Last Sunday we attended the 7 am Mass here at Gekano and it started on time (almost) since the celebrant was Fr. David. Fr. David left the Mission house fifteen minutes before Mass, walking the longer route, to make sure everything was ready but things were not ready - no mic set up, altar cloths were just being changed, no hosts, etc. In the meantime, we, along with the girls from the school were all waiting for the gatekeeper to unlock the back gate so we could get to Mass. Less than five minutes before Mass was to start, the gate was finally opened with some of the girls running to the church to get organized since they were doing the music as well as dancing. It was a minute or two after 7 am when Fr. David, who is a stickler for time, started processing in from the back of the church by himself and at the same time, through the church window, we could see the altar server running outside to reach the back of the church to join Fr. David. About five minutes after Mass had started, we could see the Sisters scurrying into the church. It was somewhat comical to witness this. During Mass, a phone went off and not long after, it went off again during a prayer that Fr. David was reciting. Fr. David stopped mid-sentence, paused, and then said to the people, “Tuko tayari?” which means Are we ready? to which Kathy almost started giggling…it wasn’t funny but yet it was. After Mass we went for a walk and people were coming for the second Mass that started at 9 am though it was after 9:30 am when we met them on the road and they still had some distance to walk to the church…they probably arrived close to Communion time. Were it not Fr. David who had the 9 am Mass, the people would most likely have been on time because the Kenyan priests at this parish never start on time and they have much longer homilies than Fr. David does. We would like to think that if Fr. David had the Masses at Gekano every weekend, people would start to arrive before the scheduled time but then again, probably not…just wishful thinking on our part. The people here joke about Kenyans being late all the time. The virtue of patience continues to be practiced by us Americans and some days we don’t do very well!
On Saturday of last week, Wes bought a soccer ball for a 5th grade boy named Zack who shows up at the Mission house quite often to say hi, get a lollipop and sometimes asks for some Shillings for school fees. Primary school is “free” here but in many ways that is not true as the school often charges fees for the children to take their exams, paper, extra time spent with the children, etc. If they don’t bring these fees, the children are sent home until they bring the fees. We often see children along the road – children that should be in school but are not and most likely for the reason of school fees not paid. Zack had asked Wes about getting a soccer ball a few weeks ago. Wes had found one on one of our trips to the store prior to last Saturday but when he took it to the checkout to pay for it there were issues. Just as we had problems with the lollipops not ringing up, the same happened with this soccer ball and yes, this is the same store…we don’t have very many options here. We waited in the store as they had to find a supervisor and then go to the upper level of the store to ask what the price was supposed to be. After a considerable amount of time had passed and still no one came with a price, we said we would get the ball another time and proceeded to finish paying for our other items. So, last Saturday Wes was able to buy a ball and proceeded to give it to Zack that afternoon. On Sunday afternoon, a young boy, who we were not familiar with, showed up at the Mission house and left a letter for Fr. David. The letter, printed in English, was in the format of a business letter. At the top in the upper left-hand corner was his name – it was Erick. In the upper right-hand corner of the paper Erick had printed Bismarck Football Club, PO Box 006, Gekano. In the middle of the letter was written Fr. David & his friends, Gekano Parish, PO Box Unknown. And in the middle section, it read: Dear Sir/Madam: Re: ASKING FOR A BALL My name is Erick Nyumari. I am from the area and I am the captain of Bismarck Club in Imani Field. Lord for your kindness I and my team needs a ball Please! We are in a very big trouble. Lord sometimes we are defeated in some games because we don’t have any ball. We play using a ball made of paper. This ball is not good for a team. We know this is impossible for us to buy ourselves but it is possible for you if you buy us. Lord I will help you in some areas e.g. weeding your flowers, washing your car and even mopping your house even stairs. May God be with you. Yours faithfully, Erick
We found this letter to be quite funny for several reasons but we were also impressed with it: his printing was very legible, his usage of the English language was pretty good, and it was well thought out showing his ingenuity and creativity. We suspected that because Zack had received a ball the day before, this young man decided to put in a request as well. What gave us a good chuckle as we read it was that there is no Bismarck Football Club that we know of! But maybe they do have a club and they call themselves this – none of these boys are orphans in the Bismarck program so there being a Bismarck Club was news to us. It was also funny where he wrote the club has a PO Box of 006 and then in the section below putting the PO Box of the Mission as Unknown. In the letter, Erick had included a picture of himself and indicated that he was 15 years old. Writing that they (Bismarck Club) are “in Imani Field” was also quite interesting and creative because the field he refers to is the grassy area outside the church where the outdoor Masses are held. The word Imani in Kiswahili means faith. Late Sunday afternoon (the day we received the letter), while we were attending Adoration at the Sisters’ chapel and because the windows were open, we could hear the laughter of children, a whistle being blown, as well as a thumping sort of sound. We were pretty sure it was someone playing football (here it is called football, not soccer) and so after Adoration we left the compound and walked to the grassy area outside the church. There we saw four boys on one side and about 6 feet away on the other side was Erick who was throwing the ball towards the boys, one at a time, with each boy taking a turn hitting the ball back to Erick with their head. We were impressed to see Erick working with these younger boys. Whether they really had a team before or just formed one a few days ago, we didn’t know and it didn’t matter. Just for Erick’s creativity, ingenuity, and taking time to work with these younger boys on their football skills, we thought Erick should get a soccer ball. So, on our next trip to town, we will buy another soccer ball and this time it will be for Erick. We will probably get more requests for soccer balls but that is okay and will figure that out as it may happen. In the meantime, we were very touched by this young man that we had never met before Sunday – touched because of his well-thought out and creative letter but more than that, touched by his kindness to the other boys in the area taking time to patiently teach them some football skills. Erick, being fifteen was working with boys who were around ten to twelve years of age and that in itself was nice to see.
Tuesday was All Saint’s Day and there were several Masses scheduled here at Gekano while Fr. David had Masses at three different outstations. Prior to Tuesday, Fr. David had seen the list for the All Saints Day Masses here at Gekano with the first one scheduled for 6:30 am. We got ready and then we waited for the girls to line up and the gatekeeper to open the gate which is our cue that church will start soon. We waited…6:30 am came and went…6:45 am came and went and then finally around 6:50 am or so, the girls lined up at the gate which the gatekeeper opened and so we left the Mission house thinking Mass must be starting at 7 am. But it didn’t…it finally started at 7:15 am. The homily was one hour…a very long hour. The homily was mostly in Kiswahili but we could make out a few things. The priest who had the Mass likes to ask questions of the congregation and expects answers. At one point, he asked the girls to spell a couple of different words: stubborn, routine, and horoscope. The girls had a tough time with horoscope and they were spelling it as horrorscope and even heard it spelled as holloscope. Kathy wanted to raise her hand to spell it correctly so the homily could move on but decided not to fearing he would ask other questions in Kiswahili. Thank goodness one of the girls finally stood up and spelled it correctly. We have no idea what his point was with those three words and with it being All Saint’s Day. The total time for Mass was two hours though it seemed like three to four hours. We know that a part of it is our lack of understanding Kiswahili but do we really need a homily that lasts one hour?!
On Tuesday afternoon, we drove into Kisii to pick up a barrel of water filters and supplies that we use for the Water with Blessings water filter program. When Fr. John Guthrie and Fr. Maina - who is originally from Kenya - were here in July, we were talking about our difficulties in finding a shipping company that we could ship water filters by sea instead of sending them when people from America came to visit the Mission. Fr. Maina got us in touch with a company he uses so when we were home in August, we packed around 300 water filters to be shipped to this company in New Jersey. In New Jersey, the items were repacked in barrels and loaded onto a cargo ship bound for Mombasa, Kenya. Mombasa is a major port located on the Eastern side of Kenya along the Indian Ocean. The filters then traveled by truck from Mombasa to Nairobi and finally here to Kisii. We were told it would take 2 ½ months for the filters to arrive and they actually arrived a few days ahead of time. The last two times we have brought filters on the plane with us, the Customs office at the Nairobi airport charged us a tax which added a lot to the overall cost of the filters. With the filters being shipped by sea, we paid a flat rate which included the tax and, in the end, we will be money ahead by going the route of shipping by sea. We are most grateful to Fr. Maina and his connections – a problem that we had been working on since we came in December has been solved!
On Wednesday, Lilian, Emma, and Kathy went out again to make visits to the mamas that had been trained and received their water filters and buckets about a year ago. We enlisted the help of a woman named Sarah who had also been trained last year. She took us to the homes of the women as we would not have a clue where to go – there are no street names or numbers on homes to indicate an address. Sarah was very pleasant and with her help we were able to visit nine different women. Of the nine women, eight of them were using the filter which was very encouraging and some of them were still sharing with their neighbors though not required to (they are asked to share for a minimum of six months after being trained). The one who had not been using it said she had been sick and no one else in the household knew how to use it; therefore, we told her that the next time we come to visit, we want to see her using it. It was very humbling going into their homes and as mentioned in last week’s blog, the furnishings are very simple. All were mud homes and some were very clean while a few others were not quite as clean though having a dirt floor would be hard to keep a house clean. In one home, Kathy shared the couch with a chicken! Kathy cringed a few times especially with the chickens running in and outside of the house…it occurred to Kathy that the chickens in the one place were much like someone in the United States having pets running in and outside the house! At one of the homes when we arrived, we saw a small child laughing as he chased the chickens in and out as if it were a game! It was interesting to meet the women and the smaller children since the older ones were in school. At one home, as we arrived in the yard, we saw a man sitting in a chair beside his wife who was also sitting in a chair and together they were peeling potatoes and it just struck Kathy because here we don’t see men interact much with the women much less be sitting beside one peeling potatoes. Kathy told the man she was impressed that he was helping his wife and he just smiled and said, “Asante” which means thanks. On the way home, Kathy mentioned again to Lilian and Emma how impressed she was and Emma made a comment that usually there are no men in Kenya like that and wondered where she could fine one! Kathy agreed as most often it is the women that we see hard at work though we know there are men that help as well. The couple we saw seemed to be the exception and it was nice to witness it. In addition to the visits this week, we also did some follow-ups.
The weather has been hotter than it was a few weeks ago and it has been dry. One day this week, while Kathy was at the clothesline hanging laundry, one of the Sisters was hanging hers out as well. The conversation was about the lack of rains and she (Sister) made the remark, “we pray for rain”. It has been almost 10 days since we’ve had measurable precipitation at a time when we should be getting rains. Here they get over 70 inches of rain in a year so going 10 days without some during the months it is supposed to rain causes worry. During the month of October, we were grateful for the 13 inches of rain we received, and we hope the rains come in November because the dry months are upon us, starting in December.
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!