Sunday morning started quite early at 5:17 in the morning. Yes that time exactly! Our compound is surrounded by three different churches, and I guess they compete for the earliest service via loudspeaker. The rest of the morning, I aggressively tried to sleep, quite futilely, and got up at 6:30am as I was under the impression we were going to 7am mass. Those of you who know me, know that this was a minor miracle that I was ready to go at 6:30am, and even worse, no one else was awake! I couldn’t walk to mass by myself as although there haven’t been any real issues, it isn’t completely smart to walk through town alone. I saw our security guard Job pacing the compound with a hammer; I have mixed feelings about this as I feel safer that someone is patrolling, but with a hammer?!? I spent the morning reading until everyone else woke up and we headed to church for the 11am service. Ted and I walked through the town and received the celebrity status that eventually becomes blasé, but is so much fun in the beginning.
This service is quite spectacular, and we were expecting nothing less. It was supposed to start at 11am, and with everyone in place and the rosary being said in swahili, Father B came in at 1120 to put on his cassock. We promptly started at 1130am (well it’s prompt for Kenya), and the entrance was a group of twenty adults singing and dancing up the aisle. The whole mass was more than two hours long, but that’s because there were two hours of singing. It was beautiful to see how joyful everyone was, compared to our more solemn services we are used to. Someone brought a chicken as part of the collection because they wanted to show the presence of life in the church; how beautiful! The chicken was not happy to sit in one place however and collided with Shawna’s legs more than once! (It even left a present we had to avoid on the floor for the entirety of mass). We had children coming up to use throughout mass and shaking hands, smiling, and sitting on our laps. It was such a nice distraction from a primarily Swahili celebration. Fr B introduced all of us Canadians during the homily, as if anyone could miss our pale presence.
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| Ted speaking during the homily at St Massimo's at Fr B's parish |
We left church early (after communion and 2 hours in, but before the 30 minutes of announcements and more dancing) to go to the Kaguwru school and farm. We met some of the teachers and farmers out there and had a great tour of the upgraded school facilities. Before, the school was a small hut that was slowly discintigrating, and now there was a nursery building, a store room with food to feed the children, and 10 classes! There is a feeding program where the children get two meals a day, which allows them to stay in school the whole day instead of leaving to walk the hour home for food and missing half the school day. As a result enrollment has doubled! We were also shown the farm that feeds the children where the parents work to learn farming methods and allow their children to be in the program. The farm is nearly self-sustaining as some of the crops are sold to buy the necessary supplies that are not grown there. They grow ground nuts that taste different than peanuts, but similar in color and shape, maize, corn, a new crop which grows quite well in the drought season, pineapples, and much more! It was quite fascinating to see how the MCOH staff member Francis has used his knowledge to make the farm so successful when all neighboring farms are dry and quite fruitless. He attributes the success to choosing the correct crop for the correct area. Sounds so simple but something he has down to an art!
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| Kaguwru schoolroom (Brand new!) |
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| Pineapple at Kaguwru farm |
We also wandered around the area looking for springs and water sources that Jack can use to compile his report. We saw a stream with children jumping into the river and acting just like children should. It was very nice to see as we see hungry or bored children more often than the silly laid back kids we saw in the water. On the way to one water source, there was a child with bowed legs on the side of the road. We stopped to invite him to the clinic on Tuesday and realized he was a child who came to a previous clinic and received surgery for what were his much more seriously bowed legs. He has had some healing problems, but looks very good overall. As Cheri said, ‘this is how you know you’re in the right place. You run into someone you know just when they need your help’.
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| Stream where children play |
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| Patient with Bowlegs and a roadside evaluation |
We spent the evening having a barbeque at Fr B’s. Many of us were working up in his conference room, but we also got to enjoy the friendly atmosphere. I also found out that the chicken I had received as a gift last year (actually for my Aunt Coreen from her sponsor child) that Fr B promised to take care of for me, had been eaten! Fr B ate her! Phineas Sabina is no more, and I threatened Fr B that I would tell Alana (one of the teenagers on last year’s trip) on him, as she really named him. Fr B just laughed and said maybe she was still alive but just changed colors. Then he said ‘just kidding’, because I started to chide him for being a priest and lying! It was a fun evening and we were quite excited for the big meeting on Monday.
Summary: A heavenly service and visit to the school in Kaguwru and surrounding successful farm.
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