Perhaps you have heard about Supa, TPK’s sponsored child in Kenya. Today we would like to tell you more about Supa and her life at St. Nicholas. Please contact us if you’d like to know more about Supa, St. Nicholas, or sponsoring a child.

Supa is a 3rd grader. She lives in Kenya.

She has been sponsored by Truro preschool for the past 2 years. The staff and children at Truro have enjoyed sending her pictures, cards, crayons, story books, and socks.

She lives at an orphanage 12 miles outside of Nairobi, Kenya. The orphanage is a mission of Church of the Apostles in Fairfax. They have sponsored this orphanage since 1990. The sponsorship comes through individuals who want to sponsor and get to know one or more of the children. There are 38 boys and girls between ages of 5 and 14 who live there. Supa has lived there for 3 years.

Supa is an orphan but she has a grandmother whom she sees twice a year during school breaks. She shares a dormitory room with three other girls her age. They go to school at the orphanage along with another 100 children from the surrounding area.

Supa wears a uniform each day; she has two dresses, a sweater, and socks and shoes, and also a track suit to wear on PE day. After school each day she and her friends wash their uniforms in a bucket and hang the uniforms on the line to dry.

Meals at St Nicholas are: Breakfast porridge and tea or bread and tea, Lunch gathri (a mixture of corn and beans), Dinner can be either rice and beans or ugali (a cornmeal mixture) and vegetables.

The children have only a few toys, there are some balls (Yes, one of those is a soccer ball… The FAVORITE!!), a few dolls, a few toy cars. They are very good at thinking up games to play with friends.

During the weekend all of the children must clean their bedrooms and have one other duty, such as washing the floor in the dining room, carrying wood to heat the stove for cooking, picking up trash on the grounds and cleaning the bathroom in their dormitory. When they have completed their duties, the children under 5th grade can play the rest of the day. The older children have class on Saturday morning.

On Saturday evening they can watch a movie in the dining room. Sunday morning is church; an Anglican pastor comes to give the sermon, the children lead the prayers and music and do bible readings. In the afternoon they can play, study or take a nap, some times you will see a child laying in the grass sometimes asleep or just thinking.

The weekday begins very early. The children are up at 6:30 for a shower and breakfast and making their beds. They are in class at 7:30 until tea break at 11 and then lunch at 12:30. The day ends at 4:00. They are free to play and have dinner and then have a study time from 7-9 PM. Bed time is 9:30.

If you would like to know more about St Nicholas, contact Carolyn Baldwin at carolynsheaven@gmail.com