Day Four: Invisible Children
Walter is 12 and Charles is 10. They are all alone and they are invisible.
"Nobody from the community comes to visit us here. They just look at us from the outside," Walter said, looking out from the door of the house he shares with his younger brother.
They never got to know their father. Their mother died in 2002 and, this April, their grandmother also died.
"We dig the earth, plant seeds, and go to school. No one is telling us to go to school. We go there because we need more knowledge. I want to be a doctor - that's why I go to school," said Walter.
"Doctors help people and I want to help people," he continued.
I asked him if he knew any doctors.
"I heard of doctor Chula, but he died three years ago. People were always talking good about him," he said.
I wondered if during the time his two closest relatives were dying, they received any medical treatment. There is a cost recovery system at the public hospitals, so people in Kenya who are sick and poor often go without care, believing it to be out of reach.
The boys told me that when they get sick, they wait to get better because they cannot afford to go to the hospital.
The brothers live in a two room mud and stick house on their grandmother's 200 by 200 meter plot. Scattered around the land are signs of industry and initiative. There are rows of maize, smaller plots for green vegetables and, next to the house, Charles has made a small nursery for tree seedlings.
"This is my experiment," he told me.
At school, Walter is second of 49 in his class. Charles, the younger brother, is fifth out of thirty. In the face of an incredible tragedy, these kids have an incredible determination; and they have each other.
Charles said, "My older brother is always giving me advice. He tells me 'We should love each other and not destroy the things we have.'"
Walter added, "We still have a few problems. Sometimes there is not enough food, so we go to sleep being hungry; The other problem is clothes. We don’t have any clothes to wear to go to church, nor shoes. And sometimes we can't afford the school fees for our exams.
"When we will have dealt with all of these problems, and if we are able to succeed, I hope the community will see that we are people too."