Before I even met Juliet, I heard a lot about her and the story about her difficult childhood. I am not going to go into details as I want to respect Juliet's right to privacy. All I can say at this point that every time I think about what she has been through, it gives me shivers. When I heard the bits and pieces of what happened to her, I already decided that I wanted to look after her myself and do all I can to ensure that from now on she is happy and gets the opportunities she deserves, i.e. secondary education.
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| Juliet with her sister, a cousin and a friend |
I am working closely with the person that rescued Juliet and whose organisation has the custody over her. She is not an orphan - she has both parents but she is what we call in Kenya a "vulnerable child". And because she has a family, even if we are trying to protect her, we need to ensure that she doesn't loose contact with her relatives. This is why I offered to take her to Mombasa at Xmas to visit her mother and the rest of the family.
Juliet was very excited about the trip and we were both really looking forward to spending few weeks together and getting to know each other better (although by the time of the trip we were already good friends :)
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| Mombasa - Juliet with Fahima |
As I am not a Kenyan, and I am white, I cannot just take a child on a trip. We travelled accompanied by a letter from the organisation that has the custody for Juliet and the morning after we arrived in Mombasa we went straight to the Children's Office to let them know that we were travelling together and what the purpose of the trip was. The DCO (District Children Officer) was very helpful and even agreed to our trip to the north coast - he gave us another letter to confirm that we were allowed to travel together and that I was Juliet's guardian for the duration of the trip. This came very handy the following day when we went to visit Juliet's mother for the second time and the pastor from her church was trying to threaten me with the court, police, etc... All that just because I was white and they thought they would be able to get some money out of me - but it did not work. The time I spent in Kenya made me even tougher than before and now I am more aware of those just trying to use you or guilt-trip you into helping.
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| Juliet with her cousin and the great-grandfather |
We also went to visit Juliet's great-grandfather and the rest of her mother's family. They were all happy to see her and I was happy that they did not try to get money out of me ;) Again - there has been many issues with that family before but I don't want to write too much about it - again as I don't feel it would be fair on Juliet.
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| Juliet with a double catch on her first try :) |
However, when she was rescued, Juliet agreed to produce a documentary about what happened to her - so this will be ready in a couple of months and then I will be able to share more about what happened. Until then I don't feel it would be right for me to write about it.
Juliet made some new friends in Mombasa and it was really great for me to watch how much more relaxed she became.
After Mombasa we travelled to Lamu (I wanted her to enjoy her holiday as much as possible before starting the secondary school at the end of Jan) and although she was sad at first to leave the friends she got in Mombasa, she had great time and actually didn't want to go back to Mombasa until it was time to head back for Nairobi.
We had great time together, spend many hours talking - a lot about what happened to her (and it is a very complicated story) so now I know the whole situation - and just having fun - walking on the beach, visiting friends, going fishing... We even sailed to Kiwayu (another island 7 hrs away by boat from Lamu), this was Juliet's first ever holiday and I wanted her to really enjoy it.
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| Juliet relaxing in Kiwayu |
Of course, when we arrived in Lamu we also had to report at the Children's Office and present the letter we got in Mombasa. All went well here as well and we were just asked to come in again at the end of our trip so they could give us a letter confirming that we did report to the office so we could show it again in the office in Mombasa.
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| You can never have enough cake! |
Juliet made many friends in Lamu and she soon became known as the "daughter of the muzungu" (daughter of the white person). And we really did become as close as if she were my real daughter. I feel really connected to her and I am convinced that there was a reason why we got to know one another. And this is why I am determined to protect her and to ensure she gets all that she needs.
We were both very sad when it was time to go back to Nairobi. We had to have a stop over in Mombasa again - firstly so Juliet could see her mother again and also so we could visit the Children's Office yet again. Once more all went well and we set off for Nairobi.
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| Sunset in Kiwayu |
While we were at the coast the KCPE exams results (exams at the end of primary school, the results determine which secondary school the child can attend) were announced. It took us quite few days before we finally got Juliet's. It was less than she expected, but given all she had to go through while she was preparing for and sitting those exams I think it is still very good. The headteacher agrees with me. However, the marks she got were not enough to get her into a good secondary school. So 2 days after returning from the coast I was on the road again looking for a good school for Juliet.
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| Juliet reaching for the sky :D |
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