Faraha Siku ya Mama (Happy Mother’s Day)!  As we reflect on this day, we wish all women everywhere a most blessed day – women who have sacrificed and given of their love, time, and compassion to others in their role whether as a mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, caregiver, mentor, etc. 

Last Sunday, we attended the 9 am Mass here at Gekano and again it was the only one so that meant lots of people.  We knew from Fr. David that the celebrant for this Mass would be Fr. Benedict – he tends to give two homilies and talks quite fast and therefore, we only catch every couple of words.  We decided to go for a one hour walk around 6:45 am because it was a beautiful, cool morning and we would still be able to get ready in time for Mass.  As we were walking, we saw Fr. Benedict drive by heading for the 7 am Mass at one of the Outstation – Wes checked his watch and it was 7:30 am!  Thus, we already knew the 9 am Mass here at Gekano would not be starting on time.  Because we had gone for a walk earlier than we normally do, we did not meet our buddy Amos as we passed by his home – we assumed he was still fast asleep.  Once we got ready for church, we debated what time we should go over knowing that it would not be starting at 9 am.  We could hear a lot of voices in the alley between the Mission house and the church so we figured that if we wanted a seat we should go even if we had to wait for a while because we wanted to have a seat to sit on.  When we arrived shortly before 9 am, the church was almost full and the plastic chairs were being set out so we decided to sit on a chair instead of the bench as we had already known from last Sunday how it might go if we sat on a bench.  Mass finally started at 9:40 am.  The first homily (after the Gospel) lasted 40 minutes while the mini-homily after the final blessing lasted about 12 minutes.  During Mass, just as it was last week, the late comers tried to get those already sitting in the bench to move over even though there was nowhere for them to move unless the end person fell on the floor!  Some of the mamas were quite pushy!  One of them tried to get in the bench ahead of us but the young mama with a little one on her lap would not budge so the woman walked a little further up the aisle and tried to squeeze in at a few more benches but got the same response at each.  Finally, she reached a bench where a young boy was sitting towards the end of the bench – she motioned for the boy to come out and he ended up having to stand in the aisle so she could sit on the bench.  We couldn’t blame the mama with the little one in front of us for not moving as they already had eight in their bench – a bench that is made for about five to six people!  As for us, we were quite happy sitting on our plastic chairs…we had our personal space and didn’t have to be an altar server to get it!  We were in church for a little over two hours and were glad to have had a chair since the benches are not very comfortable. 

On Sunday after Mass, we had visitors on our door step wanting sweets before we even got back from Mass – some of them we had just seen in church and they beat us to our front door!  Since it was not yet noon, we told them to come back later though the real reason we told them to return later was because once they went outside the compound with sweets, others would see them and we’d have more children coming than we had sweets to give.  So that we didn’t have to keep saying “hakuna sweets” (no sweets), we decided to close the front door for an hour or so but that didn’t stop some from coming into the back yard hoping we’d answer the back door…little stinkers! 

Monday was laundry day and since it was a sunny day, we didn’t have to get the electric dryer (fan) out.  Around mid-morning, Janet, the Mission’s newest employee and an alumnus of the Bismarck Mission Orphan Education Program, came to visit with Wes about the Heifer Program.  Janet recently finished college with a degree in Agriculture.  It is neat to see someone who took advantage of the opportunities the Mission offered her when she was in secondary school and worked hard to obtain a college degree.  Janet will work one to two days a week helping with the Heifer Program and other agriculture related activities.  She will go with Wes to make visits to check on the welfare of the heifers as well as provide education to the recipients about care and nutrition of the animals.  Visiting with the recipients and their guardians in their tribal language will be of great benefit especially with the older guardians.  Rogers has taken the lead role with the Heifer Program in the past but it takes a lot of time to make monthly visits to check on the animals.  Janet has looked for a job but it is not easy as the unemployment rate for young people ages 15-24 in Kenya is around 13.5%.  When we first visited with Janet a couple of months ago, we asked what the prospects were for finding a job and she relayed they were not good.  We also asked if she was able to get an interview at all and she said she had but it wasn’t an interview where she was being judged on her skills and the knowledge she possessed.  At the end of that interview, the interviewer told Janet she would be given the job IF she paid the interviewer KSH 250,000 (approximately $1900) which is an astronomical amount of money for people here and another sad example of corruption.  We know Kenya is not the only place where corruption happens but none-the-less, it is frustrating and disheartening especially when someone has the skills and knowledge but would be passed over because of their inability to pay the bribe.  On Monday, Wes and Janet drove to the two families that were the recipients of the heifers that were delivered the previous Saturday (last week’s blog).  The family of Dominic, Celestine, and Albert, along with their father and grandparents had been so excited to receive a heifer and since she arrived, they have been working on a small enclosure for her.  They also gave their cow a name:  Blessings!  We thought how appropriate – for them this cow is a blessing in that it will be providing milk for them to drink as well as being a source of income when they start to sell the milk.  Celestine told Wes and Janet that Blessings is the only cow in the neighborhood so she is somewhat of a celebrity!  The family was very grateful for this gift and we have no doubt they will take very good care of Blessings.  A visit was made to the home of Steven, the other recipient, but Steven had already gone back to school so they were able to visit with the uncle who is Steven’s guardian. 

School did begin this week for students.  The girls here at St. Theresa’s started arriving mid-week.  While out driving to follow ups and home visits, we saw lots of children out walking on the roads to and from school or going home for lunch, depending on the time of day we saw them.  There are a few photos in the photo album of the students walking the roads as we traveled this week – the photos were taken on the fly and through the window of the vehicle so we apologize for them not being very clear but they give one an idea of the roads when school is in session.  We were glad school started as that meant the generator would be turned on when the power went out, which it did this week, but not as often as it has some weeks. 

This week we had our regular visitors wanting sweets but one that just started coming recently and we enjoy seeing is a young boy by the name of Osongo who is probably four years of age.  We see him walking around the compound quite often and think that one of his parents may be a teacher at the school or works on the compound in some other capacity.  Osongo always has a big smile on his face, is very friendly, and has the cutest laugh.  He also speaks Kiswahili very well for his age – he puts sentences together that contain five to six words which is better than what we do!  Osongo has been teaching us a few words or should say he has been correcting us when we say something incorrectly!  One day when he and Brighton came for a sweet, Kathy offered to tear the wrapper off the lollipops since they are very hard to peel off.   So, Kathy asked, “funga sweet?” to which Osongo said, “fungua”!  The meaning of funga would be to close while fungua means open so Kathy was actually asking Osongo if she should close his sweet!  The same thing happened a different day when Osongo closed the gate after leaving the porch area.  Kathy said, “Asante kwa kufungua mlango”.  Osongo looked at Kathy, laughed, and proceeded to correct her by saying, “kufunga mlango” which meant to close the gate.   Kathy thought she was thanking Osongo for closing the gate when she was actually telling him thank you for opening it!  There is just one letter difference between the two words:  funga (close) vs fungua (open) so needless to say it is one of those words Kathy often gets mixed up.

On Wednesday, we had Water with Blessings follow ups at Geta and Mongorisi for 60 women.  This was the sixth and final follow up for these four groups of women so later this month, we will give blankets to those who attended five or all six of the follow ups.  On Thursday, we went back to making home visits in the Mosobeti area.  A total of 60 women were trained in this area almost a year ago and so far, we have visited only 22 of them.  Because of the terrain, we can’t drive up to their front door!  Lilian and Kathy, along with their guide Priscah, were able to visit six women while Wes, Emma, and their guide Teresa, were able to visit seven women.  We got a fair amount of walking in though this time, because we were towards the bottom of the mountain, we didn’t have the great views as we’ve had at times.  Going into the homes of some of these women elicits a number of emotions when you see the meager furnishings they have and how they live.  One of the women, a widow, lived with her daughter who is in Form 1 (freshman in high school) in what Kathy would call a shack for lack of a better word - it was what the woman could afford.  The boards that formed some of the walls had large spaces in between which meant varmints from outside could easily crawl inside not to mention it didn’t seem very secure.  Kathy’s heart ached to see the conditions in which she lived. She was a very kind and warm woman who moved Lilian’s heart as well.  Lilian lives here and it surprised her to see the conditions the woman was living in.  When we arrived, the woman was out plucking tea for others in the area to try and make a living to put her daughter through school…we have no idea how fortunate we are to have the basic necessities of life plus more, whereas here, many struggle to have just the basics.   

This week we received 1.60 inches of rain plus maybe another .50 to 1 inch.  We say “plus” because we weren’t sure of the exact amount that it rained last Sunday.  Almost every day of the week prior to last Sunday, Zack came over asking to wash the vehicle.  Because of it having rained, the vehicle was being used, or we were out with Water with Blessings, it was not possible for him to wash the vehicle.  Finally, last Sunday after Fr. David got back from saying Masses at the Outstations, Wes told Zack he could wash the Hilux.  He also told Zack that if he did a good job the first time and didn’t have to point out all the misses he had, he would pay him extra.  Zack tends to want to get done fast so he can get his money fast!  Zack’s brother, Absolom, came to help as well.  In the end, it was decided they could also wash the Landcruiser so once they finished and both vehicles passed Wes’ inspection, Wes gave them Ksh 1000 ($7.33) to split.  Normally, Zack is given Ksh 300 for one vehicle so they didn’t do too bad.  Later, after the boys had left and Kathy was taking some vegetable peelings to the pit out back, she stopped by the rain gauge.  We had a downpour for a period of time and she was curious as to how much it rained.  She looked at the gauge around the 1-inch mark as that was her guess but the meniscus wasn’t there – it was at the 5.5-inch mark! Kathy laughed to herself as she knew there was no way we had received that much rain and she had a pretty good guess as to why it was that full.  While eating, Kathy asked Wes and Fr. David to take a guess as to how much they thought it had rained.  They both said somewhere between a half and one inch.  Kathy started to laugh as she told them what the gauge showed…we were pretty sure that the little stinkers filled the rain gauge with water while they were washing the vehicle!  While we were still eating our evening meal, Zack came to the door wanting something and was told to come back later.  But before he left, Wes asked Zack if he filled the rain gauge with water.  Since Zack probably didn’t understand what a rain gauge was, he gave a puzzled look and vague answer.  Wes, knowing Zack wasn’t understanding the question, asked Zack if he “filled the tube on the post in the back yard with water?”  Zack said he did but then quickly corrected himself and said Absolom did it!  Needless to say, Zack was given a scolding and told to not do that again and to let his brother know the same.  Those two kids most likely don’t have any understanding of what and why we have a rain gauge but we are pretty sure they won’t do that again!

Shamba update:  The workers have put the cement on the inside and outside of the bricks that formed the parapet.  They continue to work on the decorative trim around the windows and were able to put the three-sided window frame in the chapel which will eventually have stained glass windows or at least that is the plan.  The men are also cleaning the cement off the window and door frames as well as they are chipping away the dirt, sand, gravel, etc., that fell on the floor while they were plastering the ceilings and walls.  We just don’t understand why they weren’t more careful when doing the job as it seems it would be way less work to cover things up but they have their ways of doing things.  Now they are having to spend a lot of time to chisel away at the material to reach the original cement not just in a few rooms but every room as well as all the steps.

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-5-14-23