Fr. David’s favorite saying is “every day is an adventure in Kenya” and this week was no different! We were quite busy this past week. In addition to the news that follows, we did jobs around the mission house, cleaned the flower garden, laundry, etc. with some of the tasks having to be done around the rain since we had almost three inches of rain this past week. The power went out quite often but it was during daylight hours so to that we say Hakuna Shida (no problem)! We didn’t have to carry our “torches” around to eat, do dishes, get ready for bed, etc. (a flashlight here is called a torch). The temperature was pretty much in the low 70’s all week and night time temperatures were around 59-60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Two days this week were spent paying the orphan’s school fees for the new school year. Because of Covid, the education of students around the world was disrupted and here in Kenya it was no different. After returning to school in 2021, Kenyan students have been going almost non-stop with few breaks to make up for lost time (approximately one year). Form 4 students (equivalent to a senior in high school) just graduated at the end of last month and now a new school year will start this coming week. Again, the students will go almost non-stop until the end of this year at which time the government feels the students will be caught up. A normal school year in Kenya begins in January and ends in November with the school year divided into three terms. The first term is January through March, followed by a month-long break; the second term is May through July followed by a month-long break; and the third term is September through October. At the beginning of November, students in Standard 8 (equivalent to Grade 8) will take a three-day exam called KCPE which is an exam that reviews the learning that has taken place during their primary years. The score they get on this exam will be used by high schools to admit incoming freshman – the higher the score on the exam, the more likely the better the school they can be admitted to. Form 4 students (Senior in high school) have a month of exams called KCSE which determine if they are eligible for college or a trade school. If one has the dream to become a teacher, doctor, nurse, etc. but their score is not high enough, they will not be admitted to a college to study for those occupations.
We did not actually write any checks during these two days of paying fees but we watched the process and it is mind-boggling. Fr. David, Rogers, and Sr. Teresa have a very good record keeping system – they must since there are over 450 orphans in the program. The orphans enrolled in the Bismarck Mission attend over 150 different schools between primary and secondary and each school has their own fee schedule! Some of these schools are day schools whereas others are boarding schools. When the check is written, it is made out to the school and on the back is recorded the names of the children and their school ID numbers. The process is very tedious. Besides tuition monies, funds were also given to the children to buy their required school uniforms (done at the beginning of every new school year) and any other fees the schools have such as taking exams, paper, required books such as a dictionary, etc. Students attending a boarding school will also have to bring a number of other items such as their own eating utensils (mug, plate, and spoon) and a padlock for the cubby in the cafeteria where their eating utensils will be stored, toilet tissue, bedding which is normal but they also have to bring their own mattresses! The orphans are expected to maintain good grades and if not, they are brought in to have a meeting with Fr. David and Rogers. Sometimes, a student is just not able to earn decent grades and it is at this point that Fr. David and Rogers will visit with the student and look at sending them to a Polytechnic School to learn a trade so they can make a living. Some of the different trades would be construction, beautician, tailor, plumber, chef, etc. As the students receive their tuition checks and uniform allowance, many express their gratitude. Without the mission, it would be next to impossible for some of these orphans to get a good education and many realize that. Last week it was mentioned in the blog that a young lady wrote a letter of appreciation and again this week there was a young man who did the same. Their words of appreciation to the people of the Bismarck Diocese are very moving as they truly realize what a gift they have been given in the way of an education…something we in America tend to take for granted.
We held two Water with Blessings (WWB) trainings this week, one on Wednesday and the other on Friday. On Wednesday, we went with Lilian to a village called Mosobeti to train fifteen women. Mosobeti is approximately 7.5 miles from the mission house and pretty much all dirt roads. It rained the night before so the roads were a little slippery but Lilian did an awesome job and got us there safely. The women were so happy to be trained on the use of the water filter and when they saw the brown water come out clear after going through the filter, they were amazed! Lilian teaches the women in their tribal language which is Ekegusii. In Kenya, there are around 42 tribal languages. They are taught in their tribal language because the majority of women are older and it is the language they know and understand. Today, most young people in Kenya know at least three languages: their tribal language, Kiswahili and English. Kiswahili and English are taught in primary and secondary school. After this WWB training, unknown to us, the women had prepared a lunch for us. It would be rude to not eat so we did. We had mboga (greens), ugali (made of corn flour and water or millet flour and water), and scrambled eggs mixed with tomatoes. As stated in an earlier blog, they don’t eat with utensils - they eat with their fingers and so we did as well but we probably should have brought bibs! The women want to dish your food for you because they think you don’t eat enough! They started by placing a huge serving of the mboga (greens) on our plates (took up almost half of the plate) when Kathy said “chakula kidogo tafadahli” which means “less food please”. When the catechist heard Kathy say that, he told the women to let us fill our own plates and we were grateful because we would hate to not be able to eat all of it…there really are lots of hungry children in Africa as so many of us heard growing up. On Friday, we again went to Mosobeti and after the training they insisted we eat. We had the same foods as earlier in the week, but they also brought a pail of sour milk to drink and it was very chunky…it was the one thing neither of us could bring ourselves to try though Lilian likes it. The thought of drinking this milk was not appetizing at all. We wondered why anyone would want to drink this milk but at the same time one realizes people here don’t have the luxury of a refrigerator; thus, the sour milk. We try to be careful of what we eat outside what we cook at the mission house but at the same time we don’t want to be rude. After Wednesday’s meal, Wes did get sick for about 24 hours - it could have been something undercooked, the water we washed our hands with, or maybe the bitter mboga (greens). The greens that we’ve eaten since arriving in Kenya have usually been cooked kale which is not bitter but some greens are also made from a weed that back home, we call pigweed. At Friday’s meal, Wes ate a small portion of ugali only since it is pretty bland and he thought his stomach could handle that. Lilian told us how the women were talking in Ekegusii about our eating habits and how little we eat…we told Lilian to explain that we don’t work nearly as hard as they do so we don’t need to eat such large helpings. We saw the amount of food some of these women had on their plates and it is more than a man might eat and yet they are very thin as they do much manual labor. A meal is usually not served at these trainings but the women were so grateful for the gift of the filter. Not only did they make a meal each time but they also sent us home with gifts both days: bananas, two loaves of bread and almost 15 gallons of dried kidney beans! There is no way we could eat that amount of food nor do we need it so it was given to families who do need it. One was a family of eight where the mother plucks tea for others and the father is disabled. It is very humbling to be at these WWB trainings – to see the immense gratitude these women have for this simple filter which will provide clean water to cook, drink and bathe small children. We as parents never had to worry that our children might die because of the water we gave them to drink, cook with or to bathe them.
It was mentioned in the above paragraph that the mother of the six children we took food to plucks tea (tea is plucked, not picked) for others. Everywhere in the surrounding area you see the hillsides carpeted with the beautiful shades of green and it is the tea plant that seems to be most responsible for this. It was around 10 am on Friday morning when we left for Mosobeti for the WWB training and on the way we saw many women out in the tea fields plucking tea or balancing the full baskets of tea on their head and walking to a tea buying center to sell it. When tea is plucked, they are taking only the bud and two leaves and therefore have to make their way through a lot of plants to fill their baskets. We asked Lilian how many Ksh (Kenyan Shilling) will the women get for their tea. She stated that a basket of plucked tea leaves will hold about 12-15 kilograms and it will take most of the morning (4-5 hours) to fill this basket (see photos in the album section to see the size of a tea basket). She also said that if you are a good “tea plucker”, you will have 12-15 kilograms in your basket. Lilian told us that she can get maybe 5 kilograms in that amount of time and would starve if she had to rely on her tea plucking skills! The women get 20 Ksh per kilogram which is equivalent to roughly 20 cents per kilogram. Therefore, if they have 12-15 kilograms (26-33 pounds) in their basket, they will make around $2.40 to $3.00…such hard and back-breaking work often times on steep hillsides for such a small amount of money. Lilian stated that if you pick tea for someone else, you will probably make only half of that amount. The mother we gave food to plucks tea for someone else so she is making approximately $1.20 to $1.50 per day. Lilian told us that a tin of maize (corn) will cost about 100 Ksh ($1.00) and that would be enough to make maybe one meal depending on the size of the family. Our best estimate of how much a tin (of maize) holds would be maybe half to three quarters of a gallon at most. Life is not easy here and just as we hear from back home that food prices have soared, it is the same here. Cooking oil that used to cost 200 Ksh ($2.00) now costs 600 Ksh ($6.00) for the same size of container and maize, which is a staple in their diet, has increased dramatically as well. The war in Ukraine is having an impact world-wide and will only add to food insecurity in our world especially for the most vulnerable.
We went for our first drive…alone! No Fr. David, no Rogers or Lilian. We drove about 7 miles from the mission house and we made it back safe and sound. Wes did get in the vehicle one day and wondered where the steering wheel was…it was then he realized he got in on the side of the vehicle! Here, the steering wheel is on the right side and you drive on the left side of the road like they do in England. Kathy doesn’t look forward to driving but knows at some point she will have to. We are legal to drive as long as you have your International Driver’s License which we applied for before we left. We cannot get a Kenyan driver’s license (or sign any checks) until we have our Kenyan work permits. In one of the first blogs we wrote after arriving in Kenya in early December, we mentioned the complicated process of getting our work permits. To date, we still don’t have them. When we do get them, we can probably write a very long blog just on that topic! Fr. David says things take time in Kenya…we are slowly learning to be more patient. Subira ni fadhila (patience is a virtue)!
As we reflected on this week at the mission by helping with the paying of school fees, experiencing Mission Saturday where approximately 100 of the 450 orphans come for their small stipend and ration of maize, and helping to train the Water Women, we are very grateful to the people of the Bismarck Diocese who continue to support the mission as well as others who may not be within our diocese but also support the work here. We and Fr. David could not continue this ministry if not for the prayers and generous financial support of many people. We wish that those who support this mission in any way could see, in person, the faces of these children with their smiles and hear the words they speak to express their gratitude. Please know that you are making a difference in the lives of these children. Mungu Akubariki!