Heri ya mwaka mpya (Happy New Year)!  From what we are told, the celebration of a new year in Kenya is much like it is for many back home – the time of the year when people reflect on the past year as well as make resolutions for the coming year.  As we reflect on this past year, being here in Kenya, one cannot help but have immense gratitude.  Living in America, we have no idea how the majority of the world lives and so it is good to reflect and be grateful to God for all that is given to us, whether in good or difficult times…all is gift from God. 

Last Sunday, Christmas Day, there were two Masses scheduled here at Gekano with one to be at 9 am and the other at 10 am.  We laughed when we saw the schedule that Fr. David had found in the sacristy during the week since the two Masses here were scheduled only one hour apart…for those who read our weekly posts about Mass times you probably get our skepticism and reason we laughed.  We were prepared to go to church before 9 am but there was no activity so we waited until we saw some sign.  The sign appeared around 9:25 am when one of the Sisters next door was seen scurrying out the back gate so we followed.  To our surprise, Mass started shortly after 9:30 am.  There weren’t many people in church but as time went on, people slowly streamed into the church.  Finally, at one point during the Mass, they closed the doors so no more people could come in, not because the church was full, but because Mass was almost half over.  At the end of Mass, there were several speeches by the visiting priest and a catechist, announcements, and finally another collection was taken up.  We got back to the Mission house around 11:45 am and were glad to be out of the church for the reason it was getting very warm.  The church here at Gekano, just as most do, has a roof made of tin sheets and with the sun beating down on the tin, it can get quite warm in the church and because they had closed the doors, it was even worse.  Once Fr. David returned from saying three Masses on Christmas Day, there was a lot of mateleo (offering) to be unloaded from the Hilux.  Not only was there maize, millet, milk, tomatoes, sugar, cooking oil, a case of soda, several bunches of bananas, and flour to unload, there were a couple of live animals as well.  Fr. David was given two goats and two chickens for Christmas by two of the three parishes he celebrated Mass at.  There is a small chicken coop and pen in the back yard so that is where the animals stayed at night while during the day, Wes staked the goats out in the back yard.  The goats made great lawn mowers though the male goat was harder to keep tabs on so Wes finally found an old door to which he tied the goat.  At times during the day, one could hear the goat dragging the door around or stepping on it…at least we knew he was in the vicinity!  As for the chickens, one was a hen, so yes, we got a couple of eggs during her stay in the back yard.  On Wednesday, Fr. David decided the hen was to be given to Lilian’s son, Ivan, since the chicken Ivan received a week ago during one of our home visits, was a rooster and therefore wasn’t going to get any of the eggs he was hoping for!  The other chicken Fr. David received, a rooster, along with the two goats were taken to the new shamba on Wednesday since the barn was completed to the point where a few animals could be there.  They were officially the first residents of the new shamba!  Daniel, one of the workers who stays at the new shamba to prepare meals for the guys and takes care of the maize, napier grass and beans (tills the ground by hand), will take care of the animals for the time being.   

Monday was Wes’s birthday – his second here in Kenya.  We decided to take an excursion into Kisii to find some cough syrup and other drugs for our colds that keep hanging around.  When we got to Kisii, most stores were closed though not because of the Christmas holiday.  We came to find out that they were closed because of Boxing Day which is celebrated on December 26.  The Christmas holiday was transferred to Tuesday which meant most stores would be closed again.  We had never heard of Boxing Day and contrary to what the name is, it has nothing to do with the sport of boxing from what we could find.  According to Google, Boxing Day, otherwise known as Utamaduni Day in Kenya, is an annual holiday observed on December 26^th and is popular in England and other British Commonwealth countries.  Because Kenya only gained its independence from Britain in 1963, the influence of the British is still seen in different ways and aspects.  In 2019, the Kenyan government approved the renaming of this day to Utamaduni Day, which was to be a day set aside to celebrate the country’s rich cultural diversity and heritage. 

On Wednesday, Kathy and Emma went to the 6^th Water with Blessings follow up session for two groups of women at Mosobeti.  In the meantime, Wes and Lilian made the first trip to haul half of the 210-liter water drums to the Kenyerere church.  Because thirty-four women qualified to receive the water drums after our home visits, it would take a few trips to get the drums to the church.  Rogers did let us use the Landcruiser which meant we could take a lot more at once and in the end had to make only two trips.  While Wes was securing the second batch of water drums from storage at the new shamba to bring to the church, Kathy took Lilian and Emma and walked to a duka (small shop) near the church to buy 40 bottles of warm soda (here it is called soda, not pop) at a cost of about 35 cents each – it is not often one finds a cold soda around here.  Kathy would have gone herself but she didn’t want to pay the mzungu price!  Many of the women had come early and had been waiting for us for several hours under the hot sun so Kathy thought it was in order to purchase each a bottle of soda.  Once Wes arrived with the remaining drums, we started the process.  Emma would call the mama’s name; she would come and get a soda of her choice and then proceeded to stand behind one of the 34 barrels lined up.  Many of them, as soon as their name was called, would start to dance their way to the soda station and continue to sing and ululate (high pitched vocal sound) as they made their way to the water drums.  The dancing and singing lasted for some time as they were quite happy to receive the gift of the water drum and soda.  Before we said good-bye to the women, we let them know how much we appreciated them taking care of the filter and using it to provide clean water for their family and others.  The gratitude they expressed was heartfelt and was very moving for us to hear what the filters, blankets, and now the water drums meant to them.  On Saturday, we delivered 36 blankets to the women at Mosobeti who had come to at least five or all six of the follow ups.  This past year (2022), 311 women were trained and received a water filter and bucket, 250 of them received blankets for coming to at least five or more of the follow ups, while 80 of them, who were trained about a year ago, were given a water drum because they qualified when we made a home visit.  Since the mamas are asked to filter for at least three other families for six months, a total of 1,244 families in 2022 benefitted from having clean water for drinking and cooking as well as bathing small children.  The water filter program has truly made a difference to these women, their families, and to the neighbors they filtered water for.  Maji ni baraka (water is a blessing) - the women truly know what a gift and blessing having clean water is. 

On Friday, we were saddened to hear of the passing of a woman we affectionately called “Tanzanian Grandma”.  We called her that because Fr. David did but it was more so because she was originally from Tanzania and her Swahili was perfect!  We learned in school that the Tanzanians are known for speaking Kiswahili correctly.  Tanzanian Grandma’s real name was Agrapina and we had come to know this wonderful lady – a Mother Teresa – through our trips when she accompanied us to Vincliff’s (her grandson) eye appointments as well as when she came with the children on Mission Saturday.  We’ve written about Agrapina in previous blogs and in Kathy’s eyes Agrapina was a saint.  In spite of the hardships in her life she was a very cheerful, faithful and faith-filled woman.  When her daughter died, Agrapina took in her daughter’s five children ranging in ages from 9-15 years old. She was truly a delightful person to be around and had a great sense of humor.  Agrapina was the woman who would start saying the rosary shortly after we would pick them up at their shamba and during the ride to Kisii and back, we probably said a total of six rosaries or more.  The last time we were with her was at the end of November and she was very happy when we told her we could recite the rosary in Swahili and so we did all the way to Kisii and back to their shamba!  We are going to miss her and her wonderful spirit – may she rest in peace. 

This past week the temps were in the mid 70’s to low 80’s and we had almost 2.5 inches of welcome rain though we received a small amount of hail one day.  The short rains every other day or so help to keep the dust level down and to fill the cistern.  They say the next three months will be the dry ones and we are not looking forward to that. 

Shamba update:  this past week, the workers finished putting the rebar in place and laid the conduit for the electrical wires in between the rebar.  On Saturday, they poured the concrete for the second level floor.  We were there to witness this production which was all done by hand with the exception of the cement mixer and a pully system run by a small engine.  The pully system is how they got the huge barrels of concrete up to the second level.  On the second level were two young men with wheel barrels.  Once the barrels of concrete were hoisted up and dumped into the wheel barrows, the two guys would push the heavy loads across the rebar and dump where it was needed.  In the photo album are some pictures of the rebar that was put in place before pouring the concrete – it looks like a sea of brown color.  We wondered how many miles of rebar were used up to this point so we asked Rogers how long each rebar was and how many have been purchased so far.  He said each piece of rebar is 40 feet long and around 1200 pieces of different sizes have been purchased.  When one does the math, that means over 9 miles of rebar have been put in place between the first and second floor!  The house will be two stories with the ceiling of the second level being made of concrete so there will be another sea of brown color in the coming weeks.  The fundi (skilled worker) who does the plastering of the walls along with his crew finished the plastering of the barn this week.  Between last week and this week, they plastered both the inside and outside walls as well as the water and feed troughs inside the barn.  We decided on Thursday and again on Saturday to bring the workers loaves of bread to have as a snack with their tea or eat with their meal.  They were very grateful for this gesture and in our minds, it was nothing compared to the hard work they do.  One of the guys that Wes was visiting with made the comment that in America “you have machines to do the work but here in Kenya, are grateful there aren’t many machines - machines take jobs away from people”.  The men here are human machines and it is something we continue to stand back and look at with disbelief though the man is correct.  To see their abilities, ingenuity, and sheer human strength to build what they have and almost all of it by hand is amazing.  It is exciting to be a part of this expansion of the Mission and to experience the work ethic of those who want to work to provide for their family.  The unemployment rate for young people in Kenya is high so finding work is not easy.  Most recent figures found indicate that more than one third of Kenya’s young people eligible to work have no jobs.  Data shows that 5.3 million of 13.8 million young Kenyans do not have work which means almost 39% of the young people cannot find a job.  The expansion of the Mission with this building project is needed to better serve the orphans and, in the process, has also provided many with jobs. 

Please know that we keep you in our prayers and ask that you keep us, the Mission, and those we serve in yours.  May 2023 be a year of many graces and blessings for you and your family.  Mungu Akubariki!

See photos from this week in the album section:


https://stjparish.com/photoalbums/kenya-01-01-2023