Category: Short Stories

Gotta Get It Out!

There is a frustration that builds in a volunteer in Africa. Sometimes it just has to come out. It may not be the rational response; it may not indicate time for a change but it is raw emotion – so here it is. Gotta Get it Out! By Nobody who is Somebody like Anybody else…


John Karanja

People often ask how the decision of which children to accept into the Joseph Waweru Home School is made. The short answer is that it is not easy. The long answer involves each individual story, lots of prayer and a vote. Personal referrals, churches, Children’s Bureaus, missionaries, serendipitous meetings on the street – all are…


Things Are Not Always As They Seem

Expanding Opportunities selects children from the millions of orphaned, rejected and destitute children in Kenya. The selection process is a painful privilege. This is a story of one child who was NOT selected. Many ask how the decision of which children to accept into the Joseph Waweru Home School is made. The short answer is…


Baobab Weavers

After several years of trying, finally it will happen. With a rented van, traveling companions and our Baobab Bag finisher, we are off to the ladies who harvest, prepare and weave Baobab bags. Traveling the first day on what we once thought were rough roads, potholes and speed bump ridden wide dirt roads, our journey…


Tribute to Mama Mwangi

Mama Mwangi: A Special African Woman Her name is Theresa, but she is Mama Mwangi to all who know and love her. She rises early to be sure her adopted boys have their breakfast and get off to school. Then she tends the cows and begins breakfast for everyone else who is around. Her husband…


Give Me Five Shillings

A story of the origins of Expanding Opportunities and a peek into the life of Street Children in Kenya. The ragged dirty boy held out his hand. My heart tried to ignore him. But there he was standing in front of me. I shake my head and move on, a bundle of mixed emotions. I…