Babu

When the team of 23 people arrived from the US and UK they brought with them a trombone my family (mainly my mom) had sent for Babu Meshak. “Babu” means grandfather in Kiswahili. Which is very fitting for this man. He is our chief welfare officer at the village. He is the man at the gate and after several of my morning runs and talking with him as I came and went through the gate, it became clear to me that I could learn a lot from him and I slowly began to learn about his life.

Babu spent about 30 years working at a prison in Kenya as a guard. He also told me one day that he had a great love for music. And after that, I realized his was constantly humming to himself or singing to me or whatever other visitor was there. So, it wasn’t long before I looked forward to my morning runs (even though they aren’t close to enjoyable because the altitude makes it impossible to breathe).

He told me about his days as a musician and the various bands he was in and how he used to play his trombone in the prison on occasion. Then one day as I approached the gate he told me he had found something very special that he needed to share with me. He pulled out an old program and he was so excited to tell me that he had found this is town the other day and the reason it was so special was because it dated back to the 1950s and it was a book of several Oregon bands.

After asking him if he still played he told me that he didn’t have the money for an instrument and the instruments he had used in the past were loaned to him by either the band he was in or the prison.

Long story short, I thought it was necessary to find a way to get Babu his trombone. So, I talked with my family about it and my mom somehow found him a trombone. (after what was a LONG -and if you know my mom, RIDICULOUS escapade to find Babu a suitable trombone—because my mom wouldn’t just give any trombone. That would be too simple) So—after several years with no instrument, Babu finally received his trombone.

When he opened the box his hands were shaking and he couldn’t seem to get it put together fast enough to play it. And the first song he played was Amazing Grace and if you looked closely you could see he was crying. Which, had lots of people crying- and I was crying too (obviously—because if you know me you know I can cry during nearly any sad movie or whatever). But, it has been so fun to see him with something he loves so much! He has played it for us on several occasions and when the team left we had a camp fire on their last night and he played almost the whole night. Thanks mom for all your hard work! I wish you had been there to see him and hear him play Amazing Grace for the first time.