Last Sunday we attended Mass here at Gekano and because Fr. David was the celebrant, it started on time.  After Mass we decided to do some of our laundry though we don’t normally do laundry on Sunday.  Monday is usually our laundry day while Fr. David’s is Tuesday.  We are always out with Water with Blessings on Wednesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays are for Mission Saturday when we meet with the orphans.  Therefore, there aren’t many days left in the week to get laundry done and because it is done by hand, it takes a while.  We have been putting off doing the bedding to conserve water and since we have had some rains, we thought it was time.  Because it was over cast and cloudy on Sunday, it didn’t look promising that the bedding would dry before the predicted rains came so we washed our clothes instead.  If those didn’t dry before it rained, we could bring them inside, place them on the drying rack and put the electric dryer to them – the fan – though that works only if there is power!  That wouldn’t be possible with sheets and blankets so thought it best to wait until Monday.  Monday brought lots of sunshine in the morning and early afternoon before the rains came and so the bedding finally got done. 

Monday was also the day we stopped bringing the rain water inside to wash dishes, do laundry, fill the toilet tank, etc.  It was a great day!  Since the borehole now has water in it, and because the rains come pretty much every day helping to fill the cistern, we decided it was time.  At the beginning of March, the cistern had 2 feet of water in it and as of yesterday (April 1), the 8-foot-tall cistern had almost 6 feet of water in it.  We have not moved the barrel from under the Sister’s rain gutter for the reason we will let Zack use that water to wash the vehicles since he tends to use a lot of water.  We were ready for him to come on Sunday thinking he would ask to wash the Hilux but he never showed up.  It rained in the afternoon so it got washed anyway.

On Tuesday, Wes took Emma out for driving lessons.  Emma and Lilian both went to driving school and have their driver’s license but they haven’t been able to drive much since December and they need to keep up their skills.  Fr. David suggested Wes spend some time with them this week driving on different roads in the area.  Since Lilian goes to class during the week, Wes took Emma out driving for a couple of hours.  She did pretty well for not having driven for a couple of months.  In the past, either Lilian or Emma would drive to or from a follow up or training back to Kisii but the trainings and follow ups we have done since December have been up on the mountains where a car can’t go; thus, why they have not been driving since neither of them can drive the Hilux.  There are not many people here that have a vehicle so why learn how to drive.  Driving here is difficult - even though there are rules, people don’t follow them.  You constantly have to give the road your full attention - there are not only cars on them but trucks, piki piki drivers passing you on both sides of the vehicle, matatus (vans), people walking, animals crossing, etc.  We joke with each other how, when we first came here, we’d almost have a heart attack at some of the things we saw but now we hardly bat an eye at all the dumb things people do on the roads…so many unsafe things.  While Wes took Emma driving, Kathy worked on the flower beds as the weeds have been growing fast with the rains.  We want to take some of the flowers, shrubs, etc., that are growing around the Mission house here to the new shamba so we have a little nursery going!  The amazing thing is that you can cut off a branch of a hibiscus, poinsettia, rose bush, etc., stick it in the ground and it will most likely grow especially now with the rains. In addition to starting the different shrubs and bushes, we have about eight Easter lily plants growing as well which were all hacked off from the gigantic Easter lily plant.  Wes has also taken the pits of avocados and mangos and planted them and now has a couple of those trees growing.  The percentage was not as good for the mango and avocado – they seem harder to get started though it is neat to be able to get a tree to grow when starting with just the pit.

On Wednesday, we delivered blankets to the women in Nyasumi who were trained in July and August of last year for the WWB program.  We were very excited as this was the first time that every woman who had been trained at a specific location, had attended at least five or all six of the follow ups which meant that all 45 women received a blanket…something that has never happened since we started distributing the blankets.  We told the women we were proud of them and applauded them for making the effort to come to the follow ups.  The women were not told why they are asked to come to this last meeting and so when we arrived with the blankets, they were very excited.  To us, it may seem like such a small and maybe even insignificant thing to receive a blanket but to them it was a big deal.  The women were called one-by-one to receive their blanket and get their picture taken.  The first woman whose name was called, danced her way to the front and almost every woman after that did the same!  It was like a dance contest going on as it seemed the next one tried to outdo the one before.  But it was all in good fun and we had a lot of laughs with the women.  One dance that really stuck in our minds was an elderly lady who had a walking stick – it took her a little extra time but she made it to the front to receive her blanket.  At the end, they sang a couple of songs and danced around the church with their blankets in thanksgiving for the gift!  It was truly a touching moment.  We have never seen women get so excited over receiving a blanket…it puts things into perspective when you witness the gratitude they have for gifts received no matter what the gift is. 

On Thursday, we started to make home visits again – something we have had to put on the back burner with us having gone to Italy and then getting the follow ups done for all the groups we had in process as well as a couple of trainings.  We went to the village of Enchoro where only the Hilux can go.  Enchoro sits high on the mountain and so we knew before going that we would be doing a lot of walking.  Wes and Lilian took the Hilux and their guide, Josephine, while Emma and Kathy set off on foot with Joyce, their guide.  Even though Lilian and Wes had the Hilux, they ended up walking around 3-4 miles while Emma, Kathy and Joyce walked 6-7 miles.  With going up and down the mountain, we got a good workout in for the day! We were out from 10 am until about 2:30 pm and got 25 visits done between us which is way more than we expected to do just because of the terrain.  What helped was our guides knowing their way around the area taking short cuts through someone’s shamba and tea fields – at times it felt like you were in a maze.  The views were stunning and Kathy took over 350 pictures of the scenery as they walked from shamba to shamba to visit the women.  She couldn’t help herself as every time they climbed a little higher or turned around a bend, the scenery took on a different look.  On Kathy and Emma’s visits, they saw a number of young children – some who were very frightened of the mzungu!  Even a tom-tom (lollipop) didn’t win them over.  And then there were those who were very curious and took to you almost immediately.  What we really like about the home visits is seeing how the mamas and their families live and work.  First of all, when you come to a home, they are very welcoming, gracious and kind even though we just show up with no notice given.  Some of them were out working in their shamba and even though we interrupted their work, they were happy to see us.  Going into their homes is eye-opening for us westerners who have no idea how blessed we are and how much we take for granted.  Their house is simple, often times a dirt floor, mud walls though some have concrete, meager furnishings, and few having plumbing or electricity.  In one of the homes that Wes and Lilian visited, there was no furniture except for a small table on which the filter and bucket sat along with a chair while Kathy and Emma were at a home where there were three large couches along three of the walls, three armchairs in the open area, and in the middle of the square were three coffee tables!  Kathy estimated that at least 12-15 people could have sat comfortably in that sitting room.  Some families had a cow or two grazing out in the yard while others had none but almost everyone had a few kuku (chickens) – Kathy even had to share the couch with a couple of them during one of the visits!  These people are not wealthy by any means but one can see the disparity amongst the people here as we walked from one shamba to the next.  When Emma and Kathy were getting ready to leave the home of Joyce (their guide), which was also their very first home visit of the day, the husband asked if he could say a prayer of thanksgiving with us.  His words were heartfelt and touching asking God to bless us, our families in America, and the people of the Bismarck diocese who make the gift of the filter possible…these are people of gratitude even though they do not have much in the way of material things.

Shamba Update:  The workers continue to make progress.  The outside doors were installed as well as the windows and inside door frames on the first floor.  They continue to lay conduit as well as put pipes in place for the plumbing. The plastering of the walls on the first floor is scheduled to start any day.  Every day it looks more and more like a house as things are installed.  Wes has been working on drawings for the Gathering space for the orphans where we will hold Mission Saturday and any other events that involve the orphans such as the annual Christmas party and Wellness seminars.  This space will also house some offices as well as a computer lab and library.  Hatua kwa hatua…step by step.

As stated earlier in the blog, we have had steady rains. The rains tend to come around mid to late afternoon almost every day which also means we can pretty much be certain the power will go out every day though we will take rain over having electricity.  This past week we received 4.10 nches of rain while the total amount of rainfall for the month of March was 14.85 inches with most of it coming in the past couple of weeks.  This is an area that, on average, gets around 70 inches of rain a year and hopefully we are off to a good start.  We are now in the long rainy season and later in the year there will be what they call “the short rains”.   Tunamshukuru Mungu kwa zawadi ya mvua (We thank God for the gift of rain). 


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

Kathy's note:  there was an issue while trying to download so the pictures are not working with the link below.  Please check the photos out on St. Joe's website.  There are 64 photos of beautiful scenery and people seen on our home visits this past week.  Sorry that you cannot view them with the link below.


https://stjparish.com/photoalbums/kenya-4-2-23