Last Sunday we attended Mass here at Gekano and for the third straight Sunday, the celebrant was Fr. Benedict so we were thinking Mass would be on the shorter side (1 ¼ hours vs 1 ½ to 2 hours) but we were wrong. Mass started late but only nine minutes this week. The first homily was about 30 minutes but just before the final procession he gave another homily on prayer which lasted about 15 minutes so total time was about 1 ½ hours. The entire Mass was in Kiswahili but because Fr. Benedict inserted a sentence in English every third to fourth sentence or so, we had a pretty good idea of what his two homilies were about…a rarity for us!
After Mass we visited with a couple of the orphans from Immaculate Tumaini School who are enrolled in the Bismarck Mission. The students from this school are very noticeable as they wear a bright red sweater as part of their uniform and you really can’t miss them. A young man named Jonas, who is an 8th grader, visited with us for a short time. We have come to know Jonas not just because he is enrolled in the orphan education program but also because we paid a visit to his school when Fr. John Guthrie and Fr. Maina were here in July. Fr. Maina had made a bet of some sort that involved Jonas having the courage to approach Fr. John and ask him a question which Jonas did. The bet involved the purchase of a soccer ball which Fr. John did buy and we, along with Fr. John, went to Jonas’ school and presented it to him. On the day we visited the school, the head teacher pulled Jonas out of a class and brought him to the room we were in. When he saw us, he was surprised and a big smile on his face appeared…a smile that got even bigger when Fr. John pulled the soccer ball out of a bag and gave it to him. The realization that someone would give him something they promised him was probably a big part of this young man’s surprise as Fr. David mentioned that it happens where the students or children may be promised something but never receive it. On Mission Saturday of last week, we had seen Jonas because it was his week to come during the month of October for his stipend and to visit with Fr. David. Kathy made it a point to visit with him and his friends and to ask if the ball was still being used and he, along with his three other buddies said, “yes”, all of them having a smile on their face. Kathy also asked how often they get to play football (it is called football here, not soccer) and if the ball was still in good shape. They said they get to play mostly on the weekends though with exams coming up, the teacher said they must study more so will be spending less time playing and more time studying. Since they are 8th graders, they will be taking their national exams for one week at the end of November. The score the student gets on the exam determines where they can go to school and the better the score, the better the school they can get into. As to the condition of the soccer ball: they said it is “working good”. We have seen some of the balls the children play with at recess when driving by the schools and they are balls made of plastic bags wound with string to hold it together. Fr. Maina told us how he and his friends during their school years would make their own soccer balls. We have looked at the prices for soccer balls and a decent one will cost around $30-40 or more which is not affordable for people who tend to make less than $5 per day so it is understandable why they would try to make their own. We have seen many toys made out of plastic jugs that have been cut out with wheels made out of plastic covers. When one doesn’t have much money to spend on wants vs needs, one can be very creative and that seems to be the case from what we have seen.
The weather this week was quite active in that we had a lot of rain as well as some hail. We were driving to Kisii on Thursday to take Emma and Robert home from the Water with Blessings training and we ran into a downpour to the point where the windshield wipers could not keep up. It reminded us of snowstorms back home where the wind would be blowing causing reduced visibility except in this case the culprit was rain. For the week, we had 5.7 inches of rain with 2.5 inches falling in one afternoon.
The caretaker house at the shamba is nearing completion. The workers have cemented all the walls, poured the cement floor, and completed most of the outside work including the pipes for sewer and electrical lines. It has been neat to watch the building process as well as the progress made within a short time, especially seeing the minimal equipment they use.
On Wednesday and Thursday, we held WWB trainings at Nyantaro with 29 women trained between the two days. Usually, we don’t do two in one week but with Emma taking on the teaching duties for the time being, we held two trainings so that on Wednesday, Lilian could observe Emma and on Thursday, Emma taught solo. Both days, we had a number of little ones at the trainings ranging in age from 9 months to almost 2 years. Some of them could only crawl and it was quite entertaining to watch them crawl around the church floor though the floor wasn’t exactly clean. We gave them lollipops and if it dropped out of their mouth and fell on the floor, they would pick it up and put it right back in! One of the little boys named Amos, looked like a miniature football player! He would crawl under the table where Emma and Lilian were teaching from and he would try to stand up and every time he’d hit his head very hard though he never cried – he just couldn’t figure it out that he was just a little too tall to stand up. When it came time for the mamas to taste the clean water, the little ones had some to drink as well. We filled the cups several times just for them since they worked up a thirst crawling around. When we took the group picture on Wednesday after the training, an 82-year-old mama was whooping and hollering and said something in Ekegusii that we didn’t understand but made everyone else laugh. We asked Lilian and Emma what the mama said and it was that she would “be in America”! It didn’t matter to her that it was a picture of her that would be seen by Americans – to her it was the same thing. So many people ask us to help them get to America and we have to tell them it is something we cannot help them with as we are here to work with the Mission. We have found that a lot of people here have the perception that all Americans have a lot of money and there are no poor people and so we try our best to explain that there are poor people in America. Having been in Kenya now for almost a year and getting to know people and be immersed in the culture here, one can see that people here are far richer than many Americans when it comes to things other than wealth and possessions. The adage “money can’t buy happiness” is true. That is not to say people here don’t suffer as they do especially with the economic conditions but there is a true joy they possess in spite of the hardships they experience.
Thursday of this week was a national holiday here in Kenya known as ‘Mashujaa’ Day. Schools and government buildings were closed. ‘Mashujaa’ is the Kiswahili word for ‘Heroes’ and a day that is set aside to honor all who have contributed to the fight for Kenya’s freedom. In 1963, Kenya did gain their independence from the British. The girls here at St. Teresa’s that are orphans in the Mission program, wrote a nice note to the Bismarck Mission expressing their appreciation and gratitude for all that the Mission does to help them and so they chose to celebrate the Bismarck Mission on this ‘Heroes’ Day. It was a very touching letter and listed all the names of the orphans that attend school here.
On Friday, we ended up taking Faith back to the doctor since she was having some difficulty with breathing as she did before. Before we could pick her up, Wes and Fr. David had to change a flat tire on the Hilux. We arrived at the clinic at 9:30 am hoping to see the pediatrician that Faith had seen previously but the receptionist said he wouldn’t be in until around 11 am. Past experience has told us that it may be 11 am or noon or later. Because we didn’t want to wait, we took Faith to Christamarriane Mission Hospital. We have been there before with her so we knew some of the routine though Kathy was grateful Emma was with us to help navigate the process and speak the language: you register when you walk in, they give you a piece of paper and have to walk out of the building and around a corner to the Cashier window to pay the consultation fee (Ksh 400). You then bring the receipt back to the reception area and get in a line where eventually you have your vitals taken. Kathy was once again appalled that everyone else in this large waiting area can see the person’s blood pressure, pulse, etc. and hear the conversation between the patient and the aide taking the vitals. HIPPA rules don’t apply in Kenya! After the vitals, you sit and wait to see one of two doctors – when the door opens and someone comes out, another patient goes in. No names are called – you just walk in and sometimes patients walk in while there is already another patient in the room and just start asking the doctor a question (did happen to us). After Faith saw the doctor, he ordered a chest x-ray and lab work. That meant going to those two departments to get prices for the tests and then walking back to the Cashier window to pay and then going back to the departments to get the labs and x-ray done. Then you wait to take your lab results back to the big waiting room and get in line again and wait for the doctor. At one point after we were already finished with getting the x-ray taken, Emma led us back to the Radiology department. Kathy couldn’t understand why since we had already been there and Emma said, “you paid for the x-rays so they are yours to keep”! We were given Faith’s chest x-ray in a letter sized envelope along with her lab results to take home. Faith had pneumonia so a prescription was written and we proceeded to go to the pharmacy to get a price and then head back outside to the Cashier’s window to pay and then back to the pharmacy to get the prescription filled. We spent about 4.5 hours at this place…it was a long day. An interesting observation by Kathy was what appeared to be candy stripers who assisted the doctor and retrieved things like documents. Candy stripers, as Kathy knew of them, wore a red-and-white striped pinafore. Here, the uniform was a khaki-colored pinafore with a white apron over the top. There were a lot of things Kathy saw that made her grateful for the health care we have access to in the United States though it shouldn’t be that way as all people should be able to have access to decent healthcare.
On Saturday, instead of attending Mission Saturday with the orphans, we, along with Emma went to Enchoro and Mosobeti to conduct WWB follow-ups. We had a total of five groups come between the two places. Enchoro is where we get to see breath-taking views of the surrounding area and it was a beautiful day so the views were spectacular. It was at Enchoro where a couple of the mamas brought their buckets back saying they didn’t work. We performed the backflush on both filters and had them in working order by the end of the follow-up. What most likely happened is the mamas didn’t clean the filters daily like they should especially if they are filtering very dirty water. This is why the follow-ups are good: you go over any issues they might be having, you reinforce and remind what had been taught, etc. Another issue has been the syringe and it getting lost…most often it was “lost” because the children in the household found it to be a good squirt gun! We had to get a little stern with them and remind them of the importance of the syringe because without one, you cannot perform the backflush. Yes, they could go and purchase a syringe at the Agrovet store but most likely would not be able to because of the cost. An Agrovet store is a store that offers animal feeds, veterinary drugs, etc. The mamas are grateful for the gift of the filter and bucket and continue to report the children do not have issues since drinking the filtered water which is music to our ears!
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!