Four months pass, and Mary grows curious at the disappearance of Jackson. She saw his two brothers leave the slum, but never saw Jackson leave. She pauses in front of his door and slowly removes the bucket from her head as she leans into the doorway. There is Jackson, half naked and lying on the mud floor in a daze. He had come down with tuberculosis and his brothers had abandoned him and left him to die alone. Forgetting her title as “Slut,” Mary runs and gathers the other women to help pick Jackson from the mud. The women use the money they had made from selling their beads to go and buy Jackson a bed. They lift him up onto the bed and spend the next four days tending to his medical needs. When he is well enough to walk, they purchase him a bus ticket and send him to his home village to be cared for by his parents.

Today Mary and her friends continue to gather daily to make beaded necklaces and bracelets to finance the next need that may arise in the slums of Nairobi. (Click HERE to see David’s photos from the village)