Last Sunday we attended Mass at the Cathedral in Kisii because there was only one Mass here at Gekano which meant it would most likely be held outdoors.  Every time we have gone to the Cathedral in the past few months or so, there has been an extra collection after Mass and sometimes up to five collections total.  This past Sunday was no different – besides the two regular collections at offertory there was one additional collection at the end of Mass.  This seems like a lot of collections and maybe all for a good reason but since we don’t understand what they are talking about as the people come up, we are left in the dark.  One of these times we might have to ask but then again, not sure we want to ask! 

On Monday, Wes took Vincliff, one of the orphans, to the eye clinic for a checkup.  Vincliff is the grandson of Agrapina, the sweet lady we had come to know through our various trips to the doctors with Vincliff as well as seeing her on Mission Saturday.  Agrapina died in December so Vincliff, along with his brother and sisters, are now being cared for by their aunt who also came along to the appointment.  When they got to the clinic and Wes paid the consultation fee, they were given a slip of paper showing they were #23 in line to see the doctor.  In the end, they were at the clinic for about two hours which wasn’t too bad considering there were 22 patients ahead of them.  While Wes took Vincliff and his guardian to the doctor, Kathy stayed back to get the laundry done and work on some policies for the Mission handbook. 

On Tuesday, Kathy figured it was time to weed the flower gardens.  With the rains and fertile soil here, the weeds grow fast.  Wes also helped to prune some of the bushes that were getting out of control.  This past week, the Easter Lily plant started to bloom – it was only a few weeks late for Easter!  While Kathy was pulling weeds, three young boys (preschool to probably 2^nd grade) came looking for “sweets”. Kathy told them “hakuna sweets” meaning “no sweets” which is not the truth but we have had to resort to telling white lies because there are upwards of 15-20 children or more showing up at our door some days and we will go broke buying sweets!  When they come to the door, we have been telling them unarudi Jumapili kwa sweets (you return on Sunday for sweets).  Because some were showing up on Sunday morning, we have had to add the words mchana (afternoon) or jioni (evening) so they wouldn’t come in the morning though that has not stopped some.  The children are on break between Terms 1 and 2 which means even more children showing up at the door.  It wouldn’t be so bad if only the little ones came but the big ones that are in Grade 5 and above come as well.  Kathy felt bad telling these three young boys, with their puppy dog eyes, there weren’t any sweets but they were okay with it and soon turned their attention to the gardening tools used for digging and trimming that were laying on the ground.  Kathy had to take the tools away from them because they were either barefoot or had open-toed sandals on and she didn’t care to take anyone to the doctor.  As Kathy continued to pull weeds, the three of them decided they would help which Kathy was fine with.  Wes showed them where to dump the weeds so they thought that was a fun job as well.  After the weeding was done, Kathy wanted to give them sweets for helping but since she had already told them there weren’t any, she had Wes find three coins worth 10 bob each to give them.  The look on their face was priceless when they saw the coins.  One of the boys spoke English very well and when Kathy asked if they would be able to buy some sweets, he immediately answered, “yes”.  He then said something to the other two and they took off running to the small duka (shop) outside the gates to buy a lollipop or maybe two…not sure how much 10 bob will buy (a 10 bob is probably worth 5 cents).  The next day, these same three boys came by wanting to pull weeds and they didn’t even ask for sweets.  Kathy had to tell them there were no weeds to pull and they got those sad puppy dog eyes again!  They do know how to elicit sympathy but Kathy had to hold her ground in spite of those eyes!    

On Wednesday and Thursday, we along with Emma, went to the Mosobeti area to continue our home visits and hoped we might get more done that last week.  Lilian was taking exams so she was not able to help.  Our guide on Wednesday was Lilian (Lilian is a popular name or so it seems).  When we stopped to pick her up, Kathy could not help but admire Lilian for how dressed up she was.  She had on a nice red and gray dress, low heels that were shiny and clean, a bow in her hair, and she carried a small clutch purse.  Lilian looked like she was ready to go to church or some important function!  In all reality, we were going to be walking through mud as it had rained a lot the night before, through tea fields, dodging cow pies, etc.  Her shoes at the end of our day looked almost as clean as they were when we started in spite of all the walking we did.  Because of the terrain and distance between the shambas, we were able to only get 5 visits done.  The shambas in the Mosobeti area are larger than those here around Gekano and yet, these two villages are only about 7 miles away from each other.  On Thursday, we went to Nyantaro to deliver blankets to 36 women who qualified by attending five or all six of the follow ups.  Nyantaro is the church where the piano is though Kathy could not play it this time as the women needed to get going to a church function and we were headed back to Mosobeti to do more home visits so the blankets got handed out fast!  The women were quite happy to receive the blankets and just as at Nyasumi last month, a number of women danced their way to the front to receive their blanket.  Our guide on Thursday was Lucina – a very kind woman and one who knew the surrounding area well which allowed us to make 9 visits.  When we entered Lucina’s house to see her bucket and for her to show us how she cleans it, she made the comment “my husband left me” and we looked at each other not knowing what to say other than “pole” which means sorry.  We then went outside and as she was showing us her yard, she pointed to a mound of dirt and the flowers growing on top of it and proceeded to tell us “This is where mzee is”.  What she meant when she said “my husband left me” is that he died.  People around here bury their loved ones in their yards so it is not uncommon to walk into a yard and see a grave marker on top of a mound of dirt and often times, flowers planted on top.  Wes had mentioned the conversation to Fr. David and he told us that for the most part, people don’t use the words die or death and would use words like Lucina did.   We have gone to several funerals during our time here in Kenya and on the pamphlet that is printed for the person who died (their obituary), instead of the words Date of Birth and Date of Death, they use the words Sunrise and Sunset which is a much gentler way of noting the dates especially the Date of Death.  After the 9^th home visit, we called it a day.  Between the two days of home visits, we walked over 12 miles so we got our mazoezi (exercise) in for the week and on Thursday got the cardio part in with going up and down the steep mountain!  Again, we had some magnificent views of the surrounding area as we walked from shamba to shamba. 

This past week we received over 3.75 inches of rain which is expected since we are in the long rainy season.  The temperatures have been in the low to mid-70’s so the days are beautiful with the rains coming usually in the late afternoon.  The power did go off a couple of times during the day and evening hours.  The Sisters had the generator turned on during the evening outages which was a pleasant surprise since school is not in session.  For most of those times, the generator was turned on for about an hour and soon after the power came on. 

Shamba update:  the men continue to work on the parapet, plastering of the walls and ceilings on the second floor with cement, as well as doing the decorative trim with cement on the outside of the windows.  About 5 banana trees were planted on the property with more to come and a makeshift fence was put up around the Napier grass and maize to keep the two goats and calf out.  These animals have plenty of grass inside the compound but must think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence! 

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-4-30-23