"The thing about Africa is that everything is so real and bright and in your face. No subtleties. All the good is next to the evil. All the beauty right beside the ugliness of death and poverty. It's Good Friday and Easter Sunday all rolled up and served up side by each."

That was the beginning of an e-mail written last month by Kate Fletcher, formerly of Mt. Lebanon, to supporters of her mission in Kenya, Africa, where she has opened a boarding home for girls orphaned by AIDS and other scourges of the slums of Africa.

She left Pittsburgh Sept. 8 with roughly $50,000 she had raised from family and friends and from pitches she made at two churches, St. Thomas More, her home parish, and St. Louise de Marillac. Along with the cash, the 67-year-old widow took her determination and is using it to build her dream.

Today, she is housing 24 girls in a three-story boarding home about 10 miles west of Nairobi, working 14-hour days to meet their daily needs and to keep the bank account that supports those needs from running dry.

The mission is called Hekima Place. Hekima means "wisdom" in Arabic. The girls attend a private school operated by a minister and his wife. Hekima Place pays their tuition.

Each girl's story is sad. Some have watched their parents die of AIDS or addictions or violence. One 6-year-old is the product of rape and another is the child of an alcoholic mother who died. Two 4-year-olds recently taken in were living on the streets. One was left with a grandmother but spent her days on the streets trying to sell trinkets to make enough money to buy food. The other was sleeping each night in the corner of a bar; she was the charge of her pregnant 17-year-old sister.

There's also a 2-year-old from an AIDS orphanage who was able to leave when her own antibodies kicked in and made her healthy. "The nuns [at the orphanage] couldn't bear to send her to a one-room shack where five cousins and four siblings live with an out-of-work auntie," Mrs. Fletcher wrote.

That means there's now a crib and potty chair at Hekima Place.

More girls, more expense

She has 24 girls at a time when she expected to have 20 and eight staff members at a time when she budgeted for six.

But she's forging on and expects to take eight more girls next month and open a second boarding residence on the property, which she rents.

As the girls are accepted by Hekima Place, they must take a pledge that there will be no drinking, drugs, sex, stealing or any crimes. One girl has broken the pledge and rejoined the extended family with whom she previously lived.

Mrs. Fletcher said there was a long list of girls waiting to be accepted to Hekima Place. But her current plans call for stopping at 40, even though she finds it difficult to turn anyone away, such as the mother with the 3-month-old and a 7-year-old son who weighed 15 pounds who were fleeing an abusive father. The HIV-infected infant died during the family's stay at Hekima Place this year.

The preschoolers Mrs. Fletcher has taken in were not part of her original plan to provide housing and education to orphaned school-age girls who are not HIV-positive.

Then, there's the long line of women who line up at her door, begging for work because Mrs. Fletcher is known as "the best payer around" at $3 a day.

"I'm telling you, the poverty here is so sinful, so criminal, so exhausting ... so pervasive, I can hardly describe it," she said.

The daily grind

Still, in the midst of the poverty and sadness, she tries to give her girls a life as normal as possible. They rise each morning with a prayer and breakfast and go to school. In the beginning, the girls, accompanied by the house moms who care for them, walked the 2.5 miles to and from school each day. Then came a donation from a Fletcher family member for a used van. Now Mrs. Fletcher makes two runs each day to and from school to transport the girls.

In the evening, it's prayers, dinner, homework and lights out.

The girls go to Girl Scout jamborees and like jewelry and hair trinkets, just as little girls do everywhere. Mrs. Fletcher wrote an account recently of how the girls used beads from a worn car seat cover and fishing line to make necklaces.

In an another upbeat e-mail, Mrs. Fletcher reported that the Family Days established on the last Sunday of the month had been a success. On those days, family members usually aunts, uncles and grandparents, visit with the girls and enjoy their performances of songs and dances. Games are played and snacks are served.

"It makes the girls feel like they're in boarding school. We don't call the place a children's home, nor do we call them orphans. I want them walking tall and proud and full of confidence," Mrs. Fletcher wrote.

The girls also have each been assigned a "big sister," who writes regularly and sends small gifts. The big sisters are from countries across the globe, including the United States, England, France, Italy and Holland, and the group is organized by Linda Latsko-Lockhart, formerly of Castle Shannon, who now lives in Paris.

Ms. Latsko-Lockhart was a patient of Mrs. Fletcher's late husband, Leonard, who was for many years a dentist in Castle Shannon.

"Anything to help Kate and these beautiful little girls," Ms. Latsko-Lockhart said.

Some of the big sisters have pledged to pay for college educations for their little sisters as an enticement to get them to complete high school. According to the Hekima Place Web page, 65 percent of Kenyan girls enroll in elementary school and 30 percent enroll in high school.

The big sister letters not only help the girls to establish relationships, but also to practice their English writing skills and to learn about other parts of the world.

The backdrop to the good news and happiness that Mrs. Fletcher has brought into the lives of the 24 girls is the daily struggle for existence. At the forefront of that struggle for Mrs. Fletcher is keeping a steady stream of donations.

Water scarce

Another is providing enough water for daily consumption and bathing.

Water is bought from neighbors who have drilled a water hole on their property. Mrs. Fletcher hopes to find a donor to pay for drilling on the boarding home property so she can have free water and some left over to sell.

There is plumbing in the boarding house, but not enough water pressure for the showers on the second and third floors. The hope is that, when a donated pump is installed, the problem will be solved.

The water situation has been exacerbated by a drought that has existed in Kenya since November.

On Jan. 30, a Monday, Mrs. Fletcher wrote: "We haven't had water since Friday and I'm running around trying to find out why, where to buy some, who can evaluate our old bore hole and where can I get the money."

They got through those days by hauling jerry cans of water from their school in the van.

"It gives new meaning to life to be so long without a drink, a bath, some cleaning water, etc. and makes one very creative with recycling," Mrs. Fletcher wrote Feb. 8.

During that time, she said, she and the girls watched cattle waste away and die in the streets from lack of water. "It makes me shudder to think of children and old people in the northeast suffering the same fate. Help us pray for rain, please," she wrote.

Some of those prayers were answered, at least in part, recently with seven nights of rain which has made plants grow green again. "The sheep and cows are munching like mad to cover their ribs and hips. It's a delight to the eye," Mrs. Fletcher wrote Sunday.

Though the rains weren't the long, drenching ones the area needs, the return of green has returned a spirit of hope to those at Hekima Place. Mrs. Fletcher is preparing for the intake of eight girls next month and for her trip home, where, in May, she will do another round of speaking and fund-raising to continue her mission.

Donations to Hekima Place can be made to Kathy English, 3304 Brookdale Drive, Pittsburgh PA 15241 or by visiting the Web site at www.hekimaplace.org.