We usually post our weekly blog on Sunday but tomorrow (February 25^th) we will be traveling to Nairobi and thus why we are posting earlier.  Because it is at least a five-to-six-hour drive from the Mission house to Nairobi and with the escarpment and never knowing if it will take 40 minutes or several hours to drive up the escarpment, we are leaving the day before Kathy gets on a plane.  Kathy leaves Monday evening headed for home where she will seek medical care for the medical issue she is currently having.  She will fly out of Nairobi, land in Paris, board a flight to Minneapolis and after a five-hour layover will then head home to Williston.  The total time in an airplane or airports will be slightly over 30 hours provided all the flights go as scheduled.  Kathy is grateful that she has not had any more episodes of the excruciating pain that initially sent her to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and hopes it stays that way through her travels.  For now, Wes will stay in Kenya until Kathy knows more after her consultation in Bismarck.  Fr. David is due to return to Kenya the third week of March.  He has been back in the diocese since the end of January celebrating Masses and preaching about the Mission in anticipation of the annual African Mission Appeal that will take place the first weekend of March.  Wes will be alone but something tells us that he won’t be – we have a feeling the Sisters will see to it that some food makes it way to the house or he will be invited to theirs. If he really wanted to have company, he could make a meal and invite the little ones to come – the house would be full! 

Last weekend, Sr. Alice and Sr. Stella Nurse invited Kathy for some cooking lessons.  There are three Sr. Stellas next door so we refer to them by their occupation:  nurse, bursar and principal.  Kathy has hinted on several occasions that she would like to learn how to make some of their traditional foods when they had time to show her.  On Saturday afternoon, Sr. Alice came to the door of the Mission house saying she was getting ready to make mandazi and asked if Kathy wanted to help so Kathy accepted the offer.  Sr. Alice made a huge batch of mandazi dough.  Mandazi is a type of sweet fried bread.  Kathy has made mandazi but it was good to see how they do it.  When mixing up the dough, Sr. Alice just dumped various amounts of flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and water…no measuring cups or spoons in sight!  When Kathy asked Sr. Alice approximately the quantities of the different ingredients, Sr. Alice said, “A bag of flour, a half box of baking powder, a couple of big spoons of sugar, etc.!”  After rolling the dough out, Sr. Alice used a butter knife to cut the dough into pieces.  Kathy asked her if she wanted to try a pizza cutter to cut the dough to make smoother edges.  Sr. Alice repeated the words “pizza cutter?” and looked at Kathy with a puzzled look – Kathy thinks Sr. Alice was trying to envision what a pizza cutter even was!  Kathy retrieved the pizza cutter from the Mission house and showed Sister how it works.  Sr. Alice then tried it and the words that came out of her mouth were, “Wow”!  A wood burning stove is what was used to heat the oil.  The electricity had gone out while cooking so Kathy held her phone with the flashlight on over the pot of mandazi – per Sister “We want the color to be a nice golden brown” which was hard to tell in the dark!  On Sunday afternoon Sr. Stella Nurse wanted to show Kathy how to make mboga (greens), ugali (stiff porridge made by mixing corn meal with boiling water) and samaki (fish).  Sr. Stella had Kathy chop onions and tomatoes for the sauce that would be split between the mboga and samaki. Kathy had to chuckle under her breath at the knife she was given – it was being held together with plastic wrap!  The mboga was pumpkin leaves which were boiled prior to adding the sauteed tomatoes and onions.  After the meal was made, Sr. Stella insisted that we eat lunch with them and so we did.  The food was delicious and we enjoyed eating with good company and conversation…we were grateful for the invitation and Kathy was grateful for the cooking lesson.

Last Sunday we attended the 7 am Mass here at Gekano with the celebrant being a visiting priest who is from this area but currently serving as a missionary.  We started on time with Mass lasting about one hour and fifteen minutes which is close to a record.  Because we are in the season of Kwaresima (Lent) there is a little less singing and no dancing as usually done on Sundays.  During the week, daily Masses have started anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes late depending on the priest with no homily or homilies lasting from 10-15 minutes.  One day this past week, some of the girls dozed off during the homily so the priest made all the girls stand until he finished his homily.  The bell for the Form 4 (Seniors) girls goes off at 4 am while the rest get up at 4:30 am.  Within a half hour to 45 minutes after getting ready for the day, the girls are in the classroom studying until they come for daily Mass.  They stay up studying until 10 pm so we can see why they are tired. 

On Monday, we took one of the orphans for physical therapy and to see the orthopedic doctor since he has not seen the orphan since April of last year.  On Friday we took two more orphans for medical appointments to an ENT.  One of them had her tonsils removed at the beginning of January.  Going to the ENT doctor was a much more pleasant experience than the usual clinic visits not to mention much shorter wait times.   

On Tuesday we made home visits in the Geta area and were able to go to the homes of 10 women.  It had rained the night before so the roads were a little muddy and Wes and Lilian almost got stuck.  Lilian later told Wes she was a little scared when they were going through the mud and muck.  The good thing is they were not on a mountain road with steep ditches.  The car has 4-wheel drive but the mud was deep and the car doesn’t have that much clearance.  The smaller Landcruiser is still in the shop getting the 4-wheel drive fixed.  It has been in the shop since the end of January and the reason is because the wrong parts were ordered.  We did a lot of walking for the home visits including up and down the mountains crossing babbling brooks and small streams at the bottom.  Because of the rain the night before, it felt like we had ankle weights on from all the mud that accumulated on our shoes.  We have four more mamas to visit in this area and then we will be able to deliver water drums. Because of the Landcruiser not in working order, we have not been able to deliver the water drums to three areas.  Once it is fixed, Wes, Lilian and Emma will be busy delivering water drums since there are close to 100 to deliver. 

On Wednesday and Thursday, we held two Water with Blessings trainings at Kiamwarimu (Kee-am-wa-ree-moo).  Since this is a larger parish, we will be conducting a total of four trainings between this month and next.  Kathy was disappointed though because there were no little ones to babysit which is highly unusual.  There is almost always at least one or two little ones but none either day.  On Tuesday, no one knew where the key to the church was so we had to do the training outdoors under a small shelter.  It was crowded but it worked.  The key is usually kept with someone who lives close to the church but on this day, no one knew who had it.  When we came on Wednesday to train, the door was opened and the mamas were inside sweeping the tile floor with tree branches tied together – they wanted it to look nice for us. 

On Saturday, we held Mission Saturday here at Gekano only.  Before we went to the clinic courtyard where Mission Saturday is held, we decided to wash the bedding and whatever laundry we had.  The days have been nice for doing laundry -sunny and breezy.  The weather has been warm with some days reaching into the upper 80’s and one day it was 90 degrees which is way too hot for Kathy.  This past week we had about a half inch of mvua (rain) which was considerably less than the 5.6 inches we had last week. 

Shamba update:  the security wall has been started and will take around three to four months to complete.  The trench that is being dug for the wall is about three feet deep and two feet wide.  There is no trencher on site – it is all being done by hand.  The architect who oversees the building of the house brought in a new carpenter this week to finish the screens on the windows – the one who had been there the last month or so would come to work off and on…probably more off than on.  He did nice work but at the rate he was going and with thirty some windows to complete, it would take another month to get the screens done.  Once the screens are put in and the wooden frame holding the screens are varnished, the painters will do touch ups on the ceilings and walls.  Back home we would paint last so as not to mar the walls but here that was done early on…it is their process even though it doesn’t make sense to us.  A water filtration system needs to be purchased and installed along with a generator.  It was a year ago in January that ground was broke for the house and we are not sure when we will move in but we hope it will be within 4-5 months. 

Because Kathy will be back home seeking medical care and Wes here in Kenya, we will not be posting a blog in the coming weeks or maybe even a month or two. 

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:  www.stjparish.com


https://stjparish.com/photoalbums/2-24-24