is the pastor that is associated with Toto Love and we found out about Toto Love thru Ndwiga. Gas money takes away from the money to build them a new orphanage too. We shall see, we didn't send anything.

Didn't really sleep on the flight. But watched a few movies instead. 9 hour flight to London, we landed around 7pm. Headed to hotel, bit of confusion getting there as we took a free bus, but went to the wrong Sheraton and ended up taking a taxi to the correct one ($30 later) would have been cheaper and easier to take a taxi or hopper bus from the airport! Next time.

Good to have a hotel with hot water, blowdryer, electricity!!! Hotel is about $110/night for airline employees. Though Ryan from Virgin knows a cheaper hotel for next time. Hotel guests also get 45 mins of free internet. Had a bath and when Hillie got back to the room, after booking her Edmonton-Grande Prairie ticket, we decided we were hungry and went to the bar for a chicken burger and chips! Went back onto the internet to email Doug and friends.

Crawled into bed after midnight~

Friday October 30th, 2009: Homeward bound

Said my goodbyes to Denise and Hillie as they were heading to Edmonton.  I left hotel about an hour later as my flight was after theirs.  Was able to checkin at hotel to save time.

Once again the most boring airport....no where comfortable to sit...tried to shop but nothing I needed...tried internet for about 20mins...had a bit to eat....ugh hate this airport LOL

Gates don't open until 1 hour before dept so then you feel like you are running to the gate!

Once again had a whole row to myself on the flight and knew the crew.  Able to tell them about my adventures!  Can't wait to see my family and to blog my experiences...oh and to download my pictures.

Landed in Calgary, and customs was so backed up...yikes, so many flights.  Met a nice guy in the line up who was on my flight...he was trying to connect to Medicine Hat.  We took different lineups though at end, and my lineup was going faster so I told him to change places with me!  He wasn't going to but I insisted....other's heard my offering and my lineup let him go to the front of the line so he could make his flight hopefully.  I didn't mind waiting another 10 mins, even though Doug was on the other side of the door!  

Tired but happy to be home...great experience and want to find out more about the children of Toto Love and to return!