Kenya For Us

Form Is Reporting to School

2012-02-05T10:07:00.000-06:00

Friday was the big day for the incoming Form Is (freshmen). The secondary school that students attend is determined not by the area in which their parents reside but by the scores they obtain on the Kenya Comprehensive Primary Examination taken in November. These scores are printed for everyone in the nation to see in the newspapers. The top scorers are selected to attend national school that are the best in the country. They are the cream-of-the-crop students that get to attend the most fully furnished schools in the country with huge libraries, science labs, computer centers, etc. Many of these national school are private schools. This year there are 96 national schools that will be able to take 10,500 students.

Once the top 10,500 students are assigned to their secondary school, the next level of students are selected to attend provincial schools like St. Anthony's and St. Monica's. Instead of scoring 400+ points on the KCPE these students score between 320 and 400 points. These days selection is done by computers. Our principal and three teachers went to a meeting two weeks ago to receive the list of 179 girls invited to attend St. Monica's. In order to meet new requirements, 30% of the students must come from outside the geographical area of the school. The idea behind this requirement is to mix the populations, to introduce students to people outside of their tribe and ethnic group, to help build cohesiveness between Kenyan people.

Friday was reporting day for the Form Is. The older students were in class but the teachers were all helping with the new students. The received a letter of invitation from our school. Within that letter were the official documents needed to enroll from the school, a list of required supplies and other important information including school fees. This year the fees for St. Monica's was slightly over $500. In addition each girl needed to bring a trunk of her belongings including a mattress, bedding, bucket for washing, plate, spoon, cup, toilet paper, soap, personal hygiene items, socks, a dictionary, atlas, etc. These supplies probably cost about another $150.

When they arrived on campus the first person they had to see was Mr. Oduri. He had the unpleasant task of confirming that their fees were paid. Of the $500 fees required they must have paid $450. If not, they were not allowed to stay or enter school. It was so heartbreaking to watch families leaving because they didn't have enough money. We will hold the spots for these girls until Monday morning. If their families are able to raise the money by then they will still be able to come to St. Monica's. If not, their position will be given to another girl. I understand there are over 400 names on a waiting list of girls hoping yet to be allowed admission to St. Monica's. Their only chance is if some of these 179 girls on the original list aren't able to attend.

There will be a long line of people at school tomorrow. I sure hope several of them are those that were turned away on Friday. I can't imagine how humiliated I would be if I wasn't able to financially afford to send my daughter to a good school.

Nigerian Christmas 2011

2012-01-22T09:59:00.000-06:00

Many people have asked us if we enjoyed our Christmas. Our answer has always been, "Any time you get to spend with your children is wonderful!"

We traveled to Nigeria on December 18th in order to celebrate Christmas with Katrina. We were able to stay for two weeks and began our return trip to Kenya on December 29th.

While we were there the University of Jos was on strike but we were still able to meet several colleagues of Katrina's. We attended a faculty prayer meeting, were invited over to two homes for lunch, and had several visitors drop by the house to meet us.

Although we didn't get to see Katrina in action teaching , we did observe her working with YACPIF (Young Ambassadors for Community Peace and Interfaith

Foundation) members. The Christian youth wanted to host a Christmas party for their Muslim friends. We were able to observe the planning and successful celebration of about 50 young men brought together in mutual respect and understanding of one another's religion. Weekly they watch a movie that focuses on the effects of violence in order to learn how to help bring about peace. The week we were there they watched Blood Diamonds. The discussion that followed was excellent as they realized that those that were committing the violent acts were being used by others and they weren't gaining anything. John participated in a weekly computer training class that along with their other activities is half Christian and half Muslim. Here is a link to the YACPIF website for more information.

We celebrated Christmas with the McCain family. Although we weren't able to be physically with Andrea and Melissa, we skyped and had our annual Christmas family photo taken! Several days later their package arrived and we enjoyed opening packages a second time.

For more photos, click here.

Songs

2012-01-21T04:44:00.002-06:00

Music is such an important part of African culture. Their lives are permeated with music and dancing much more than even the teenagers and young adults in our country. I’m guessing it is part due to the fact that oral traditions have been a such a huge part of their cultures for centuries long before the written word was ever introduced.

One portion of Kenyan literature is the study of songs. Not only are songs sung as music, but they are often integrated as part of their daily life, even within their stories. This past week we talked about songs as a genre in my Form IV (senior) class. It was probably the most enjoyable lessons we have had the past two years! We would discuss characteristics of each category, take notes, I’d sing them a song from our culture if I could come up with one, and they’d sing songs from their cultures. One of the joys of working in Kenya is watching them burst forth in song, singing, swaying, creating rhythm with whatever they have at hand and dancing. It is beautiful. They have such grace, rhythm, elegance.

When you stop to think about it, we probably have songs in some of the same categories but we don’t use them as a part of our daily lives. I was able to think of songs from the States in several of the categories: lullabies, work songs, sacred songs, love songs, singing games, learning songs. Those were easy: “Hush Little Baby”, “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”, “How Great Thou Art”, “A Tisket, A Tasket”, “The Alphabet Song”. I told them I was too old to remember any love songs and had to look up the words to “Annie’s Song”. You’d think you’d be able to remember a song sung at your wedding! Categories I couldn’t come up with examples for include birth songs, child naming songs, wedding songs, praise songs, political songs, war songs, dirges, and initiation songs. They sure didn’t have any trouble coming up with examples!

I was amazed at a couple of similarities. For example in the lullaby category, just as in “Hush Little Baby”, many of their lullabies also promised the baby that a parent would bring them many things. They sang “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” as a sacred song. Did it originate in America as I had originally thought or in Africa? Who influenced who? According to Goggle it started in the US but who really knows?

St. Mary's Mission Hospital - Rift Valley

2011-12-16T10:25:00.000-06:00

The shores of Lake Elmenteita is where you will find St. Mary’s Mission Hospital - Rift Valley run by a Maryknoll priest and doctor Fr. Bill Fryda. It is a beautiful setting with the lake framed by extinct volcanoes on one side and the escarpment of the Rift Valley on the other.

Lake Elementeita is a soda lake famous for flamingos and pelicans. It has no outlet so only tilapia fish are able to survive in its salty water. During the dry season when the water level falls, people “harvest” the minerals from the shore to sell to livestock owners for salt licks. It is a beautiful place. We wish we had brought along our binoculars. We could see patches of pink in the distance, but weren’t close enough to be able to see the birds.

The guest house.
We spent two nights there while I had a medical test. They have a guest house where people can stay while seeking medical treatment yet don’t need to be hospitalized. As we were checking in we were asking about the lake so they gave us a room on the second floor lakeside so we could view the lake from our window.

The mission hospital is extremely impressive. It’s only four years old. Fr. Bill Fryda is not only a Maryknoll priest but also a doctor. This is the second hospital he has established during his time in Kenya. His hospitals treat patients at cost in the Nakuru and Rift Valley area. In order to attract doctors and other medical personnel away from the big city comforts, the staff is provided housing for their families on the hospital grounds. Another amenity is a club house and a swimming pool for relaxation.

The women's ward.

We had a chance to meet Fr. Bill the first evening we were there. He was riding in his golf cart with his adopted granddaughter back to his house. We had a nice chat and he explained a little more about his work. His first hospital was built in Kiberia, the largest slum in Nairobi. (See our blog dated ********.) Once that hospital was running well, he felt called to open another hospital to help the poor in a rural area. Both hospitals are called St. Mary’s Mission Hospital.

Not only has he started the two hospitals, he opened a secondary school three years ago on the hospital grounds in Kibera, St. Mary’s School. The majority of the students in this school are bright street children who have been able to stay away from drugs, alcohol, sniffing glue and other vices so easily available to those who have no parents to guide them. They are on scholarship. During the month of December these students have no home to return to. So they go to St. Mary’s Mission Hospital – Rift Valley for the month where they are provided with housing, meals, meaningful work, free time and a beautiful setting away from the slum and streets. During the morning, they volunteer in the hospital. In the afternoons they enjoy free time including access to the swimming pool. Fr. Frieda laughed explaining they built the swimming pool before the chapel. Therefore they call themselves the church of the splashing water. The chapel is now under construction.

The day that we arrived was also the day that the 60 students from St. Mary’s School - Kibera also arrived. They stay in 8-man tents located on the hospital grounds. One of them, Kennedy, helped us check-in to the guest house. He later took us down to the pavilion near the lake so we could get a closer look. He was very articulate and a pleasure to chat with. Both evenings we watched a football (soccer) match between some of the staff and the high school boys. Some things are universal! What an opportunity for these young people and how lucky they are to be admitted to St. Mary’s School.

Confirmation of St, Anthony's Students

2011-12-12T10:07:00.000-06:00

Since June, I (John) have been working with boys on Thursday afternoons after class

who wanted to join the Catholic Church. The boys also had another session after church on Sunday mornings with another teacher. During October and November they also met with a nun on Tuesday afternoons. I had decided between the Sunday lessons plus a daily CRE (Christian Religious Education) lesson in school that I would use my time on a more practical approach than theology. Besides, most Kenyans probably know the Scriptures better than I do. So, I used most of my time on what it means to be a Christian in daily life.

You have to realize Kenyan culture is very different from American culture. First, having open discussions with students is not a common thing here. Instruction is basically lecture or giving answers back to the teacher straight from the book. So it took awhile for most of the boys to feel comfortable participating in a discussion. One discussion was about taking an item like a pen from someone without asking and then keeping it. Another discussion is how to deal with a friend who does thiefs (steals) from you. I showed the boys how to pray the rosary. I made a copy of my favorite prayers and gave to them. Somehow I miscounted the number of boys and did not have enough. The next day I had a couple of boys who did not get their own copy of the prayers ask me for theirs. Many times I felt my time with the boys gave me more insight into the Kenyan youth culture.

November 12, thirty-seven St. Anthony boys were baptized and confirmed into the

Catholic Church. Another school, Manor House, was also having a group being baptized and confirmed. Since many of the boys’ parents do not live near, there were few relatives attending the ceremony. I was privileged to be the godfather to 2 boys and sponsored 4 boys who were confirmed. After the ceremony we had a group picture of all our boys, sponsors and relatives in attendance.

We had refreshments consisting of a soda and what you would know as a dinner roll afterwards. I gave each of the boys a rosary as a gift to welcome them into the faith. One interesting note to this is that you will see people wearing rosaries as a necklace. The next morning as Cindy and I attended Mass at St. Anthonys we could tell who was baptized the day before by who was wearing their new green rosary.

Recessional led by the liturgical dancers.

Saiwa Swamp

2011-12-11T08:43:00.000-06:00

Minh, a fellow Maryknoll Lay Missioner serving in Bolivia, came to Kenya to visit Mary and us, during November. We had a wonderful visit during the four days she was in Kitale. One day we visited Saiwa Swamp National Park located only about 20 miles away. It is the smallest national park in Kenya with an area of less than 3 square kilometers. There are no vehicles allowed in the park so you see everything on walking trails and observation towers built at strategic spots within the park. The park has a typical African wetland climate with two rivers, the Kipsaina and Kapenguria, feeding the swamp.

The national park was created to protect the habitat of the endangered sitatunga antelope and de Brazza’s monkey. Over 372 bird species have been spotted there. We saw many, but don’t really know much about birds. There are many small animals in the park including otters, aardvarks, civit cats, and servals that we didn’t get to see. However, we saw the rarest and most famous.

The sitatunga antelope has splayed hooves that allow it to walk on submerged vegetation. It is reddish-brown in colour with very large ears. It spends most of its day submerged resting in shaded areas. When in danger it submerges all by the tip of its nose. We were able to see one from a distance from one of the observation towers. It was a good thing we had brought our binoculars!

When you hear rustling in trees, look up because it is probably monkeys in the

trees. We were able to see De Brazza’s, colobus, and sykes monkeys. The de Brazza’s monkeys are also called swamp monkeys. They have rarely been captured because they are so good at camouflaging themselves when in danger. The colobus are easy to sight because they are black and white looking very much like a flying skunk. The sykes’ monkey is also called the blue monkey because its fur is grey to black in color.

Minh was a great guide. She was able to spot small interesting plant life along the paths including mushrooms, lichens, different type of mosses, and orchids. We picked up several varieties to bring home and plant in our garden, but I’m afraid most of them have died because it just isn’t moist enough right now. Perhaps if we were still early in the rainy season.

It was a fun outing that provided plenty of exercise and interesting things to see.
To see more photos click here.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-09T02:40:00.000-06:00

It has been the tradition of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners to hold their annual regional meeting in Nairobi over Thanksgiving weekend. It gives us the chance to celebrate this American holiday with fellow Maryknoll priests and sisters. We arrive by Wednesday evening. Thanksgiving morning is a retreat of the lay missioners. This year it was led by Judy who helped us relax with yoga and meditation. That afternoon you are on your own. John and I went to the Nigerian High Commission to pick up our visas for our Christmas trip to see Katrina. The evening meal is the traditional Thanksgiving feast as best as we can do in Kenya.

We though you might like to see some photos from our celebration.

The Society House chefs and kitchen help: John, Jothem and Paul.

Mary visiting with Father Lance and Father Dick.

Ilona, Pat, me, Coralis, and Father Dick.

Kathy and Susan leading our sing-along.

Kakuma Refugee Camp

2011-11-07T22:23:00.001-06:00

I don’t think any of our group was looking forward to visiting Kakuma Refugee Camp. We were expecting to see starving people, a hopeless situation. Photos you have seen on the news of starving refugees are taken at Dadaab Refugee Camp. It is in eastern Kenya near the border of Somalia with an estimated population of over 500,000! What we found at Kakuma Refugee Camp was nothing like that.

Although no one ever wants to live in a refugee camp, the conditions at Kakuma were decent. Perhaps that is because the camp has been in existence for almost 20 years. We actually came away from our visit with a positive and optimistic feeling. The refugees are not locked behind gates and barbed wire fences. They are free to come and go as they please both within the camp and outside. There are educational and employment opportunities within the camp, however they are a limited resource dependent upon funding.

First a little background, Kakuma Refugee Camp is located in northwestern Kenya 95 kilometers from the Sudanese border. It is also close to Ethiopia and Uganda.

This area is located in a harsh climate. Kakuma is the Kiswahili word for “nowhere”. The average daytime temperature is 104 degrees. It is in a semi-arid climate where no agriculture is possible. Kenyans who live in this area are the Turkana, nomadic pastoralists who raise goats and camels. There is not enough water or vegetation to support cattle.

Kakuma Refugee Camp was established in 1992 for Sudanese Refugees. Refugees are people that have been forcibly displaced from their home countries due to war or persecution. Many of you have probably heard of the Lost Boys of Sudan. This is the refugee camp where they lived. Today the population is about 83,000 consisting of refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Uganda and Rwanda in an area covering 13 square kilometers.

The camp is administered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Other organizations involved are: World Food Program (WFP), International Organization for Migration (IOM), Lutheran World Federation (LWF), International Rescue Committee (IRC), Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS), National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), Windle Trust Kenya (WTK), Film Aid International, and Salesians of Don Bosco in Kenya.

Our host for the day was Father Luke, a Salesian priest. He runs the director of the Don Bosco Vocational Training Centre. At this centre they offer training in Computer, dressmaking, electrical installation, masonry, metal work, motor vehicle mechanics, plumbing, secretarial and carpentry. However, the most popular classes are English. This is because English is the official language of the camp. During the past calendar year they have enrolled 602 students.

Here are some of the statics Fr. Luke shared with us:
• There are 250 live births a month.
• Monthly, there are 1500 new arrivals including some transferred from Dadaab.
• Many of the refugees are unaccompanied minors.
• The majority of the adult Sudanese have returned to South Sudan since independence. However, they have left their children behind because there are more educational opportunities available in the camp than in South Sudan.
• There are twelve primary schools and only one secondary school within the camp.

When refugees arrive they are provided with a tarpaulin with which to construct a home. It is then up to them to build a more permanent structure as time goes on. Food is distributed once a week.

To ease tension between the refugees and the Kenyan people who live outside the camp, 20% of the services offered in the camp are designated to go to the locals. This has greatly helped the situation. The day after we visited there was going to be a food distribution to the Turkana who are also suffering from the drought. I met a young Turkana computer student at Don Bosco. She had completed secondary school and qualified for university. While she was waiting to be admitted to the university she was taking a computer diploma course.

Click here to view more photos.

Agricultural Show 2011

2011-11-07T10:37:00.000-06:00

Saturday we went to the Agricultural Show in Kitale. Think of county fairs or the state fair. Kenya holds three agricultural shows every year: Nairobi, Mombasa and Kitale. The primary purpose of these shows is to showcase agricultural methods, innovations, and products. The majority of Kenyans are subsistence farmers trying to raise enough maize and beans to feed their family for a year. It is the highlight of the year for many Kenyans.

Because rain was threatening, we were there a little over an hour. It probably isn't much larger than the LV County Fair. There were four barns of cattle. We

went through one of the major seed companies test plots to showcase their seeds and other agricultural products. There is a real move to encourage farmers to plant those crops that were once indigenous to Kenya and used for food before the coming of the white men. They are rich in vitamins and minerals, the seeds are much cheaper and no chemicals or fertilizers are required. We even bought a bag of toasted amaranth. It should make a good addition to the granola that I make for our breakfast.

One of the fascinating things we saw was an irrigation system for small plots.

I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but it uses a large bicycle pump to power the irrigation system. By pumping like you would to fill a tire, it causes the water to flow through the hose to the sprinklers. The cost was about $30.

A bigger, more elaborate system used something similar to a stair master exercise machine. There were two pedals on a stand. You pump the pedals up and down and the water flows. It cost about $80. Amazing simple technology to meet a need.

You can’t get away without buying something. I bought a new basket with a lid for $2 and a couple of necklaces.

This is a coffee bush.

Here is tea.

Cultural Day

2011-11-04T11:20:00.001-05:00

In an effort to create national unity, the government is encouraging the
organization of Cohesion Clubs in secondary schools. Two St. Monica’s girls attended a workshop over August holiday. As only four students from the entire

Trans Nzoia district were allowed to go, it was quite an honour. They are now

ambassadors to other schools to encourage the establishment of Cohesion Clubs. The purpose of these clubs it to bring together students of all ethnic groups. They need to recognize the importance of their ethnic heritage, yet realize the importance of national unity. Kenyans need to see themselves as Kenyans first rather than members of a particular tribe that can be manipulated against one another.

Last Saturday the Cohesion Club held the first ever Cultural Day at St. Monica’s. Each class worked together to prepare a presentation of song and dance. They were to use dances from their people, community or tribe.

It was an amazing day enjoyed by all probably the highlight of the school year.

I’m afraid the photos don’t do justice to the dancers. Most classes combined songs
and dances of two or more tribes. The smiles and joy on everyone’s faces was priceless. You couldn’t believe the enthusiasm of the audience. Occasionally the teachers would join in voluntarily as the spirit moved them or as they were invited by the group. Even I got into the act several times!

Typically there is a leader of the dance. This leader stands in front of the group. They begin the song and the rest of the group responds so it is a give and

take between the “caller” and the group. The drummers then join in once a rhythm is established.

The flexibility of Kenyans is amazing. We’ve written before about loving to watch

the liturgical dancers at Mass. That is nothing compared to what they can do! What natural rhythm. What beauty and grace in their movements.

The girls enjoyed the day so much they have requested to hold a Cultural Day every term.

Concern is Touching

2011-11-02T04:39:00.002-05:00

Today is the beginning of the Agricultural Show held in Kitale. Nation-wide there are three such shows in Kenya: Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kitale. Think of the state fair. The primary purpose is to showcase and promote agriculture. There are permanent booths that display universities, banks, seed companies, etc. Then there are small individual booths selling food items, crafts, agricultural products, furniture, and novelties. Student groups come to perform in the grandstand during the day and professional entertainers come at night. For the children there are games, carnival rides and camel rides. We understand it is the highlight of the year for many Kenyans.

My Form II students have always asked me about current events as we start class. Earlier this week they asked if I would be going to the Agricultural Show this weekend. I told them that we would probably visit on Saturday. (The Showgrounds are less than a mile away, so it is easy for us to attend.)

This morning these girls told me that we shouldn't go because they are worried about our safety. As you probably know, Al Shabab is a Somalian terrorist group that has members in many African countries. The newspapers here have been filled with stories lately about their infiltration into Kenya and recruitment of young men now that Kenya has declared war on Al Shabab and invaded Somalia. Another teacher yesterday told them that it wasn't a good idea to go to the Agricultural Show because it was a large gathering and therefore a possible target.

I assured them that we would think twice about going. If we went it would be in the morning, not late afternoon or evening when the big crowds would be there.

I was really touched by their concern about us. We are aware of possible danger, but it is much more likely to occur in the larger cities than in Kitale. Just like in the US, we are aware of circumstances, are smart and take safety precautions. The US Embassy in Nairobi does a great job of alerting us of possible dangerous areas and giving us the latest information about the possibility of threatening situations. We are not worried about our safety but it is sweet that the girls want to take care of me.

Puns

2011-10-28T01:45:00.000-05:00

Our world and our students' worlds are so different.

I needed to teach a lesson on puns to my Form IIIs. My sister occasionally sends comic strips she cuts out from the newspaper. I had saved several of them thinking I could use them as a teaching aid.

I started the lesson with the definition of a pun and gave a few examples:
* A backward poet writes inverse.
* She had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, but broke it off.
* With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
* A pessimist's blood type is b-negative.
As English is the girls' third or even fourth language, we spend a lot of time clarifying meanings of words. The dictionary is our best friend.

Then I decided to use one of those comic strips from my sister. It showed a teenager walking around holding an avocado for about six frames. In the last frame he goes into the dining room where his parents are seated. He asks, "How much longer do I have to hold the guacamole?" His dad says to his wife, "Never send Norman to make a taco."

Do you know how long it took to explain American culture so they could appreciate the humour? I needed to tell them what a taco is, what guacamole is, how to make it, how to eat it, even what "hold the _____" means. About five minutes into the explanation I wondered why I had ever started. However, the girls loved the lesson. As I was leaving class that day one of them said, "That was a fun lesson."

During my research on puns I discovered a website that has a pun a day. I think we'll start lessons for the next week or so with a pun. What a great way to encourage vocabulary and critical thinking.

A funny side note - the girls made me reexplain how to make guacamole so they could write down the recipe. Some of them even jotted down what is in a taco. I wonder how many of them are going to try them over December holiday?

Lorugum Confirmation

2011-10-23T04:08:00.000-05:00

John O'Donoghue and I had the opportunity to travel with a media team from Maryknoll to Lodwar. The media team was made up of three people all photographers and two of them produce a radio show, Voices of the World, for the Maryknoll Society (Fathers). They came to Kenya to focus on the ministries of the MK Fathers, Sisters, Lay Missioners as well as the famine in Kenya. We traveled to the Lodwar dioceses because that is one of the areas that is experiencing extreme drought in Kenya.

Lodwar is located in the north western part of Kenya in an arid area receiving less than ten inches of rain a year and is considered to be a hardship area. Unless you are located next to a river which holds water year round, nothing grows there. All food and supplies must be brought in. Very few people live in this area. The tribe that does is known as the Turkana. They are pastoralists raising cattle, goats and a few camels roaming wherever they can find food and water for their animals. They are a marginalized people being so far removed from major cities adn government services. Many of their children still do not have the opportunity to go to school. Women are able to earn some income from their beautiful woven baskets and mats.

You can see one of the dry riverbeds we crossed to get to Lorugum. When it rains they have terrible flash flooding as the soil can't hold any water. It is all sand.

This is a typical Turkana home built out of brush. As they are nomadic people it doesn't need to last long.

It was an insightful and interesting trip. On Sunday we had the opportunity to travel with Bishop Dominic Kimengich to celebrate confirmation at Lorugum, one of the outstations of the diocese. Bishop Kimengich has been bishop there for less than one year so this was the first time he had visited the parish. They were thrilled and he was warmly received. Bishop Kimengich is young, energetic and seems to be deeply aware of the needs of his people. You should have heard the excitement when he danced with the women at the end of the Mass. They danced all around the church celebrating together.

The Turkana still hold on to many of their traditional ways of life because they are so far removed from the rest of the country. Missionaries didn't even come into this area until the early 1960s! I loved the bright coloured clothing and jewelry.

After Mass we enjoyed lunch with the two different groups of nuns who work in Lorugum. They run a clinic and secondary school. Later that afternoon we visited Turkana Girls' Secondary School. While we were there we met with the Form IV

(seniors) girls. They were beginning their KCSE exams on Tuesday. We had a short assembly where all addressed them for a few minutes wishing them luck. The highlight was the Bishop blessing each and every girl regardless of religious beliefs. As he said, "You are all children of God and we want what is the very best for you."

As we returned to Lodwar we were greeted by these men on their way to some sort of celebration.

Click here for additional photos of this day.

Father Joe's Visit

2011-10-14T23:54:00.000-05:00

As I’ve written before the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers are celebrating their centennial this year. As part of their celebrations, Father Joe Healy came to Kitale this weekend with two cameramen as they are making a documentary about the work Maryknoll is doing in Kenya. He spent Friday visiting our ministry sites.

Kathy was thrilled with the way things turned out for her. She is now working at St. Raphael Clinic in Matisi, a slum of Kitale. On Monday they opened a maternity ward at the hospital with a Mass by Bishop Crowley. Can you believe that on Friday morning their first baby was born. During his visit Fr. Joe was able to bless this special baby whose name is Raphael.

Nothing quite so exciting happened while he was visiting our schools. While at St. Anthony’s he was able to address the entire student body while they were still on morning parade. Fr. Joe is a real sports enthusiast so the boys were excited to have someone discuss sports. He visited John’s maths classroom and decided that he didn’t want any part of teaching high school maths but was able to tell a couple of stories.

At St. Monica’s he visited my Form I English class for a few minutes. We then went down to the playing field and sang several songs for him. Of course in Kenya, you don’t just sing you must dance. At one point even John O’Donoghue and Fr. Joe got into the act.

Sunday Maryknoll was honored during the 7:00 am Mass said by Bishop Crowley. That evening we all had a wonderful meal at Karabuni Lodge with the Bishop. It truly is an honor to be a part of the Maryknoll family.

To see more photos click here.

Escort

2011-09-15T11:27:00.002-05:00

I never cease to be amazed at how the English language can be so different in another place.

Class had just been dismissed for tea. I hung around outside the classroom door because I needed to collect papers from a few of the girls. Instead of running to the dining hall to get their tea, about four girls sat down on the grass to bask in the sun. This is our conversation.

“Aren’t you girls going to go get your tea?” I asked.

“No,” they replied, “we don’t have an escort.”

Laughingly I said, “I’ll take you down to the dining hall and be your escort.” There was no reply. So I continued, “Did you get in trouble or something? Is there some reason you can’t go to the dining hall?”

Then they started laughing, “Since we don’t have anything to take with our tea we don’t want it.”

“Oh, you want something to eat with your tea, bread or something. Is that right?”

That is one time the Oxford Dictionary didn’t help me!

Here’s another example that I’ve run across several times this week as I’ve graded compositions, but this one is in the Oxford Dictionary. I had no otherwise but to go home. Definition of otherwise: choice.

Visit to Ortum

2011-09-14T08:12:00.000-05:00

We’ve had a guest in Kitale. Maria, a registered nurse, is thinking about becoming a Maryknoll Lay Missioner. She is here for three weeks to see the reality of health care in Kenya and opportunities for future mission. Kathy has done a great job scheduling visits for her. Last week they traveled to Ortum to visit the

Mission Hospital and Nursing School there. Since I didn’t need to go to school that day, I asked if I could tag along. It was a beautiful trip and informative visit.

In 1956 the Kiltegan priests and Daughters of the Holy Rosary, both Irish mission organizations, started work in Ortum. Ortum is in West Pokot located about two hours north of Kitale in the Cherangani Hills. There they established a mission church, schools and a hospital. Later they added a nursing school, one of the best in Kenya.

The hospital and nursing school were impressive. The Sisters still run both

institutions. The nursing school has about 100 students. Because they are so well trained, when they complete nurses’ training they are snatched up in the job market. The hospital is well equipped and offers many services not found elsewhere. One of those is a place where expectant mothers can come and live for free while they are awaiting the birth of their baby. Since this area is sparsely
populated and people must travel far through mountains by foot, if women wait until they are in labour to come to the hospital, they won’t make it on time to deliver!

The people native to this area are the Pokots. Because they live in a remote area many of them still follow traditional ways of life. It is a goal of Bishop Crowley, to help educate these people to improve the quality of their life. I do have several girls from West Pokot in my classes.

The Pokots are divided into two main groups. The Hill Pokot live in the Cherangani Hills (where we were) and practice both pastoralism and farming growing maize. The other group are the Plains Pokot who live in arid plains where they herd cows, goats and sheep. Whether a pastoralist or a farmer, wealth among the Pokot is measured by the number of cattle one has. Cattle are used to barter and to pay bride price (dowry). As long as a man has enough cows to offer, marrying more than one wife is allowed.

Dairy products such as milk, butter and cheese are the staple diet of the Pokot.

They make porridge from wild fruits boiled with a mixture of milk and blood from cattle. Cattle are seldom slaughtered for meat because they are more valuable alive. Pokot women traditionally wear colorful necklaces and beaded headgear, brass jewelry and big loop type earrings whereas men wear just a few wrap garments and cowhide capes and shirts. Pokot warriors wear red clay on their hair with feathers.

To see more pictures of the area around Ortum, click here.

Ft. Jesus and Old Town Mombasa

2011-09-10T08:02:00.000-05:00

While in Mombasa, we spent a day enjoying some historic sites there: Fort Jesus and Old Town. The word Mombasa means “Island of War” which aptly fits as there

have been many battles and intrigues involving its ownership. It is one of East Africa’s oldest settlements. Some claim settlements have existed there for at least 2000 years.

Due to the importance of the natural harbour ships from Arabia, Persia,Yemen, Iran, India and even China created major trading center in Mombasa. Traders from countries to the East were interested in spices, gold, ivory, millet, seamum, coconuts, and slaves. The Kiswahili language is said to have originated here as a language of trade with words derived from Arabic, Indian, Portuguese and English.

Much later the Europeans realized its economic value. Vasco da Gama stopped there in 1498, however, he wasn’t allowed to enter the port. Almost a hundred years

later, Portugal obtained dominion and built Ft. Jesus to protect its interests. The fort was the main hub for trading, a prison for slaves, and protection for their own soldiers. The popular trade goods at that time were spices, cotton, coffee and slaves.

The Portuguese were overthrown by Omani Arabs in 1698 after being under siege for two years and nine months. And then in 1887 the British took control of the city. Between 1631 and 1875 the fort was won and lost nine times.

The Portuguese sailed under the flag of the Order of Christ, not the Portuguese flag, since they regarded themselves as representatives of Christendom. So it was natural that they named it Fort Jesus. Ft. Jesus was built in the shape of a man

as viewed from above. It was the first European-style fort constructed outside of Europe designed to resist cannon fire. A quote from the brochure pretty well sums up the fort’s history, “Fort Jesus has suffered a history of murder, siege, starvation, bombardment and treachery that makes our modern world of hi-jacking and thuggery seem quite tame.”

Old Town is located just outside Ft. Jesus. It is filled with buildings influenced by Islamic and Portuguese architecture. The carved wooden doors and balconies are beautiful.

For additional photos click here.

Fire at St. Anthony's

2011-09-08T17:32:00.000-05:00

As I was walking to school this morning the only fire truck in town was going towards St. Anthony’s. When I got to school I knew something was wrong as there were many motorcycles and no kids in class.

As I passed the academic block I could see the fire truck near one of the

dormitories plus students and some adults standing around. One of the dorms had caught fire between 5:00 and 5:30. The fire department was putting out what was left of the fire. Luckily the boys were at morning preps in their classrooms. Thank God no one was injured. About 120 boys lost all their belongings.

While an emergency Board of Governors meeting was being held I went to all the form 1 and 2 classrooms and told them how sorry I was about the fire but my prayers

were answered that no one was hurt. We can replace clothes, books, etc. but not human life. Other teachers were busy consoling and helping boys who had lost things. Parents and people from town started coming to see the damage.

We had a school assembly after the BOG meeting. We had speeches of encouragement from the principal, acting head of school board, head of PTA, plus some other officials who were around. After parade we had tea break. After I "took" my tea, I headed back to the dorm area. Some parents and more town people were coming to see the damage. Some of the boys were able to go in and try to get their locker (trunk) out of the dorm. Finally I decided I might as well go into my math classes and do some review at least that might keep them busy.

After lunch I went back to the dorm area. The dorm had finally cooled down enough that all the boys could get their trunks out. Most the boys only found ashes in their trunk or things were so badly burned that they were not salvageable. One boy was really upset so I let him use my phone to call his parents. You could see the relief on his face as he was able to visit with his mother. I even received a call from a parent who was concerned about her son so I had Moses call his mother. The media here is not real reliable and likes to sensationalize. She had heard that some boys were killed in the fire.

After lunch I had learned the following. The boys whose dorm caught fire would double up or use bunks of boys who have not returned to school yet because of the

teacher's strike. One of the counselors told me that a few of the boys were depressed because they knew their parents had used all they had to put the them in school and did not have any money to replace what they had lost. PTA will set up a fund to buy some of the things the boys lost. And finally, we will start exams tomorrow morning.

One thing that really struck me was a comment I heard. "Yes, it was a bad loss for the boys, but they need to learn to move on with life." Another one told me that there is much tragedy and one might as well learn at an early age to keep moving forward with their life. Not quite what I would hear in the States in the same circumstances.

I really feel for the counselors, the teacher who is head of boarding, the principal and teachers who stepped up to help. They really had a load on their shoulders today. My heart also goes out to the boys who lost things in the fire and all the boys. I am sure many will not sleep well tonight. But God did bless us in that no one was injured.

Mombasa Visit

2011-09-04T04:09:00.001-05:00

As our students are on holiday during the month of August we decided to take advantage of the time off and visit Mombasa. We were attracted to Mombasa for two reasons: friends and the Indian Ocean. It was a wonderful trip thanks to these wonderful ladies. There are currently four MK lay missioners serving in

Mombasa. While we were there we were able to help welcome Coralis Salavador back to Kenya who has been on a year's sabbatical in the States.

Judy Walter arrived in Kenya in January and has opened a medical clinic in Bangladesh, one of the slums in Mombasa. We were able to pick her up from work one day and see her beautiful new clinic.

Dr. Susan Nagele has been a MKLM for over 25 years serving in Tanzania, Sudan and Kenya. She is currently working as a consultant for the archdiocese of Mombasa and seeing patients in many of their clinics where they don't have a doctor on staff.

Mary Oldham coordinates the Maryknoll Fathers AIDS Orphans Project in the Archdiocese of Mombasa. This project provides school fees, books, uniforms, and supplies so that children who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS can go to school.

We enjoyed the friendship and fellowship of our Mombasa friends with visiting, touring historic sites, enjoying the ocean, celebrating Mass on the beach, and playing games. We look forward to being together again in November for the annual meeting of MK lay missioners in Nairobi. The scenery and atmosphere won't be quite the same, but the ambiance will be!

For additional pictures of our vacation click here.

Kenyan Famine

2011-08-13T07:43:00.003-05:00

Several of you have asked how close the famine in Kenya is to us. The city of Lodwar, less than 200 miles away, is located in an arid climate. An arid region typically receives less than ten inches of rain a year and vegetation is scarce. Their daily temperatures range between 90 and 100 degrees. People there aren’t even able to grow crops and be subsistence farmers but are instead are nomadic herders depending on their animals for survival.

The Turkana people who live in this area are losing their means of livelihood because their animals are dying due to the lack of food and water. These are the Kenyans closest to us that have been affected by this drought. Some of them live only about 50 miles away from us. It has not rained in this area for five years. It is estimated that 70 percent of their livestock have already died.

In May, Bishop Dominic Kimengich of the Catholic Diocese of Lodwar, made an appeal to our bishop, Bishop Maurice Crowley of the Catholic Diocese of Kitale, for food relief.

We personally along with the other Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Kitale felt called to help. We were able to donate approximately seven tons of foodstuffs, including

corn, beans, flour, cooking oil, salt and sugar. A truck delivered these desperately needed items to the people of the Diocese of Lodwar in Northern Kenya on Saturday, July 24th.

Several students at both St. Anthony’s and St. Monica’s Secondary Schools where we teach have families affected by this famine. Families are being forced to migrate to Kitale because they can no longer feed their families in their home area. Once here since they have no money, they are only able to find housing in the slums.

Last week in his homily, Bishop Crowley thanked the members of the parish for the contributions. He was extremely proud that we were among the first to respond to the needs of our neighbors. He is hoping to be able to send another lorry (truck) filled with more supplies in October. If you would like to help with this effort, make your donation to MKLM. On the memo line of your check designate John Korb MA – famine.

Car Woes

2011-08-10T11:51:00.000-05:00

Cars in Kenya for the most part are nothing like in the US. Our car is considered nice by most Kenyans but in all honesty I would never have let my daughters drive it to school let alone use it as their main mode of transportation. Most days it does get Cindy to school and back safely. But that does not mean we don’t have our moments.

Before we got this car in May it had only been driven once a week, basically to church and back by another lay missioner. My older brothers had said it wasn’t

good for a vehicle to just set. They need to be driven regularly. I was afraid that we might see some problems now that we were driving it almost daily.

A couple of weeks ago I thought I could smell something in the car. I checked the motor and saw the radiator needed water. I put in a couple of buckets of water and still could not feel water. I looked under the car and saw water. NOT GOOD NEWS! I called our mechanic who came and got the car. The water pump had blown (you have to understand, here they keep fixing things until they are absolutely worn out). He also put in a new tail light bulb, changed the oil, worked on the shocks (with the roads we have it is a wonder that they even last a month) and fixed a fuse. Within two days all the repairs were complete and we had the car back.

Last Friday we went shopping at the market and then to some of the shops downtown. At our first stop I noticed a whistling sound when I opened my door but it stopped when I closed the door. I thought I would need to call our mechanic, John, when I got home. After we stopped downtown and finished shopping the car would not start. I called John and luckily he was in the area. He checked various things and then called one of his workers to bring a battery so we could jump-start the car. Ten minutes later one of his workers came on a motorcycle with a battery tied on behind. We tried to jump-start the car but it still would not turn over.

Now it was time for plan B. You have to remember we are parked on the main street of Kitale. So three of us pushed the car out into the street (think what it must have looked like for an older white man helping to push the car while a Kenyan is driving). Thank goodness once we got the car into the street we were pushing downhill. John popped the clutch and the car started. Cindy and I jumped in so John could take us home before he took the car into the shop. Talk about service. There was corrosion in the starter and we had the car back the next morning.

Sunday afternoon our askari (guard) told me we had a tire losing air. I took the car to a petro (gas) station to have it checked out. They couldn’t find a leak. But on Tuesday the tire was almost flat. I took it back and had them fix the puncture. The next morning I went out before Cindy went to school and saw it was flat again. I changed the tire so she dropped it off to be repaired again. Later in the afternoon I got the tire and they put it on the car for me. The cost--- $1.10 each time.

We have gone almost six months without a punctured tire. I guess it was time to have one, but we are thankful we have a car to get us around. I think we average driving about 175 miles a month. It’s a good thing we don’t drive more as petro costs about $6 a gallon.

Season of Long Rains

2011-08-05T08:01:00.000-05:00

This last week we’ve changed from the season of short rains to the season of long rains. The short rains were typically afternoon showers that lasted 20 to 30 minutes. The morning started out clear but the clouds gradually built up over the course of the day. Late afternoon, about 3:00 or 4:00, a shower would start, a nice slow, gradual rain lasting less than 30 minutes.

Now that the long rains have started the temperature is definitely cooler. Many days start off cloudy and stay that way all day. If the sun shines the daily high temperature might reach the mid 70s. However, on a day like today that has been cloudy all day the high is probably mid to upper 60s. The rain can start any time but usually in the evening and night lasting an hour or more. Often we will have two rains in one day. These rains are hard rains and often have thunder but we haven’t seen any lightening.

We live in the highlands at an elevation of about 7000 feet above sea level. Because of the altitude we are getting plenty of rain although less than 30 miles away they are in a drought area. The maize and beans grown here are looking good and doing well.

We aren’t growing our own food, but we are enjoying the beautiful green foliage and flowers in our yard, the school compounds and in the neighborhood. The most common types of flowers are bougainvillea, hibiscus, morning glories, poinsettias, roses, marigolds, dahlias, etc.

Enjoy some of the beauty we are experiencing.

I posted some pictures of the Centennial Mass we attended for the Maryknoll Fathers at https://picasaweb.google.com/geog13/CentennialCelebration

An Enemy of the People

2011-07-28T01:52:00.023-05:00

Kenyan students are required to read three books during their secondary education: The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Shreds of Tenderness by John

Runga and An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen. They must know these books inside out as there are comprehension questions and compositions they must write about these books on the KCSE they take at the end of their Form IV (senior) year.

Several theatrical groups have developed plays based upon these set books and tour the country visiting schools. It is a win-win situation for everyone. The

students get a chance to see the play reminding them of plot of the book and perhaps enhancing their understanding. The theatrical company makes a good profit while having steady work.

I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to go with our Form IV students to see

An Enemy of the People. It was written in 1862 by a Norwegian playwright Henry Ibsen. In a nutshell it is about a person who expresses an unpopular view and stands up against the local government. For these reasons he is labeled An Enemy of the People when he is actually trying to help the common man. Two famous lines from the play are: "...the strongest man in the world is the man who stands most alone." and "A minority may be right; a majority is always wrong."

Of course, the girls are always glad for an outing. They didn't have class that day. Those that had spending money bought lollipops and other treats to eat. While waiting for the play to begin and again afterwards they got to see and visit with other students, even boys from neighboring schools.

On the way back to school they had a special treat. We stopped at a kiosk near the school and bought white bread and sodas for lunch. As they never get these items at school, they were thrilled.

Paper Clip

2011-07-19T11:24:00.002-05:00

Every once in a while something happens that really "blows my mind" and makes me aware once again how different our world is than that of an average Kenyan.

Students at our schools aren't allowed to have phones. Now that there is only one more week remaining in the term, girls are wanting to call their parents to inform them when they will be coming home. Many of them are also requesting transport money. They will need to be riding a bus or a matatu home. There is a wonderful thing here called MPESA. It is a tranfer of money over the phone. A person goes to a MPESA booth anywhere. They indicate a phone number that they want the money sent to, pay the money and a small fee. The receiver then gets a text message (here they are called an SMS) that tells them the amount of money they are to receive. You take your phone to a MPESA booth and pick up the money. It is so easy to do.

Phones here are pay as you go. It costs money to make phone calls, but not to receive them. If you want to talk to someone, don't have money to make a call or don't want to pay for the call, you flash them. That means you dial their number and let it ring once or twice, but don't allow enough time for them to answer. They can see who flashed and if they want, they will call you back paying for the call.

The girls and I have worked out a system when they need to call home: once they have my approval to make a call, they line up to flash their parents during tea time, lunch, or breaks. About four or five girls flash and then we wait to see if anyone calls back. It works pretty well.

This afternoon the girls were lined up to try to call. I had taken a book with me in case I had time to get to Literature Club. It is a thick book with about 300 pages. While waiting the girls all wanted to take a look at my book. You have to realize that they pretty much only see textbooks. It is a novelty to see a novel that is so big. But that's not what amazed me.

I had used a paper clip to mark my place in the book. As they were looking at it and passing the book around, one of the girls said, "This is nini (what)? Mrs. Sitati was talking about it in Business Studies the other day." They had never seen a paper clip before and couldn't even name it! They wanted to know what it is used for and how it worked. After checking the page number in the book, I took it off so they could look at it. When they finished, I told one of the girls to go ahead and put it back in the book. They couldn't do it. They didn't know how!

Something as simple and ordinary as a paper clip.

Interesting Question

2011-06-30T11:06:00.000-05:00

I had a fellow teacher ask the most interesting question this week. I'm guessing he is in his 40s. I know he has a daughter that is a freshman in St. Moncia's. As is typical of many Kenyan families, he lives apart from his family because of his work. I'm not sure where his family lives, but he lives on the school compound in teacher housing. And I'm not sure how often he is able to see his family. (It is considered rude to ask people about their families and other personal matters.)

The Friends Across Borders trip was in Kitale last week. The sixteen participants visited St. Monica's one afternoon. This group was made up of five married couples and six singles. Their visit began with an assembly. After flag raising introductions began. Of course in our culture when you introduce yourself you tell a little about yourself. It is only natural to say, "This is my husband, John."

So the question asked was, "Why were there so many married people in the group of your visitors? Why do married couples travel together? If I want to travel I don't take my wife with me." I'm sure that question is indicative of traditional marriages. They aren't based on love, mutual satisfaction and support, or the desire to spend time together.

I thought it was interesting that two young women practice teachers (student teachers) who were sitting nearby were nodding their heads when I was trying to describe our marriages based on love and friendship. We want to spend time with our spouses. Yes, we have other interests and spend time away from one another, but depend on our spouses for companionship and actually want to travel and spend time together. I don't think those young women will settle for a marriage based on traditional values!

Friends Across Borders

2011-06-22T05:28:00.000-05:00

The Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Kenya have had the pleasure of hosting the sixteen members of the Friends Across Borders trip the past two weeks.

Here is a description of FAB: “Friends Across Borders is Maryknoll Lay Missioner’s mission awareness program. We invite you to deepen and enrich your understanding of mission by joining us on an exciting mission trip. You will have the opportunity to experience what you could never discover in travel brochures, films or books. You will experience what life is really like in communities where MKLM missioners are living out their faith, and working for, and with, the local people.”

These sixteen people arrived in Kenya on June 11th and will be leaving tomorrow, June 23rd. While here they have visited all ten lay missioners in Mombasa and Kitale to learn about our work. They were able to visit most of our workplaces and interact with our co-workers. Along the way they learned Kiswahili words of greeting and thanks. The final three days was spent as tourists going on safari in Maasai Mara.

Here in Kitale they spent time at both of our schools: St. Monica’s and St. Anthony’s. The traditional dancers performed several dances and songs at St. Anthony’s. District competitions were also going on that afternoon in football (soccer), table tennis, lawn tennis, and badminton so they were able to be spectators Kenyan style. My Form II (sophomore) girls took tea with the group during their visit. This enabled both groups to have good quality time to chat and learn more about one another and their worlds.

Since we live in the tropics we always enjoy time outdoors. Our final day with our FAB visitors was spent in our compound having a picnic resting and informally visiting.

We wish each participant of FAB the best as they return home and reflect on their experiences in Kenya. We know from personal experience, they will never be the same people again.

Click here for more pictures of our newest friends.

Kakmega Forest

2011-06-10T00:30:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we took a day trip with some of our fellow missioners to the Kakamega Forest. It was about a two hour drive from Kitale through some beautiful country. We had views of Mt. Elgon, the Nandi Hills, fields of tea and sugarcane among all of the maize.

Funerals are usually held on Saturdays so people can travel to attend. Funerals are a big event and anyone associated with the family, tribe and village are expected to attend no matter how far they must travel. We saw three funerals on our drive.

Our destination was the Rondo Retreat Centre in the Kakamega Forest run by the Trinity Fellowship. It was a beautiful compound for guests. We arranged for our tour guide there and had a delightful light lunch in their dining hall. The grounds are a paradise in the middle of the forest with beautiful landscaping. John and I plan to go back to spend several days there when we are on holiday from school.

The Kakamega Forest is the only tropical rain forest still existing in Kenya. Once upon a time this forest would have spread from the Atlantic coast of Africa across the continent to the Indian Ocean. Some of the animals that live there don’t exist anywhere else in Africa. There are over 300 bird species, over 500 species of butterflies, 27 types of snakes (John jumped when he heard that), five kinds of monkeys plus many others. Fortunately the snakes aren’t often seen.

We took a short two hour hike with a guide through part of the forest. Since it was about 10:30 when we started most of the animals weren’t visible. We did see several birds, butterflies and ants including the vicious soldier ants. We saw a type of orchid, several mushrooms and several plants that are used for practical or medicinal purposes by the local people: toilet paper, sandpaper, stomach ailments, and diarrhea.

On the way home we stopped for a roadside glimpse of the Crying Rock. It is a huge rock pillar that stands high above the land with a smaller rock on top. When it rains water seeps out from under the top boulder running down the pillar leaving a stain that looks like tears. As we were sitting alongside the road looking at it a small boy about 10 years old came over to the car and wanted to know if we’d like to hear the local stories about the rock. Of course, we said yes. Unfortunately because of the traffic zipping by on the highway we weren't able to clearly hear the stories he was telling us. However, the part that we did understand is that there are caves at the base of the rocks. In these caves local people still perform cleansing ceremonies when someone's actions have harmed others.

We enjoyed the day very much getting to see another part of Kenya.

For more photos of our trip click here.

Kansas to Kenya: A Different Kind of Retirement

2011-06-04T13:57:00.000-05:00

While we were on home visit during the month of April we were interviewed by The Leaven, our diocese newspaper. We thought you might like to see what they wrote.

Kansas to Kenya: a different kind of ‘retirement’

By Caitlin Thornbrugh
Special to The Leaven

TONGANOXIE — For most people, retirement is a time to kick back, relax, and putter their way into the “golden years.”
Not John and Cindy Korb of Sacred Heart Parish in Tonganoxie. For them, “retirement” is an opportunity to take on a lifestyle change that would challenge anyone at any age.
After 32 years of teaching in Tonganoxie, John and Cindy were looking forward to retirement in August 2009. But instead of a traditional retirement plan and “puttering,” they signed a three-and-a-half year contract, sold all their possessions, and travelled more than 8,000 miles to Kitale, Kenya, East Africa, to be Maryknoll Lay Missioners.

Getting Started

The Korbs began searching for Catholic mission options online and, on a summer day in 2008, Cindy discovered the deadline for a Maryknoll Lay Ministers discernment weekend was that day. John was mowing the lawn, and Cindy went out to ask, “How serious are we about this?”
They registered that day.
After being accepted, they began getting rid of most of their possessions, selling their house, and preparing for an early retirement from teaching.
“We sold the house that we’d raised our family in. It was difficult, but we knew this was something we wanted to pursue,” said Cindy.
They originally thought they would be stationed in East Timor in Southeast Asia but, several weeks into orientation, found out this location was being closed due to economic reasons. From their remaining options, the Korbs chose Kenya. As John said, they are continually learning to be flexible and “go with the flow.”

Back to School

At an all-boys school called St. Anthony’s, John teaches math and geography to classes of around 90 students. Cindy teaches English at an all-girls school, St. Monica’s, to classes of around 50 students. The Kenyan school year runs 11 months.
However, beyond teaching, they also are involved in after-school activities. Cindy runs a literature club; John is teaching a catechumenate class.
“I think we have been really careful not to be the ‘know-it-all Americans,’ who come in and tell people how to do things. We’re trying to show by example good teaching practices,” said Cindy.
After over 30 years of teaching in the United States, one of the biggest differences they have noticed is the lack of interaction between teachers and students.
“Here in the States, we are constantly checking for understanding. . . . There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of that there. We call on students. You could tell at first they just weren’t used to that,” said Cindy.
Along with different practices, John and Cindy are the only non-Kenyan, white teachers. The Korbs have found, however, that race is not a large issue.
“You don’t think of skin color. Yeah, we’re a minority, but that doesn’t even enter in my mind. And I don’t think [it enters] the [minds of the] kids anymore,” said John.
The Korbs have become a part of their school communities: They have been to a wake service, a baby shower, and have been invited to a wedding.
With all the differences, they found similarities as well.
“Kids are the same around the world,” said John.
When talking to his students about stressors, they had similar responses to American schoolchildren: getting up early, what they’re having for lunch, and homework.

Marriage and Family

As they are adapting their teaching style, a change in location has also changed their marriage. The Korbs will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary in June.
“The culture is just so different, and there are some things we don’t understand yet, so we rely on each other more,” said John.
This change has been a positive one.
“Our marriage has changed, because our lifestyle has changed so drastically. [When] we lived in Tonganoxie, you can go shopping anytime you wanted to, you could go to a movie, you could go to Kansas City, you could go to concerts. Those things just aren’t available [in Kitale], so you spend more quiet time together as a couple,” said Cindy.
The Korbs have two daughters: Andrea Korb, who lives in New York, and Katrina Korb, who lives in Nigeria. Although they sometimes feel bad for being so spread out, the Korbs try to speak with both daughters on a regular basis.
“We’re farther away in distance, but thank heavens for the Internet, Skyping, and e-mail,” said Cindy. “Thanks to modern technology, we’re able to stay in really close contact still.”
Andrea sees her parents as role models.
“Just seeing the work that they’re doing really inspires me to live my life in a good way,” she said, “and to help the people in my community.”

Growing in Faith

In having more time to spend with each other, they also have more time to spend with God.
“Because life is slower, we have more time for Scripture reading, for prayer, for meditation,” said Cindy.
They have been learning about their own faith from the people around them.
“Kenyans’ faith seems so much stronger than ours in a way. They see everything as a gift of God: waking up in the morning, the day, rain, a paycheck,” she said.
Although they celebrated, in some ways, a nontraditional Christmas — using a cypress tree branch for a Christmas tree — they also found that it enriched their faith by being focused on the religious aspect of the holiday.
“We in the American culture are so busy and so consumer-oriented. It was so nice to be there at Christmastime. There wasn’t the push to buy-buy-buy, want-want-want,” said Cindy.

A World Apart

The Korbs have been inspired by their students and the Kenyan culture. Now, they hope to inspire other Americans to volunteer and reach out to their own communities.
While visiting the United States, they gave nine presentations to schools and churches.
“Even volunteering at a food kitchen or a thrift shop, getting out of your comfort zone and trying to experience the world through somebody else’s eyes is so enriching,” said Cindy.
Right now, the Korbs plan to continue their work and then sign on for another three-year contract in 2013.
“The more you can see of the world, the more you learn, the more it increases your faith,” said Cindy.

© Copyright 2008 The Leaven. All Rights Reserved. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the express written consent of The Leaven is expressly prohibited.

Out of Africa

2011-05-28T06:54:00.001-05:00

Last night we watched the movie Out of Africa starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. It has been years since I had seen it and of course at that time we were living in the US. I enjoyed it so much more last night, not for the romance, because so many things were familiar.

Oh, the landscape. There are beautiful shots of the Rift Valley, the savannah, the wildlife. We would say, “We’ve seen that.” “That’s just like we remember it.”

We’ve been to the Karen Blixen Coffee Garden twice for meals. It is located at the house of her farm supervisor. The house has been restored to that time period and the gardens are beautiful. It is a fun place to visit and eat lunch. We’ve been on the grounds of her house, but not inside. They obviously shot part of the movie there, because the drive, gardens and area around it we’ve seen with our own eyes.

Lord Delamere was a character in the movie. He was a successful British farmer with vast holdings near Lake Naivasha. We go past his “plantation” on the way to Nairobi. Although we have never stopped, his family has a nice area to rest, eat, and shop where they sell dairy products and meat from their farm.

It was fun to see what Kenya was like in the early 1900s. The period date was 1913 when she first moved to Kenya. Members of the high society of England were living here with their fine china, extravagant lifestyles, time spent in the club socializing.

We could understand the Kiswahali spoken in the movie.

It was interesting to see the two tribes depicted in the movie. The lifestyle of the Maasai haven’t changed much in the past hundred years, but the Kikukus are now the dominate tribe having most of the Kenyan owned businesses. They are considered to be the most well educated and richest tribe in Kenya.

This morning I did a little research about the movie. Of course, they have taken some liberties with the truth, but it is essentially factual. The major characters in the movie are based on real life people. She did lose the land due to the failure of the coffee crop and moved back to Denmark but lived in Kenya for 17 years rather than just a few.

"I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills..." begins both the book and movie. If you get a chance, you ought to see the movie again. It is long, but it is a real charmer and lives you a slice of what life was like in Kenya once upon a time. Now I want to read the book.

Annual General Meeting

2011-05-22T06:59:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday was the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at St. Moncia’s. It is considered to be an important day, a yearly meeting of parents with the Board of Governors (school board), PTA, teachers, administrators, and of course their children.

Any Kenyan celebration would be incomplete without worship, entertainment, speeches, and food.

The day started at 8:00 am with Mass. A typical Kenyan Mass lasts two hours or more with all of the singing and dancing. After Mass, it was time to take tea. That gave those parents who had already arrived a chance to visit with their daughters.

After tea, the entertainment began. It consisted of some dramas (plays), recitation of poems, singing and dancing. At one point even Madam Akech, the prinicipal, and Mrs. Kandie, the deputy principal, joined in the dancing. Of course, that was a real crowd pleaser.

The Chief Guest (keynote speaker), was an adjunct professor from Moi University. She is a real advocate of education for women. Her speech was positive, uplifting, filled with good advice and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

One of my favorite stories was . . .

God created Eve with the rib from Adam’s side. He didn’t take a bone from his head or his foot. That is because God meant for Eve to work side by side with Adam as a partner. One person is not be raised above the other nor be trampled upon. She went on, do you know how when you do thing more than once, you improve? Well, God saw that there were a few imperfections in man and he was able to improve upon these when he created Eve!

After the speeches and the business meeting, it was finally time to eat! The school had prepared food for the parents and student, but many mothers brought in their daughter’s favorite foods to supplement. You could smell fried chicken, chips (French fries), and chapatti. The girls were also thrilled to be able to drink sodas and eat bread that their families brought.

The next Visiting Day will be in June. The girls are already looking forward to that day.

Tulirudi Numbani, Kenya

2011-05-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

We realized that we have returned to Kenya from a trip to the United States when we

. . . remembered that we can no longer brush our teeth in tap water.
. . . need to change our driving habits to slow down and brake for motorcycles, bicycles carrying passengers and potholes.
. . . find the wings of flying termites on the floor underneath our windows in the morning.
. . . must hang laundry out for a second day to dry during the rainy season.
. . . drive into a petrol (gas) station and the attendant motions you on because they don’t have any petrol.
. . . discover eggs of various sizes in your shopping bag.
. . . eat sweet, sweet bananas and mangoes.
. . . see students dressed in uniforms.
. . . fellow coworkers invite us to take tea.

AND BEST OF ALL

. . . students clap and cheer when we entered the classroom on our first day back.

Shopping

2011-04-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

We are currently in the United States visiting family and friends. As we have been shopping for clothing and supplies that we want to take back with us, I am struck by the difference between shopping here and in Kenya.

Form I Class

2011-03-25T01:13:00.000-05:00

Meet my Form I English class. Not only are they my freshman English class, but I am their class teacher. That would be similar to a homeroom teacher. I am responsible for them. Again, keep in mind this is a boarding school, so not only am I to keep track of their academic progress, but also deal with any issues that might arise during the boarding portion of their day.

Issues that I have had to deal with thus far:
* illness, mostly malaria

* wounds on legs (I don't know why, but several girls have had sores on their legs that are deep. It's not similar to anything I've seen before.)

* rebounding (This is a new vocabulary word for me. It means they snuck back in the serving line in the dining hall and got a second helping. Unfortunately it was on beans and rice day, everyone's favorite. That meant some girls did not get to eat that meal because there wasn't enough food.)

* locks on desks (Students need to lock all of their items in either their trunks in the dorms or their desks in the classroom.)

* phone calls home (It is the class teachers responsibility to determine whether the need for the phone is a valid one and then allow students to flash their parents when they need to talk to them.)

* gossiping

* report cards

They begin their final exams today with a week and a half remaining in this term.

I am pleased to report that these are for the most part well behaved and motivated students.

Leadership Visit

2011-03-10T10:19:00.000-06:00

Sam Stanton, Executive Director of Maryknoll Lay Missioners, and Margo Cambier, Director of Mission Services, have been on a two week tour of Tanzania and Kenya. The purpose was to see all of the missioners and visit their work sites. They scheduled a half day per missioner. On their last days in Kitale they visited both of our schools.

They had never been in Kenyan schools before, so they were in for a treat. John asked several of his students come and talk informally with them.

Because of their schedule, it worked for them to visit my Form III class. On Monday, I asked the girls to organize themselves for the visitors. They love to recite poetry and sing so I requested they have a couple of poems, talk about our school and then sing some songs. It was great. Sam and Margo loved it, as I did!

Bernadine recited a poem then Charity and Mary talked about our school. They sang two traditional songs with dancing. Some girls even had "costumes". Sam requested a Kiswahali song he knows. That lead me to ask for a couple of more songs that I have heard them sing at assembly or church. I'm sure we disturbed the classes around us, but it was so much fun.

We then had about 15 minutes where the girls could ask questions of Sam and Margo. It was interesting to note what kind of questions they asked and compare them with questions they ask me.

All in all, it was a successful visit for everyone.

(It was on Ash Wednesday. That is why Sam has ashes on his forehead.)

Newest St. Anthony's Student

2011-02-20T10:02:00.000-06:00

When John went to school on Monday he thought he was going to be giving and marking math exams. However, Mr. Nabungolo, his principal, announced that he and three teachers were going to a primary school about 15 miles away for their Academic Day. John went so the head of the math department could stay at school to administer math exams to students. They left within fifteen minutes of this announcement.

Niagomi Primary School is located in the rural area probably about two miles from the closest village. It is an extremely poor area. John noticed that several students didn’t have shoes. This school is sponsored by the Catholic Church, but hasn’t been performing well. On the average in the past few years, only six students had scores on the KCPE high enough to allow them to attend a quality (provincial) school.

A new principal started there in January and is trying his best to improve the quality of education for his 800 students. That is why he asked members of St. Anthony’s at be the speakers on this special day.

During a discussion, their principal told them that they did have a student, Collins, from last year’s class that had qualified to attend St. Anthony’s. For a student to score this high from a poor mixed day school is truly amazing. He has to be extremely bright. However, his family didn’t have the funds to allow him to attend. His father abandoned the family at birth and the mother is no longer in the picture. He is currently living with a grandfather who is a casual worker and doesn’t have a regular job.

The first year in a secondary school costs over $500 by the time parents pay the school fees and purchase the necessary items: storage trunk, bedding, uniforms, shoes, books, school supplies, basins for bathing and laundry, etc. When Mr. Nabungolo heard this, he immediately decided to waive the school fees at St. Anthony’s so that Collins could continue his education. A village elder, another teacher and John have chipped in to pay for those necessary items.

We are happy to report that after one of his former primary teachers took him shopping
Collins started school the next day.

Academic Families

2011-02-13T07:39:00.001-06:00

As a way to help students through their two most stressful and difficult years of secondary school, St. Monica’s organizes Academic Families. One teacher is assigned to meet fortnightly with five girls as an academic family. (Did you know fortnightly means every two weeks? I sure didn’t.) The purpose is to organize girls from different classes with one adult to talk about issues that are affecting them, study skills, goals, answer any questions, discuss simply anything that is on their mind.

This is my Form IV Academic Family. Meet Macklyn, Winnie, Veronica, Katherine and Millie. Millie wants to become a journalist, Winnie a plant geneticist, Veronica a pilot, Katherine a surgeon and Macklyn a human resource manager. During our first meeting they had to fill out paperwork indicating their marks (grades), academic goals, and hoped for KCSE scores. They asked for extra work in English which I am happy to provide. Surprisingly, they have already completed one extra assignment I gave them

We have also formed Academic Families for the Form III students. We met for our first time this past week. Two of my “girls” are in my English class. That means I only have to learn three new names. Since it is their junior year, they don’t have near the pressure yet. We were able to informally chat and get to know one another.

This weekend is Visitation Weekend. It is the one chance that parents get for the term to come and visit their daughters. I decided to go and see any of my Academic Family girls whose parents weren’t able to come. This is Caren and Rispa enjoying biscuits (cookies). They aren’t allowed to have any outside food except on Visitation Days, so they were thrilled to be able to have something sweet.

When Caren comes to school she has to travel for 14 hours. Luckily, she has a brother who also attends a school in Kitale so they are able to travel together. They leave home at 2:00 am and arrive just before the gates close at 4:00 pm.

Rispa has been attending boarding school since she was in Standard Two (2nd grade). Several girls her age started going to a boarding school several hours away when they were only 8 years old! Their parents would put them on an Easy Coach bus and they would travel together. Easy Coach is the bus we travel on to Nairobi. They have metal detectors and screen people as they get on the bus. It is the safest bus line in Kenya, but I still don’t think I would be able to put my 8 year old daughter on it to send her off to school for three months!

Reporting Day

2011-02-05T09:32:00.001-06:00

This week Form I (freshman) students reported to both of our schools. Both St. Anthony’s and St. Monica’s are well performing schools, so many parents want their children to attend them.

When students register for the KCPE (Kenya Comprehensive Primary School Examination) they indicate four secondary schools they would like to attend. The results of this test determines which school they will attend. If a student receives appropriate marks, they get the school they want. At that point a calling (acceptance) letter is sent to the prospective students. If the family can afford the school fees, they are pleased and their next four years are determined.

However, for a multitude of reasons, perhaps because the school is too far, school fees too expensive, poor school reputation, etc. many parents are not happy with the school to which their child has been called. Then the parents scramble to find a place at what they deem is a good school. Our principals have been swamped with parents wanting a place for their child. The rumour among the teachers at St. Monica’s is that there have been over 400 parents requesting a place in the perhaps 50 openings.

Once the called Form I students report to school, if there are openings left, a second round of calling letters will be issued. What determines who will get these calling letters? The results of their KCPE, primary school attended, ability to pay fees, pleas of parents, priests, or influential people

Here is what Reporting Day is like.

When the parents and students enter the school compound they begin to wait in the first of many lines. The first queue (line) is to make sure they had paid the enrollment fees. At St. Monica’s they were required to pay half of the fees, about $350. If they couldn’t they were turned away. It was heartbreaking to see about 25 girls sent away for lack of fees. They have until Monday to raise the money. If they cannot, their spot is given to one of the lucky ones on the waiting list.

Next stop is the school supplies inspection. At St. Anthony’s they are to bring 12 exercise books (notebooks), 2 reams of copy paper, 1 ream of foolscap (looseleaf) paper, pens, geometric set, ruler, maths tables book, Swahili dictionary, English dictionary, Bible, and a couple of more books and folders.

Third stop dealt with school books. The students had to give a math, English, Kiswahili, French, CRE (religious education), biology, and a geography textbook, plus 2 to 3 short library books. If a boy did not have everything the parents had to sign a ledger with their phone number stating why their child was not cleared and when they would have the required materials.

Next was an explanation of school rules. The class (homeroom) teacher went over the rules explaining them in detail. These include such things as: no outside food, no outside clothes (they must always be in school uniform), no electronic equipment such as cameras, ipods, telephones, etc, must attend class and preps as scheduled, no fighting, drinking, etc. The rules were signed by the student and parent indicating that they understood them and knew that the consequences of not following them were expulsion from school.

The fifth stop was to check to see if they had personal items: 2 blankets, set of sheets, bedspread, toothpaste and tooth brush, bath and laundry soap, 6 pair of underwear, towel, pajamas, sleepers (flip flops), basin (to do laundry in), dish, cup, spoon, plus a few other odds and ends.

Next they talked to the school counselor. She covered personal and medical needs. They signed up for extracurricular activities such as sports, the religious group they want to attend on Thursday afternoon, and club to attend on Tuesdays.

.
Finally they were assigned a dorm, class and student number. The last stop was to get their school uniforms. When they arrived they were wearing the primary school uniform. It was amazing to see the transformation when they came out wearing their new uniform. At that point, there were many smiling faces.

Tea

2011-01-22T05:06:00.000-06:00

Hospitality in any African country is extremely important. You share what you have without a thought about tomorrow, how you will feed your family in the future or even whether your family will be able to satisfy their own hunger.

During the December holiday we invited Sella, my principal, over for lunch one day when the girls were here. It was a wonderful afternoon. Phillip, her son who is a university student came along too. Since the Kenyan diet is so different from ours, I tried to prepare foods that are somewhat familiar to them. I had the ingredients for Chipotle type burritos: beans, rice, mince (hamburger), salsa, guacamole and tortillas. They don’t mix these foods like we do. They eat avocado, but don’t make it into guacamole dip. Both times I’ve made it for Kenyans, they’ve loved it! Both seemed to enjoy the meal.

Imagine my surprise when Sella called a couple of days later. She wanted us to come to her house for tea while the girls were still visiting. Now tea isn’t just tea! It must at least have bread. You can see the wonderful food that we were served: tea, mandazi (fried bread similar to doughnuts, sweet potatoes in the hot pot, popcorn and biscuits (cookies). It wasn’t just tea, it was an entire meal!

When invited into someone’s home, you are treated like royalty. You are offered the best seats in the house. Once you sit down you aren’t allowed to get up and you are served! There is no such thing as self service or buffet style.

You sit and chat for at least 20 minutes. Then the hostess disappears while the final preparations are made. Once the food is ready, a pitcher with warm water and a basin are brought to you. You wash your hands while they pour the water for you. Keep in mind, it is too expensive for most Kenyans to cook with propane, so the water is heated over a charcoal fire.

Kenyan tea isn’t like tea in the Midwest. It is a mixture of tea, milk and sugar. Some restaurants here call it milk tea. Once your hands are washed, you are served tea. The sugar bowl is available so you can add as much sugar as you’d like. We are happy with one or two spoonfuls however, most Kenyans seem to take three or four!

Then it is time to fill your plate. Our manners indicate that you should take a little and then clean your plate. Not so here! You are expected to fill your plate, fill your plate, and then fill your plate again. We are always told that we are not eating nearly enough!

We had a wonderful afternoon with our friends.

British English

2011-01-16T03:02:00.000-06:00

John had a conversation earlier this week that went like this:
Teacher: Where do you reside?
John: I live in Milimani.
Teacher: No, I asked where do you reside?
John: Oh, I reside in Milimani.

We have been reminded the past couple of weeks of how two people can both be speaking English but still not understand one another. Quite a few words have different meanings than what we are familiar with. Often people are confused with our questions as we are with theirs. Here are some words that we’ve experienced since returning to school.

exam: test
scripts: students’ test papers or compositions
marking scheme: answer key for an assignment or test
marks: number of points a test item is worth
read: to study
revision: study for an exam by looking over past work
intake: enroll in school
clear: when students or teachers leave school they must clear. That means they
have to check with all departments to make sure they don’t have any books or outstanding bills
bursar: school accountant, financial officer.
canteen: shop where students can buy snacks or toiletries on campus
school fees: payment required to enroll in school
tuition: extra lessons taught outside the regular school calendar during the months of April and
August. This is required for Form III and IVs
holiday: school vacation, time off from school
attachment: practicum, apprenticeship, internship
foolscap: loose leaf paper
deputy head teacher: assistant principal, vice principal
sanatorium: nurse’s office
practice teacher: student teacher
birro: ink pen
rubber: eraser
rub: to erase
class list: class roster
revision lessons: extra lessons taught outside of the regular school day in order to covered the curriculum especially in Form III and IV
Form I: freshmen
Form II: sophomores
Form III: juniors
Form IV: seniors
candidates: Form IV students who will be taking the KCSE in October. They are candidates for university if their scores are high enough.

venue: location of an event. The venue will be at St. Moncia’s school.
reside: place where you live
lory: truck
defeated: confused me
promote me: (said by vendors) support me, buy from me

Shopping for Fresh Produce

2011-01-11T06:49:00.000-06:00

In Kitale do have three large supermarkets where we do the bulk of our grocery shopping. However, we have discovered that we much prefer to buy our fruits and vegetables at the municipal market. We find the produce is much fresher and cheaper than in the larger stores. Plus, we would rather support small vendors rather than large corporations.

Most Kenyans don't shop at supermarkets. Instead villages have a market day at least one day a week. Vendors come in from the surrounding areas bringing their items for sale. This photo shows them getting ready to set up for the day's business. Notice the bags in the front of the picture. Inside are the items that will soon be displayed for sale. You will see some deliveries being made by lory (truck), donkey or even bicycle.

Some people set up kiosks along the side of a busy road. In these you see seasonal fruits and vegetables for sale. Often you can also buy gum, time for your phones, sugar cane, eggs or even loaves of bread.

These last two pictures show vendors at our local municipal market. Because Kitale is a large town, they are open seven days a week. Friday is the day farmers deliver items to the market, so Friday and Saturday are the best days to go shopping.

Tomatoes and onions are weekly purchases. We can buy a kilo of each for less than a dollar. The fresh pineapple costs a little more than a dollar for two kilos. Bananas are about 50 cents for a kilo. You can see that we have a wide variety of produce to choose from.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-03T03:26:00.000-06:00

We were able to spend our first Christmas in Kenya with our daughters. Andrea and her friend, Melissa flew in from New York and Katrina from Nigeria. We were able to spend a little more than two weeks together. It was Andrea and Melissa’s first visit to Kenya so everything was a new experience for them.

Together we had a nice mix of tourist activities and family time at home. While in Nairobi we visited the David Shedrock Animal Orphanage to see the baby elephants, the Giraffe Center where we fed the giraffes, and had lunch at Karen Blixen Coffee Garden. Then we traveled to the best and most well known national reserve Maasai Mara for a safari. We weren’t disappointed as we saw four of the Big Five animals. Driving back to Kitale we went through tea plantations and then sugar plantations. It was a beautiful drive home.

At home we found a branch of a cypress tree that was quite suitable for our Christmas tree. We made decorations and cooked some of our favorite foods. Melissa smuggled some fresh cranberries in her bag, so we all enjoyed the cranberry sauce and cranberry muffins a couple of days later. Katrina completed a jigsaw puzzle as is her Christmas tradition. I’m afraid we don’t provide all that much help but offer plenty of encouragement.

We attended Christmas Eve Mass only to discover it was in Kiswahali. Although we didn’t understand most of what was said, the service was the traditional Mass. Christmas day was celebrated with our fellow Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Kitale: Russ, Kathy, Pat and Ilona and our own family.

A couple of days later, we spent a day hiking with a guide in the Cherangani Hills. Katrina proved to be in the best shape far outdistancing us all. We went to several viewing spots that provided beautiful panoramas.

It was a wonderful Christmas in a tropical environment. Family time is such a blessing.

Click here to view some additional photos we took during the girls visit.

Kenyan Roadside Sights

2010-12-02T06:56:00.000-06:00

We just returned from a trip to Nairobi. Traveling in Kenya is quite an experience as your driver zigzags all over the road to find the smoothest section with the least and shallowest potholes. Even in Nakuru, the fourth largest city in Kenya, we had to stop to allow cattle to pass across the road in front of us!

You know you are in Kenya when you see . . .
. . . motorized vehicles sharing the road with donkey drawn carts.
. . . vendors along the side (and sometimes on the road) selling produce.
. . . car washes located along streams and rivers.
. . . rocks being crushed by hand.
. . . maize (corn) drying on tarps in the sun.
. . . mothers walking and working with babies tied to their backs.
. . . men, women and children digging (hoeing) in their field by hand.
. . . children playing with homemade toys made out of plastic bags, plastic lids and maize stalks.
. . . partially completed buildings. (They don’t get loans here to build homes. Instead they build when they have money. That means they might be building a house for several years before it is complete.)
. . . young children (as young as 4 years) walking places unattended by an adult.
. . . men and women laying on a grassy spot taking a midday rest.
. . . something blooming every few feet.
. . . cattle, goats and sheep grazing everywhere.

Nairobi is the largest city in not only Kenya, but East Africa. For us Nairobi is a great place to visit because . . .
. . . the internet speed is much faster.
. . . you can find real DVDs, not pirated copies.
. . . many restaurants there have food resembling something you could order in the United States.
. . . you can browse in a bookstore.
. . . you can see a movie in a theater even if it might not be your favorite type of movie.
. . . you get excited when you find groceries like Dream Whip, lasagna noodles, green chilies, cream of mushroom soup, Coke Light (diet Coke) etc.

End of the Year Activities

2010-11-22T07:15:00.000-06:00

As in the United States the final weeks of the school year are filled with many extra activities. Of course there is the academic side with final examinations. However, students and teachers alike have a multitude of additional responsibilities and celebrations.

Click here to see some photos of these special activities.

When the Form IVs (seniors) complete their KCSE examinations they leave school. Most of them left about a week ago. Depending upon their elective classes, some had to stay about a week longer to take their last exam. There is no such thing as high school graduation.

The faith based groups held a special banquet to honor the Form IVs before they left. John and I were invited to the Young Catholic Society (YCS) end of the year banquet. As is typical of most Kenyan celebrations there was a Chief Guest invited to speak, cake and a complete meal served afterwards.

Form I, II and III students at both St. Anthony’s and St. Monica’s finished their end of term (finals) about a week ago. Report cards are to be sent home with students on the day that school is dismissed. That means teachers must have the exams marked (graded) so the report cards can be prepared. At St. Anthony’s the report cards are prepared by computer, but that is not the case at St. Monica’s. To give teachers time to get the exams marked, special activities are planned to keep students busy, active and out of trouble.

One of the tasks done by students is the harvesting of maize (corn). Schools try to grow as much food as possible to feed themselves to cut down on the boarding costs. Casual labors are hired to do the planting, weeding, and cutting and stacking of stalks. The students then take the cobs off the maize stalks and carry the corn to the store where it is kept until needed.

St. Anthony’s organized football (soccer), basketball and volleyball tournaments. St. Monica’s was only football. Each class played the other classes to determine the Form champion. Then the champions from each Form played to determine a school champion.

St. Anthony’s choir also prepared and held a Christmas concert. We were hoping to go, but it didn’t work out. John was so surprised when they asked for the words to Jingle Bells. They have no concept of our cold and snow. We understand they also sing Frosty the Snowman!

Of course there is thorough cleaning to do: desks, classrooms, dorms, grounds, etc. Students are allowed to leave their metal lockers at school in their dorm during the December holiday, but everything must be locked inside.

The final day they hold a Closing Assembly. At the Closing Assembly they recognize top students.

Kenyan Baby Shower

2010-11-22T04:45:00.000-06:00

John was unexpectedly invited to a baby shower about a week ago. Here is his story . . .

I decided to go to school on a Saturday to mark exams and work with the basketball team. I had been marking for awhile when the head of the English Department stopped by and asked if I wanted to go to another teacher's house. She had twins in August and they were going to greet the newborns. We traveled to the shower with six adults in a compact car. Yes it was crowded, but that is the Kenyan way to travel.

We started off with some songs in Swahili lead by the female agricultural teacher. Next we had a scripture reading from Psalms about family and home followed by a prayer. Then there was another song of gratitude. The mother gave a prayer of gratitude for us coming to visit.

The main attraction followed. The twins were brought out for all to see. First, some of the ladies dressed the babies with new clothes which we had brought. Then we sang and danced as all got to hold them. I think I impressed the others by the way I was able to get one of the babies to smile. Finally, we had one last song. I noticed that during the song a person’s name was said and then they got up and did a quick jig. So when I heard my name I did likewise. Of course everyone chuckled at my dance.

I have learned you do not go to a Kenyan's house without eating. We had a full meal. Two kinds of rice, three kinds of chicken, fish with the head attached, beef, seasoned meatballs, three different kinds of vegetables, boiled eggs, boiled eggs wrapped in meat, plus other dishes. While eating I was told that I did not eat enough. Kenyans stuff themselves at gatherings until they can eat no more. Then we had a break but were served a choice of fresh mango or passion fruit juice. We visited for a while until dessert was served. It was fresh fruit and ice cream. The fresh fruit was so sweet I commented about sugar being added. I was told that if you cut pineapple at the right time it is very sweet. Many of the teachers went back for more ice cream. Most do not have refrigeration in their homes so frozen treats are a very special treat to them.

It was a great experience. It is always good to meet with coworkers away from the school setting. It was fun to see them interacting with one another and I was grateful to be included. The experience gave me more insight into their culture. I wish I had my camera so I could have taken some pictures!

Vivan's Community

2010-11-06T05:52:00.000-05:00

I wrote an earlier blog entry about circumcision. It is extremely important event in the lives of most Kenyan boys as it is a symbol of entering adulthood and initiation into the tribe. Many of my girl students attended circumcision ceremonies during August. December is the other month of circumcision for adolescent boys.

Many boys are usually circumcised at one time. During the circumcision the boys are not allowed to cry out or flinch to show that they are truly men.

After the circumcision is done the boys rest and relax for a period of time. During this time they are taught the tribal history and traditions. The mothers of the boys cook a lot of food for their sons so the boys can gain strength. The boys don't do any chores that they normally would do until after the period of rest is over.

A couple of weeks ago my students interviewed a classmate. What follows in a composition based upon one of these interviews.

Vivian’s Community

Vivian is a very beautiful and intelligent girl. She comes from the Gusis community. She truly loves visiting there because she gets to see all the cultural practices, hear family members speaking their language and the way the community members conduct themselves.

Furthermore, she enjoys eating the traditional meals, buying food stuffs on her way back home at cheap prices, seeing the physical features around the area, feeding the fish at her grandmother’s place and above all to meet her long distance relatives and friends.

Her community’s village is located at Nuamira. Their ancestors had decided to settle there because of the fertile soil. They had also settled there because they once fought with the Kiporgis community many, many years ago. They had been pushed where they decided to settle down and make it their home. She truly loves the place.

In her community there are many elders. The elders are called “Thatha” and are respected very much. Their work is mainly to solve disputes in the community, circumcise, conduct marriages and give initiates new roles. The elders also bless newborn babies.

The community members also practice the rite of circumcision whereby boys are the ones circumcised. During the circumcision ceremony, the boys are taken to the river in the early morning hours. Then mud is applied on them before being circumcised. After the ceremony, the initiates are separated for about three or four weeks. After the separation time a big celebration is done. Presents are given to the initiates and they are given new roles in the community. Vivian loves and is very proud of her community together with her people.

Student Note

2010-10-25T11:23:00.000-05:00

I confiscated the following note from one of my students this morning. It is just a little bit different than a note that would be passed in a class in the United States.

Rose, yesterday you took my spoon just after the prefect’s meeting. I kindly request you to give it to me now before I eat githeri.

Mass Kenyan Style

2010-10-17T07:20:00.000-05:00

The basic format of Mass is the same wherever you attend, but there are definite differences between the way Mass is celebrated in the United States and Kenya. When going to an African Mass, allow at least an hour and a half. Why? There is much more singing and dancing!

We prefer music at the services when traditional music instruments are used. These include drums, kuwimba (hollow reeds filled with stones and then tied together), sometimes rattles and tambourines. If the church has electricity often there is a keyboard. You have to keep in mind that most people here don’t use printed music. The keyboardist tries to follow along with the singing playing by ear. Most of the time, in my humble opinion, it is more of a distraction and irritation than support for the music.

As Mass starts a procession begins from the back of the church as the entrance song is sung. The procession is led by the liturgical dancers followed by the servers (altar boys) and priest. This is not a fast procession as the dancers are leading with small steps often taking ten small steps forward and one or two backwards.

Often incense is used not only once but several times during the Mass. My girls hated incense on the special days that it was used at home. I wonder how, now that they are adults, they would react. Would they still hold their noses? If incense is being used, the altar is incensed as the final part of the procession.

Once the celebrants are at their places on the altar, the service continues. Almost all of the parts of Mass are sung, not spoke including: Lord, have mercy, Gloria, Profession of Faith, Holy, Holy, Memorial Acclamation, Amen, and Lamb of God. This is every Sunday, not just during the holy seasons of Advent and Easter. As a part of many of these songs, members wave their hands whenever they sing the refrains of Alleluia or Hosanna.

Before the readings, the liturgical dancers lead another procession from the back of the church bringing forward the Bible. Of course, there is a special song sung during this time. The Bible is incensed before the readings begin.

There is the regular offertory taken. Instead of baskets being passed among the congregation, each person who has an offertory gift goes to the front of the church where servers are standing with locked wooden boxes to receive the donation. This is not done in an orderly manner as we would expect. Instead each person goes forward whenever they want. There is no organized traffic pattern. People are coming forward and returning down every aisle, three people abreast! It is very crowded and confusing.

Before the Eucharistic prayer begins, the bread and wine, altar, priest and congregation is incensed.

Often the Sign of Peace is not done, there is no shaking of hands and greeting of your neighbors.

The majority of Kenyans do not receive communion. The reason is that many of them are not married in the church. It is so expensive that many cannot afford to have a church wedding in addition to paying the dowry. Often it takes years for the husband to be able to pay the entire dowry. Then some priests and ministers won’t perform a wedding ceremony until the entire dowry is paid. The traffic pattern for communion is the same as the offertory. People get up whenever they want and join the line going in any direction that they want. Wine is never offered as part of communion, only bread.

There is an additional prayer said after communion, The Soul of Christ.

After the Eucharist a thanksgiving offering is taken. Not as many people contribute to this second offering. This time the priest stands in front of the altar to personally receive the gifts. Gifts can be money, or real items grown and raised on their shambas (farms). We’ve seen bags of maize (corn), charcoal, eggs, bananas, fruits, vegetables, even live animals such as chickens, sheep or goats brought forward during this time. The priest accepts the gifts, hands them to the altar boys and shakes the hand of each person this time. Finally they receive a special blessing.

Once again the liturgical dancers lead the procession out of the church. I must say that a Kenyan Mass is much more joyful that Masses we are used to. With all that sining and dancing, how can you not be happy when it is over?

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Funeral Visitation

2010-10-02T04:54:00.000-05:00

Tribal affiliation is extremely important. It affects every part of a Kenyan’s life even in such things as the foods they eat, clothing they wear, names they give their children, music, how they vote in elections, and ceremonies such as birth, coming of age and death.

Last week one of the St. Anthony’s teachers lost her son. He was only 22 and had been sick but his death was unexpected. As always, we took up a collection to help pay funeral expenses. This woman’s nephew died the next day. According to Luo tribal custom the nephew must be buried first because he was older. This means our teacher’s son has been in the mortuary almost two weeks. Staff members have been going out to her farm almost every day to visit and console her.

Today (Thursday) it was announced that a group of us would be leaving in an hour to greet her. Others would go on Friday and still others to the funeral itself on Saturday.

Fourteen of us left in a van to go to the city mortuary. Once we arrived we waited. Soon the family came in cars followed by our school bus. The school had provided the bus to help transport the family and fellow teachers. We all consoled the teacher and her other children.

Then they brought the casket out and placed it on the ground in front of the mortuary. I believe it was a viewing casket because it had a glass plate window so people could view him from the shoulders up. After viewing, the minister said a prayer which was followed by a song. Next the body was loaded onto a small pickup to be taken to the family home. Then we proceeded just like a funeral procession back home to the family farm. The women sang songs the entire way to the farm.

In the Luo tribe the body is taken to the house a day or two before the funeral. The road to the house was too narrow for the bus so we had to walk about a mile. Located next to the house was a small tent. That is where the casket was set upon arrival. There were also three large tents that would seat about 50 people erected for people to be able to be in the shade. A sound system was set up so all could hear the short 45 minute service. Since there is no electricity on the farm, the system was powered by a generator. All this time people continued to arrive.

A song started the service followed by a prayer from a minister. There was another song and a sermon. Last was a closing song. After the service was a procession for all to view the body.

It is custom for the grieving family to feed the guests. The menu was cooked rice, pilau (spiced rice), boiled potatoes and cooked cabbage. Many people sat on the ground or stood up to eat since there weren’t enough chairs.

Tomorrow (Friday) more people will go to express their sympathy and another short service will be held. The actual funeral will be held on Saturday. Funerals are almost always held on Saturdays so people don’t have to miss work to attend. It will begin around 10:00 and last most of the day.

It is the Luo custom to bury people in front of the house on the family farm. This woman’s husband’s grave is located about 20 yards away from her house. The son was going to be buried next to the father.

It was a humbling and yet an honor to be included in this experience.

Catholic Education Day

2010-09-25T10:09:00.001-05:00

Catholic Education Day for the Kitale dioceses was held at St. Anthony’s last week. There was much preparation in getting the school grounds all spruced up. It is the best the grounds have looked since I have been here. During the week the St. Anthony’s boys practiced greeting the guests on to the school grounds, as well as singing songs and dance for the Mass, and the entertainment part of the program. The faculty wanted everything to be the best since we were the host school. Over 50 primary and secondary schools were invited for the big day.

The Mass was supposed to start at 10:00. The actual starting time was 11:20. The entrance procession was lead by various school’s liturgical dancers followed by St. Anthony teachers, and then the bishop. All but the bishop danced in. The good news was that I was in the middle of our dance line, and I did not fall or knock anyone else down.

During offertory not only were their monetary gifts brought up but also fruit, whole bunches of bananas (stalk and all), vegetables, large bags of maize, live chickens, sheep and goats. It took twenty minutes for the procession and gift giving to the bishop to be completed. The Mass took two hours. Cindy and I estimated there were over 3000 people in attendance. Besides students there were priests, nuns, principals, teachers, PTA members, board of governors, local politicians, and other guests.

After Mass the St. Anthony’s staff helped serve lunch to the adult guests, about 500 people. Rice, pilau, cooked cabbage, potatoes, chapatti, stew and a soda were served. My job was to help get sodas to the three dining areas plus any other things that were needed to help serve. The schools had to furnish their own students’ food as it would not be practical for St. Anthony’s to supply food for 2500!
After lunch was entertainment. The first group of students was from a deaf school. They sang a song in sign language. Others did songs and dances, some in traditional dress. One group of primary age students played soccer. It was a most amazing, humbling, and inspirational experience to watch because they were physically handicapped. Some had only one leg and played on crutches, others had different deformities. The point their head teacher made was they may have a physical disability, but that did not mean they were not intelligent and any less of a human than anyone else. Many times here, children with handicaps are considered outcasts by their families.

Next were speeches from the bishop (his was the shortest), other school officials, the MP (like a US congressman) from Kitale, and the guest speaker. Some speeches were good about education. Others were about schools getting funds on time and the government not being so corrupt. Finally were the awards for various things like best schools, most improved school, best disciplined school, highest math and religious scores, etc.
I left home at 7:30. I called Cindy to pick me up and returned home at 6:45, just before dark. Yes, I was tired but it was a great experience. Our staff and students took a great deal of pride in making sure everyone had a great day.

To view more pictures of this special day click here.

Annual General Meeting

2010-09-24T01:27:00.000-05:00

Both St. Anthony's and St. Moncia's are Catholic schools in Kitale. Their governing board known as the Board of Governors (BOG)is similar to our school board. They meet monthly to take care of the business of running the school. Bishop Crowley is the chairman of both schools. That shows his interest in good quality local schools. In the Kitale dioceses, St. Anthony's consistently ranks first in academics and St. Monica's in the top five.

Each school also has a Parent Teacher organization that plays a similar role to our PTAs. Parents and teachers are working together on projects to improve the schools.

Once a year the school holds an AGM (Annual General Meeting). Kenya's love acronyms! The purpose is to allow the BOG, PTA and school administrators to let the parents know of progress, issues, and needs. The parents have the opportunity in the Open Forum to speak about any topic they wish. Important guests are invited and a Chief Guest that is the keynote speaker.

The day started with Mass. These are the liturgical dancers leading the procession as the priest enters to begin Mass. Mass was followed by the meeting and speeches. One of the topics discussed was the need to purchase a generator because Kitale seems to be having electricity problems and the school is frequently without electricity.

The final activity was a late lunch. I was on the committee to help purchase food and supplies for the High Table. We also supervised the arrangement of the room for the special guests.

Click here to see more pictures of this day including many of my fellow teachers at St. Monica's.

Daily Life

2010-09-15T23:40:00.000-05:00

A friend recently asked how do you avoid being sick and getting intestinal bugs? Well, we’re really careful about what we eat and drink.

We cannot drink tap water. So we have two water filters. It probably takes about four hours to put our drinking water through the filters. The first basically takes the dirt and other impurities out of the water. The second removes microbes and bacteria. That is the water that we use to drink and brush our teeth. We take water bottles with us wherever we go. You can also buy bottled water most places that are sealed with a plastic rings just like in the States.

When buying fresh fruits and vegetables, wash them in water that has a small amount of Clorox in it, especially those that will be eaten raw. However, it’s fine to use tap water when cooking.

We buy our meat from an Asian Kenyan woman that has deep freezers where she stores the meat. The meat is frozen when we buy it so we simply move it from her freezer to ours. We don’t buy from the local butchery where the meat is exposed to the air hanging from hooks in the window.

When eating out, which doesn’t happen very often, we are careful about where we go. The two restaurants that we frequent in Kitale cater to Western customers. I understand there are a couple African restaurants in town that would be fine, but we haven’t had an occasion to visit them.

John and I both drink the morning tea and eat the lunches prepared at school. I’m sure they aren’t cooked in the most hygienic situations, but our digestive systems seem to tolerate them.

Here are a few other interesting items about our daily life.

At home:
• turn on the hot water switch for the shower a couple of minutes before showering
• fill the water filters both in the morning and evening
• turn on the outside lights about 7:00 for the night security
• put any open food items in a sealable container
• keep the rechargeable lantern charged and in the same place so you can find it when the electricity goes out
• turn on the electrical outlet before you use an appliance
• take daily malaria pill at breakfast

When leaving the house:
• open closet and cabinet doors to avoid mold and mustiness
• don’t forget to put on sunscreen
• take your umbrella with you every day because it will probably rain at some point
• take your water bottle
• carry a bag for your dirty shoes if walking to school
* make sure you have your phone with you

At school:
• shake the hands and greet everyone in the Staff Room the first time you enter each day
• carry a piece of chalk and a pen to class with you because there are none in the classroom
• carry a wrap or jacket with you in case you get chilled
• keep the Oxford dictionary beside you as you mark compositions (British English and American English are different!)
• if marking exams, take the calculator to school because they don’t have them

Click here to see an earlier web album of household items that are different in Kenya than the States.

St. Monica's Teachers to Mombasa

2010-09-07T07:19:00.000-05:00

Teaching doesn't have many perks in Kenya. However, many of the better boarding schools send their teachers on a trip during August holiday. Several weeks ago Bishop Crowley mentioned that I would be going to Mombasa, the Board of Governors (school board) had approved the trip. I knew the past couple of months there had been many discussions about where to go in the staff room . But as with many things, information is hard to come by because of organization style. I was looking forward to staying with Mary and Doctor Susan while there.

We left on Wednesday morning and returned home early Sunday morning. I think all but two teachers went so that meant there were about 35 of us. We took our own school bus and had two drivers to share the driving duties. Most of us has a seat to ourselves, so we had plenty of room.

On the way down we stopped for a late lunch at place called, Kikopey, known for roasted meat. I understand it is near a grazing area where they raise many animals. Our men especially were thrilled. There were many shops that were grilling meat: goat, beef, chicken, sausages. As a small group, you order the meat that you want and were served ugali, tomatoes and onions on the side. It was OK, the men were a lot more excited about it than the women. Roasted meat is a real treat and Kenyans don't eat it often.

When we arrived in Nairobi on Wednesday night we hit rush hour and were caught in a jam (traffic jam). When we got to the downtown area several of the younger men teachers spent their time standing in the back of the bus watching traffic out the back window. Welcome to the big city! I think everyone appreciated having an hour to find snacks, bathrooms and stretch.

We got to Mombasa about 7:30 am. They hadn't called ahead for reservations so the first order of business was to find a place to stay. I recognized that we were only a few blocks away from Susan and Mary's house the first place we stopped. I gave them a quick call and less than 5 minutes later Mary picked me up. I ended up spending the entire day with them. We had a great visit, ate PIZZA for lunch:), and went to a mission group to order furniture. The Brother than ran the mission was a friend of Susans. Both of them had worked in Kitale for a number of years. We had a wonderful visit and got some good information on nonviolent communication. On the way home we got ICE CREAM! Pizza and Italian ice cream on the same day. What a treat!

I spent Friday with my fellow teachers. As pedestrians, we rode across the ferry to the south coast. (The city of Mombasa is on an island. You drive over the causeway to approach it from the west, but must cross on the ferry to get to the south. To get to the north you can use a bridge. The beaches are both to the north and south.) We had a little excitement on the return ferry trip. It got caught in the current, traveled downstream and turned a 90 degree angle at one point. We were never in any danger, but many people were pretty nervous.

Just like many tourists, shopping, shopping and more shopping is what they were most interested in that afternoon. I trailed along listening to them bargaining. Once a price was established, I did purchase a couple of lessos (fabric used to cover their good clothes when they are working).

We got to the beach about 4:00 that afternoon. It seems that many Kenyans are afraid of the water. It makes sense: they don't have swimming pools and there is very little water in rivers, ponds or lakes for swimming. Even though I had a swim suit on under my clothes, we were only there for an hour so I didn't bother to take off my skirt. I was the first one in at low tide. I went back several times and told the men they needed to take off their shoes, roll up their pants, and come on in. Finally several did.

There was a small boat that offered to take us for a ride out to the reef. There were about a dozen of us that went. It was a glass bottom boat, so we were able to see fish, urchins, coral, etc. They were so excited and amazed. It was so much fun watching them. Francis, David and I were the only ones brave enough to go sit on top of the boat. I'm sure they all agree that I am pretty crazy not being afraid of the water and sitting on the roof of the boat.

Mary, Susan and I spent a relaxing Saturday morning chatting and eating. We left about 1:00 that afternoon and didn't stop nearly as often on the return trip. During one of our stops the biggest purchases were honey, woven baskets, and carved wooden spoons. I'm guessing there were many happy wives when their husbands returned home with gifts.

We arrived in Kitale about 6:30 am. I had asked the driver to drop me off at a gas station that is only two blocks from our house. His comment was, "Is someone going to meet you there?" I was going to just walk home. The people sitting around me wouldn't hear of that. "It's too risky," they said. I'm sure it wasn't really. It's a major, wide road in a good part of town. We walk on it all the time, but I did have a couple of bags. So, I called John so he could meet me. You could see and hear their relief when they saw John and our car. I don't think anyone at home needs to worry about me when I am with my fellow teachers!

Click here to see more pictures from Mombasa.

Circumcision

2010-08-30T06:30:00.000-05:00

We took a road trip with Katrina in early August to Jinga, Uganda. It is so interesting to travel in Africa because you never know what you will see.

Although Kitale itself has a mixture of many tribes, this area is Luhya territory. They are the second largest Bantu ethnic group in Kenya. Being Bantu means that originally their ancestors came from western Africa and migrated eastward over the years. Traditionally, they are agriculturalists. Depending on where they live they grow cassava, sugar cane, maize(corn)or wheat.

Circumcision in Kenya is an important event in Kenyan culture based upon your tribe. The procedure is not done at birth as in the United States, but rather when a young man enters adolescence. It is considered to be a significant rite of passage as they enter adulthood. These boys are being escorted to the ceremony. Notice the rattles, whistles and cow tails. They are creating a lot of noise so that everyone is to notice they are on their way.

The Lyhya still practice the traditional male circumcision ceremonies. We saw several young men being escorted to the elder’s place for their circumcision or returning from the operation.

They only circumcise their young men every other year in even numbered years during the months of August and December. The boys range in age from 11 to 15 years. An elder performs the ceremony and cutting of the foreskin. Then the boys must enter into a period of seclusion where they are not allowed to see their mothers or any other females. These boys are wearing dress like garments because the ceremony has been complete.

Once the time of seclusion is over, a feast is held in the village to honor the young men. At this point, they begin counseling by the elders on skills, appropriate adult behavior, and tribal ceremonies and history. They are no longer able to live with their mothers and sisters, so a bachelor hut is built for them on the family compound.
Not only are they wearing dresslike garments, but the boys in back have had their faces painted with mud during the ceremony.

Note: Most people today have their sons circumcised at a hospital by a doctor between the ages of 10 - 15 years old.

Click here to see more photos of typical Kenyan sites.

Mount Elgon

2010-08-23T09:43:00.000-05:00

The town of Kitale is located in the foothills of Mt. Elgon, about 40 km away. Mt. Elgon was formed by volcanic activity at least 12 million years ago. It is now an extinct volcano that was once higher than Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is located in both Uganda and Kenya with the majority in Uganda. It is huge being 80 km in diameter with five major peaks, the highest being 14,140 ft above sea level. This photo of Mt. Elgon is taken from Kitale, about 40 miles away.

The rocks forming Mt. Elgon contain sodium. This has caused elephants to form caves on the mountain. They dig into the softer rocks behind waterfalls with their tusks to be able to eat the salt found there. What they leave behind on the floor of the cave is then eaten by smaller animals like buffalo, bushbuck, hyrax, leopards, hyena and monkeys. The last known cave-in caused by elephant mining was in 1982.
We spent a day at Mt. Elgon National Park hiking to two of the caves, Makingeny and Kitum, and viewing the wildlife there. Kitum Cave was the inspiration for the movie “The Hot Zone” about an Ebola virus outbreak. Two people became ill with Ebola, one in 1980 and the other in 1987 after visiting this cave. However, the US Army’s Infectious Diseases Unit and Kenya Medical Research Unit examined the caves. They found no evidence that there was any connection between the caves and the disease.
One of the many waterfalls on Mt. Elgon.

We had a wonderful day. Since it is the rainy season we hired a 4WD vehicle to tour the park. I’m sure glad I wasn’t driving! We needed the 4WD many times. When you enter the park, you must take a park ranger along with you. He/she carries a gun in case you meet wild animals. Fred, our park ranger was a great help. I still don’t know how he was able to stay clean when I got so muddy! During the day we saw zebra, baboons, colobus monkeys, velvet monkeys, bush buck, water buck, deer, and guineas.

Standing at Elephant Platform.

Click here to see more pictures.

Victoria Nile

2010-08-13T00:19:00.000-05:00

Here we are standing at the source of the Victoria Nile. Lake Victoria is to our right and the Nile River is to our left.

The night before rafting standing at Bujagali Falls.

The Nile River is 6650 km (4132 miles) long making it the longest river in the world. There are two major tributaries: the White Nile and Blue Nile.

Last week we traveled with Katrina to the source of the Victoria Nile in Jinga, Uganda. There it begins with a spring at Ripon Falls at the end of Lake Victoria. It empties into the White Nile after passing through several more lakes. The White Nile and Blue Nile converge in Khartoum, Sudan. There it continues northward toward its mouth in the Mediterranean Sea. The water travels at a rate of three km per minute. It takes 3 months it to travel from its source to the Mediterranean. Incredible!

Katrina wanted to white water raft on the Nile. Previously we had rafted on both the Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers which have level 3 rapids. Rapids are rated on a scale of 1 to 6 based on their difficulty. I must say, the Nile was much more fun and exciting. We spent a day on the Nile traveling a total of 30 km. Locals call the Nile a “pull down river” meaning it flows at one level, the rocks pull it down to a lower level where it is nice and smooth before being pulled down again several kilometers later. We were pulled down five level 5 rapids, five level 4 rapids and the smaller ones were too insignificant to count!

While there we met people from Belgium, Great Britain, Turkey, Slovenia, Germany, South Africa and Uganda. It was a great day. We started near the Owens Falls dam where the water was nice and calm. There we learned the commands we would need throughout the day. We flipped the raft to practice getting back in and getting into the crufix position in case we got separated from the raft and needed to float downstream.

Kayaks and two oar rafts accompanied us in the river as safety precautions. If you got separated from your raft these boats were there to pick you up. At three different points when the water was calm, we could leave our raft and swim or float downstream. That was great fun. Even though we were all just a few feet away from one another it was amazing to see how we would get in different currents that would take us at different speeds down river.

They provided all three meals for the day. Lunch was half of a pineapple and biscuits (cookies). The fresh pineapple was wonderful! The evening meal was a BBQ back at our campsite. The beef shish kabobs had the best meat we have eaten since we’ve been in Africa! Vegetables, fruit, rice, potatoes, and chapatti completed our meal.

It was a wonderful day!

Click here to view pictures of our rafting adventure.

School Visitor

2010-08-01T03:54:00.000-05:00

Our friend, Mary Oldham, came to visit last week. Mary is a fellow Maryknoll Lay Missioner, class of 2010. We along with twelve others joined MKLM in September and attended a three month orientation in New York. That’s when we first met Mary, a fellow Midwesterner. She was also assigned to Kenya so we traveled on New Year’s Eve to our new country. We were together in language school in Nairobi until April. At that point we moved to Kitale while Mary moved to Mombasa. We were delighted to see her again and get a chance to visit about our ministries.

Mary is coordinating a project called Maryknoll Fathers AIDS Orphans Project in the Archdiocese of Mombasa started in 1999. This project addresses the educational needs of children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. They come from marginalized families who have very limited economic opportunities and live in slum areas surrounding Mombasa. Many of the guardians are living with HIV/AIDS and have other children to care for. Some of the orphans in the project are living with HIV/AIDS themselves.

She also deals with schools, but in a totally different way than we do. She is involved with finding schools that will accept her children, placing them, the admissions process, paying fees, etc. She was very interested to see how schools function on a daily basis and what education looks like in Kenya.

She was able to spend one day with John at St. Anthony’s and the next at St. Monica’s. Unfortunately, the boys were taking exams so she was only able to meet the teachers and other staff and see where John works. Since we were still holding class at St. Monica’s, the girls were thrilled to be able to talk with her and ask her questions.

Although she isn’t a teacher, she is a natural in the classroom. She started off each class telling a little about herself and then opening it up to questions. The questions ranged all the way from: Tell us about your family. Are you married? What are you looking for in a husband? What are your traditional foods? Where did you go to university? How is life different in Kenya from the United States? What are some of the challenges you face in Kenya?

Of course, the girls were thrilled to have another visitor from the United States. Mary continued to reinforce the importance of studying hard and getting a good education. Education is the way out of poverty and to reach Kenya Vision 2030 economic and social goals.

Report Card Weekend

2010-07-24T11:28:00.001-05:00

This is report card weekend. School in Kenya is divided into three three-month terms. This past week has been Final Week. John especially has been swamped with >marking (grading) exams. Do the maths. Each class at St. Anthony’s has 85+ students. There are four classes. That’s 340+ students. He reported about an hour ago that he has marked over 4000 questions. It took him about 20 hours to finish mark his exams. He will be so glad to be finished and be able to think about something else.

Here are a couple of examples from his Form I (freshman) maths exam:

1. A large scale farmer uses ½ of his land to plant maize (corn), 1/5 for grazing, 1/3 of the remainder for horticulture and the rest for beans. If he uses 20 hectares for horticulture farming determine how much land he uses for beans. (Worth 4 marks/points)

2. Matthew bought a suit for sh 2400. He is going to resell it and marked it a price that after allowing a 10% discount he would make a profit of 20%. Calculate the marked price. (4 marks)

3. A cylindrical tank whose diameter is 2.8 metres and height of 80 cm is initially empty. Water whose volumn is 985.6 litres is poured into the tank. Determine the fraction of the tank filled with water. (4 marks)

I’m luckier. I only have to mark (grade) my own students. That’s 148 exams. My exams don’t have to be marked until we return to school in September. However, I must have the Oxford Dictionary on the desk beside me as I work. It is probably the best money spent since we have been in Kenya. If fact, I have two: one to use at home and the other is kept at school. There is a real difference between American English and British English not only in word usage but also in spelling. I am constantly having to double check to see if what I think is an error is in fact correct. Here are a few spellings that I need to count as correct: realised, colour, travelled, practise, mould, offense, labour, and foetus.

Here is an example from my Form I exam:
Read the following story. Fill in the blanks so that the story makes sense. (10 marks)
Ogre Stories
There are many ___________________ narratives that depict ogres. Ogres are ___________________ characters who disguise themselves to deceive foolish and gullible _____________________. These evil characters do __________________ things like killing people and ______________________ them up. Ogres have nothing _____________________ in them, and indeed they never change their evil nature.
Ogre stories present the contest between ___________________ and evil in the world. As we have said, ogres disguise themselves as good and well meaning, but in the end their _________________ nature reappears. Their aim is to destroy. In some stories they kill and get away with it. Yet in others, the ogres are eventually _____________________. Such stories reassure us and show that good ____________________ over evil.

Maths answers:
40 hectares, sh 3200, 1/5

English answers:
oral, evil, people, evil, eating, good, good, true, destroyed, triumphs

Everyday Necessities

2010-07-16T14:03:00.000-05:00

Several weeks ago I showed you our house. I thought today I'd show you things in our house that are different than homes in the United States. These are things that we couldn't do without.

We don't have near the electricity problems that Katrina has in Nigeria. However, it isn't unusual for the electricity to go out a couple of times a week. Tonight for example while I was cooking supper we lost power for about twenty to thirty minutes. If it is daylight it isn't a problem. However, if it is dark, it is really dark. This is a rechargeable lantern that puts out quite a bit of light. We keep it in a special place so we always know where it is at. There are also several flashlights kept in strategic locations in the house and candles with matches in every room.

If we would drink the water here we would get sick. There is bacteria and other impurities that our bodies aren't used to. That means that we might get sick if we drank tap water. That problem is solved by having a water filter for drinking water and for brushing teeth. It works by the simple process of osmosis and gravity. You fill up the top compartment with tap water. Inside is a clay filter to get rid of the impurities. As time goes by the water passes through the filter and into the bottom part of the filter. Now it is drinkable water!

There are four dogs on the compound for security reasons. Copper and Dino are two that are outside all day long. They are quite tame and friendly (to us). Dino is the father of Copper. Copper is younger and more energetic. John feeds her our bones and scraps of meat. She really likes that. Due to the treats and warm concrete, she hangs out near our house during the day. We often hear her tail hitting our door at night. It's not a bad thing to know that there is a guard dog right outside your front door!

We don't have and don't want a hot water heater. We don't have room for one and they are too expensive to run. However, we have three small ones that give us hot water just when we need it. Each shower has a hot water heater on the top of the shower nozzle. About three to five minutes before you want to take a shower, turn on the switch outside the bathroom and you've got a warm shower. Likewise, we have another larger hot water heater in the kitchen above the sink. We plug it in while I am cooking. Again within three to five minutes there is hot water. Boy, is it ever hot! What hot water isn't used doing supper dishes stays warm overnight and is still lukewarm the next morning.

This is high malaria season. Since it is the rainy season, there is a lot of water sitting around. We take a drug to prevent us from getting malaria every day. In addition we sleep under mosquito netting. Our bed has a special frame for the netting so it isn't right in our faces when we go to bed. It's almost like sleeping in a canopy bed.

Click here to see a few more pictures of things that make our lives a little easier.

Sunday Walk

2010-07-11T10:14:00.001-05:00

We go for a walk on Saturday and Sunday mornings. John gets plenty of exercise during the week since he usually walks two to three kilometers every day to and from school. I on the other hand don’t get much exercise. Walking in our neighborhood gives us a chance to explore and learn more about our new home. We try to take a new route each time we go. This morning we took our camera along to show you what we see in our neighborhood.

This road is a mirum road. It’s the next best thing to being tarmaced (blacktopped). I don’t know what it’s made of, but it sure doesn’t hold water. Even after a heavy downpour there are no mud puddles. There might be an area holding water for a few hours, but it is soon gone. On this type of road you don’t have to worry about getting stuck. The road to John's school isn't nearly this nice. He won't let me take him all the way to school because he's afraid I'll get stuck.

Click here to see more pictures. We are surrounded by hills. The Cherangani Hills are to the north east. To the north west is Mt. Elgon amid the Cherangani.

All houses and most building are located in compounds. There is a wall surrounding the compound and usually a hedge of some type. It’s not at all unusual to see cattle, goats and sheep eating grass along the edge of the roads. I’ve had to stop several times on my way to and from school to wait for them to cross the road. The shepherds are good in that if they see cars coming, they will try to get the animals to move over. At times there is no person with the animals. In that case they seem to be local animals with long ropes tied around their necks. They must belong to a compound nearby and are out grazing for the day.

Notice the lady walking with her small child in this photo. If you look carefully you will notice that she is carrying firewood on her head, a baby tied to her back, and a shopping bag on her arm. How does she do it?

Homes in our neighborhood run the gamut from large, multistoried homes for several families usually owned by Indian Kenyans, British colonial homes built in the early 20th century, modest stone homes similar to ours, to small homes built out of timber, corrugated tin, even mud.

Exams

2010-06-27T03:48:00.000-05:00

In the first thirty-two years of our careers, students abhorred exams. They considered them to be the bane of their existence, a teacher’s plot to trick them. However, they knew exactly what material they would be covered on the test.

You can imagine my surprise when two weeks ago a Form I (freshman) class asked me if I would give them an English exam once a week. “What!” I exclaimed. “You actually want more exams?” Their answer was an emphatic and resounding, “YES!” So, I started asking even more questions of not only them, but my other two English classes. It was unanimous, they all wanted weekly tests.

It turns out that four years ago, the math department in an effort to improve their scores started a Math League. I still don’t understand what all it entails, but a weekly math exam is given to every Form III and IV student on Thursday morning and twice a month to every Form I and II student. That’s almost 1800 exams to mark (grade) a month! Due to this emphasis, their math scores have indeed risen significantly.

John and I felt that way too much time spent on preparation for the state assessments rather than on true learning. In some ways it is even worse in Kenya. Students aren’t tested here when they finish a unit of study or chapter like in the US. Instead, they are given three exams a term (about every 7th week). Anything and I mean anything can be on these exams. It might be material covered in class, but more than likely half of the exam is over material they have never even seen or discussed. These three exams determine students’ GPA and ranking in the school. There is no such thing as a privacy act here. The scores of every student are posted on bulletin boards for any person to see.

During the months of October and November Form IV students (seniors) take the K.C.P.E. exam. This exam determines if the student will even be allowed to attend college, what college they will attend, and even what their area of study (major) will be. There is no such thing as individual choices. Test scores determine their entire academic future.

So you can see why they consider testing to be so important. It is literally life or death to them. I don’t know if I will be able to keep up writing and marking exams for my students every week, but I’ll try. They think it is so important and so I’m happy to do what I can to help them improve in English. My tests won’t affect their GPA or ranking, but will constantly reinforce and emphasize skills that will be covered on the K.C.P.E.

Here’s something else you might be interested in. Class time isn’t used to give these extra exams. Instead, I am going to school at 6:30 am on Tuesday mornings. This is prep time for them (study hall). It is a perfect time for them to take the test. Could you pass an English exam at 6:30 in the morning?

Almost a Child Bride

2010-06-18T00:59:00.000-05:00

Last week I had my Form I students write a composition about a real life experience, something that actually happened to them. The themes were: A Close Shave, A Perilous Experience, A Nerve Jarring Experience. Unfortunately, most of them created a fiction story. However, this one is true. This student’s father was going to marry her off at the age of 14. I’ll let her tell her own story in an edited version.

A Close Shave

It was on a Friday morning when I woke up at the crack of dawn. On that day we were going to have visitors. I quickly ran to the frog’s kingdom (outdoor bathing area) to have a shower. Without wasting time I went and dressed in my best dress. After that I went to see what was happening in the kitchen.

Mmh! I was welcomed by the fresh aroma that wafted in the air. My mum was frying some chicken and mandazis (fried bread similar to doughnuts). I sat next to her and asked her about the visitors who were coming. Tears started falling down her cheeks like a waterfall. For sure I wondered what was happening.

I stood and went to the dining room to have my breakfast. At around nine o’clock I saw an old man coming to our home. I did not know whether he was our visitor or not. I quickly ran and told my father that we had a visitor.

When the visitor arrived, I was told by my father to go outside because they had a serious issue to talk about. After some hours my mum came while crying and told me to run to Grandmother who lived in Kenya to get some assistance. My father was planning to take me off to be married.

I wondered how I could run from Tanzania to Kenya, but I decided to do so because I did not want to follow the customs and traditions of the Hehe tribe. My mum packed for me some food and within a minute I was off.

I arrived at my grandmother’s three days later feeling hungry, thirsty and tired. After my grandmother served me a delicious meal, I explained all that had happened. How I crossed the border and how I arrived.

After listening to the story, she took me to my aunt’s to continue with my education. I thank the Almighty because when I came to Kenya I knew how to speak English. (The official language in Tanzania is Kiswahili. Very few can speak English.) I want to pass my examination and have a good career so that I can go and teach for the tribe the importance of education especially for girls. That is why I am in St. Monica’s Girls High school.

Blessing at St. Monica's

2010-06-08T11:33:00.001-05:00

St. Monica’s is a public secondary school, but is under the management and supervision of the Catholic Church. This week we had a visit from Bishop Crawley. He had a busy morning blessing our new computer lab, breaking ground for a new dining hall, and planting trees.

Now that our new computer lab is completed, it needed to be blessed it before we could move in. This building project was partially funded with government funds to increase technology courses available in secondary schools. (Our school has about 20 computers for 582 students.) Before the actual blessing, Bishop told the girls how proud he was of their academic achievements. He had just come from visiting schools in another district and was extremely pleased with the good behavior of our girls during the ceremony. He mentioned he had sent a “granny” (that’s me!) to teach in their school. He talked about how important it is to have an international

flavor in schools and learn as much as possible about other places in the world.

This picture is taken on the veranda of the computer lab. Bishop is on the right, the president of the PTA is next to him, Principal Akech is talking to the girls, and the chairman of the Infrastructure (Building) Committee beside her. The others are members of PTA.

When a school needs or wants to expand they don’t get tax money from the government or pass a bond issue. Instead, they hold meeting(s) with parents of students who are currently enrolled. The school presents their building and finance plans. The parents then decide whether or not to accept it. If it is approved, each student is assessed a certain amount as part of their yearly school fees. Any future enrollees are included until the building is paid off. Thus, only parents of students finance building projects, not the entire community.

St. Monica’s wants to expand. They currently have three streams of students and want to increase to four. That means they have three classes of approximately 50 students (150 total) at each grade level. In order for a school to break even financially, they need to have at least two streams. The first step in this expansion plan is to build a new dining hall. Once that is complete, they can use

the current dining hall as a dormitory. I’m not sure how long ago this plan was adopted, but they have collected over $25,000. It will cost about $50,000 to build a building like this. That means they have enough to start construction.

These photos are of the blessing of the building site and ground breaking.

Just like students anywhere, the girls were excited to get out of classes for part of the day. It was hard to get them settled once the ceremonies were over. However, it provided a great opportunity to talk about the importance of education when we returned to class.

Not all chili powder is created equally!

2010-06-05T10:26:00.002-05:00

It is so nice to be able to have my own kitchen again. However, cooking is an adventure. Ingredients here are a little different, so even if I am using a familiar recipe, it doesn’t always turn out the way I expect. Last night was a perfect example.

I wanted to make burritos, Chipotle style. All you need is meat, rice, beans and toppings. That’s easy, right? Not quite so. I’ve learned to make some pretty good guacamole with the avocados that are in season, so that part wasn’t a problem. I can substitute chapatti for the tortillas. They can be purchased at the restaurant where we eat on Sundays. Refried beans, taco seasoning, and salsa are not available in the stores. That’s easily remedied by checking the internet. I found recipes for all three. The salsa and beans turned out great. The problem was the taco seasoning. Although I cut the amount of chili powder way down, the chili powder must be several times stronger than what we are used too! Poor John and Russ added second and third helpings of yogurt (sour cream substitute) to their burritos to try to cool them down!

I think I can still use the leftover seasoned mince (hamburger). I’ve frozen it and will save it to make chili one of these cool evenings. When I add more meat, that should dilute the seasoning and make it more tolerable.

On a happier note, John and I had breakfast burritos this morning minus the mince. The scrambled eggs with salsa, guacamole and cheese were great! We didn’t even miss the sausage.

This is John, one of our askari (guards) and groundskeepers. He has just picked some avocados from the tree in our compound. That means more guacamole, avocado and tomato salad, and avocado salad dressing. I even made avocado pudding last week. Not bad at all.

St. Anthony's Boys School

2010-05-29T07:49:00.000-05:00

St. Anthony’s Secondary Boy’s school has almost 1000 students with about 50 teachers on staff. The class size ranges from about 85 in Form one (9th grade) to only 50+ in Form 4 (seniors). The boys wake up at 4:45 in the morning, dress in their uniform and get ready for morning prep (study hall) and breakfast. Class starts at 8:00 and the school day ends at 4:15. This time is broken up into 10 different 40 minute class periods. Students stay in the same classroom and the teachers switch classes. In the evening after supper there is another prep time.

Monday and Friday mornings the boys have parade (an assembly) starting before 7:30. The Kenyan flag is raised, the national anthem is sung, religious songs are sung in Swahili, a Bible verse read, and then a reflection of the verse is given by several boys. Two or three boys will then give national and world news. One boy will give what we would call a pep talk about doing well in school. Next, a couple of teachers will give a pep talk, give names of students who have done well in various areas, plus remind them of things that need to be improved upon. Twice the boys “entertainment committee” has given a skit which helps give some comedic relief. Finally the principal gives his speech about ways to improve and why the boys need to give their best effort. Morning parade lasts for over an hour at which time students are standing at attention.

My form one math class has over 85 students. The two aisles between desks are only about 12 inches wide. There is an art to gliding down the aisle I am trying to perfect without catching my slacks on screws sticking out of the desks. The desks remind me of antique desks with flip up tops. There is only about two feet between the front row and the chalkboard where I stand.

Most of the boys come from the Rift Valley Province, but we have some from other regions of Kenya. Teaching math in Kenya is different from the US. Even though math is a universal language, I have discovered many cultural differences in its lessons and methodology. Students have algebra, geometry, plus basic math in Form One, not an entire year of algebra like in the US. Because of culture, some of the explanations have to be different. The books are boring by State standards and most of the examples are only for the very basic problems. Yet, the good news is that a textbook only cost about 5 to 7 US dollars compared to 60+ dollars back home. I have had to ask another teacher more than once how to use a chart or table as I have never seen a similar one before. Once explained it seems easy and logical. Very few boys have a calculator. Every two or three boys must share a textbook as there are not enough to go around. Also, it is not uncommon for boys to share pencils, pens, rulers, compasses, etc.

Extracurricular act ivies offered after school this term include choir, entertainment (drama), science club (we have boys who have qualified for the National Science Congress in Mombasa), and basketball (on a dirt court so when it rains ….), net ball, hockey, and football (soccer). One huge difference from back home is that ALL form 4 students quit extracurricular activities to focus on their studies for the national exam. In fact they have extra classes and extra studies in Forms 3 and 4th to prepare for this test. This exam, the K.C.S.E., determines not only IF they are allowed to go to college, but also WHAT college they will attend and what their MAJOR will be once they get there.

The following are some things that have happened to me that would seem unique to a teacher in America. I have been asked to counsel a Form 1 Samburu student (like the Masaai) who wants to leave school so he can be like his friends and herd the cattle, goats and camels. I hope I will be making a trip in the next year or so to north central Kenya to visit his family if we can convince him to stay in school. A second is having the class clap for a story I told on how to remember the 9s multiplication facts. This week a student asked me to say a special prayer for him so he can do better in math. A daily occurrence is students catching me as I leave class asking me to mark (grade the work they just completed) to see how well they are doing. A student in Kansas would never ask for extra work let alone ask to have a teacher double check to make sure they are doing it correctly.

I feel so blessed to be working with such bright, willing students. John

Our House

2010-05-23T07:52:00.000-05:00

Let me take you on a tour of our house. It is a brand new house. We were able to move in on May 2nd, although many small things weren’t yet complete. Our house is small, but very comfortable and adequate to meet our needs. It is definitely a home built with Westerners in mind. There is no way the majority of Kenyans would be able to live in a house like ours. Most Kenyans live in tiny one or two room houses built of mud, timber, stone or galvanized tin.

Click here to see pictures. One of the first things you might want to know is that there is no heating or air conditioning in homes here. The temperatures have been averaging in mid 70s during the daytime and at nights in the mid 50s, so there really is no need. You’ll notice on the picture of the outside of the house that the two outside sections of windows open outward to let it air. This works really well. Open them in the morning after breakfast to air the house during the day. Then about 6:00 you’ll need to close them as it starts to cool off. You’ll also notice the metal inside the glass. This is a safety precaution that all homes have. It adds a nice decorative touch to our house.

We had our couch, armchairs, coffee table, dining room table, four chairs and two end tables made by a carpentry shop by another ministry, FPFK. You can see that they did a great job. They used cyprus wood to create simple, strong and functional furniture. The chairs are very comfortable.

The floors are all tile as are the kitchen and bathroom walls. There is a fireplace in a corner of the living room. We understand we will be lighting fires in it in the next few weeks as June and July are the two coldest months. Area rugs help to add warmth and color.

The dining room is separate from the kitchen. You’ll notice a small window on the left side of the dining room. It is to the kitchen. I’ve put my plates and silverware in the sideboard at the end of the dining room. It is really handy to set the prepared food on the kitchen counter just below the window and then once in the dining room reach in and put them on the table.

You’ll notice that the kitchen has plenty of counter space and cabinets. We have to filter our water before we can drink it. There isn’t room in the kitchen for the refrigerator; it is in the hallway off the living room. This is a great little area as it has access to the bedroom, bathrooms, and our study.

Our bedrooms have tons of storage space. They each have a full length mirror in the little recess you can see in front of the rug. We don't have hot water. Attached to the top of the shower is a little hot water heater. Before you get in the shower you flip the switch and magic, you have hot water coming out of the tap! We are using the second bedroom as a study. We each have our own desk and plenty of space to spread out without getting in one another's way.

There is a large cement patio area in front of our house. In a few weeks it will have a nice table with an umbrella, table and chairs. You can see the pots that we’ve planted that will be scattered around. In all that dirt will be a flower bed. It’s silly to plant it now because they are still doing construction on a house next door. Soon there will be a hibiscus hedge between our house and the newest house.

Between our house and Russ’s is a new banda. The old one was leaning and fell over last week. We were excited to come home one day and see that they are building a new one with a raised floor. It is even going to have electricity! It will be great to use in the evenings or for Saturday morning coffee. I think we’re going to initiate it next weekend with a Memorial Day barbecue with Russ and Kathy.

Our compound has five houses in it. Missionaries live in three of the houses and the fourth is the owner of the compound, a business man and his wife. The fifth house is not yet complete. It will probably be rented to missionaries in some point in the future. It is necessary to live in a compound for security reasons. We have someone on the grounds twenty-four hours a day. During the day they are groundskeepers as well as security. At night they are the watchman. We are a two honk compound. When we arrive home our signal to Ocheng or his son, John, is two honks of the horn. That lets them know that it is someone who belongs on the compound so they can unlock and open the gate for us.

Again, our house is in no way a typical Kenyan home. It would be considered to be extravagant and out of the reach of most Kenyans.

First Impressions of School

2010-05-16T08:08:00.000-05:00

We are getting a quick introduction to Kenyan education through real life experience! The staff members in our schools have been extremely helpful as we are continuing to adjusting to new procedures and ways of doing things.

The official school day starts at 8:00 and runs until 4:00. Classes are forty minutes in duration. Due to limited space, students remain in one classroom all day and the teachers move from room to room, not the other way around as happens in America. Our students are lucky in that each student has their own desk and chair. The desks are large enough that their books fit inside and don’t have to be piled on the floor. Although our schools have excellent reputations, students must still share textbooks, only two students to a book though. The classes are much larger than what we are used to. Cindy has 47 – 52 in her classes while John has 82!

Assignments are done in exercise books rather than on loose sheets of paper. That makes collecting work to mark (grade) more difficult and much more cumbersome. The good thing is that the teacher doesn’t actually collect the work. Each class has a class prefect that is similar to a class monitor. These prefects are nominated by their classmates, but the final selection is determined by the teaching staff. Among their duties are the actual collection of work and then they and a friend carry the exercise books to the staff room for the teacher. Once the teacher has them graded they call the prefects to come and pick them up and pass them back to the students. That sure beats trying to carry a stack of notebooks over a foot high to another building.

The head of each department has their own office where they can work in quiet. However, most of us do our work in the Staff Room. It is a large room that contains at least 24 large desks. Desks are assigned on a seniority basis. Some teachers must share desks. Cindy is lucky enough to have a desk of her own. She was told it is because she teaches English and has the most marking to do. John is doing his work in the library because there isn’t a place for him to work.

Each morning at 10:00 the students and teachers are served chai. It is tea made out of milk and sweetened with sugar. We both like it very much. The British call it milk tea. Teachers are served white bread with their tea. Most make a bread and butter sandwich that has four to six slices of bread in it. As a rule Kenyans don’t eat breakfast, so it is understandable that they are hungry by 10:00. It’s during chai and lunch that the staff room is the most crowded and the noisiest as almost everyone comes for these.

Lunch is also served for the teachers. We have decided that we will eat the school lunch provided. They are already concerned because we don’t take bread with our chai. In their opinion we don’t eat nearly enough to keep from starving. Lunches are typically Kenyan food: sukumawiki with ugali, githeri, or beans and rice. Githeri is a mixture of red beans and maize (corn). Their version of corn is what we would call field corn in Kansas. It is large kernels of hard, tough corn. It’s not our favorite meal. Ugali according to the dictionary is stiff porridge. It is made out of corn flour (similar to corn meal) and boiling water. It is stiffer than mashed potatoes or even corn bread. To eat it you use your thumb and first two fingers to pinch off a piece. Then you pick up a little bit of sukumawiki to go with it. Sukuma is kale that is finely shredded and cooked with onion for seasoning.

Although Kenyan schools are very different from what we are used to, students are the same all over the world. We are glad to be back in the classroom and enjoying getting to know our newest classes.

Bananas

2010-05-02T02:13:00.001-05:00

Bananas are bright yellow fruits about 8 inches long, right? Yes, in the United States. They come complete with a Dole, Del Monte or Chiquita sticker. However that is not true in the rest of the world. Bananas come in four colors: yellow, red, purple and green. Someone told me there are 42 different varieties of bananas, but I haven’t been able to confirm that. We have seen several different types of bananas in Kitale.

Russ, another MKLM, runs a program for street children. They have their own banana plantation at Don Bosco. I’m guessing there are at least 30 banana trees in their grove producing bananas for their children. Not only did we get to see the trees, but actually taste some of the fruit.

Joseph, the groundskeeper, is probably about six feet tall. See how small he looks standing next to the plants? They can grow to a height of twenty to twenty-five feet. Now look at the ground. There is maize (corn) planted between the trees. In another section of the plantation, there are pumpkins. Both are food staples. Not only is the pumpkin eaten, but the leaves are cooked as greens and the flowers and seeds are also used for food.

Here is a short lesson about bananas. First of all, they don’t actually grow on trees. Instead, they are the largest herbaceous flowering plant known. The trunk is hollow and doesn’t have any wood in it at all. That’s why the trees blow over so easily during a storm. The trunk is basically a stem that supports the fruit. After the tree has produced the banana crop, that stem is dead and needs to be cut down. Once cut, another sucker will start growing to produce another crop in a years time.

Do you see the bright purple flower at the base of the bunch of bananas? It’s called the banana heart and is also edible. At first it is a tight cone, but as the bananas ripen, the flowers open from the bottom upwards. When all the petals have opened, the fruit is ripe and it’s time to cut the bunch from the tree.

Each banana is called a finger. Depending on the variety of banana, the finger could be anywhere from three inches long to about twelve inches. The sweetness and starch content of the fruit also varies.

Another member of the banana family is the plantain. They are a starch and need to be prepared like potatoes, boiled, baked, or fried.

Bananas and plantains are important as a food source for Eastern Africa as well as Southwest Asia. It has been estimated that the annual consumption is 99 pounds a year in East Africa, most being produced on small farms. They are especially valuable because they produce fruit year-round, not just once a year as most crops. India, not Brazil, is the largest producer of bananas in the world.

Banana fiber from the trunk and leaves are also used to make beautiful artwork, paper and even clothing. We’ve already bought several to decorate our house.

Driving = Sensory Overload

2010-04-20T12:05:00.000-05:00

Nairobi is a city of three and a half million. Kitale is 150,000 including the containment area. That includes the surrounding area, people that would come to town to shop. So although driving isn’t the challenge here that it would be in Nairobi, it still requires a different set of skills than driving in the US.

You can see from these photos that you are sharing the road with many different types of vehicles. The most common mode of transportation and cheapest is by foot. It is amazing to see the number of people walking. At times it almost seems as if Kenya is a huge anthill with constant movement of people from one place to another.

When you start looking at public transit you’ve got bodabodas at the first level. They are bicycles with a passenger seat on the back. (An interesting side note: the way they got their name is because people would hire them to cross the Kenya-Ugandan border. Hence the name, bodaboda (border). Not only will you see people riding on the back of the bodaboda, you will see them loaded with firewood, groceries, sorghum to feed the animals, bricks, sugarcane, water, etc.

Moving up the economic scale are pikipikis, or motorcycles. You can tell that you are nearing a major intersection along any road when you see a group of men and
pikipikis or boadbodas ready for hire. It was interesting to note that any time our bus stopped on the way to Kitale, suddenly there were several pikipikis right beside the bus door ready to take passengers anywhere they might like to go.

I’ve written about matatus before. They are similar to minivans that have seats for fourteen but often carry many more. They are considered to be public service vehicles with the right-of-way in pretty much any situation. Watch out especially for them. They might stop at a moment’s notice of pull out right in front of you.

We use the British system of driving on the left side of the road. You need to look left-right-left for oncoming traffic, not right-left-right. Most major intersections in Kitale have a roundabout. Make sure you go on the left hand side of roundabout and yield to anyone on your right. The nice thing about roundabouts is that they have signs that help to distinguish them and let you know where you are. For example, I turn to go to my school at the Eveready round about, the bookstore is by the cattle sculpture roundabout, John’s school and the cathedral is at the Lions’ Club shelter. Even though we live in a residential neighborhood, we have a roundabout at our corner. I guess it’s nice to know that if we ever have car trouble we only have to walk a few feet to hire a bodaboda or pikipiki.

Then there is the car itself. The steering wheel is on the right side of the car. You shift with your left hand. I think all vehicles here are manual transmission. You are constantly downshifting for large speed bumps, deep ruts in the road, slow moving vehicles or going uphill. The blinker is on the right side of the steering column, not on the left. Both of us keep turning on the windshield wipers rather than the blinkers! Oncoming traffic is right beside you, not across the car. You need to hug the center of the road. If you go too far to the left you will hit a large speed bump, fall off the side of the road, or hit some other slower form of traffic. Russ assures us that we will indeed get used to driving, but at this point there is so much to be thinking about. Driving isn’t natural yet.

Biggest Changes

2010-04-19T09:38:00.000-05:00

Recently one of our nephews asked, “What are the biggest changes you have experienced in moving from here to there?”

So here are my answers:
* Food: no fast food, no already cooked food at grocery stores, no mixes or easy/fast to prepare food. Even if you go to a restaurant, you usually have to wait 30 - 60 minutes for your food because they have to prepare it once they get the order. The food is much healthier here because it doesn't have all the chemicals and preservatives to keep it from spoiling. The fresh fruit is wonderful:) It is allowed to ripen on the tree it tastes so much better. The meat (beef and chicken) is tougher here and not as tasty. The fish that we've had has been very good.

The Kenyan typical diet is tea and white bread for breakfast, that’s it. Many don’t even eat a noon meal. (Our teachers in language school didn’t.) In the evening they eat ughali and sukuma wiki. Sukuma is like spinach and ughali is kind of like cornbread, but not really. It has the consistency of really, really stiff mashed potatoes. Unless they are educated, they don’t use silverware. They pinch off a little sukuma and then a little ughali using their thumb and forefinger. Kenyans eat many starches: ughali, rice, pasta, potatoes, much more than we do. They love sugar in their chai (tea) often putting in several spoonfuls.

*Few fixed prices. Except for stores and shopping centers that cater to the Western market, there are no set prices on items for sale. You barter and bargain for everything. We aren't very good at it yet. You go shopping and see something that you might want to buy. In America you look at the price and decide whether or not you really want it. Here, you ask the price. They always say, "For you, I will give you a good price." Then they give us one that is highly inflated because we have white skin. People with white skin are rich. That sounds silly, but it really is true. We have SO-O-O-O much more than most Kenyans. At that point we usually walk away because there is no way we are going to pay that kind of money. Then the vendors will say, "Come back, we have to talk about the price. The price is not fixed." So, if you are interested, you give them a price. Then you talk about it, back and forth, back and forth. It's a good idea to talk to people ahead of time so you know how much things are worth and you don’t pay too much if you do get it.

Last week John went to buy some bananas and avocados. He went to a fruit market that probably has about 15 fruit vendors. We have bought from this one lady several times and always before her price on bananas was pretty good. She wanted 80 Ksh for an avocado. He went to another lady and got the avocado for 50 Ksh. Altogether 10 bananas, 2 avocados, and 1 mango cost 180 Ksh which would equal $2.50.

* Almost every building is in a compound (behind a wall) including houses. You can't go into a parking lot at stores, hospitals, businesses, etc. without having to go through a gate and an askari (guard) letting you in. Security is tight. When you go into the parking lot of large stores or the malls in Nairobi, the guard gives you a piece of plastic kind of like a key ring. I'm guessing that they have as many of those pieces as parking places in the lot. When you leave, you give them the plastic back. Again, a security guard is there to take the plastic and open the gate.

* In the stores that cater to the rich there are workers in every aisle. I'm assuming they are watching for shoplifting. The good part of it is that there is always someone to ask for help if you can't find anything. You soon get used to people watching you as you shop.

* Police carrying semiautomatic weapons.

* Even when speaking English having to really concentrate and listen carefully so that you can understand what they are saying. Accents make it hard to understand. Then there is the fact that people here speak British English and not American English. Believe it or not, they are different.

We are now in Kitale and staying with fellow missioner Kathy, who lives in a house on a dairy farm. It is so lush and green here. Click here to see some pictures of the trip to Kitale and some photos taken on a walk while visiting Kathy.

Final Nairobi Days

2010-04-16T04:12:00.000-05:00

It seems that most of our days in Nairobi have been packed with so many things to do. As you know, Mary is also a Maryknoll Lay Missioner that we met during orientation last fall. That means we have been together since September. She has decided to go to Mombasa while we are going to Kitale. So, once we finished language school we decided that we wanted to do some fun touristy things before we parted ways. Click here to see some pictures we took.

First we’ll start with graduation. The ACK Language School offers courses in many different languages including Chinese, Japanese, French, and tribal languages. However, most students are African learning English. We met people from Somalia, Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Korea, Indonesia, Sweden, Turkey.

The final day of school was graduation. Each class was presented and asked to speak a few words. The advanced English class presented a skit about the importance of being able to communicate with one another in a common language. The most touching part was Jackson, a refugee from DRC. What is left of his family is currently living in Rwanda in a refugee camp. Because he finished secondary school, he was allowed to study English, but money has run out so he was forced to return. He wanted to sing a solo to us. Many a tear was shed.

Now that obligations were completed, it was time to play. Saturday was a trip to the David Shedrick Wildlife Trust Elephant and Rhino Orphanage. They rescue and care for baby elephants and rhinos who for reasons of poaching, accidents, droughts, etc. have no mothers. The public is only allowed to visit for one hour each day. While we were there, they brought out two different groups of elephants for a half an hour each. First they drank a bottle of milk. We’re guessing that there was probably about two gallons of milk in those bottles. Then they played in the water and finally threw dirt on themselves. Only a tiny rope fence separated us from them. At times you could reach out and touch them. Several times we had to back up so they wouldn’t step on our toes. Mary even got "kissed" by one of them. He left a dirty mark on her nice clean pants. The youngest was only 2 months old while the oldest was about 2 ½ years.

Sunday we met Dr. Susan, a MKLM who has been in Africa (Tanzania, Sudan and Kenya) for 25 years. Due to health reasons she has been in the US for the past year and just returned this week. We had heard so much about her. She is quite the MKLM icon being recognized by President Obama this winter for her service to humanity. She is moving to Mombasa and will be Mary's roommate. We immediately felt at ease with her and look forward to seeing her again in the future.

Monday was spent at Amani ya Juu. It is a sewing project for women from many African countries. Once a woman is accepted into the program there is a four year training program where she is taught sewing skills. The first six months are intensive, but after that time she is able to begin sewing and earning money for her family. She pays for half of a treadle sewing machine to use at home and the organization underwrites half. You can see from the photos that they do have electric machines and even a quilting machine in their workshop. Their beautiful handcrafted items are very high quality. They do their own silk screening, tie dying and batiking. Of course I asked if it was possible to purchase some of the fabric. I came home with two pieces.

The tour of their facilities took much longer than we expected so we weren’t able to make it back to Flora for lunch. That was no problem because they had a beautiful coffee garden that served lunch. It was a beautiful place, and a delightful way to spend the final day together with Mary in Nairobi.

Easter

2010-04-06T10:37:00.001-05:00

Easter Sunday was spent with our fellow Maryknoll missioners. Vikki, a lay missioner, lives and works in the Kibera slum here in Nairobi. She has been a great help to us giving us rides, delivering our mail, suggesting places to go, and answering our multitude of questions. We wanted to make sure we had the opportunity to tell her good-bye before we moved to our new homes. So, we offered to take her out for Easter brunch after church. Of course, we wanted to go to church with her and needed a ride. She graciously accepted.

Her church of choice for the day was St. Austin’s Catholic Church. It is the oldest Catholic church in Kenya. The mission was founded in 1899 and the first church was built in 1911. It is an impressive church. From the physical surroundings, you feel like you are in an European or American church with all the stained glass and gilt. However, once the choir started singing, you knew you were in Africa. It was a beautiful service.

Her favorite place is Java House. They are a chain of coffee houses that have a wide menu of not only drinks but food. Choices, choices, and more choices. We sat outside enjoying the weather and all decided to have breakfast. John had an omelet, Vikki a croissant egg and sausage sandwich while Mary and I had eggs huevoes. We all agreed that we ate more than we should have. We spent the afternoon at her house visiting and enjoying one anothers company.

It is a tradition at the Father’s house to have a special Easter Sunday evening meal. They called and invited us as well as the Peace Team Sisters. It was a nice gathering and gave us a chance to also say good-bye to the priests and sisters that have been so kind to us. We had shrimp and ham for dinner. We almost thought we were at Grandma’s house for lunch.

It was a wonderful day. Click here to see pictures from our Easter celebrations.

Good Friday

2010-04-03T01:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we did need our gum boots for the Good Friday services. Father John decided that we ought to see a different parish, so we went to the Reuben area to St. Jude’s Catholic Church. This church is much smaller than the others we have been to. Father John actually said Mass at different church and delivered us to Father Luigi, an Italian priest who also helps out on weekends.

In Kenyan’s eyes, Stations of the Cross are more important than the actual Mass on this holy day. We joined the procession almost half way through. Unfortunately, that meant that we were at the back and couldn’t get any good photos of the large cross they were carrying through town, Father Luigi, the deacons and altar boys. When we got there, they were already on the eighth Station. We are guessing we walked about a mile to complete the last part of what they call The Way of the Cross.

You can see from the photos here the conditions of the street. We are in the season of the long rains. It has been raining every day. Yesterday it rained at least three different times. They consider the rains blessings because they help the crops to grow and that ensures food for the coming year. However, I don’t see how people who are forced to live in the slums consider them a blessing. Imagine having to walk through these conditions several times a day and then come home to a house that doesn’t have running water. How would you ever stay clean?

Once we arrived at church, it was a good hour before Mass started. Several people welcomed us and introduced themselves. Peter and Peter became our guides. They gave a tour of the church compound and told us about their parish.

In order to empower themselves and generate some income, they have built 56 houses for rent behind the church on church property. In comparison to most slum housing these are wonderful. They are built on cement slabs so they are up off of the mud. They are built out of corrugated tin, have cement floors and measure 8 feet by 8 feet. Choos with running water (toilets) are available on the grounds for free. Houses have electricity and water is available for a small charge.

There is a wonderful wide open grassy area for the children to play. It even has playground equipment! They have built a hall for church activities which is also available to rent for special occasions. A computer class is offered with ten computers to the community for a small cost. There is a school for nursery and kindergarten students.

Mass was very nice with probably 300 people attending. Most Kenyans travel back to their villages and families if they can for Easter, so the crowd was light. In fact, Father says that Holy Thursday is the worst traffic day in Kenya as so many people are traveling. Mass lasted for almost two hours.

After Mass, the youth of the church were mobilized. That meant they were gathered and they asked us to talk to them for a few minutes. We told them a little about ourselves and they asked some questions. Then they gave us Kenyan names. Mary is Acheng, a Luo name for one who was born during the rains. John is Nyambira, also meaning one who was born during the rains in Kamba. I am Mumbi, the first Kikuku woman.

Soon, it was time for us to leave. Rose insisted on escorting us back to Father John. There was no way he could drive to the church. There was a gentleman during the procession before Mass was showing us the best way through the mud. We later found out that once the people noticed us in the procession (how could they not notice us), they had assigned him to guard us. Likewise, Rose wouldn’t leave us until we were safely in Father’s vehicle. The kindness of strangers is so humbling.

Mubarikiwe sana pasaka hii na amani na upendo. (May you be blessed this Easter with peace and love.)

Palm Sunday

2010-03-31T09:04:00.001-05:00

Flora Hostel is a convent and guest house run by Italian nuns. It is greatly influenced by Western culture. The chapel has daily and weekend Masses, but the people who attend are mostly upper and middle class. We wanted to experience a more traditional African Holy Week, so we asked the MK Fathers where we ought to attend services. Graciously, Father John offered to take us with him on both Palm Sunday and Good Friday.

Father had called earlier in the week to ask our shoe sizes. Why? We are in the time of long rains, translation, the long rainy season. He wanted to get gum boots for us. The streets in the slums are not paved and of course there are no sidewalks. (There are no sidewalks on our way to language school either.) Father has been in Tanzania and Kenya for over forty years so he knows what he is talking about. Part of his current ministry is helping with weekend Masses in the slums. There are six churches in the area where he works. These six churches have two assigned priests, but there are eight Masses. So Father John and two other priests help out on the weekends.

He took us to St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Kanisa Katoliki la Mt Maria, in the slum called Kwa Njenga. It hadn’t rained in the past two days, so we didn’t need the gum boots after all. Father had delivered the palm branches a few days earlier to the priest’s house, but thought he would be taking them to the church that morning. He was pleasantly surprised to discover that they had already been delivered.

As we were driving to the church, he remembered why he usually walks. The streets are very narrow and difficult to maneuver. In his excitement of having guests plus thinking he’d have palm branches on the roof of his vehicle, he forgot and drove. I’m guessing he won’t do that for a long time again. There was barely room for one vehicle to pass. On the way home, he got boxed in. A load of dirt had been delivered while we were in church and unloaded right in the middle of the street. There was no way we could pass. That meant that we had to back up until we could find a place wide enough to do a three-point turn. Once that was accomplished with the help of many pedestrians, who should we meet in the street but a truck. There was no way we could pass, so we had to back up until the truck could do a three-point turn and we both headed out following one another. I’m glad I wasn’t driving!

Father had selected this church because they do a procession before the Mass. Usually they process through then entire “town”, but this year they decided to make it smaller. The palms were outside the church. Several children adopted us helping to create our own crosses. This is Rhinda who was my guide. She not only helped me, but allowed me to sit by her and even showed me around the grounds after church. Rhinda is ten years old and already in grade 7. She must be a good student! Notice her little sister, Mary, on her hip. She was responsible for Mary the entire time we were there. I never did meet or see her mother. At one point I tried to hold Mary to give her a break, but this white skin is pretty scary and Mary wouldn’t allow it.

We gathered about a block away to begin the procession. You can see from the photos here Father blessing the palms at the beginning of the procession. We sang as we walked to the church. The church had been added on to five times as it increased in size. We estimated that there were over 1500 people there. The choir alone had about 70 people in it. There music is so amazing! No keyboards: only voices, hands, rattles, drums and another instrument. You can see it in the hands of one of the choir members. It is made of wood and has to be filled with seeds. They shake it and it makes an amazing variety of sounds. They sing in at least four part harmony. Beautiful!

Matatu Lessons

2010-03-28T11:46:00.000-05:00

We had many real life lessons last week. Up to now we have lived a rather sheltered life living on convent grounds in a safe neighborhood. We only walk about six blocks to language school. Yes, we have been out and about in Nairobi during our time here, but we haven’t experienced what it is like for an average Kenyan to go to work every day. We have either walked where we needed to go, gotten a ride from someone, or hired a taxi.

We took a three day course at Tangaza College titled Introduction to African Cultures and Religion. Father Mike established the Maryknoll Institute of African Studies over twenty years ago. Post graduate degrees are offered for those that wish to study African culture. It is located in Karen, about 20 miles from where we are staying.

Father Mike told us that one of his assistants would meet us at 7:00 Wednesday morning at Flora to help us get there the first day. Unfortunately, we got off to a bad start. We had told Moses, the askari, someone would be coming for us. We were ready and standing outside on time, even early. As luck would have it, Kennedy came while Moses was making rounds. Kennedy was waiting for us over by the office. We never even looked there because we were standing by the gate and could see anyone who entered. After about 20 minutes of waiting we began to get nervous. We knew that it took about one and a half hours by public transport. Finally, we connected with Kennedy. First hurdle crossed.

There is a bus stop less than a block away. It was already 7:30 so Kennedy decided that we needed to take Bus 24 since it goes directly to Karen and even stops at Tangaza College. We waited and waited. Every Bus 24 went right on by because they were full. Now it’s almost 8:00. Class begins at 8:30. Kennedy is the expert at public transportation, not us. Finally, we decide to take a matatu. There were no route 24 matatus stopping either, but 111 will take you to Karen. We get on and go across town to a bus stop. Since it’s already after 8:30 Father Mike told Kennedy to take a taxi from there. We don’t make a great first impression on our classmates because it is almost 9:00 by the time we get there.

Fast forward to that evening. It is raining, not just raining but pouring. More people take public transport on rainy days than clear days. That makes sense. Bus 24 comes and we get on. Bless Kennedy’s heart. He’s escorting us home. The plan is that he will get on the same bus, but alight (get off) earlier than we need to. It’s raining, raining, raining. There are huge jams (traffic jams). Kennedy decides not to get off to go to his home, but continues to stay with us. In the meantime, the bus changes its route to avoid some of the jam. Finally the bus isn't moving at all, we know where we are, it is only about four blocks from Flora, so we get off the bus and walk the rest of the way home. It took us almost two hours to get home. We were so glad that they had saved us some supper even though we were late.

After an challenging first day, we are ready to tackle riding public transport by ourselves. It actually goes pretty smoothly. We decide that we aren’t going to wait for the bus, but go ahead and ride two different matatus to get there. We were given strict orders to report to Kennedy the next morning when we arrived. We even made it to class early!

Now I need to describe a matatu to you. Keep in mind that they drive on the left side of the road. That means that the driver is on the right. But just like in the States, the sliding door is on the left. Imagine a van with four rows of seats. There are two more seats up front with the driver. In the back similar to airplanes, there are two seats on the right side in the next two rows and only one seat on the side with the sliding door allowing passengers to move toward the back. The back seat has four seats. That makes seating for 14, right? Wrong! Technically it is against the law to carry more than 14, but on one trip we had 19. John swears the conductor’s backside was hanging out the open door. I don’t think we ever made a trip with only 14 passengers.

The conductor is the person who opens the sliding door. There is a glass window in the sliding door that is always open. Why? He has his hand and head out of the window looking for possible passengers shouting the price. “Twenty bob, or mbao.” When you want a matatu to stop for you, you do a little wave of your hand. The driver pulls over, the conductor opens the door and you slide in wherever there is room, even on someone's lap if need be. In the conductor’s hand are bills that are folded wrong side out in half lengthwise. I’m guessing that is so the denomination is clearly visible to him as he makes change. He also has a few coins in the palm of his hand.

It was interesting to note that above the door of most matatus, the paint is rubbed off. Why? Because the conductor hangs on there while opening and closing the door. He also pounds on it at times to signal the driver.

Nonverbal communication is constantly going on between the driver and conductor. Remember how the driver is on the right side of the vehicle? He can’t see the conductor. The music is blaring so loudly that they can’t talk. When the matatu is stopped, a hit on the outside of the vehicle is the signal to go. Usually passengers tell the conductor where they are going when they board. If not, passengers will do a short shrill whistle to let the conductor know they need to stop at the next stop. The conductor then taps on the window glass with coins he is holding between his fingers to signal the driver to stop.

In the afternoons we went to interview people in a neighboring village. Each of us had a graduate student as our assigned field assistant. They made the appointments and escorted us where we needed to go. That meant that we had even more practice riding matatus. Some even have TV screens behind the driver’s seat showing music videos. One that we rode had a large screen TV right in front of our noses! The students told us that the most popular matatus are those that have the TVs and play the loudest music catering to youth. The one that had the large screen TV was more expensive than the others. I guess we were helping to pay for it!

John thought you might like to see this photo of me. We walked probably about a mile to reach the matatu stop with our graduate students. In had rained the night before and the small stream we had crossed the day before had grown. I’m happy to report that all six of us crossed safely. However, the next day an older student didn’t.

I think we could now ride a matatu anywhere in the city. What practical lessons.

Visiting Kibera

2010-03-13T09:01:00.000-06:00

Last week one of our friends Vikki took us to Kibera, the second largest slum in all of Africa. Vikki is a Maryknoll Lay Missioner like us. She has been in Nairobi for four years and is doing great work. But first, a little background information about Kibera. . .

Technically the slum doesn’t exist, even though population estimates range from 550,000 to 1.2 million inhabitants. It covers just about a square mile and is marked on maps as the Kibera Forest. The population density is estimated at 1250 people per acre, or put another way, 37 square feet per person. On average three people live in a typical home that is a 10 x 10 foot mud-walled house with a corrugated metal roof and a cloth door.

In the 1920s the British government allowed Nubian soldiers from Sudan to live in the forest outside of Nairobi. These soldiers had helped fight during World War I and the government wanted to reward them. However, they were never given title deeds to the land. That meant they were squatters with no legal rights. Since these settlements are illegal, landlords are not obligated to provide any infrastructure or services. There are no roads through Kibera, no running water, no trash collection, and inadequate housing.

Most people living there don’t have access to electricity, clean water, toilets and sewage disposal. There is one toilet for every 500 – 1000 people. Because of the lack of toilet facilities (plus there is a charge to use them) most people use “flying toilets”. Flying toilets are human feces wrapped in plastic and tossed on the ground.

Vikki works at Christ the King parish in conjunction with the Guadalupe Fathers. Her first project was a community library built on the church grounds for anyone to use. She designed this marvelous mural on the stairway showing Kenyan history, Nairobi landmarks and even their own church. The library contains mostly books and resources about Kenya and Africa. They have copies of all textbooks from the primary level to university. Students often cannot afford their own textbooks, so this is a service that they are able to provide. They cannot check out materials from the library, but can use them at the library. Vikki is serving as the superintendent of the eight schools in Christ the King parish.

We visited a primary school and John Paul Secondary School. We briefly toured a primary school and met a couple of the teachers. Four hundred and sixty students attend this parochial school with only 15 teachers. That averages out to 30 students per teacher! Can you imagine trying to teach 30 young active children how to read? Since John and I will be teaching at secondary schools, we wanted to observe a classroom in session. John went to a junior math class and I was in the sophomore math class. In each classroom we counted 48 desks. I think that there were several desks that had more than one student sitting in it. Both classes were graphing equations. Students were sharing textbooks, pencils, rulers and erasers. There was a constant shuffling as they shared supplies.

Other educational projects we visited were a Poly Tech school that offered classes in hairstyling, tailoring, pattern making, embroidery and computers. Across the street was the Don Bosco Center training young men and one girl carpentry and masonry.

We have a lot of admiration for the many, many people who work in Kibera to make life better for those who find they must live there because of their economic situation.

We were advised that we could take photos on the church grounds and at the schools, but we shouldn’t take pictures anywhere else. Click here to see some photos we took on our trip.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, but a video says even more. Here is a link to some film footage from Amnesty International.

Meet Some of our Friends

2010-03-13T05:31:00.001-06:00

We have been staying at the Flora Hostel in Nairobi. It is run by the Consolota Sisters. It’s almost like being in the United Nations! We have had the opportunity to meet people while eating meals. Some are here for medical treatment since we are only about three blocks from the Nairobi Hospital. Some are here taking language courses, like us. Others are here on business in town or just passing through, Nairobi does have the largest international airport in all of Eastern Africa.

Today I thought I’d introduce you to some of our friends. These three gentlemen live in Hola, Kenya. It is about eight hours from here in a very hot and dry place. Father Louis is originally from Spain. He has been in Africa for about twenty years. He is running a formation house for young men that want to become priests. They currently have two in seminary, five studying at university, about ten in secondary schools and several younger boys still in primary school. Edwin and Fredrick are taking online philosophy classes through a university in South Africa. They have had to come to Nairobi several times to take exams. To do that they have to report to a university here so their exams can be proctored. Once Edwin and Fredrick complete their philosophy courses, they hope to enter the seminary. In our humble opinion, they would make great priests.

Mary and Faustina became great friends even though language was a huge barrier. Faustina had studied in Italy for eight years and trained as a medical technician. She is from Tanzania and was in Nairobi studying English. She felt that it was
important to be able to speak English to help with her work. She knew about as much English as we did Kiswahali, but we did learn from one another. Since Mary also knew Spanish, at times they would resort to Italian and Spanish when they weren’t able to communicate clearly. Although we weren’t able to visit much, it is possible to enjoy one another’s company. She loved watching M*A*S*H with us even though she didn’t understand exactly what was going on. We spent several nights playing games including scrabble. We were sad when she had to leave to begin work. In this photo we had taken her to Fairview Hotel for a treat the night before she left. Aren’t the gardens beautiful?

Sister Teresa and Sister Sia are Maryknoll Sisters. We met them briefly in February and they invited us to come and visit. Since they live clear across town and have busy schedules it wasn’t until last week that we were able to meet again. We love
them and wish we had more time to get to know them. Teresa and Sia are two of the three members of the Maryknoll Peace Team. Three sisters make up the Peace Team: one American, one Vietnamese and one Tanzanian. They work together with groups from different tribal background to open dialog and promote understand and peaceful ways of conflict resolution. They arrived in Kenya about six months before the election only to discover that Kenya wasn't as peaceful as people had thought. Their first meeting was held only three weeks after the post election violence. Suddenly their task included not only peace building, but healing and reconciliation. They are doing wonderful work. We are going to meet again for lunch on St. Patrick’s day

Sister Sabrina spent one month going to ACK Language School taking private lessons. She is an Italian Sister of the Most Precious Blood. She has been in Kenya for two years and already had a pretty good Kiswahali vocabulary. There are two Italian and five Kenyan Sisters that live in Machakos, Kenya. They run an
orphanage for about 75 children. Sister Sabrina has such a quiet, calming presence. She would be great working with children. We also wanted to take her out for a treat before she left. So Mary and I took her to Savana, a coffee shop about two blocks from here for a cup of coffee one afternoon after class. The waitress was so surprised to see a Sister in a coffee shop. (It WAS the first time Sabrina had been in a coffee shop.) The waitress kept saying, “I haven’t seen a Sister in so many years!” It was pretty funny.

Samaya is a Canadian that is working on her doctoral dissertation. One of her contacts was one of our MKLM. She was interviewing HIV positive women living in the Kibera slum. Her research question involved looking at how communities treated positive women. She was so impressed with the women, but so disappointed to discover the promised assistance from NGOs isn’t always delivered. Of course, the government isn’t doing much either. The living conditions in the slums are awful: no running water, homes don’t have bathrooms, most homes are made of scraps of metal, plastic or wood with mud floors. When it rains there is no way to keep the water out. With her last round of interviews, many of the women were sick because it had been raining and was damp. There was no way they could keep warm and dry. Samaya is one gutsy lady. She doesn’t know Kiswahali but still won’t let anything intimidate her. She would leave each morning about 6:30 in order to get to Kibera riding on public transportation. One day she got on the wrong bus. I’m not sure where it ended up, but it was in a dangerous area of town. The bus driver wouldn’t allow her to get off the bus for her own safety. Several Kenyan women realized what was going on and they escorted her off the bus and helped her find transport to where she needed to go.

Living at Flora has been a true education in itself. There are so many wonderful people doing such courageous things.

Mombasa

2010-02-27T09:10:00.000-06:00

“Kenya has an idyllic coastline, a magnet for all who visit the country with its 480 km of tropical beaches, white sands fringed with palm trees, with aquamarine and turquoise waters sheltered by coral reefs close to shore, or golden sands flanked by sand dunes. . . Mombasa became pivotal in the development of Kenya as a British colony, being the starting point for the building of the Uganda railway. Today it still plays a vital role as the hub of commodity transportation inland and is a strategic port on the East African coastline.” (Kenya Bradt Travel Guide) Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya with about 1.5 million people.

As we were planning our weekend trips, we added an extra day for Mombasa because we wanted to be able to see and experience the Indian Ocean beach. We are sure glad that we did. It was a crazy weekend packed many people to see and places to visit. Yes, we did manage to get in a few hours at the beach.

While traveling to Kitale we saw only domesticated animals: cattle, goats, donkeys, and sheep. However, on the way to Mombasa we spotted many different types of wildlife. We saw camels, zebra, giraffe, taupe (large antelope or elk type animal) and baboons. I’m sure passing near a couple wildlife areas made the difference.
We had been warned by many that the climate in Mombasa is hot and humid. As this is summer in the southern hemisphere it is the hottest time of the year. We were glad that we would feel Mombasa at it’s worst. Luckily for us it had cooled off to the low 90’s, but the humidity was still high.

The end of our bus trip ended rather excitingly. Coralis was to meet us when we arrived. Her instructions were to call when we passed by the roundabout that said Welcome to Mombasa. We never saw it (and later found out the welcome signed and been painted over)! The bus made several stops to let people off. We weren’t for sure where we were supposed to get off the bus and assumed it must be the last spot. As we were pulling away from one of those stops we sighted Coralis! The bus driver was alerted and stopped several blocks away to let us off as soon as he could. It was a problem for him because we had a bag stored underneath the bus that they had to get out for us. There we were in a strange town during heavy rush hour traffic wondering how we would ever find Coralis again. Mobile phones are a wonderful thing. Once she realized where we were she had us walk about a block away and cross the street (not an easy thing to do) to another roundabout and stand at the side of the road until she could get there to pick us up. Were we ever glad to see her drive up.

After a quick wash up in her apartment, we spent our first evening in Mombasa eating dinner beside the Indian Ocean feeling those wonderful sea breezes. There are three Maryknoll Lay Missionaries in the Mombasa area. Coralis has been there for nine years. She is involved in many different ministries, but her primary one is an AIDS Orphan Project. Pat and Ilona have been in Kenya for a year. They are working on the founding of a self sustaining Children’s Village that will serve AIDS orphans.

Friday was a full day. We meet with various people in the Mombasa Archdiocese. It is a huge diocese with 46 parishes. Because of that, they have many opportunities for ministry. The Bishop had been called away for an emergency meeting of all the Kenyan bishops, so we weren’t able to personally meet him, but he called during our appointment time to welcome us. We met with the head of the Education Office, the personnel director (a MK brother), Father Nikki at Bangladesh (slum), the AIDS orphan project, toured a secondary school, and SOLGIDI (a project to work with girls in distress).

Saturday morning Pat and Ilona took us to see an archdiocese pastoral center built with Maryknoll funds. Probably the highlight of our visits was at a rescue center for children that had been sexually abused by their parents or trafficked for prostitution. Ilona volunteers there weekly. Not only did we get a tour of the center, but the children all introduced themselves, sang some songs for us and shared warm chapti that they were preparing for lunch. Even though those children have experienced such horrors in their short lives, the feelings of love and acceptance there were overwhelming. It is a wonderful place doing wonderful things.

That afternoon we packed our bags for an overnight trip. The first stop was the beach. Mombasa itself is located on an island. We drove over the causeway to get to Mombasa, but now we drove south to the resort area. To get there we first had to take the ferry across the bay. You go to a resort to use their beach. It is the off season for tourists, so it was not crowded and was nice and quiet. It cost us $7 to use the beach and get a towel. The facilities and service was great. When we arrived the ocean was at low tide. We ventured over coral and sand to reach the water. It was great fun and John loved the chance to take pictures. There were many pockets in the coral with small fish, sea spiders, tiny fish and various other plant life.

After we left the beach we drove about an hour further south to Mivumoni to spend the night with Father Joe in his parish. The area was definitely rural. We were about 12 miles off of any paved roads. Father Joe has a beautiful view from his front porch since his house is located at the top of a hill. We spend most of the evening sitting outside watching the stars and trying to identify constellations. Father Joe serves eight churches. He used to say Mass at all of them each Sunday, but he is not able to do that any longer. The largest church is only a few feet away from his house. The building is nice, but very simple. After Mass Mary talked to a women’s group, I spoke to the high school youth group and we later toured a secondary school. We enjoyed leaving the city behind and spending time in the country.

Now the hard part is discerning, to decide which area, Kitale or Mombasa, will be our home for the next three years. Mombasa has many opportunities, but Kitale has that rural feel that reminds us of Kansas. So we will pray and ponder. Please pray for guidance for us as we come to a decision in the next few weeks.

If you'd like to see photos of the Mombasa area click here.

Kitale Trip

2010-02-26T23:05:00.001-06:00

We have spent the last two weekends traveling to visit possible ministry sites. The first place we visited was Kitale, located in the western part of the country. It is approximately 60 miles north of Lake Victoria and about 20 miles east of the Ugandan border. The travel guide says, “It is a small, market town at the center of the major maize growing area in Kenya. During the colonial times there were 900 settler families living there. Today there are four.” It has a beautiful view of nearby Mount Elgon. Click here to see some pictures we took while we were there.

It was so nice to leave the big city behind and travel in the countryside. The trip took us almost nine hours. We had been warned not to drink too much that morning as the bus only made two stops.

alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442786248845293730" />This was the most common animal except for cattle we saw on the trip. John did see a baboon, but there were no other wild animals.

There were about two hours that were an extreme African massage (rough roads). It was so bumpy that you couldn't even read. That's when an ipod with podcasts comes in handy:) It was a beautiful drive. Probably at least five of the travel hours included the Rift Valley, extinct volcanoes, and mountains. It just takes your breath away when you come up to the edge of the Rift Valley. You’re traveling along gaining elevation when all of the sudden the ground seems to give way. The sheer drop of the escarpment looking down over 1000 feet and being able to see for who knows how many miles is amazing. The view is similar to what you see when an airplane is flying at low altitude and the fields appear like a patchwork quilt. Have you ever heard of a soda lake before? We went by two, Lakes Baringo and Lake Borgoria. We also crossed the equator. There was a small sign on the side of the road to mark it.

Our room here at Flora Hostel is adequate, but we loved being in a real house for the weekend. It was nice to have more room, to be able to walk into a kitchen, living room, have chairs and a couch to sit in, even a TV to watch!

Saturday morning we met with the bishop. He was very gracious, welcomed us and tossed around ideas for possible ministries. We sat on his veranda and talked for almost an hour. Then he took us on a tour of his front flower gardens and the farm behind the house. His newest addition is a greenhouse that allows them to germinate plants to transfer into their gardens and grow even more vegetables for their use.

We looked at a possible house if we decide to move there. It is in the same compound as another Maryknoll Lay missioner. It is a settler's house built in the 1930s. That area of town is nice and quiet, originally the British section of town. It has four bedrooms and one bath. There is both a front and back porch, plus a flagstone patio area by the front porch that would be great for sitting out to grade papers, read, take tea or chat. The banda (think gazebo with a grass roof) is out back, plus a nice open area.

Currently there are two MKLM in Kitale. Russ runs the Don Bosco Children’s Center. They work with orphans and vulnerable street children placing them in schools yet maintaining contact with their families on weekends. Kathy is a physician’s assistant that works at Kimini, a small town about 10 miles away.

Of course, we had to go into town. We went to two supermarkets to see what kinds of things we could buy right there in town. One of the stores is small and caters to wazungus (whites). The other was a large modern supermarket that has also started carrying those types of items and causing competition which means lower prices. (A Betty Crocker cake mix was about $6.) You can even get Ragu spaghetti sauce and Kellogs’ corn flakes, but no chocolate chips. There is a third, even larger store that we didn’t go into. We ate Sunday brunch at a lovely coffee house that also has an internet café, lending library and gift shop. The food was good.

The climate is wonderful. They said that the warmest day of the year was Saturday. It wasn't bad at all. In fact it was quite nice. Now is the dry season, but the dust was nothing like we saw in Olitokitok. Kitale is the maize basket of Kenya. Lots of farms, lots of corn, we even saw hay being baled!

Now it is time to pray and consider our options. Please pray for wisdom for us as we discern where we are most needed.

Nairobi Tourists

2010-02-11T11:31:00.000-06:00

Since we are in Nairobi for only three months, we are taking advantage of the fact. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, weekdays are spent studying, studying, and then even more studying. However, the weekends are for exploring (and studying). We’d like to share a few photos from the last two weekends with you.

In Central Park there is a large monument called Harambee or the Nyayo Monument. It was built to promote and recognize the importance of unity among the people of Kenya. The story goes that the president was on his way to an important meeting. His car became stuck. Many people were watching as his driver was trying to get unstuck. He encouraged the people to all work together and push to get the car out of the mud. He said, "Harambee",(which really means heave, ho) and they replied as they pushed, "Nyayo". Now the word harambee is used to mean "Let's pull together for a common good."

Right across the street is an even larger public park called Uhuru Park. It’s a nice park with lots of trees and green space. Every time we have been there, it has been filled with lots of people enjoying the outdoors. There is even a lake where you can rent paddle boats. There are great paths for walking and one is a shortcut to get us back home. One day when we were there, Richard Roberts, son of Oral Roberts, was having a healing crusade. We heard music and decided to go over and investigate.

We met Sister Elizabeth during our first days here. She lives across town in Mathare. It is one of the oldest slums in Nairobi. She is a nurse in Italy, but they don’t recognize her credentials here. So she is currently taking a course to become licensed in Kenya. At that time there was a matatu strike here. A matatu is basically a van that transports people. They stop at specified places, the conductor slides open the door and encourages people to ride. When everyone is aboard, he slaps the side of the vehicle. That is the signal for the driver to take off. (The driver can’t see that since the steering wheel is on the right side of cars.) Sister Elizabeth takes two different matatus to get from her place to the hospital where she is working. It was too far for her to walk so she stayed here during the strike. Mary and she are about the same age, so they struck up a friendship.

Sister Elizabeth invited us to come and visit her at her home. She is a member of the Contemplative Missionary Movement of P. De Foucauld. She lives with five (I think) other Sisters in Mathare. We had to leave here at 6:30 in order to arrive at Mass at 7:00 am. Afterwards, she took us to her home. It was amazing. Her order has been in Mathare since the 1970s. Because they had been established in that area for so long, the government leased them land for 99 years as long as they would build a stone structure on the grounds. It is a paradise inside those gates. They have housing for nine families, their beautiful stone home, a stone structure for meetings and a large building for large meetings. We visited three different Sunday School classes that were going on. A priest had come to offer Mass for handicapped people who were unable to get to church.

We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Karen Blixen Coffee Garden. While you were all suffering with another round of snow, we were sitting outside enjoying beautiful summer weather and outstanding food. It was fun to see the actual setting for Out of Africa. Just a block or two away was the Kazuri Bead Factory.

Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi. It was begun after WWI as a place for soldiers to live since they couldn’t own land. Today there are over one million people living in less than a square mile. The government owns the land but provides no basic services, schools, clinics, running water or bathrooms. During the post election violence in 2007, Kiberia experienced the most violence in Nairobi.

We spent Saturday morning a 10 K Peace Run held in Kibera. Young men with nothing to do, no jobs or work were out burning and killing during the riots. The purpose of the race was to promote unity among the people of Kibera, to work together toward a common purpose, to reach out to the young people and help install pride in themselves. This race was a joint project between several organizations. Father Dick Quinn (MK priest) was one of the sponsors. He is such a quiet, gentle soul, a dear man.

They had over 900 runners registered. Due to rain the day before you can imagine what the start and finish lines were like. It is a dirt soccer field. A sticky, mucky mess! Vikki, also a MK lay missioner, is a superintendent of 8 parish schools in that area. They closed schools (yes, on Saturday morning) today so they could participate. She was so excited. Over 50 students took part, and many of the classified staff were there as well as several teachers. One of her primary students won his division. It was an interesting morning.

We still have several more "must sees" on our list. Hopefully we'll get a chance to enjoy them all.

Candy As Change

2010-02-07T08:03:00.000-06:00

I bet you have never gotten candy and/or gum as change back from your purchase!

Friday afternoon we stopped at a large supermarket to get some snacks for our Friday Game Night. We had a large bill that we wanted to break. Street vendors don’t have a lot of change and can’t break large bills. That makes it necessary for people to keep small change so they can buy things. For example, we went to the fruit market this week and purchased bananas and an avocado. It cost 110 Ksh. If we would have given her a 500 Ksh note, she wouldn’t have been able to give us change. We have also discovered that an askari (guard) at a compound just across the street from us has mangoes for sale. It is mango season and they are a wonderful supplement to our breakfast! He is selling them for 10 Ksh apiece. (That makes them about 15 cents apiece.) We have become regular customers. If we gave him anything larger than 100 note, he probably couldn’t break it. The best thing to do is to keep as much small change as you can so that you can pay the exact amount.

So back to my story . . . We went to a large, well known supermarket chain. The bill came to 413 Ksh (less than $5). The clerk asked us to give her the bill plus 3 ksh to make change easier. We didn’t have it. So, she gave us two pieces of candy and a small packet of gum as part of our change equivalent to 7 Ksh. What a practical solution.

Kathy, a Maryknoll Lay Missioner that is in Kitale, is in town for the weekend. She is a physcian’s assistant and will be attending a medical conference in Nairobi this next week. We are going to visit Kitale on Friday. She isn’t going to be there to greet and help entertain us, so she came to Nairobi a couple of days early to spend time with us. We had previously met her in December 2009 as we were snowed in for our interview with Maryknoll. It is so good to see her again. Of course, this time we had much more specific questions to ask since we are considering moving to her town.

We spent the afternoon sightseeing. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Karen Blixen Coffee Garden. Many of you can probably picture where we were. Karen Blixen was the Danish woman who wrote the book Out of Africa which was later made into a movie of the same title. The Coffee Garden is located in the gardens of the plantation manager’s house. The afternoon was beautiful, the garden was wonderful and the company delightful. We all had hamburgers that tasted just as good if not better than we could have made at home. It was a short drive to see her house. The gardens there were also lovely.

Our final stop was at the Kazuri Bead Workshop. We have heard wonderful things about Kazuri beads while we have been here. They are ceramic beads made here in Nairobi. Kazuri means small and beautiful and they are! This industry was started in 1975 as a way to employ single mothers. They now employ over 350 women and their jewelry is in demand internationally. There are only three places in the US that sell them: New York, Boston and Kansas City. Yes, you heard me right, Kansas City! The store Ten Thousand Villages, a free trade store, in Kansas City sells them. Their web site is www.tenthousandvillages.com. You can learn more about the beads at www.kazuri.com. (Note: They took plastic there, we didn’t get any candy for change there!)

Good Samaritan

2010-01-29T09:12:00.000-06:00

I have another Good Samaritan story. Well, I don’t know if you could really call it that, but we were at the right place at the right time. First, a little background. The last few days have been really tough at school. I have been extremely frustrated and felt I need to spend every single minute studying. However, we needed to purchase some more time for our internet connections, plus John was having trouble with his modem, so he needed to go to the Safaricom store. So, on Wednesday he and Mary walked to the shopping center to take care of that. I stayed here and went outside to study in a beautiful garden.

I had been working for quite some time when an older Sister came by and stopped to chat. We had a nice visit. I learned that Sister Elizabeth was originally from Scotland and had been a teacher for over 60 years. She taught everything from the primary level to university. Eight of those years were in Michigan. I thought it was interesting that things hadn’t changed much over the years. She left the United States in 1965. While there she was a principal of a school. I gather that it must have been a new school that had just opened. She talked about how PTA meetings were the bane of her existence during that time. Always parents were complaining about teachers, wanting to make excuses and special allowances for their children.

I had been watching for her since then, but haven’t seen her since. Today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Consolata Sisters. At the conclusion of Mass this morning the priest told us that whenever we saw a Sister over the next few days we needed to wish them a happy anniversary.

We get out of class at 1:00 on Fridays. It’s great because it gives us a chance to take care of business things and have a little more time to explore the city. Since we will be traveling to Kitale in two weeks, we needed to purchase bus tickets. (There is no such thing as making reservations or paying via internet here!) After eating lunch and resting a little, we headed out.

We had only gotten about a block away from the hostel when we saw Sister Elizabeth walking towards us with another woman. Of course we greeted and offered her congratulations. The other woman explained that she had just been on a bus with Sister Elizabeth. The bus stopped several blocks away from the usual drop off spot and Sister was disoriented and confused. This woman was on her way back to work and asked if we could escort Sister home. Of course, we were glad to. It was midafternoon and Sister was flushed so Mary asked her if she needed a drink of water. Her reply was “I really need a drink of whisky! You know I’m Scottish!”

There were two extremely busy streets to cross. Pedestrians don’t have the right-of-way here. It is dangerous to cross streets. (I have almost been hit three times walking to school and those aren’t busy streets.) Once we crossed the streets she saw a large billboard and recognized where she was and insisted that she could make it on home by herself. Just think of what might have happened if I hadn’t chatted with her a couple of days earlier, recognized her or had been a few minutes earlier or later.

On a totally different note: As we were walking home through Uhuru Park we heard music. Since we weren’t in any hurry, we decided to go investigate. Richard Roberts, son of Oral Roberts, is here for a healing crusade for the next three days. We had seen banners around town but hadn’t realized that it was going to be so close to us. In fact, I can hear music coming from there as I write.

Busy Week

2010-01-27T09:14:00.000-06:00

We had a busy week week last week. Tuesday night we as well as the Maryknoll Sisters were invited to join the Fathers and Brothers for the closing session of their African General Assembly. Priests from Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia were there as were five sisters and four lay missioners. There was a panel discussion in which the three branches of Maryknoll (priests and brothers, sisters, and lay missioners) shared what had been happening in their respective organizations this past year. Mass followed said by two priests and one brother who were celebrating their Silver Jubilee (25 years as a priest or brother). We enjoyed getting a chance to visit with people that have been in Kenya for many years and have a lot of experience that we can learn from.

Yesterday we went on an excursion downtown to an art gallery and then to the Masai market. The museum had an art display which we had heard about. Admission if you are a resident of Kenya it cost 100Ksh (about $1.25), nonresidents cost 500Ksh. Bless Mary’s heart(she's the other lay missioner with us), she had her language school student ID and was able to convince the young man we were missionaries in Kenya attending school. We were in process of obtaining resident status, but the hadn't gotten the paperwork yet (which is true). Of course, the gentleman was kind enough to let us pass as residents. There were six rooms with photographs of people who had gone to studios for individual or family pictures. Some of the photos were taken as far back as in the 1930’s. It was really interesting.

Our next destination was the Masai market. We had a general idea of where we were going and about ten minutes later found it. The market is on about a half acre of land that is either a parking lot or empty lot during the week. Many vendors sale their wares there two days a week. There were craft items, clothing, jewelry, paintings, wall hangs, fabric, plus much more. Some of the vendors were actual Masai selling their beaded jewelry, but most were not. As we were about to enter the market we swarmed by a group of about six men. Our first thought was that they were pickpockets, so we all put our hands in or on our pant pockets. These men wanted to know what we were looking for, where we were from, what we were looking for, etc. We realized that they wanted to guide us around, probably take us to special vendors, and of course, collect a fee for assisting us. After about ten minutes of telling them we were just looking, they finally left us alone. There were rows of paths between vendors who more than happy to show you their wares. If you gave more than a quick glance, they would greet you and ask if you would like to buy. "Promote me," they would say. "For you I'll give a good price." One time John was looking at some beautifully carved and painted gourds two rows away and the vendor came over to try to bring us closer to look. Talk about keen observation.

On the way back we walked through Uhuru Park. The day was like a nice warm spring day in Kansas. There were couples and families sitting in the shade enjoying the day. Sylvia, our teacher, had told us that as many as six families would live together in a small apartment because they could not afford other housing. Think about having sheets as walls to separate you from another family. Not much privacy!

Sunday we went with Father John (MK priest) to church on the outskirts of a slum area. The church was made of tin. It had just been built and opened in October. It had a dirt floor and benches for seats. Mass began with a procession of dancing children and young people leading Father in to the altar. There was much singing and dancing during the two hour Kiswahili service. John enjoyed watching a little boy filling his shoes with dirt and then dumping the dirt out.

Click here to see some photographs.

Kenyan Weddings

2010-01-24T11:07:00.000-06:00

Mwalimu Sylvia is one of our teachers. I wrote about her and gave a little of her background two weeks ago. She is a young, modern, beautiful Kenyan. She has been married for five years. Her husband is a police officer and they have a three year old son that began school last week. Friday we spent part of our class talking about customs. I had wanted to ask her about dowries, but hesitated to do so thinking it might be impolite. She brought up the subject herself. This is what we learned.

A traditional wedding supersedes a church wedding. At least in her tribe, a traditional wedding consists of the man going before the woman’s extended family to meet them and get their approval. Once he receives the family’s blessing, they are considered married.

Next comes the negotiation of the dowry or bride price, but it doesn’t necessarily come immediately. Sometimes the woman must prove that she is a good wife and can produce sons. The husband must reimburse the bride’s family for her loss of labor. Tradition allows that a woman can be returned to her family at any time before the dowry is paid, but once it is paid “her dish is broken” and there is no longer any place for her in her parent’s home.

Sylvia’s husband was in the process of negotiating her bride price, when her father-in-law passed away. Due to funeral financial obligations, the bargaining had to come to a halt. She expects that her dowry will be about 17 cows, the cost of her university education, and a few other items.

There is even a difference in terminology for marriage based upon one’s gender. A man may marry (-oa), but a woman gets married (-olewa).

Most Kenyans want a church wedding. If finances allow, they will have a church wedding, but the majority cannot afford to do so.

As a sign of respect, a husband cannot be in close quarters with his mother-in-law. If they are in a large home, they can be together in the living room, but he may not enter the bathroom or bedroom. The same is true of the wife with her father-in-law. Neither can spend the night at their in-laws home, only the child of the parent can spend the night. The only time a mother can physically touch her son-in-law is at this ceremony.

Kenyan American English Dictionary

2010-01-23T10:59:00.000-06:00

I suppose it is because we are so focused on language, but I have been noticing differences in vocabulary and terminology even when speaking in English. I am also motivated by the fact that soon I will probably be teaching and I need students to be able to understand what I am saying. My American accent will hamper them enough. I thought it would be fun to share some of my discoveries with you in Cindy’s Kenyan English Dictionary.

We’ll start with a few words:
chips = French fries
innerwear = underwear
queue here = form a line here
rubber = eraser
washroom = room with toilet and sink only
bafu = room to take shower
wash = wash hand, face, and legs
bathe = wash entire body
hoot = honk horn
car park = parking lot
zebra crossing = pedestrian crosswalk
trolley = shopping cart
look sharp = look nice, well dressed

Now let’s move on to some sentences.
I read in Niarobi. = I studied there. I went to school there.
Let’s give a clap. = Let’s give them a hand, let’s applaud for them.
Are we together? = Does everyone understand?
He’s eating money. = He’s taking money (in reference to a politician’s corruption).
Since it’s eating up your mind let’s review. = It is confusing you, you don’t understand so let’s go over it again.
Do you fear them? = Are you afraid of them?
Let’s go and take tea. = It’s time for tea break. Let’s go have some tea.
The phone cries. The door cries = They make high pitched noises.
Did you jump? = This was said when one of us read the wrong answer. It means did you lose your place?
My husband went to pick him. = My husband went to pick him up from school.
The school provides transport. = The school provides transportation.
It was sweet. = It was tasty, not it was sweet and yummy with a lot of sugar.
Use words like this to make conversation more delicious. = Make the conversation more interesting and longer.
My thinking is destructed. = I’ve lost my train of thought. I’ve forgotten what I was going to say.
Allow me to rub here. = Allow me to erase this part of the board.
They abuse it. = They don’t use it correctly. They mistreat the machine.
Did you revise your lesson? = Did you study last night?
Is what? = What do you mean? I don’t understand.
I slept late = I went to bed late last night. That’s exactly the opposite of what we mean when we say it!
Verbs can never hang alone. = Verbs can never stand alone, they must have subject prefixed added to them.
The road will branch. = The road will divide.
I won't restrict you. = I won't stop you. I won't limit you to that.
I have a small heart. = I cry easily for others. I'm worried about them. (We would say they have a big heart.)
I expect you to be picking from them. = I expect you to be learning from them.

They have two sayings that sum up their attitude about time.
Polepole ndia mwendo. = Slowly, slowly is the journey.
Polepole ya kobe humfikisha mbali. = The slowness of the tortoise enables him to go far. In other words, don’t get in a hurry. People are more important than being on time and getting tasks done. Who says we don’t have things to learn from Kenyans?

New Friends

2010-01-17T00:57:00.000-06:00

One of the benefits of living at a hostel is that you eat family style. The tables are set up for four people so you get a chance to visit with many people while you are eating. Our school, ACK Language School, also has students from many different places. I thought I’d share with you some of the stories of people we have met the past two weeks.

Last night we ate with Professor Jae from South Korea. He is a political science professor from Gyeongsang National University. South Korea is just entering into the realm of international NGOs (non governmental organizations or aid organizations). He is on a trip to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda with a graduate student to collect data about the effectiveness of NGOs. He studied in America (as they call the US) to obtain in Master’s degree. We decided that we are long- lost siblings because we were born in the same year. He has no sister and I have no brother.

This week two seminarians shared several meals with us, Edwin and Fredrick. They have been with a Spanish priest for five years. This priest has been in Africa for several years and has established a formation house for young men wanting to join the priesthood. There are several younger boys who are completing secondary school with the intention of becoming priests. Both young men are studying theology and philosophy as they prepare to enter university next year. The left early yesterday morning to return to their archdiocese. It would be at least an eight hour trip in their pickup depending on the condition of the roads. They were great help at correcting our broken Kiswahali phrases. I’m sure that had many chuckles after they left the dining hall.

Faustina is a doctor from Tanzania studying English at British University here in Nairobi. She earned her medical degree in Italy and can speak fluent Italian. However, she needs to learn English to communicate in hospitals. Her English is just a little bit better than our Kiswahali. So, it has been good practice for all of us. We struggle to understand one another. Mary is great at initiating conversation along her English-Kiswahali dictionary as support. I’m listening, recognizing words and entering into the conversation once in a while.

We met another lady from Tanzania whose husband is a doctor that works in Southern Sudan for the UN. He came home for the Christmas holiday, got pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. She came to take care of him while he is in the hospital. Her husband was released from the hospital on Friday, but must stay in Nairobi for another week since he needs to see the doctor again at the end of the week. They are living apart because she is not allowed to enter Sudan.

Peter is a young man we have often visited with at school during our chai breaks. He is from the Dinka tribe in Southern Sudan. He was in the army for nine years, but left to get an education. He is currently studying English and hoping to be admitted to a university next year. All of his brothers have been killed in the fighting, but his parents are still alive. It seems that there is a large Sudanese population in Kenya. This last week several more Sudanese students started school. We noticed in Friday’s paper that the Sudanese embassy was holding a cultural festival this week in Nairobi.

Evelyn is a civil servant in Nairobi. She is on leave from her job for several weeks and is attending language school to study Kikuyu (a tribal language). She is hoping for a promotion and will need to speak Kikyyu in the village so people can understand her.
Mwalimu Bill is one of our teachers. He has taught at ACK for over ten years. We don’t know much about his background, but he owns a tailor shop downtown with three tailors. He says it is impossible to raise a family on a teacher’s salary and you must have a second job. He spends his Saturdays supervising the shop.
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Mwalimu Sylvia is our other teacher. She is only twenty-six years old and is the second born in her family. Polygamy is common in most of Africa. Her mother had four girls. Her father was pressured into setting aside her mother to marry someone else in order to have sons. The new wife had two daughters and a son and Sylvia’s mother had a son next and then another daughter. The two wives did not live in the same compound, but in different villages. Her mother worked to save money to educate her children. As young as she is, Sylvia is the head of the English department in our school.

John’s birthday was this last week and we were able to celebrate in style. He woke up to a huge card covering our doorway thanks to the late night efforts of Mary, the other MKLM with us. We learned how to sing happy birthday in class: siku ya kuzaliwa (repeat four times). Mary arranged with Rafel, our dining room attendant to have a birthday cake for lunch. John was surprised and the rest of the diners enjoyed a special treat. After class we stopped at a hotel we pass by every day. One of the other missioners had recommended it as a nice place to enjoy beautiful gardens and a drink. We sat outside near waterfalls and enjoyed our raspberry shake and smoothies. Click here if you’d like to see some photos of his birthday as well as some street scenes of Nairobi.

First Days in Nairobi

2010-01-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

The school we are attending is the ACK (Anglican Church of Kenya) Language School. It was formed in 1965 to train missionaries to study languages. It seems that there are only four students learning Kiswahali this term. Most students are studying English. It is so interesting to visit with other students during breaks. We have met people from Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Korea, Indonesia, Chad, Australia, Togo, Libya, Somalia and Cameroon.

Our hostel is also multi-ethnic. We’ve talked to people from Tanzania, Italy, Spain, Scotland, and Germany.

We knew we wouldn’t get much rest over the weekend because we were going to have in country orientation. Russ, the regional coordinator, and Coralis (in Mombasa) were flying in to meet with us along with Vikki (who is in Nairobi. It was quite a weekend.

We first met Russ Friday evening. John and I were in our room giving our brains a rest from the Kiswahali lessons when there was a knock on the door. Since the usual person who knocks is Mary whose room is right next door, we hollered, “Come on in.” There was a hesitation, so we guessed it wasn’t Mary. Instead a questioning voice asked, “John and Cindy?” It was Russ. He had arrived in town was staying here at Flora and came to meet us. We had a delightful evening sharing supper and talking about Kenya.

Saturday morning Coralis came to pick us up to go over to Vikki’s house for our meeting. It was business during the meeting, but as you can tell from the photo, we had a nice lunch at Java House. It is a popular place for expats to gather for a cup of coffee or meal. There are several in Nairobi.

Sunday was a fun day. We meet and went to a Kiswahili Mass. We were able to catch a word here and there. Since it was a rainy day, plans were revised and we went to an upscale shopping center for the afternoon. It was nice to get a chance to visit and learn more about Kenya, the people we will be working with, possible ministries and placements.

Here are some things that we have learned during our first week in Kenya:
• If you can hear a mosquito buzzing you don’t have to worry. Only the females bite and they don’t buzz. (That sure helps get you back to sleep in the middle of the night when you hear buzzing.)
• How to tie mosquito netting up during the day so you can still sit on your bed and work.
• Dates are written with the day first, then the month, and finally the year. For example today is 12/01/2010.
• How to text message. Due to the expense, we had never used text messaging. Katrina is thrilled that we can text her.
• How to use an USB stick for internet connections. It is wonderful that we can get internet here in our room. All we have to do is insert a Safaricom stick into a USB port and voile, we’re connected. OK, it’s not always that easy, but it works.

Some of the things we remember about Kenya now that we are here are:
• Chai is a real treat. Chai is made by putting a tea bag and a spoonful of sugar into a cup of hot milk. It tastes really good. We usually have a cup of chai at the end of breakfast and at lunch.
• Fresh fruit, yum! Bananas, oranges, papaya, mango, plums, avocado . . . they all taste so much better when they ripen on the trees.
• Appearances are so important to Kenyans. We dress too casually for them. In Nairobi you see everyone in tailored suits, leather shoes, heels for the ladies! We are wearing our tevas for comfort!

Our Kiswahali is limited, but we have learned to say a few phrases without looking at our notes: Habari ya mchana (What’s the news of the day?)
Waenda salama (go with peace) and mungu akubariki (God bless you.

Settling In

2010-01-04T11:45:00.000-06:00

We’re staying at the Floral Hostel for the next four months while we are in language school. It is a guesthouse run by the Consulata Sisters. Two nuns from Italy manage the complex. And complex it is. There is a chapel that offers morning Mass at 6:30 am and weekend Masses. This morning when we attended there were probably about 50 people there, probably two-thirds of them nuns.

Next to the chapel is the dining hall where we take our meals with other paying guests. Breakfast is served at 7:00, lunch at 1:00 and supper at 6:45. The food is placed on a table in the center of the dining room. You fill your own plates and find an empty table to eat. It is a great way to meet other people. This morning we ate with Sister Elizabeth. She is an Italian nun who has been here for ten years. She works in one of the five slums here in Nairobi. Although she is a nurse in Italy, she must take courses for ten months before she can be a registered nurse here. Because the matatu drivers are on strike, public transportation is limited for the next few days. It is too far a distance and too dangerous for her to get to school, so she has moved here until the strike is over.

John and I are in a double room with our own bathroom while Mary is right next door. Our wing is the only wing that allows men. There is another huge building that houses female students that are attending colleges. I’m guessing there are at least 100 girls. They have their own separate dining room. Then there are other support buildings that contain kitchens, laundry, etc.

Today was our first day of language school. It’s called the Anglican Church of Kenya Language and Orientation School. It was originally established in 1965 to train missionaries to speak the national language, Kiswahali, and other local tribal languages. It’s about a half a mile away from where we are staying and took us less than 20 minutes to walk there.

It was a typical first day of class meaning we didn’t do much except go over expectations, schedule, and syllabus. It also didn’t take long for us to take the entrance exam. We are in the correct course, Basic Kiswahali. I could only answer the first three questions! Our schedule will be 9:00 until 10:30 class, 10:30 – 11:00 tea break where we are expected to practice with other students, 11:00 to 12:30 class, 12:30 until 2:00 is lunch and the last class is from 2:00 until 4:00. There will be a different teacher for each class section during the day. We’ll be getting plenty of exercise since we will be walking back to Flora for lunch. That should make two miles a day!

One of the instructors made the comment, “We might not be able to wipe out mother tongue interference.” How true that is. Often we complain that we are not able to understand nonnative English speakers because they don’t pronounce words correctly. Why not? Because they have trouble forming some sounds because they haven’t spent their lifetimes making them. That would be mother tongue interference!

Tomorrow the real work will begin.

We've Arrived

2010-01-03T22:43:00.000-06:00

We have arrived in Nairobi safe and sound. I would be happy to fly Emirates Airlines again anytime in the future. We had heard that they were a more upscale airlines. That was more than demonstrated as we had chilled real silverware with our meals, three course meals, warm washcloths to clean our faces, over 150 movies to choose from, 50 TV shows to watch, at least 50 interactive games to play. On that first twelve hour flight they sure came in handy. For me it was a three movie, two Grey’s Anatomys, online crossword puzzle, three meals and two short nap flight. Like Mary said, “I don’t think I’ve ever watched so many movies in one day before!” The seats also moved forward as you leaned back making for a more comfortable ride.

The longest leg of our flight was from New York to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It is interesting to check the flight map when you are on international flights to see where you are on your route. This map even showed where it was day and night. Our plane even had cameras mounted pointing downward and forward so you could see the scenery as you were flying. It was amazing to see all the ridges of sand in the United Arab Emirates as we were coming down for landing. Sand, sand, sand everywhere. The green was all contained within walls around houses. We’re guessing that the green is all due to cultivation and irrigation. We also think we saw an olive grove with lots and lots of trees.

Vicki was there to meet us as planned. She was starting to get worried about us because we were taking so long to get through customs and baggage claims. One of our checked bags didn’t arrive, so we were filling out the required paperwork. The airlines had already notified Nairobi that the bag wasn’t transferred in Dubai. For some reason they didn’t leave New York with the rest of our things.

As I write this it is raining and thundering. We drove in a short shower this afternoon once we arrived. We are staying at the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers tonight. Father Doug and several other priests gave us a warm welcome. Shortly after we arrived they had a happy hour followed by dinner. We’re looking forward to a warm shower and then bed!

Photos: John and Mary are in line to enter Kenya. John and Vicki. Mary and Father Don.

December Blizzard

2009-12-31T18:07:00.000-06:00

It has been a blizzard for us this month in several ways. First of all, we literally had a blizzard on Christmas Eve in Tonganoxie, KS. It started snowing that afternoon and the weather forecasters predicted 8 - 10 inches of snow by Christmas afternoon. It has been our family tradition to attend Midnight Mass followed with breakfast at our house for family members afterward. I was scheduled to play the organ for Mass. As we left home for church John dug out a neighbor lady because she couldnt' get her car into her driveway and was blocking the road. Attendance at Mass was light with only 60 people there. Father jokingly laughed that people that wanted a white Christmas were in big trouble. We had more than enough egg casserole for our traditional midnight breakfast because no other family members were able to get out and get to Mass!

We were involved in a blizzard of activities trying to see people during our short home visit. First we flew to Texas to see my sister, her family and my Dad and Betty for a few days. Our church hosted an Open House for us one evening. It was amazing and overwhelming to see how many people came out just days before Christmas to bid us good-bye and send their well wishes. We only wish the evening could have been longer so we had more time with each person. Then there was John's family Christmas with over 50 people squeezed into his Mom's house and a visit from Santa. Two of our nephews spent a final sleep-over with us giving their parents a quiet night at home while we enjoyed their company seeing a movie and playing games. We both visited school to chat with former co-workers. I had a final Girls Night Out with friends. We managed to squeeze in a couple of visits with John's Mom, his sister and as well as our best friends. There wasn't enough time to visit with everyone.

In between the visits, we were interviewed by a reporter for our local newspaper. If you'd like to read the article we wrote, click here.

We drove in three different snow storms. Even though they all couldn't be classified as blizzards, each was harrowing in it's own way. Driving home from New York with John's sister and husband we got caught in an unexpected ice storm in Pennsylvania. Thanks to the driving skills of both men, we made it through a couple of harrowing hours. Then driving back to New York, John and I just happened to find black ice outside of Louisville, KY. We never found out why traffic was stopped, but three tow trucks drove by while we were stopped. To help pass the time I read to John and we even played cards for awhile. Our final snowstorm was just this morning as we were driving back from visiting Andrea in Oneonta. Snow flurries with no accumulation was predicted for this afternoon. Since we were leaving early in the morning we really weren't concerned. Only an hour into the trip the flurries turned into heavy snow with snow packed roads. I don't think John is going to miss winter driving!

There was a blizzard of activity as we did our final packing. It seems like we have been working on this for weeks. We had several lists of suggested items to take that we used as we made trips to purchase items. Of course several days after shopping we always thought of something else that we ought to take. Our last purchasing trip was just yesterday! John had his own personal method of packing so the best thing for me to do was help set out things and then get out of his way. There was plenty for me to do as I cleaned the apartment, compiled lists of addresses, phone numbers, wrote cards and final emails. We enjoyed one last meal with Sisters Paula and Noel hearing even more stories about their time in Kenya.

I don't know that you could call it a blizzard, but more of a flood of tears as we spent the last "free day" with Andrea. She spent most of her Christmas vacation with us in a strange house without any TV or internet access. What a trooper not to complain, but offering to help in any way that she could. I'm sure it wasn't her best Christmas ever. Now that she is back at school coaching she is in high gear with two practices a day working to get the team back into shape after too many Christmas goodies. We were so glad to be able to spend a day with her eating at a favorite spot and playing pitch that evening. We got in as many hugs and kisses as possible hoping that they will be enough to last until the next we see one another.

As I write this John and I are at a hotel next to the airport. It seems impossible that we fly out tomorrow morning for Kenya. Mary will be arriving within the hour. The flights and layover last about 20 hours and we will arrive in Nairobi about 2:00 on January 2nd. We will be met at the airport by a lay missioner, Vicki Smith. She will take us to the Maryknoll House where we will spent the first night with the priests and brothers. Then we will move to the Flora Hostel on Sunday where we will be living as we attend language school for the next four months. School starts Monday morning at 9:00!

Ready or not, Kenya here we come!

Sending Ceremony and Goodbyes

2009-12-15T11:41:00.001-06:00

It has been an emotionally intense week as we concluded our orientation program. Monday was a wet day and I wouldn't be surprised if we went through an entire box of Kleenex as we started goodbyes to our fellow missioners. It started with a retreat lead by Sister Janet and then our own evening meal. Sister Janet had put together a slide show with photo highlights taken over the last 13 weeks. Thanks to Mary's face recognition program and computer skills we were able to view a slide shows of each individual that evening as the group laughed and told stories remembering the times shared. Minh prepared another of her excellent Vietnamese meals. We are sure going to miss her cooking magic.

Tuesday was a final ritual with the Mission Sending Team as we dismantled the weaving our of Life Lines that started this whole experience together in September.

Thursday was the day the seven lay missioners pledged their commitment during the Mass. We have planned our own weekly Masses all along, but this one was especially important as we confirmed our assignments in mission.

Family members started arriving Thursday evening for the Sending Ceremony. John and Nan joined us and we had a great time giving them a quick tour of New York City on Friday. Here we are on the coldest day yet at the top of the Empire State Building.

That night was the Christmas Concert. The choir was made up of priests, brothers, sisters, lay missioners, Maryknoll friends and employees. It was a beautiful concert. Along with four part harmony, we had a harp, organ, guitars, violin, cello and percussion instruments. The chapel was full and filled with a joyous celebration.

The highlight of the week was our Sending Ceremony. As part of the ceremony we brought gifts to the altar representing the counties where we would soon be giving. A Sister that had worked in each country "called us forth" to our new homes and welcomed us in the language we will soon be learning. We were presented with our mission crosses and received a blessing.As a final send off, bells and noise makers serenaded us as we left the church. The chorus of the recessional song We are Called sums up the orientation program:
We are called to act with justice,
we are called to love tenderly,
we are called to serve one another,
to walk humbly with God.

If you'd like to see some pictures of the Sending Ceremony click here.

If you'd like to watch some highlights of our sending ceremony click here.