Please take a moment and watch this NTV…

After I saw it, I emailed the NTV leaders and the reporter and requested more information and contacts for that young man. This is what I received…
 

“Dear Sir,

I am writing to give you details of the student who sells maize to raise money
for school.

Charles Wafula is a twenty one year old man from Bungoma. He has two brothers and two sisters. The eldest sister dropped out of school to enable him to continue with education. His follower finished high school last year and got a mean grade of A minus and still does not know of his fate since he is unable to raise money to continue with his education. The fourth born, a boy is in form two while the youngest who is a girl is in class 6.
 

He moved to Nairobi in 2008 to make some money and was fortunate to be employed as a construction worker. He worked for one month and there was no more work. He was paid Ksh.1300 ($17) but had to send home Ksh. 1100 ($14.67), for his mother to get medical attention.

He has been selling maize for a business woman who thought she could help him. Victoria Wavinya pays Charles Ksh.150 ($2) on a good days sale of up to maize worth Ksh.1800 ($24). Besides that he has been living with various people but the friends have families and live in one roomed house he has been forced to move out. He has been trying to get into a higher institution to no avail due to lack of funds. Even what he has been earning does not help his family as he expects…” Please Note: I converted Kenyan shillings to American dollars.

When I contacted this young man, I was moved by his burning desire for education and love for his mother. The family has no farming land. After we discussed his prospects of joining university in the fall, his question was, “Is there anything that can be done to help my mother after I leave my job?” That is his concern.

Thankfully, a friend of mine has committed to sponsor Charles’s education. We need assistance for his mother’s medical needs and food for the siblings at home.
 

In the spring of 1997, “The Idaho Statesman” advertised that there was a poetry reading at the Log Cabin Literary Center. I had never been to a poetry reading event or written a poem. I attended out of curiosity.

There was a table with a paper and pen at the entry of the room. The two people ahead of me wrote their names on the paper before sitting down. I followed their example. I chose to sit next to the door so that I could leave if I got bored. More people came, and only some wrote their names on the paper.
 

The reading started. I became fascinated listening as the participants’ engaged my soul, body and mind. After each reader, the person conducting the event called a name from the paper which I had signed and someone went to the front to read his or her poems. I became nervous as the names of people who were on the list ahead of mine were called. I couldn’t listen. I was thinking of the mistake I had made. Sure enough, my name was eventually called. I stood up with dignity, but without a poem.

I told the audience that I didn’t have a poem, but I had some folktales I learned from my mother. After two short stories, the audience was captivated. I told them one more and left the room for the night, embarrassed.

After a while, I received a phone call and the caller identified himself as the facilitator of the poetry on the night I shared my stories. He said that he was the director of The Idaho Humanities Council and they have grants to pay people with great programs like mine to do school presentations. That was the beginning of my featured presentations and school assemblies to more than 300 Idaho schools.

This event inspired me so much that I wrote my first poem on Mother’s Day. It has been printed in several books and numerous newspapers. Another piece was published by the national Library of Poetry. Two years later, I was invited and paid to read my poetry at the Log Cabin.

As humans, we want the fruit of humility (blessings) without humiliation. We know what we want, but that doesn’t mean we know what we need. Often, what we need is to make the most out of our humiliations to find blessings in confusion, panic, and other emotions.