Last Sunday we attended Mass here at Gekano and we shall just say up front, it was a stressful Mass…maybe the one that broke the camel’s back!  We arrived at church before 7 am, the time Mass was scheduled to start and finally, at 7:33 am the priest and servers walked into the church.  Then, it was realized that the candles weren’t lit nor was the mic system set up so they took time to do that though one thinks they would have gotten that done during the 33 minutes we were waiting for the priest.  Shortly after Mass started, the priest said something in Ekegusii which we didn’t understand until we started seeing people move out of their pew and into ones closer to the front.  At Mass, the usual order is that women sit on the left side, the men on the right and in the middle a mixture.  We tend to sit in the middle and towards the rear of the church since the back door is open and, usually, a nice cool breeze can be felt.  We also do this for the reason that the church slowly fills throughout Mass and it gets even warmer with the many bodies surrounding you.    Back to the story – people did move a few pews up and eventually we decided to not be rebellious and follow though we stayed in the middle section.  This shifting of people must have not been acceptable to the priest as he again said something and reluctantly people moved up a few more pews squeezing as many as they could into each pew.  Because the middle section was the least filled and we didn’t want to sit closer to the front, Kathy decided we’d move to the left section with the women, though in front of us were a couple of pews of grade school aged children.  Once everyone seemed to be situated, the priest continued with the Mass.  During one of the readings and obviously at the request of the priest, an altar server got up and walked down the side aisle with all heads turning to see where he was going.  The server walked to the back of the church, up the steps to the balcony and made the youth that were there come down and sit in the main section.  Finally, we got to the homily and the straw that broke the camel’s back.  The priest preached for 40 minutes which was interspersed with having people get up and read from the bible and then others had to stand up and come to the front to answer his questions which he often interrupted as they took a stab at seeing if they could get the right answer and if they did, people would clap.  After 40 minutes of this, the priest had the altar servers pass out half sheets of paper and it was at this point, Kathy turned to Wes and made the comment “I wonder what the paper is for” to which Wes said, “voting”!  Kathy almost started laughing out loud.  The priest then proceeded to tell the people to write something on them…the something we didn’t know because we didn’t understand much of anything to this point though our guess was to write down the main points he was trying to get across to them.  The next issue was that hardly anyone had a pen or pencil to write with – they handed out paper but nothing to write with.  It was at this point Wes sarcastically made the comment, “there are 3 pens for 300 people” which was pretty much the case.  For the next 20 minutes or so, people were passing a pen or pencil around so others could write.  While all this is going on, we were getting more frustrated – one could probably see the steam coming out of our ears!  Eventually, the priest started to walk up and down the aisles like a teacher in the classroom checking to see that people were writing on their paper and for anyone who didn’t have a piece of paper, he made the altar server bring them one.  All the while, people were talking and it became a circus-like atmosphere.  Finally, shortly after 9 am, we had had enough and when the priest was making one of his walks up and down the aisles, we got up and left.  Outside of the church, as we walked back to the Mission house, were the people who were waiting to attend the 9 am Mass – we wanted to warn them that it might be a long wait but we didn’t.  Once back at the Mission house, we listened for any activity happening at the church and heard none as we ate breakfast.  We had plans to go to Lilian’s house after Mass but decided to leave sooner than expected since we left Mass early.  When we left around 9:30 am and heard no activity, we assumed the people were still working on their exams at church.  We know that wazungu (two white people) are very easily seen, would be missed and fully expected for someone to say something to us at some point and sure enough, the next morning after daily Mass, one of the Sisters said to Wes at the clothesline, “we saw you leave yesterday” to which Wes said, “yes, Sister, we did leave”. We mentioned our frustrations with Mass starting late to the whole exam fiasco and her response was, “yes, we were not connecting, some of us sleeping, and our backs were hurting”.  Her assessment of the situation agreed with ours in that we were not connecting, our backs were definitely hurting as the pews are wooden benches with not much support and yes, we did see some of the Sisters sleeping!  Sister then said, “but we could not leave”.  Wes later made the comment that they couldn’t and we shouldn’t have!  At some point, you ask yourself what is going on and why are we here as we thought it was to attend Mass and not have a seminar.  We get that we don’t understand the language all that well and that can contribute to our frustration but we have never got up and walked out.  The beauty of the Mass is that no matter where you are in the world and what language it is celebrated in, you know the parts of the Mass and what is going on. We also understand that the way people learn here is mostly by hearing it several times as they don’t have books in church to read from and thus the homily might have to be a little longer but one lasting over two hours?? This is the only parish we have experienced such frustration since arriving in Kenya and we have been to Mass at numerous parishes between Nairobi and Kisii.  We asked Sister how long Mass lasted and she said with a sigh, “until ten after ten” which meant the people were there from 7 am to 10:10 am – three hours and ten minutes for a regular Sunday Mass is a bit much though one must subtract the 33 minutes for Mass starting late.  A few days later while Wes was browsing the news on his phone, he asked Kathy if she had Fr. Henri’s email address which he knew she didn’t – Fr. Henri is the head priest of this parish and is the one who had the Mass on Sunday.  When she asked why, he said, “you need to send this article to him”.  The title of the article was Pope Francis:  Long homilies are ‘a disaster’ – keep it under 10 minutes!  That is exactly what we thought!!

On Wednesday, we made home visits to nine women in the Biticha area.  We have been in this area for the past month or so trying to finish up our home visits for the Water with Blessings program. Again, we split up with Wes and Emma going one direction and Lilian and Kathy the other, each taking a guide to help them locate the homes of the mamas.  We compared notes later seeing who had the worse terrain to cover because we all thought we had it rough – the mountains were steep and it was warm out but in the end Wes and Emma probably had the toughest as they had to go up and down the mountains numerous times to reach the homes. 

On Thursday morning, Lilian, Emma and Kathy delivered blankets to women in the Nyantarago area which means these women are officially done with the follow ups.  While the three of us were delivering blankets, Wes was busy hauling the 210-liter water drums to the Biticha church where a mama was waiting to guard the drums so some of them didn’t grow legs and walk away.  The Hilux can haul 11 drums at one time but since we had 34 women receiving a drum, three trips had to be made plus the one we were hauling around in the car.  Because we now have storage space at the new shamba between the barn and water tower, we have been storing the water drums there.  Wes had to make the trek from the new shamba to Biticha and each way took him about an hour because of the rough roads even though the distance between the two is only about 7 ½ miles.  On the way to Biticha from Nyantarago, Kathy and the girls decided to stop and get sodas and mkate (bread) for the mamas at a duka (shop) as a treat until Wes arrived with the last load.  The mamas were very grateful especially since it was hot out and it was lunch time.  Once Wes arrived and the drums were unloaded, it didn’t take long to get them distributed to those who qualified.  The women were very happy to receive the drums though a few showed up who weren’t supposed to - word travels fast around here - and they were disappointed with some of them even trying to make a case why they should get one.  Emma and Lilian simply explained why they didn’t receive a drum but also told them, they received the most valuable gift of the filter which provides clean water for them and their families.  They also told them we may show up one day at their house to visit and if we find they are using and caring for the filter properly, they will get a water drum…that seemed to satisfy them.  It was quite fun to watch the 34 women walk away from the church yard carrying the drums on their heads and chatting away with some singing as they walked down the road. 

We have not had any measurable rains since January 12^th and temperatures have been in the low to mid 80’s.  It is dry and very dusty and at times, when driving on the dirt roads, reminds one of trying to drive in a snowstorm where the visibility is greatly reduced though it is not white snow causing the issues but rather, red dust.  It would be nice if it rained just a little to keep the dust down but it doesn’t look like that may happen until a few more weeks from now. The green vegetation next to the roads has taken on a brownish color due to the heavy dust.  We really feel for the people who live right next to the main roads as the trucks carrying tea to the nearby tea factories  and other trucks stir up a lot of dust.  We will be grateful for the rains when they come. 

This past week, school started for all students except Form 1 (freshman).  Freshmen will report for school on January 30^th with the biggest reason being that they are just getting their KCPE scores in the past week and can now look to attend a school – they took this exam as an 8^th grader. As mentioned in a previous blog, the higher the score, the better the school they will be able to get into.   It is nice to have the girls back at the school here on the compound though we have to get used to some of their faces again since they had to shave their heads.  With it being the start of a new school year, we have had many come not only to our door to ask for help but also out when out and about.  The Mission helps those who are orphans but there are many children who have one or both parents and want help with tuition for school, uniforms, transport fees, etc.  but the Mission is not able to since they are not orphans.  It is especially hard to turn away a student who is getting good grades and has a high KCPE score as an education is about the only way to break the chain of poverty.  We wish we could help them all but we can’t and that is hard though we are personally helping a few with tuition and different needs.  That being said, we have seen a lot of different fee structures as each school has their own.  Along with the fee structures, some of the boarding schools have their School Rules and Regulations attached to the fee structure.  We have found some of these rules quite interesting and others kind of shocking.  Here are a few as found on the forms:

1.  All pupils should wear complete and well-maintained school uniform while in school.  Penalty:  Dressing shabbily will result in being sent back home.
2. Pupils are not allowed to be in possession of any money or valuable items of unknown source.  Pocket money and fare should be kept by the school matron.  If caught with money, Penalty:  A pupil is suspended for two weeks.
3. All pupils are expected to take care of school property.  Penalty:  Any soiling, damaging or loosing of property calls for the replacement by the parents/guardian.
4. Personal cleanliness and hygiene are highly recommended.  Pupils should endeavor to keep themselves and all other areas within the school compound spotlessly clean.  Penalty:  Dirty pupils will be washed by others.  Double punishment will be given to those who fail to clean their area. 
5. Pupils are supposed to be in the school compound, any pupil found passing through the fence illegally or sneaking from the school.  Penalty:  To buy a heavy gauge roll of barbed wire. 
6. Stealing other people’s property or school property is not allowed in school.  Penalty:  leads to double purchase of the item stolen.
7. No foodstuffs are accepted at school.  Penalty:  Infringement will result in supplying enough food for the entire school.

This list is not comprehensive – it is only about half!  Our children in America would be quite shocked to see the entire list.  At the bottom of the list is a statement that reads “all students are required to observe the above rules and any other rule not specifically mentioned, but may come into force from the school administration from time to time”. This is a pretty broad statement and covers about anything.  The punishments are obviously meant to deter the students but students here are not any different than elsewhere and most likely will break those rules from time to time no matter the punishment. 

Shamba update:  This past week and for the next several weeks, the workers will continue to tear down the posts and metal sheets that were holding the concrete of the second level floor in place until it cured.  The bottom level no longer looks like a forest with the posts (nearby trees that were cut down) placed as supports.  They hope to pour the next level (the ceiling of the second floor) within the next few weeks.  It is slowly taking shape and as they say here hatua kwa hatua (step by step). 

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


https://stjparish.com/photoalbums/kenya-1-29-23