The struggles of Madame Metrine

Madame Metrine at work in her restaurant

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness (Proverbs 31:26-31).

I met Metrine some months ago, and since have spoken to her numerous times. What follows are highlights from those conversations:

I am Metrine Nabukwangwa, originally from Kitale, Kenya. I have three children; an older boy with me here finding odd jobs, a girl in Primary 8 and a child who lives with my parents. I operate a small restaurant serving beans, maize and tea.

One of the boys that Metrine takes care of helps prepare a meal at her restaurant

I have lived here in Naszcal for the past 11 years. In all this time, I have not been home to see my parents. I do keep in touch with the phone. The people here still see me as an outsider. I have several children not my own that I take care of. They work for me doing odd jobs and I feed them. I can’t pay any salary or anything like that. There are other women around who help me out. They protect me when there might be trouble.

Men cheat me all the time. You know there are a lot of drunkards around. They sometimes make trouble for me. They eat and then say they don’t have money to pay. They say that what I gave them was nothing and that I don’t need the money. They have not touched or hit me, but they are very stubborn. I am a single woman and they take advantage of that situation. Thanks be to God, I have not ever been physically assaulted. Some other women have.

When I asked about her mother and father, Metrine started to choke up.

I left home when I was 14 years old. I was in an early childhood marriage to a man who brought me here. After three children he vanished. Disappeared. I was desperate. What to do? I started working for other people: carrying water, collecting firewood, and anything to survive and take care of my children.

I never buy too many things for myself. If I buy anything in bulk, the people around me start to take it, little by little, until I am left with nothing. I can never save. I will give everything to my children.

Madame Metrine met the criteria for support that I have had for a long, long time: a poor woman with children and no man, pouring out her lifeblood to support her family. Her existence is nothing but struggle.

I have been around this world and I have seen poverty. I have seen desperation. Metrine is as poor as they come. She showed me where she has lived for 11 years. It is a mud-and-stick hovel with a dirt floor. Nothing but bits and pieces of junk are crammed into corners. She sleeps in this shack with four other people, on the dirt floor, on a reed mat with nothing more than a light piece of dirty cloth to keep her warm.

There were some lines strung across old broken beams of the roof with dirty, worn out clothes just hanging there. In fact, I have never seen Metrine in anything other than two different outfits. Both old and worn.

I was convinced of the need to help her out when I surprised her with a visit one day and she was reading her Bible and praying. She was reading the very quote from Proverbs at the top of this post, and I was touched by that.

I hope that our assistance will make her happy and give her the opportunity to finally go home and visit her mother and father.

I thank all of you for the wonderful support and prayers all these years. If you would like to continue/start to support my mission this year, please donate by clicking on the button below.

Love and prayers,
Gabe