I hope you are all doing well. I’ve had a great week. I’m continuing each morning at King David School. Each afternoon I have been busy doing a variety of things. With only a few weeks left in Kisii I am making the most of my time to visit and see things that I’ve had on my ‘must do’ list. Here are some of the highlights.
Some of you know that I come from a medical family – my dad was a public health physician. So it was quite the experience on Thursday when medical people arrived from the local health Ministry to administer vitamins and de-worming medication to the school children. It is difficult to describe and certainly did not resemble a school clinic in Canada! The Vitamin A pills were actually supplied by Canada – complete with the Canadian flag on the bottles! (Thank you CIDA!) Each capsule had to be snipped with scissors and the liquid vitamin dribbled into each child’s mouth. And, believe me, not every mouth was willing!! The de-worming medication (chewable tablets) was handed out to every child as the team went from room to room. Not exactly systematic! But somehow close to 200 children aged 3 to 6 received what they needed – or at least we think they did! I took on the job of recording the names of the children who received the vitamin supplements in a very official looking health records book. (Kenyans love record books!) Presumably this will be the first of many more clinics. Amazingly, parents were not notified of what their children received. One of the medical people told me they were informed over the radio – of course, few families in this village have radios!! A different kind of informed consent – but I guess there is really no fear of too much Vitamin A or over-use of de-worming medications!!
Thank you Canada!
Friday brought a special guest to Home of Grace – and to me. Lorna is one of the International Teams missionaries who I spent time with back in April (so long ago now). She works in Nairobi with refugee women from Somalia. We have stayed in touch since then and she joined me for this past weekend. The children at the orphanage happily awaited the arrival of “Cathy’s friend” – and were totally shocked that she was a Kenyan and not a mzungu!! It was a great treat to have her here. On Saturday we enjoyed watching The Lion King with all of the children on the new TV set – they loved it! And on Sunday Lorna made chapatis for everyone for supper – a huge crowd-pleaser! The children and staff enjoyed Lorna’s company and she has already made arrangements to return in early September.
Watching Lion King with Samwel, Sabina and Faruk
Chapatis for 40? Coming right up…..!
On Saturday, Edina, Lorna and I traveled a few hours away to visit another small children’s orphanage – “Happy Home”. It is similar to Home of Grace in many ways – it is also registered as a Children’s Charitable Institution, has 32 children aged 8 to 17 and has financial support from Belgium and Canada. They have a very large compound (lucky them!), a staff of ten and volunteers that regularly come for a year at a time from Europe and North America. It was a good experience to meet with their staff and compare notes. The challenge of raising orphans and helping them deal with the emotional issues they face is one that both centres deal with on a daily basis so it made for some good dialogue.
On Sunday, Lorna and I traveled with Pastor Opin and six of the older children to Tabaka, about an hour away. We joined friends of Pastor there for church – a three and half hour ‘deal’ complete with LOUD amplified music and a powerful, LOUD African-style sermon, complete with animated English translation (for my benefit!). And, yes, I was asked to preach. “Madam Cathy will teach us now for 40 or 50 minutes. Cathy?” I’m getting used to this and have a ‘sermon in my pocket’ for this kind of occasion. The good news is that with a translator, 40 or 50 minutes means I only need 20 or so minutes of content. Once I tell about my family, my work in Canada, and what has brought me to Kenya, etc., the ‘gist’ of my sermon is now down to ten minutes. My quiet, calm delivery is in direct contrast to what they are used to. I have no idea what impact I might be having – but it is always a privilege to be asked. (Next Sunday I get to ‘do it all again’ – it gets easier every time!)
Gideon, Valary, Pastor, Fidel, Lorna, Milka, Mike and Wilfrid
At church in Tabaka
Tabaka is famous for the Kisii stone that is mined and carved here. It was great to see the sculptors at work – and, yes, Lorna and I each bought quite a bit to sell when we get home. For Lorna it will help to fund her mission work. For me, it will help support Home of Grace.
It was a bit of a ‘graduation trip’ for the six children we took with us – the five ‘class eights’ and Wilfred, who is in Form Four (grade 12). The excursion was a nice treat and a day away from studying. We all enjoyed lunch together at the pastor’s home (and they served meat!!) and they were also each given some Kisii stone carvings to bring home. A great day for us all…
Such beautiful stone carving. It was hard to decide what to buy!
Another Kenyan road story: we travelled in a friend’s car – ten of us crammed into a five passenger vehicle. As we drove, we were stopped by a police spot-check. They were concerned with the insurance that had expired the day before. The fact that there were three people sharing the front passenger seat and two teenagers in the hatchback didn’t seem to faze them at all. A little sweet-talking by the pastor and a few smiles from the mzungu and they let go us on our way. Go figure….
Monday I returned to school and Lorna returned to Nairobi. Schools are all concentrating on end of term exams. Classes will end for the term in the next week or ten days and resume in early September.
I have been fighting a bad cold for the last little while. (I thought it was the Kenyan heat or hot flashes – turns out it was a high fever!) And my computer was fighting a virus too – perhaps my anti-virus software expired? A neighbour has re-formatted it all for me – it’s not at all the same as it was and will require some major maintenance when I return to Canada. I lost all my programs and have difficulty managing my photographs. I have to apologize for no pictures in this update, except for the one that Craig inserted for me, but that’s life in Kenya. But at least I can access the internet, so it will do for the (less than) three weeks that remain.
I have many plans for the time this left – it seems to be going more quickly. We’ll see how the days unfold.
So – until the next time….
Cathy
