Humble Hearts and our little girls in Africa

We recently decided that even though we are always a little strapped for money, that poverty is very relative. We are always on the poor side of life because we have 3 houses, take nice vacations, and buy our dog everything he never even knew existed. We are also more or less a one income family. But being that poverty is relative, and many things were influencing us (Oprah of course!) to want to do our small part to help, we started doing research on organizations for child sponsorship. We settled on an organization called Angel Covers which started small by making quilts for children in worldwide orphanages. They now have many programs for sponsorship and support of children throughout the world. We chose to sponsor a child who goes to the Humble Hearts school for the deaf in Nairobi, Kenya. The school not only takes deaf children, but also hearing children from the slums of Nairobi in an effort to educate the community that deafness is not a curse. The photo above is the school. About as basic as you can get, but the important thing is that it is functional.

This is a picture of the little girl we are sponsoring. She has become an official member of our family, complete with photo on the mantle. She is holding a picture of us that we sent in our first letter to her and we loved the big smile on her face. She lives in a slum with her mother and sister, but more on that in a second. She is a hearing child, 7 years old, and despite the murder of her father last year they tell us that she is "ever jovial." We have come to love her.

Her little sister to the right, was also a student at the deaf school. She did not yet have a sponsor, and as much as we wanted to sponsor them both, we had to limit ourselves to one child. I did however, send things to the both girls whenever I prepared a package. I could not bear the thought of one child having gifts and the other having nothing. They have so little already.
We got a message this week that this little girl died over the weekend. We eventually heard that she was crossing some train tracks on her way to the public latrines. She apparently froze when she heard the train coming, and the information seems to indicate that she was hit by the train, and fell into open sewage. By the time she got to the hospital she had bled to death. I could have never dreamed that I would have had so strong a reaction to the death of a child I don't even know. I cried until I looked like I had been boiled. Age 5 is just too young to die. It is hard to even imagine how our little girl and her mother must be suffering with this loss. I find the open sewage part of her death to be especially troubling.

If you are reading this, please remember to be grateful that you have EVERYTHING in life. A computer (if you are reading this), electricity, a roof over your head, access to the best medical care in the world, 3 meals a day, and this list could go on and on. I try to remember daily that my dog has a better life than the child we sponsor (actually, my dog has a better life than almost anyone on earth).

If you have sponsorship on your mind at all, here are some links to Angel Covers. The director, Kari, will answer any and all questions you might have until you can't think of anything else to ask. They are based in Colorado, and those who have attended board meetings report that the board is extremely committed to making sure that your money actually goes to the children. Kari is an MSW type which of course is somewhat near and dear to my old social worker heart.

Links:

www.angelcovers.org Home page

www.angelcovers.org/humblehearts.html Children waiting for sponsors at the school

www.affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/2005/07/kibera_africas.html Article and photos on Kibera, the slum where a lot of the children at Humble Hearts live.

Tartiflette

My friend Mia and her husband Chris were here for dinner this weekend. Mia is an honest to goodness foodie, and to my amusement took pictures of the food! She sent me this nice picture of the tartiflette that I made, and I thought it was post-worthy. I also have a food blog which I put up with the intention of recipe sharing with local friends. Only my friend Donna has participated, so probably with the addition of the tartiflette recipe here, the food blog is doomed for deletion.
I think that tartiflette is best eaten in the winter, and not when you are trying to diet....this has never stopped Bernd and I however, and we ate a lovely tartiflette one summer in Annecy, France, out on the sidewalk when the temperature was in the 90's. Annecy is in the department of France called the Savoy, and this is where the cheese in the tartiflette comes from.

Tartiflette a la Susan

Potatoes ( firm ones)

onion...medium or 2 small, chopped

bacon streifen (at least 2 packages)

cream (schlagsahne)

white wine

A 1/2 round of Reblouchon cheese

For a small tartiflette, cube potatoes into about 1/2 inch cubes, enough to fill up a frying pan. Put some vegetable oil in the pan, add the potatoes, add in the chopped onion, and some bacon. We have bacon already in small pieces here, and this is ideal for tartiflette. If you don't have that pre-chopped up bacon, I would guess you would want to cook it separately and then crumble it in when the potatoes and onions are done. BUT if you live here, throw a couple of packages of bacon streifen in the pan with the potatoes and chopped up onion, and cook this on medium heat until the potatoes are done but not brown. Throw this into a deep casserole dish and add cream until you can see it through the potatoes. You want it to be kind of juicy. Then drizzle white wine over the whole thing. Stir a little but don't destroy the potatoes. Take the rind off of the cheese, and cut it up however you want to cover the potatoes. I usually cut it into quarters and slice through it lengthwise. Bake at 350 F. or 175 C. for about 45 minutes or until molten. Pig out. Get fat.

Note - The tartiflette in the photo had probably at least 10 potatoes, 3 onions, 4 packs of bacon streifen, about 400 grams of sahne, and an entire round of cheese on it. 4 of us almost ate all of it. I will be fasting until June.