Last Sunday we attended Mass here at Gekano.  It was scheduled for 7 am and much to our surprise it started only 5 minutes late!  The priest was a visiting priest which may have been the reason why.  His homily was 35 minutes but he had a second one at the end of Mass so total time for Mass was one hour and 45 minutes.  His second homily was addressed to the high school girls here at the boarding school as the new school year just began.  Since the third week of January, we have seen girls streaming onto the school compound with their belongings, many arriving by pikipiki (motorcycle) or Probox, a popular model of car here.  Strapped to the pikipiki or sometimes to the top of the Probox are items like mattresses and trunks. The trunks, which contain the girls’ few belongings, remind one of the old-fashioned kinds seen in the movies.  Since the girls wear uniforms, including a track suit for PE and non-school days, they don’t bring a lot of other clothes with them nor do they bring much for haircare as they have to shave their hands the first week they are here.  We have seen lists of supplies the students in boarding school are required to bring – the types of items that would be found in their trunk:  personal care items such as toothbrush and toothpaste, tissues, toilet paper, blanket, sheets, towel, soaps (clothes, body, and toilet), shoe brush and polish, socks, and numerous other items.  They are also required to bring their own plate, cup, eating utensils, and a bucket to wash their clothes.  Per Sr. Stella Principal, the enrollment here at the school has increased substantially from last year which created some issues for them, namely not enough desks and chairs for the classroom and beds for the dorm.  This past week, we could see some of the workers here on the compound fixing beds (the steel spring kind) out on the grassy area.  There was also a group of 5-6 people who were cleaning 60 plus sacks of maize outside the Mission house.  Kathy decided to watch the process up close instead of through the living room window so made her way to the grassy area.  The sacks of maize, which weigh around 200 pounds each, were brought out of the storeroom onto the grassy area.  The maize was scooped out of the bag and dumped onto a large screen through which the chaff would fall.  The workers would then pick through the maize kernels on top of the screen to remove unwanted items such as pieces of corn cobs.  The screened maize was then spread on a tarp to set under the sun for a period of time.  Eventually the maize was put back into the sacks which were then returned to the storeroom to eventually be used to make different dishes on the school menu.  While watching the process, Sr. Stella Principal came out for a period of time to supervise so Kathy asked her a few questions about the maize.  Sr. Stella said the maize is purchased from an area near Kenya’s border with Uganda where the maize is of high quality.  When asked about the cost, Sr. Stella noted the price of each sack of maize is around Ksh 6000 ($48) which is double what it was last year at this time.  She also stated that because there will be no harvest of maize between now and August, the price will go even higher and therefore bought enough for the second term which runs from May until July.  Maize is a prominent food item on the school lunch menu being used to make githeri and ugali.  Kathy had asked some of the girls what kinds of foods were on their school menu and the answer didn’t take long for them to give:  for breakfast, bread and chai; for lunch, githeri; and for dinner, ugali and Sukuma wiki (greens).  Kathy then asked, “do you have the same food at every meal, every day?” to which they answered, “yes, and we like it”!  Our children in America have no idea…no lunch line with numerous items to choose from. Here, you take what is put on your plate and we highly doubt very much goes to waste. 

On Tuesday, Wes, Kathy, and Emma conducted Water with Blessings follow ups at Nyasumi and Esamba.  On Wednesday, Wes, Kathy, and Lilian held a another WWB training at Nyaborabu, one of the places we were at last week.  We trained a total of 14 women.  There were only two watoto (children) at this training and both were girls, Esther and Angellah.  Angellah slept through most of the training while Esther was quite busy though still very well behaved considering she was around 8 months old.  When Esther first saw Kathy, she cried as she was afraid of the mzungu.  But, by the end of the training, she warmed up to Kathy and even smiled though it took quite a few bribes to get to that point – Esther kept busy eating biscuti (cookie) that her mother broke into small pieces .  At the end of the training, while we were taking a group photo of the women and their buckets, one of the older mamas, as she sat in her chair, started tapping on the top of the bucket with her hands as if it were a drum, leading the rest of the women in song.  A few of them also tried to dance but it wasn’t easy since the church was very small.  We had to take the photo inside the church because there was not enough room on the outside for all the women to stand without someone falling down the incline!  Their song and dance were in appreciation to God for the gifts they had just received. 

On Thursday, we split up and held WWB follow ups at four different locations.  Because these locations were relatively close, we were able to get eight groups of women done.  Wes dropped Lilian and Kathy off at Kianyabao while he and Emma went on to Nyantaro though Kathy would not have minded going to Nyantaro as that is where the piano is…next time!  We arrived about 15 minutes early so Lilian and Kathy stood outside waiting for the mamas to come.  A man who had been walking on the road saw us and came to greet us.  When he shook Kathy’s hand, he was so excited and rattled off a bunch of words in Ekegusii – Kathy didn’t have a clue of what he was saying. He also didn’t want to let Kathy’s hand go.  One of the women, who had come for the follow up and spoke very good English, was standing outside the church with us and said to Kathy, “He is so happy to see you!” Lilian, the woman, and the man then carried on a conversation in Ekegusii.  When he left, he thanked Kathy again and again and again but she wasn’t sure what for.  Later, while the four of us were driving back from the follow ups, Kathy asked Lilian what the man said.  Lilian proceeded to tell us the man told her he can die a happy man because he shook the hand of a mzungu!   Lilian also mentioned the man wanted to get his family to come to the church and see the mzungu because no one would believe him. Lilian told him he should take a picture with his phone to show everyone but his phone was broken so that wasn’t possible…maybe he will come back next month and we can take that picture then.  After the man left, Kathy and Lilian walked into the church and upon arriving just past the doorway, there was a distinct odor that greeted them – it smelled like a barn.  Lilian made the comment they must have recently “mudded” the walls and floor.  This “mud” they use on the floors and to coat the walls is made of a clay soil, water, and cow dung!  The cow dung smelled quite fresh!  According to Emma, the reason for the cow dung is that it helps to make the mud stickier and prevents cracking of the walls.  Because the church has a tin roof and with the sun beating down on it, it became quite warm inside which intensified the smell even more so Kathy had to take a few walks outside during the follow up to get some fresh air.   

This past week, we received some rain…not much but we will gladly take any we can get.  It rained about a quarter of an inch on two different evenings.  It helped to settle the dust for at least a few hours the next morning but as always, once the sun comes out, the earth gets parched again after a few hours.  We also noticed that even with the small amount of rain, the vegetation looked a little greener and everything including the air smelled fresher.  As mentioned before, because it has not been raining, we have not let Zack or any of his buddies wash the vehicles.  The rain that is collected from our roof goes into a cistern and that cistern is getting lower thus the need to conserve until the rains start up again.  We do have a well but it is very shallow and that, too, does not have a lot of water in it due to the lack of moisture since December.  Zack has come every day to ask to wash the vehicles and Wes would tell him every day that until it rains, we are not washing vehicles.  Zack’s idea of rain and our idea of rain is much different.  Earlier in the week, we got maybe a minute or two of raindrops falling and shortly after Zack was over and wanted to wash the vehicles.  He did this a few times over a couple of days even when no rain at all and eventually Wes had to explain the best he could in Swahili that until it rains enough to fill the cistern up to a certain level, no one will be washing vehicles.  On Thursday night, Zack came again and stated he wanted to wash vehicles.  Wes repeated his same line about the cistern but this time added, “we are not washing the vehicles until March” though he didn’t say if that meant the beginning or end of March!  We’re pretty sure Zack won’t be able to last that long!  Zack has also been asking for money to buy a sweater for school, plastic shoes, to get the soccer ball fixed, etc.  He comes with lots of requests and maybe he thinks that if he asks often enough (sometimes 3-4 or more times a day), Wes will give in just to have him stop asking and to not have to keep saying Hapana which means No.  So, on Monday of this week, Wes made a deal with Zack.  If Zack does not come and ask for Wes to buy him something or give him money for anything, Wes will give him money on Friday to do as he chooses; to fix the ball, buy shoes or the sweater, though Wes never said how much he would give him. Zack was at our door almost every day this week asking about washing the vehicles as mentioned above.  Per Wes, Zack came close a few times but stopped short of asking for money.  We really didn’t think Zack would make it the whole week but he surprised us.  Late Friday afternoon after school was done for the day, Zack came to the door and in his hand was his soccer ball.  He wanted Wes to fill it with air but truthfully filling it with air is an excuse to get on the grounds because the tube is shot and doesn’t hold air anymore.  He did tell Wes that the boys were playing a game tomorrow and then there was silence by him and Wes.  He didn’t ask to wash the vehicles, either!  Finally, Wes said, “it’s Friday” and then reminded Zack of their agreement and because Zack held up his end of the agreement, Wes gave him Ksh 500 (about $4.80) and told him to decide what he wants to buy whether it be the sweater, plastic shoes or fix his soccer ball.  It will be interesting to see what he chose. 

Shamba update:  This past week, the masons continued to lay the stone for the outside walls as well as the inside walls.  Those in charge of getting the roof ready were placing miles of rebar.  The plan is for the concrete to be poured by next Tuesday.  The house is coming along nicely and as we see each room start to take shape with the placing of the stone, it becomes more real.  Once the concrete is poured, it will have to “cure” for at least 21 days before the support posts and plates can be removed, and once removed, the masons will put the stone in place that will separate the areas for the bedrooms, bathroom, etc. on the second floor. On Friday morning, we again took loaves of mkate (bread) to the 20 or so workers and they were very grateful. From what we have come to observe, it is not often they get mkate.  We try to bring them loaves of bread and a box of cookies every week as a treat…we wish we could do more for them for how hard they work.  Yes, they get paid a wage but knowing that the average Kenyan makes less than $5 per day, they don’t make very much especially when you consider the manual labor they do under the hot sun.  More than once the remark has been made how grateful they are for or a job especially when the unemployment rate in Kenya is high, especially for the young people. 

On a final note, we will be taking a break from writing the blog for a couple of weeks and will begin again in early March. 

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-2-11-23