My little African Brother

4 November 2010

Samuel Doni

Thinking back to Costa Rica, I remember the first time that I used the glue as a drug. I decided to try it, because I was angry with my parents for not spending enough time with me. They were spending a lot time with the kids from the shelter where my mom used to worked. I did not need the glue, but my desire to block these feelings pushed me to try it. For five months of my life, the small can of glue followed me everywhere I went. I remember how it felt for the thick smell of the glue to go through my nose, reaching the deepest corners of my lungs.

My favorite number was nine, because I knew that at that point the anger and pain in my heart would disappear. In fact, after nine inhalations my muscles trembled and the breathing would become longer and deeper. Thirty seconds later I would lose control of myself, falling on the ground in a deep sleep. Every time I woke up was different, my mom and dad looked different. Every smile or even the smell of their clothes would break through my entire body giving me the satisfaction I wanted. I wanted to be loved, I wanted to be noticed and I wanted to feel my parents in me. The reason I am telling my story is because of Samuel Doni.

Samuel is seventeen years old and lives in a slum that is ten times the size of a football field. He was born in Nakuru, a city that is nine hours away from Kawangware where he lives today. When his mom died in 1999, he moved with his grandmother, but she could not help him anymore after a few years. He moved to Kawangware and started living on the streets. Three weeks later he begun inhaling glue. With big black eyes and a big smile on his face he introduced himself saying, “Hello, I am Don Carlos. That is my real name, but on the street I am known as Samuel Doni, or just Doni to my friends.” His joy and kindness is contagious. Samuel wants to be a tour guide some day.

Samuel has a group of “friends” from the street that share a few sacks at night to keep their bodies warm from the cold of the night. One day while they where sleeping, the police chased a thief. The man was trying to avoid the police jumped in between a group of kids that was near where they were. The police, annoyed by the situation, decided to shoot randomly at the group. They killed all of them. This is just one of the many stories of Samuel. On another occasion, he and one of his friends where sharing a bottle of glue at night. The small fire in front of them seemed to be harmless, but it was not. When they both fell on the ground, losing the notion of everything, his friend did not feel the heat of the fire burning his leg. When they woke up from the effect of the glue it was already too late, the skin of half of his leg was gone.

By knowing these stories, his answer to the question, “Who is God for you?” is understandable: “He is my provider and the one who makes me wake up every morning.

Using a white t-shirt with stripes and blue jeans cut-offs, Samuel is waiting to go to a boarding school in December. He says that once he goes there he will stop using drugs. Right now he uses the glue only to not be afraid of the streets. Using the glue allows him to not feel the cold at night, to not feel the pain in case of been raped by someone at night or to not feel the cold of the rain during the rainy season.

Everyday Samuel wakes up and puts his dirty clothes on and walks out to the streets hoping to find some kind of scrap metal that he can sell. After selling the metal, he goes to one of the hotels around the area and buys a cup of tea (the reason of going to the hotels is because someday he wants to be a tour guide.) once he finishes his tea, Samuel goes back to the slum and buys the glue for the day. Later on after using the drug he walks to the Fikisha Center, takes a shower, and puts his clean clothes on. He does not like being dirty, especially at the church because he respects God and the church. At night he puts his dirty clothes on and explores for more metal. At the end of the night it is only him and his friends. There is not a kiss on the cheek or the forehead, there is no story time or a bed. It is only the glue and his clothes. He knows God and sings praises every Sunday morning in his clean outfit. He needs a chance, he needs a hand to get out of there. His heart is beating and his eyes are blinking right now.

Samuel is just like every other 17-year-old boy. His body is still growing as well as his dreams. He is fighting against poverty, against drugs, against a life that is out of his control. He has been fighting on the streets for more than ten years, with no family and without ever knowing his dad. Samuel is just a kid, it could be my neighbor, it could be yours, but today this is Samuel Doni from Kenya. This is his story and this is his life.

I had a hand that took me from the ground and lifted me up, someone that believed in me, someone that heard my story and decided to help me. After three weeks I stopped using the glue. I finished high school and became a camp leader and a soccer player. But I needed the chance, I needed the opportunity, the light of someone that without knowing me believed and changed the course of my life.

Samuel Doni is living today in Kawangware, waiting for an opportunity to get out of this conflicting area, the opportunity of finishing school and become the next president of Kenya.

“Because you want to change my life and you want me to be the next president of Kenya” Samuel Doni.