In last week’s blog, it was mentioned that we were traveling to Nairobi on Saturday to see if Kathy’s National ID card was ready. We arrived late Saturday afternoon and with the heavy traffic, checked into Flora Hostel and stayed there as it had been a long day. The drive to Nairobi was interesting as it usually is when you consider all the different things you see on the roads (see photo album for pictures). The landscape was beautiful as it was green all the way to Nairobi. When we traveled to Nairobi in January, there were areas that were in need of rain and in the past month, the rains have come. On Sunday morning, we attended the English Mass at Flora – they have two Masses to choose from and we thought it would be nice to go to one that was in English since all the Masses we go to here at Gekano are in Kiswahili. The priests that have the Masses at Flora Hostel are the same ones who come from the Consolata Institute of Philosophy & Language School – the place we went to learn Kiswahili. Fr. Zack, an elderly but very spry, witty and kind priest had the Mass – it was nice to see a familiar face and be able to visit for a bit. After Mass, we decided to go to the Junction Mall to pick up a few supplies since we didn’t know what Monday and Immigration would bring and we planned to leave early on Tuesday morning to head back to the Mission. Wes drove the car to the mall and used Google maps to get us there. As we were nearing the mall, the lady on Google maps told Wes to make a U-turn which would then put us on the street that would take us to the gate to go through security before entering the mall parking lot. Along this same street are a lot of police on foot who are monitoring traffic. As soon as Wes made the U-turn, a policeman motioned for Wes to pull over which Wes did. The guy came to Wes’s window and asked, “you didn’t see that sign over there that says no U-turn?” to which Wes answered, “I see it now!” The guy asked Wes the same question about seeing the sign a total of three times which kind of irritated Wes since he already answered the question more than once. Wes then said, “I was following Google Maps and it said to make a U-turn so I did”. The guy made a remark about not following Google and should instead follow the signs…he did have a good point! He then asked for Wes’s identification so Wes handed him his National ID card – the same card that Kathy is currently trying to obtain. The guy looked at Wes’s card and said, “I am going to take you to the police station, book you, and you go to court tomorrow”! He asked Wes if he knew where the police station was to which Wes said, “No, I don’t”. Wes told him he couldn’t go to court tomorrow as we needed to drive back to Kisii though that was not exactly the truth! Without asking or saying anything more, the policeman opened the back door of the car (behind Wes), got in, and sat in the back seat. He then told Wes he would show him where to drive to get to the police station. Wes, having had enough and knowing chai was the next expected step to take, said to the guy, “What is it going to take to get this issue taken care of?” which basically meant how much chai (bribe) do I need to pay to have this be over with? The guy immediately said, “10,000” which meant he wanted 10,000 shillings ($74) to which Wes almost immediately replied, “3000”. Kathy was sitting in the front seat and had she been sitting on a chair she might have fallen out of it because she couldn’t believe Wes low-balled the policeman with Ksh 3,000! The policeman then said, “5,000” to which Kathy is thinking that will be great – we pay the 5,000, we’re done with it, we are out of here…that wasn’t what Wes was thinking. Wes decided to counter offer and said, “4,000”! By this time, Kathy is getting frustrated with both of them and the game they were playing and quietly said to Wes, “just pay the 5,000”. The policeman took a few seconds to think about Wes’s counter offer of 4,000 and then decided that because he was a “nice guy, 4,000 would be okay”. Wes handed the guy Ksh 4,000 which he shoved into his pocket and then got out of car…we’re 100% positive that he kept all of the money and didn’t share any of it with the city. We proceeded to drive to the mall though it was kind of silent in the car as we drove there! Wes told Fr. David about it when we got back from Nairobi on Tuesday and he laughed. He said the same thing had happened to him and telling the police that Google Maps told him to make a U-turn didn’t work either! He ended up paying chai as well though less than the Ksh 4,000 Wes paid! When we told Lilian and Emma about the incident on Wednesday on our way to WWB home visits, they laughed and made a suggestion - they told Wes he should have shown the policeman his International Driver’s License as the police might be a little leery to do what the guy did since someone with “International Driver’s License from the United States could be important like a diplomat” to which we laughed and said we will keep that in mind for the next time…hopefully there is no next time! On Sunday afternoon, we took an Uber out to Consolata to visit with Fr. Cyrus about the carpenters at their carpentry shop making the kneelers, chairs, altar, and lectionary for the chapel at the new Mission house. It was nice to be back on the school grounds to visit and not for the reason of going to language school!
On Monday morning after Mass and breakfast, we went to Immigration to see if Kathy’s National ID card was ready. She was hoping the third time would be a charm but it was not to be. Upon arrival, Kathy presented to the window where they give out the cards when ready. The woman behind the window went through the cards but couldn’t find one with Kathy’s name on it and then said, “you have to go to the back and talk to someone” which to Kathy meant the card was not ready. A woman came and visited with Kathy to find out what the problem was. Kathy explained the issues with having the biometrics done last June, having manual fingerprints done again in January because the paperwork was lost and upon returning three months later, the card is still not ready. The woman proceeded to tell Kathy that it was not a good day – it was Monday and the computers were down and she didn’t know when they would come back up. When we came in January, this was the same scenario with it being a Monday and the computers down…we are starting to think the computers never work on a Monday. Kathy said she would wait out front until the computers came back up because we drove all the way from Kisii just for this purpose. The woman advised against waiting and went on to say they haven’t been able to print ID cards since December to which Kathy told her that her husband was able to get his card when we came in January. All she said was “pole” which means sorry. Kathy then asked about coming on Tuesday and the lady said, “don’t come since we haven’t been able to print any cards since December”. We left the Immigration office with Kathy no closer to obtaining a card than she was in June of last year. We are constantly reminded by Fr. David and Kenyans themselves that things take time in Kenya…Kathy is starting to think that the three-year commitment to the Mission will be up and she still might not have all the paperwork needed in order to be in Kenya!
On Wednesday, we along with Lilian and Emma, left by 9 am to drive to Enchoro to conduct home visits for the Water with Blessings program. We thought we would get going relatively early and maybe finish the home visits in this area since we were able to visit 25 women a couple of weeks ago. Enchoro sits high on the mountain and you get there with the Hilux only especially if the roads are muddy and since it had rained the evening before, the roads were very muddy. We got about one quarter of the way up the mountain before we had to come to a complete stop because ahead of us in the middle of the road was a pickup that was stopped - you could not pass on either side as the ditches were very steep. Finally, the pickup started to back down the mountain and so he wouldn’t hit us, we started to back down the mountain until we came to an area we could pull over. As the driver came to the side of the Hilux, he told us we could not pass as the road was closed farther up the mountain but never really said why. After he drove off, a man that lived in that area came to the passenger side and visited in Ekegusii with Lilian and Emma. After he left, they explained to us the road was closed because the people from the village are upset that the county people are not fixing the road. So, the villagers took matters in to their own hands by digging a trench in the road (by hand) and took banana trees they cut down and planted them in the trench! According to Emma and Lilian, this is their way of getting the county people to fix the road…how long it will take only God knows! There are alternate routes (prairie trails) but they are not good roads and with the rains were not safe to be on so we decided there would be no visits at Enchoro for the foreseeable future. Since we were close to the village of Mosobeti, Emma and Lilian decided they would call a couple of mamas to see if they would take us around to make home visits in that area. They were finally able to get a hold of two women who said they could guide us. After going to the one guide’s home and checking her filter, she took us to the next home but while there, said she had to go because her husband was calling her to come home and so she left which meant we had only one guide. The other guide then took us to three more homes but she, too, could not help so we thought it best to call it quits at Mosobeti. It was decided to try one more place called Nyamotokoroto since this village was on the way back to the main road. We found a mama to guide us there but as we walked to the first few places, no one was around. Because it was already 1 pm we decided that it was best to call it a day and took Emma and Lilian home. It was not the most productive day but there was not a whole lot we could do about it…we will try again next week.
On Thursday, we went out for WWB follow ups going to three different places: Geta, Mongorisi and Emenyenche. It had rained the night before, so again, we had some muddy roads to contend with but we made it up and down the mountain without any incidents. There were only a couple of children at the follow ups so not much babysitting for Kathy. At the one follow-up, there was a small boy who would not take his eyes off Kathy – he didn’t trust her! If she got within 5 feet of him, he would start to cry. There were two other children at this same follow up who were probably 2-3 years of age but were not scared of Kathy especially after seeing pictures of themselves. Once you show them one photo, it is non-stop picture taking with some of them. Sometimes, Kathy will show them videos of Koda and Case, her son’s mbwa (dogs) and they love to watch them. There are dogs around here but we have to say they are not very cute as they are a mixture of many breeds or so it seems. Many of them also look very unhealthy.
On Friday, Wes took a couple of children to the eye doctor for follow up appointments. The guardians came with so Wes just had to get them to Kisii town and pay the bills! While Wes took the children to the doctor, Kathy stayed back and washed clothes which was a 2 ½ hour project just to get them washed, rinsed, and hung on the line. When we do the laundry together, it goes much faster. We are looking at having a washing machine at the new house so that will be a nice convenience should we get one.
On Saturday, we had Mission Saturday here at Gekano only. Since the children started their school break in between Term 1 and Term 2, many of them brought their report cards which they are required to do. Some did well and others needed to “pull their socks up” as they say here. Children here are the same as back home – some are very motivated and others not so much but as we visited with Fr. David, he made the remark that one never knows what is going on back in the home with the guardians. If they are able to attend a boarding school, they tend to do better since they have time to study and not have to work on the shamba.
Shamba update: Since we had been in Nairobi, it had been a week since we had seen the progress. The base of the parapet is almost finished. They are also building a small room above the stairs that lead to the roof so that rain water cannot make its way down the stairs. The masons continue to lay bricks and put the decorative trim with concrete around the windows and pillars. The men continue to plaster the walls on the first floor and will soon move to the second floor. We are starting to look at floor and wall tiles and other things like fixtures, sinks, toilets, etc. When we were in Nairobi, we went to a couple of places to look at options…the problem is there are too many options!
The rains continue to fall almost every day in varying amounts receiving just under 2 inches this past week. The one consequence of rain here seems to be no power and now with the girls on school break, it is not automatic that the generator will be turned on. The girls left on Thursday so when the power went out late Thursday afternoon, we figured we’d be without power until Kenya Power fixed the problem. But we were pleasantly surprised when at 7 pm, the generator was turned on for about 1 ½ hours. The power came back on sometime during the night. Friday brought another power outage for a short time and then again on Saturday for 3-4 hours in the afternoon. The Sisters didn’t turn the generator on but thankfully the power came back on around 7:30 pm. Going without power during the day isn’t so bad but it makes for a long evening when it goes out after sunset since the sun sets around 6:30 pm.
Please know that we keep you in our prayers and ask that you keep us, the Mission, and those we serve in yours. Mungu Akubariki!
See photos from this week in the album section by clicking on the link below. Note: If unable to view the photos using the link below, you can still view them by going to St. Joseph’s Parish website and scrolling down to the section titled Kenya Mission – photo album. The website: stjparish.com