Last Sunday, Fr. David had both, the 7 and 9 am Masses here at Gekano, so we attended the 7 am and yes, Mass started on time!  After Mass, we went for a walk though we didn’t get to see Amos.  The last few times we have gone for a walk, the door to his house has been closed and it seems like there is no activity at the place.  Later in the week while on a walk, we saw a couple of women sitting near Amos’ house so we asked if they knew where Amos was.  They told us that his mother was sick and in the hospital.  We miss seeing Amos’ smiling face as he would come running to greet us - we think how he used to scream with fright at the sight of us!  We hope his mother gets better soon – there are two very young children in the house who need their mama.  Once we got back and inside the school compound, Osongo, Jasmine, and Brighton came running up to us, gave us hugs and wanted to hold our hands – they held our hands until we got to the Mission house where they knew they would get a “sweetie”.  The terms they have used for a lollipop include tom-tom, sweet, or sweetie!  No matter the word they use, we know what they want! Later in the week on Saturday afternoon, Sr. Alice called Wes to the back yard to show him that the holder for the rain gauge was broken.  She told Wes, “The little ones were back here”.  Sister tried to put super glue on it to fix it but it didn’t work so Wes took duct tape and did his best to tape it together.  Shortly after, the three (Jasmine, Osongo, and Brighton) came to the front door looking for sweets.  Wes told them “Wewe kuja” (you come) and led them to the back yard where Kathy was standing by the rain gauge. Kathy said, “Nani alivunja hii” which meant who broke this?  (Kathy did have to look that one up on her phone translator because she couldn’t remember the Swahili word for broke).  As soon as Kathy finished asking the question, Jasmine immediately said, “Osongo” and pointed to him.   Osongo put his hand on his face and gave that sad puppy dog look.  You knew he didn’t mean to do it – he was just curious.  Wes then said, “Hakuna sweet leo” which meant no sweets today.  Immediately Osongo said, “Bye”!  He knew and so did the other two why they weren’t getting sweets – all three probably had a hand in it!  They didn’t get mad that Wes told them no sweets – they accepted it and walked away chattering as they went.  As they got to the corner of the house, they turned back to us and with smiles on their faces said, “tutaonana kesho” which meant “we will see you tomorrow”!

Monday was laundry day and Kathy worked in the flower beds again trying to keep the weeds at bay.  Because of getting almost two inches of rain last Sunday, it was prime conditions for pulling weeds though it is not so much the weeds but the grass that grows into the flower beds.  The grass is not like grass we have back home.  When you pull up the roots of the grass, it can be a foot long or even longer due to the tendrils/roots that attach themselves to any soil that it finds.  Some days it can be a challenge to get to the other end though if and when you do, you are able to get rid of a lot at once – it is a stubborn plant.   

On Tuesday, Wes went with Janet to make more visits to the families that received a heifer.  They took mineral blocks for the cows that are part of the Heifer program.  The families they visited continue to take very good care of the animals which is good to see.  The visits also give the Mission the opportunity to educate the families on nutrition and proper care of the animals – some of them have never had a cow to take care of before.   

On Wednesday we had a Water with Blessings follow up at Karantini for 30 women and then delivered a total of 22 blankets to women at Esamba and Kianyabao.  The blanket was their gift for having attended five or all six of the follow ups.  At Esamba, almost all of the women sang and danced their way to the front of the church to receive their blanket – they were excited.  At Kianyabao, the same thing happened though the dance took place outside – no one had the key to get into the church.  The women at both places gave us gifts of maize, avocados, and guava fruit in appreciation for the bucket and filter.  It truly is a joy to see the women and the excitement and appreciation they have for the gift of the filter. 

On Thursday, we went back to Mosobeti to make home visits for eight mamas that we have not been able to find at home on previous visits.  Usually, we show up unannounced but for these eight, Emma and Lilian called them to let them know we were coming to visit them though they did not tell them the reason why.  To make these last eight visits, we did a lot of driving but we were able to finish.  The very last home visit we made, we had to walk on a dirt path up the mountain while rain clouds hovered above us.  As we reached the mama’s house, it began to rain.  We felt bad as the older son, who had come home for lunch from school, just finished scrubbing the floor and then we made it dirty – the mama insisted we keep our muddy shoes on.  Because the mama knew we were coming, she wanted the house to be clean and she felt bad that we arrived when they were still washing it – we told her hakuna shida (no problem).  After we finished with our visit, we headed back down the mountain which was now very slippery.  We didn’t get a picture of it as it was the last thing on our mind but when Kathy got to the bottom, Wes laughed and told Kathy she was three inches taller with all the mud that was clinging to her shoes.  We were a muddy mess but tried to clean ourselves off the best we could before getting back into the car.  There was a total of 60 women trained at Mosobeti and next month, 45 of the 60 women will receive a 210-liter water drum because we found that they were using and cleaning their filter properly during our visit. Once we deliver the 45 drums in the Mosobeti area, we will go back to Enchoro to make home visits.  We had been in the Enchoro area in April and got about 25 home visits done before we had to halt our visits because the last time we went in April, the road was closed.  It was closed because the villagers were upset that their roads weren’t getting fixed so they decided to dig a trench in the road and plant banana trees in it so no vehicles could pass!  We are scheduled to make home visits there in the next few weeks so we will have to make a trip to that area to see if their tactics worked!  If the trick of planting banana trees helped to get their road fixed, we will be back in business and will finish making home visits in the Enchoro area.  If not, we will go to another area – we have almost 300 women to make home visits to so we have plenty of other places to go within an 8 to 10-mile radius. 

On Saturday, we had Mission Saturday for Week 3 Gekano orphans.  A number of schools started their mid-term break so there were less orphans at Mission Saturday.  The students here at St. Theresa’s started their mid-term break on Saturday.  The bad thing for us is that with a school break, the generator probably won’t be turned on as it is when school is in session though we were pleasantly surprised when the generator was turned on around 7:30 pm on Saturday evening.  This past week we were without power a few days so it was nice knowing the generator would be turned on for sure in the morning and evening even if only for a couple of hours. 

This past week, we received 4.5 inches of rain for which we were very grateful.  Our cistern is back to having a comfortable level of water in it so we have stopped bringing water in to flush the toilet though we continue to collect the rain water to use for washing vehicles, outside cleaning, etc.  It was unusual this week in that we actually had a couple of days where it was cloudy at least half or even all day.  Usually, if cloudy and overcast, the sun eventually comes out for part of the day.  It was also on the cooler side which Kathy loved while Wes and Fr. David walked around the house in light jackets or a sweat shirt or in Wes’s case, a couple of shirts!   

Shamba update:  The electricians continue to pull electrical wires through the conduit.  The masons are cleaning each and every stone on the outside of the house as well as in between the stones.  It is tedious work as they clean the stones by hand with a steel brush, chisel, and hammer.  We will be traveling to Nairobi this coming weekend to pick up Kaleb, a seminarian who is currently studying in Rome.  Kaleb is from the Diocese of Helena, Montana and knows Frs. Steven Vetter and Josh Hill who were just ordained for the Diocese of Bismarck – all studied in Rome together.  Kaleb will be spending one month here at the Mission with us.  Since we are making the trip to Nairobi to pick Kaleb up from the airport, we are also going to visit the different stores to select light fixtures, toilets, sinks, and the tiles for all the floors and rooms such as bathroom and laundry.  Rogers brought us a color card from the paint store – it has the different colors we can choose from for the walls. The color swatches are probably 1”x ½” in size meaning they are not very big!  When Rogers handed the card to Wes he added, “just remember…the color you pick out may not be the color you get”!  Hopefully that is not the case but we shall see. 
    
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/kenya-6-25-23