Last Sunday morning we attended Mass here at Gekano.  FYI:  Mass started 15 minutes late, the homily lasted 45 minutes and total time was 1 hour and 45 minutes.  After Mass, we went to St. Elizabeth’s hospital/clinic run by the same Sisters who run St. Teresa’s boarding school for girls.  We went there because Faith, the girl who we’ve written about before, had suffered what they thought was an asthma attack the previous evening.  After spending the night, Faith was able to be discharged so we drove her and her guardian to their home.  Kathy had gone to visit Faith on Saturday night when she was admitted and again, after being in the facility, Kathy was most grateful for what we have in the United States in the way of facilities and the access we have to medical care. 

On Monday morning, Kathy took Faith to the clinic for another injection, drove to Kisii to pick up Emma, and then take Faith to a couple of medical appointments.  Faith has been struggling with health issues over the past few months – she would get better and then have another setback and missed ten days of school in the past few weeks. We were finally able to take her to see a senior pediatrician – basically senior means someone who has some years of experience.  This daktari (doctor) felt Faith has asthma but could not make a definitive diagnosis because a test called a Spirometry needed to be done.  The daktari knew of no one in the area that could do this test so Faith and her guardian will have to travel to Nairobi to have the test done.  In the meantime, Faith was prescribed two different inhalers to help with symptoms until a definitive diagnosis is made and course of treatment planned for her.  We spent over seven hours in two different medical complexes…it was a very long day. 

Because Wes had to go to the shamba on Monday morning, Kathy did drive in Kisii as mentioned above.  Kathy wasn’t all that keen about driving in Kisii especially because it was market day – a day you don’t really want to be in Kisii.  Kathy was a little nervous to drive but there weren’t any alternatives and besides, she has to eventually drive in Kisii town on market days.  We could not find a parking spot near the clinic where Faith was scheduled for blood tests, so, Emma told Kathy we could park at the Kisii Parish parking lot – an underground parking lot about three or four blocks away.  It was a nerve-racking drive to get to this parking lot but we got there without any scratches or dents in the car.  Because we had to go to a different place to see the pediatrician, and it was too far of a walk for Faith, we drove there.  So, upon leaving the underground parking lot, Kathy had told Emma she would need to let her know where to turn since she (Emma) knew where the building was and Kathy didn’t. Emma’s idea of telling Kathy where to turn would be things like “go up”, “go down” and/or would point a direction instead of speaking to which Kathy told Emma she needs to say out loud to turn right or left or if she wanted to say it in Kiswahili, that was fine as Kathy understood kulia (right) and kushoto (left).  At one point we needed to turn right but couldn’t due to a truck blocking the road and backed up traffic.  So, Kathy took a left and eventually we got back on track.  At one point, Emma told Kathy to turn up (she meant turn left) and as Kathy looked at the street Emma wanted her to turn onto, she (Kathy) didn’t think she should go there because it just looked different – there were a few cars parked at an angle in the opposite direction.  Though there were no signs posted, Kathy thought it looked like a one-way but she did see pikipiki drivers going in the direction we wanted to go so Kathy turned onto the street. Once we arrived at the intersection at the end of the street, Kathy took a right-hand turn and got back on the road we needed to be on.  Not long after, a motorcycle pulled up beside the car – drivers of the motorcycles are usually so close to the vehicle that you could shake their hand - and through Kathy’s open window, a man’s voice said, “hello, how are you?” to which Kathy didn’t look his way or respond as she was concentrating on the traffic ahead and around her that was moving at a snail’s pace not to mention the people walking in front of the car.  People on motorcycles tend to say things to you as they pass by so you just tend to ignore what they are saying and concentrate on the traffic. The man repeated his greeting again and after he said it a third time, Kathy looked to her right as she was driving and got a surprise – it was a police officer or so she thought it was at that moment.  Once he got Kathy’s attention, he told her to follow him and he pulled ahead of the car and kept motioning for us to follow him.  Kathy’s heart sank as she wasn’t really sure what she did and at the same time, Emma is telling Kathy to just keep driving and don’t pull over!  Kathy did lose track of the officer in the traffic and told Emma that if she doesn’t see the officer, she would keep going but if she did see him, she would stop…she didn’t want to get in trouble for fleeing an officer!  Eventually, Kathy did see him a short distance ahead of the car and he was waving and motioning for her to pull over to the side of the street.  Once the vehicle was stopped, the officer poked his head in the passenger window and he and Emma had a conversation in Ekegusii or maybe it was Kiswahili…Kathy wasn’t really sure as she was a little nervous and deep in thought looking for her passport and International Driver’s License to show the officer.  He then said in English to Kathy, “you not drive on that road” and Kathy then realized it probably was the street that she thought might be a one-way that he was referring to.  Kathy then bravely said to the officer, “but the pikipiki drivers were driving on that street in the same direction we were” to which he said again, “you not drive on that road”.  At that point, the officer told Kathy she needed to come with him to the Equity bank and she was to deposit Ksh 10,000 (about $82 with the current exchange rate) to a number he would give her.  Emma smelled a rat while Kathy didn’t have a clue.  Emma discreetly nudged Kathy’s elbow and gave a look that basically meant she would handle it.  Emma told him that we don’t have that kind of money on us (though Kathy did have that amount on hand) but he insisted that Kathy do what he is telling her or we would have to go to the “station” to which Kathy leaned over to Emma and discreetly said, “we cannot go to the police station”!  He again insisted Kathy go to the bank with him to which Emma told him that we have a child in the back and were taking her to the hospital (we really were) and needed to get there.  He still insisted to which Emma then said, “we will have to call our boss to bring us money because we don’t have that much” to which the officer asked, “who is your boss” to which Emma said, “Rogers”. At that point Kathy almost started giggling because Rogers is the guy who helps with the Mission.  We have no idea if this man really knew Rogers or just decided that he didn’t want to deal with someone named Rogers.  The officer then changed his tune and said, “then you pay 1000 for lunch” to which Emma said, “we give you 500” and he said, “1000” and while those two were going and back and forth, Kathy was already in her bag getting out a Ksh 1000 bill ($8.20) and handed it to Emma so she’d give it to the officer…Kathy just wanted to leave as soon as possible.  After we drove away, Kathy said something to Emma about the police and Emma said, “he was not the police – he was a county official”. Kathy then learned that “county officials” were like a traffic monitor of some sort with not a lot of power and when he saw Kathy drive down the one-way street and saw a mzungu (white person), he probably thought it was his day to make some cash but little did he know that Emma can hold her own…Kathy would have folded and given him the Ksh 10,000!  Bribery, as we have come to know, is almost a way of life for certain things and law enforcement can be one of them.  When a police officer or in this case the county official or the tax collector along the road stop you, they can use a variety of words which are code words for wanting a bribe.  We have always heard about paying “chai” from our language school teacher and today, Kathy heard it called “lunch”!  They are both one and the same… a bribe.  What the county official was telling Kathy she had to do was basically illegal in that he was telling her she needed to deposit Ksh 10,000 to the number he would give her, which, as Emma said, was his personal bank account.  But, people do it because they don’t want to hassle with the law.  At dinner that evening, as Kathy was relaying the story to Fr. David and Wes, Fr. David said he knows the street as he has done the same thing.  The next day when seeing Rogers, Kathy mentioned how his name has clout with the county officials and relayed her story.  Rogers said he knew exactly which street it was and that it is not marked as it being a one-way.  He said these “officials” sit at the bottom waiting for someone like Kathy to come along and then try to extort money for their own pockets.  After hearing both, Fr. David and Rogers, say it is not a marked street, Kathy felt a little better! Kathy’s first driving experience on market day was not the best but at the same time she learned a few things and hopefully to not be so naïve should she ever be pulled over again. Kathy was most grateful that Emma was along for the ride!

Along the lines of trying to take money that does not belong to one, Wes had an incident in the past week as well.  Our stove in the house is a gas stove and so we have to buy canisters of cooking gas every so often.  This past week, Wes went to exchange the empty canister for a full one at a dealer about a 15-minute drive from the Mission house.  When you go to a business here, you try to avoid the 1:30 – 3:00 pm time frame as that is usually lunch time for many Kenyans.  So, Wes arrived around 2:30pm.  When he got to the place, he waited for about five minutes and because no one was coming to help him he was about to leave when a young man came to help him.  Wes gave the empty canister to the young man while an older man – presumably the owner – told the young man which canister to give Wes.  The canister was loaded in the vehicle and Wes then asked how much he owed.  Prior to arriving at the business, Wes had called Rogers to ask how much would the normal cost be for the canister – Wes didn’t want to pay the mzungu price which is always much higher.  Rogers told Wes the most he should have to pay is Ksh 3200 ($26.20).  When Wes asked the young man how much he owed, he told Wes Ksh 5000!!  Wes proceeded to tell the young man to take the canister out of the vehicle because he wasn’t going to pay that much for it.  The young man then said to Wes, “No, no, 3000 is fine”.  So, Wes gave him Ksh 3000 and got back into the vehicle and started to leave when the older man motioned to Wes that he wanted to talk to him.  As the older man was coming to the vehicle, the younger one followed as well but got to Wes first and said to Wes, “No problem, you can go”.  As the young man was saying this, Wes saw him give Ksh 1000 to the older man.  Apparently, the young guy was going to keep Ksh 1000 for himself and told the older guy that Wes only paid Ksh 2000.  Wes then left and let the two guys settle the issue themselves.

Several times this past week we went to the shamba to check on the progress.  Since we last wrote about the shamba, the caretaker house is basically finished with just a few minor things left.  The tiling of the floors, bathroom, and counters has been completed.  Light fixtures still need to be put in as well as painting of the walls.  The water tower, which has been completed for some time, will eventually hold four tanks – the capacity of the tanks are 10,000 liters each.  So far, two of the tanks have been filled with water from the well that was drilled.  This past week, the second floor of the barn was started – this is where the kuku (chickens) will live.  They also started to dig the foundation for the Mission house.  Because of the size and shape of the land, instead of having a ranch style house as originally thought, the house will now be two stories to take up less room.  Prior to the men digging any of the foundation for the Mission house, the architect who is overseeing the building, asked if Fr. David would say a prayer with the men and so he did.  Again, we watch with amazement at how the men go about working with few tools and humans who take the place of skid steer loaders, trenchers, etc.  The Mission house will be built of stone that has a design; what is astonishing to watch is how the men sit near piles of stones and carve the design into the stone with the only tools being a chisel, a hammer, and a square to measure with.  It is exciting to watch the progress made each week and equally exiting is that we are able to be a part of this new chapter in the history of the Mission - we are most grateful.

We had two Water with Blessings trainings this week at a new village called Mongorisi – a total of 30 women were trained.  The group on Wednesday was quite talkative.  One older mama, upon seeing the dirty water that was in the bucket wrinkled her nose and made some statement about not drinking that dirty water.  Once the filter was hooked up and clean water was coming out, she was so amazed that she walked over to the bucket and filter to look at it and also to look inside the bucket as she couldn’t believe that clean water was coming out.  One of the women said, “it is a miracle”!   We have a cup for everyone to have a taste of the filtered water if they’d like and most usually take seconds.  They are not given that much but enough for them to taste it.  And if they want seconds, we give them more – Wednesday’s group was quite thirsty.  On Thursday, we trained a second group of fifteen women at this same place.  They were not a very lively bunch and when it came to tasting the filtered water, most of them took a small sip and no more.  When Kathy took a container of the filtered water around to see if any women wanted more, all she heard was “no- maji ni baridi” which meant no, it is cold.  They do not like cold water or to drink cold beverages when the temperature outside is cold though it is rare to drink anything cold since most people do not have a refrigerator.  Most of the women in this second group walked to the training in the rain and so they were very wet when they arrived.  The temperature was right around 60 °F and the air was damp - it truly was cold outside so it was understandable why they didn’t want to drink the water…they would have rather had warm chai!  It was the first time, in all the trainings we have been to, where the women didn’t want to drink the water because it was “baridi”.  Though they didn’t care to drink very much, they were still most grateful for the zawadi ya kichungi kutoka kwa watu wa Bismarck (gift of filter from the people of Bismarck).  We also had five follow ups between two different villages:  Mosobeti and Nyasumi.  We are getting near the end of the six follow up sessions with the women at some of these villages and once we are, we will give a blanket to those women who have attended five of the six sessions.  They are not aware they will receive this gift – Emma or Lilian will send a text to those women who qualify saying they have one more session – their graduation - and it is then they are given the blanket.

On a final note, we were without power more than we had power this week.  We heard that a tree fell on a power pole in the area and thus why without power.  We were very happy that school is still in session because that means the Sisters will turn the generator so the girls can study – they turn it on from 4:30 am until 6 am in the morning and in the evening, they turn it on from 7 pm to 10 pm so the girls can again study.  We also had significant rainfall with some thunderstorms which probably contributed to being without power.  This past week, we had 4.8 inches of rain and to date for the month of November we have had over 11 inches.  November is supposed to be a rainy month and it is good that it is raining because the dry months are coming soon. 

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:

https://stjparish.com/photoalbums/kenya-11-20-22