Travel day and settling in – Friday 2/11/2011

On Friday, we left they idyllic Castle Forest Lodge, climbed into four combies for the 3 hour drive, and arrived in Mikinduri. Along the way we passed the equator and stopped a few times to get necessary supplies from the equivalent of Walmart here called ‘Nakematt’. Necessary supplies include a pillow (as the pillows at our accommodations are very similar to the green foam that is used to help arrange flowers), sodas, other beverages, and snacks.

The Longdrop and shower

We then went on to Mikinduri to check into the Limo Guest House. It is a 3 story building with 6 rooms on each floor. There is no Canadian chain equivalent and it can only be called Kenyan! The rooms are square 10 ft by 10 ft concrete, with a giant steel blue door. There is a small square of a shower and toilet that both fit in a 3 ft by 3 ft area. Some of the rooms do not have toilets and instead have a hole in the floor called a ‘longdrop’. It’s a ceramic hole in the floor and it’s interesting because you have to avoid stepping in it while trying to take your shower, because the shower head is directly above the drain. The rooms with long drops unfortunately don’t have heated showers either. This means that you don’t stand under the drain for long periods as the water is cold cold! You just put an arm in to get wet, soap it up, then rinse it off. To do your hair is a bit trickier and it requires yoga backbends to prevent getting anything wet but your hair while avoiding the hole. I dropped my soap down the hole today. That’s gone. Most of the rooms have a heated showerhead though, so it’s only a few that are learning this dance.

The rooms, mosquito  nets, & Shawna

The beds are a double and I’m not sure what’s in the mattress, it might be hay as it is pretty solid. The beds are covered with a mosquito net for sleeping, to help us avoid malaria, and have the resemblance of a princess bed. (The men might think differently). Luckily, we are all so tired we sleep very hard so I’m pretty sure we could sleep on the floor! There are no tables or closets and instead a few nails in the wall. Oh, and did I mention it’s only $6 a night? Maybe that explains it.

We spent the evening moving all the supplies to some storage rooms across the street from the hotel at a church called St Massimo’s. Father Bernard is the priest there and is very kind to us while we’re here, offering anything we need. This time, it was three rooms to separate the medical, dental, and vision supplies. We split up into our groups, took inventory of the supplies, and started sorting them into different bags for the clinic sites.

Karen McKenna and the Bags!

We drove up in the combis to NoName Hotel. It is a brand new hotel near the Mikinduri clinic site where we will have our meals, and has yet to be named so we coined it ‘NoName’ and this seems to have stuck. There’s a tent put up where we all sit and socialize while eating and  unfortunately there are not enough rooms here for the whole team, otherwise we would have stayed here at NoName. The tent is on a slope and we all sit in plastic chairs. Some people fall when they lean just a little too far one way. We use the phrase ‘TIA’ – ‘This is Africa’ to describe a situation like that where it’s really perfect…except.

In the evening, we can hang out on the third floor in a room we designate ‘the Tusker Room’, which is named after the Kenyan beer Tusker. We can relax, talk, and unwind. This is a great way to end a very busy day and now that we’re all settled in we’re ready to work!

Summary: A very busy day getting settled and ready for the clinics!

The team arrived! – Wednesday, February 9, 2011 part 2

Ted met the team of 24 Canadians at the airport in Nairobi and I’m pleased to say they all arrived! Only 4 bags were missing, which is about average, but they will be delivered to Mikinduri by Monday. Everyone was very excited and overwhelmed by all the new Kenyan noises and sights. Kenya was a British colony, so everyone drives on the left here. In addition, the traffic is crazy! Cars drive so closely together, pass when there’s oncoming traffic, and drive quite aggressively. It’s scary to sit in the front seat! Our team will drive around in Combi’s,which are 9 passenger van that have a top that opens up once it comes time for the safari. Our vans say ‘Voyage Afrique’ on the side as that’s the company that drives us around. The drivers as part of Voyage Afrique are very professional, and are a big part of the team. They go to school for two years to get a diploma to be drivers, so they’re learned about Kenya, foliage, landscape, and animals. Plus they never have to ask directions. They know where everything is!

The team spent the night at the Methodist Inn, a nice hotel in Nairobi, but were only there from 2am until 8:30am. Ted met the final team member at the airport, and all were on their way to Castle Forest Lodge, an idyllic spot outside of Embu. It’s on a mountain, near a waterfall, at a spot where herds of elephants come by. The rooms are cute little huts with thatched roofs and have fantastic names like ‘purple rain’, ‘jungle’, etc. The drive was 3 hours and about the last twenty minutes is on a dirt road, a very bumpy dirt road that you have to go slowly on. Even the hardest stomachs can get a bit queasy on this road! The dirt also gets in the combi so you either shut the windows and bake, or cough from the dust and dirt. It’s an interesting feeling that makes you so very happy to arrive at the beauty of Castle Forest Lodge. Once at the lodge, everyone had lunch and they met up with the people that have been in Kenya during the ‘pre-week’. There was a team meeting and people had the evening to relax. 

Elephant watchers

 It wasn’t long until there was a great excitement. An elephant came into the clearing. Then 19 more followed! Everyone gathered to look at all of the elephants and were awed by nature. They were in a clearing maybe 200 feet away, and easily visible from our restaurant. There were babies, some as young as a month old, and some giant elephants! It was so exciting!

21 Elephants came to visit!

They stayed for over an hour and it was hilarious to see how excited we all got and watch all the cameras come out. There couldn’t be a better start to the trip! We had a beautiful dinner with curry, goat, and chapatti ( kind of a fried fattier very delicious tortilla). Plus it was one of the teammember’s birthday so we ended the evening with cake! Everyone was pretty tired so they headed back to their huts where there was a nice fire waiting to keep them warm, as being in the mountain it can get down to 5 deg C.


Summary: We are all feeling very blessed to shave arrived safely and see the wonders of nature welcoming us to Kenya!

Calm before the storm – Wednesday, February 9, 2011 part 1



Mount Kenya at Sunset



We headed off in the morning to Castle Forest Lodge, a three hour drive to an idyllic spot outside of Embu. It’s on a mountain, near a waterfall, at a spot where herds of elephants come by. The rooms are cute little huts with thatched roofs and have fantastic names like ‘purple rain’, ‘jungle’, etc. We got there in time for lunch and found it so odd to switch between community service and being a tourist. I read a book that afternoon while the others went on a hike to the waterfall. We watched the sunset that evening and saw the red and purple rays bouncing off of Mount Kenya, the second highest peak in Kenya, which is not always visible.  It was a beautiful peaceful evening for Kathy, Ed, Jack, Cheri, Shawna, and I, while Ted kept going down to Nairobi to welcome the team.

Sunrise over Castle Forest Lodge

Thursday morning, I woke up early enough to see the sunrise. I quietly snuck out to our porch, and laid under a thick blanket. Believe it or not, it is very cold there at night, probably getting down to 5 degrees C. The sunrise was gorgeous! A soft wakening to the day. Jack and Ed saw an elephant come into the open clearing that the restaurant overlooks. We were told that when one comes, it means many will follow. Sadly this was not the case as when the rest of us got to breakfast, the clearing was empty. We then went on a nice 5 hour hike. We had a guide that was knowledgeable about the local area, route, vegetation, and animals. There were two guards that are part of the parks service that were dressed in camo and carried rifles. This was quite intimidating, especially when they turned and aimed at the sweet giant dogs that were walking along with us (it turns out though that one of the sweet dogs bits the solder on the back of his leg….but no shots were fired so it was okay). We found out the rifles only have blanks, but the guards had to come along to protect us from elephants. Apparently a woman was trampled a few years ago while on a hike. The hike was gorgeous! We walked through an area where people were using chainsaws to harvest eucalyptus trees. These trees were introduced to Kenya by the Australians because they’re fast growing, but they have since learned that they the trees take a huge amount of water that is drawing on local water resources. As a result they’re cutting the eucalyptus trees down. We then walked through a green jungle on a winding path, over a few streams, up and down some hills, with not another soul around for miles. Along the way, we passed huge amounts of elephant dung. We then passed a brand new steaming pile of dung, and our guards went on alert. The elephant was close. The guide and one guard would walk ahead and check the area, then the other guard and us would come join them. It continued like this for about 10 minutes when they located the elephant. It was about 100ft away behind a bunch of trees. It was all alone, and apparently that’s the most dangerous elephant to come across because it’s already nervous. The guards picked up their guns and started firing the blanks. The elephant was on the move and luckily in the opposite direction. Our hearts were thumping and our ears were ringing!

At an oasis waterfall

We then came to a cliff and hiked along the switchbacks to get down, trying to avoid the tree roots, and occasionally jumping a few feet. We were starting to wonder when one point the path was 9 inches wide with a huge drop below, and while clinging onto the dirt wall, we suddenly opened up to a waterfall, just like you’d see in the movies. There was a circular clearing with a waterfall that was at least 10 stories high. It was so gorgeous. We took a million pictures and couldn’t believe how beautiful this was, as we thought we were just going for a nice exercise and were able to see both an elephant and a waterfall! The walk back was much less eventful and we managed to go so quickly that we were back within 4 hours! What an amazing afternoon!

Summary: It was a totally relaxing day getting ready for our team to arrive and hiking to a waterfall, trying not to get trampled.

Springs and Such – Tuesday, February 8th

My sponsor child Moses

Tuesday morning I got to go by the disability clinic described in more detail in Kathy’s blog. It was quite exciting because the child that I sponsor through Chalice named Moses was at the clinic, so I got to meet him and his grandmother, Grace. He’s 4 years old and was abandoned by his parents when they realized he had learning disabilities and his grandmother took over his care. He’s a very sweet boy and I got to hold him. He smiled and giggled when someone translated the word ‘handsome’ and he was at the clinic to receive braces to help him walk. Before the clinic, it was believed that he would need a wheelchair and would never walk, so the news that all he would need is braces was very exciting. Eventually he will be able to remove the braces as well once his legs become stronger. It was really neat to be able to meet him and see firsthand where the money I send to Chalice is going, and see the additional benefits such as braces that goes along with the program.

There were the sweetest kids at the clinic. One little boy was sitting on the ground holding a giant umbrella. He was four or five years old, and every time one of us wazungos (white people) smiled at him, he lowered the umbrella so he couldn’t see us. I decided to play with him and kept ducking to look under the umbrella, and he just kept lowering it until it touched the ground. He was sooo cute! There was one little boy that Ted noticed whose eyes were popped so far out his head, he couldn’t believe they were still attached.

Then Cheri, Shawna and I went and had tea with Fr Bernard and checked out the hotel that everyone would be moving into. We used to call it the Francis Inn (the owner’s name was Francis), but the name that’s now painted on the wall is the Limo Guest House. It’s where we stayed last year, so Cheri, Shawna, and I made sure that all the rooms had a bed, mosquito net, working lights, a toilet seat if there was a toilet, working hot water if there was a heater, and looked reasonably clean. Out of the 16 rooms, 7 have longdrops, as in a ceramic hole in the floor. Those same rooms don’t have hot water heaters either; the way they give you hot water here for showers is a heater in the shower head, so the water is either ice cold or scaldingly hot, and sometimes it’s hard to tell which one as they’re both such a shock to the body! It’s an odd problem to have so you end up doing this dance in and out of the stream turning the water heater on and off at intervals to achieve a semi-consistent warm. Anyway after taking stock of the rooms, we realized we would have to add 7 bed and help decide with Ted which unlucky people would be in the rooms with the longdrops. All the people that are returning are guaranteed a longdrop, and a select few of the new group.

Kenyan Water Meeting



That afternoon we went back to ‘No Name’ hotel (where we had been staying and eating meals) for lunch. There was a group heading off to look at water projects that afternoon. The group consisted of Jack, Ted, Paul, Anthony, the local head of the water committee named Jefferson, and Francis. We went to two different sites. The first site is a water project that MCOH funded to draw water from a spring and provide it to 30 families. The families formed a board and paid a fee to join and monthly fee. The project is working great and being maintained by the community! During the dry months when the spring can’t sustain the whole community, they ration the water so half the families use it one day, and half the next. We arrived by two houses that were well off that had round houses and thatched roofs, and many cattle. We then took a hike up the mountain to the spring, and followed the pipes to a 1000L tank. We then followed it down to the river where there was a big effort to dig so the pipe from the stream could go under the water. (Why was there a spring fed water source when there’s a river right there, I asked that too. It’s because the river water is contaminated and spring water is clean). During the walk I was informed that there are pythons in the area, but saw some dead baby mice along the path, so that can’t be true. The snake would have eaten those. I also saw some water being sprayed onto crops in this really cool sprinkler that was 6 feet off the ground and could spray a great distance. I inquired as to which crops were so vital that they were using drinking water, and found out it was mira, a drug with similar effects to marijuana that the men chew. It’s such a great cash crop (and not illegal) that it is very carefully maintained.

Not your typical toy


  

 

On the way back to the combi we passed a group of adorable children all under 5. One of the little boys who might have been 3 was holding a machete as large as he was, just like it was a toy truck! We then visited a farm that is benefitting from the water project. He had a great amount of crops, including some white sweet potatoes, papaya (called paw paw here), seedlings that he gives for other farmers to use, and many other crops. His house even has a solar panel for lighting! We all shared a raw sweet potato on the spot. Yum!

The-ka! (Smile!)

The second site we went to is a prospective site to tap a spring to provide water to 30 people. We had a group of kids follow us during the hour hiking through the heat. When we were running down the mountain (as I may have left the working group to goof around with them), you would swear they were wearing shoes for the sound their feet made in the dirt. I had fun talking to them and learning words in kimeru, the local language. I took a picture of them, then told them all ‘Theka’ which means ‘smile’, and they were so surprised I used a kimeru word that they laughed and laughed! During the hike, I was struck at how formally the Kenyas were dressed. We Canadians were finally dressed appropriately, in shorts and a light shirt, as it was really really hot and sunny! The Kenyans didn’t look out of place at all in nice trousers with button up shirts, and they didn’t even get dirty! It was really neat. The Kenyan pace is a bit slower than the Canadians are used to walking, and much slower than Ted is used to walking! Hiking was interesting because their pace never quickened. Everything here is hakuna matata!

Summary: A successful water project tour and I learned how to tell children to smile! (Chekah in Swahili)

Pre-team thoughts

From Kathy, Jack and Ed about their adventures:

Kathy, Jack, Ed, and Ted (the pre-team) arrived Friday evening, January 31^st, and spent Saturday with Anne Josiah and Bernard from Chalice. It was a great meeting. Kathy adds, ‘As always they provided insight, sensitivity to culture, and guided our way.’ Jack mentions that he couldn’t sleep Saturday night due to the time change and jet lag.

Sunday morning they went on safari and saw lions, cats, rhinos, antelope, Masai giraffe, regular giraffe, Masai zebra, regular zebras, and impalas. The two pessimists (I won’t name them) said they didn’t see cheetahs or leopards, but saw everything else. They remember with a note of sadness a large pile of ash that was made from illegal sales of ivory tusks and surrounds a memorial to discourage the practice. Sunday afternoon was quiet and they spent the afternoon shopping for shorts for Jack. (Note: Jack somehow arrived in Africa without shorts and Ted has suggested that they stop and buy him a pair of shorts every time they pass someone selling him). They went to a high end mall in Nairobi, quite different from the stores in Mikinduri.

Ted playing with Silvanos' children

Jack spent the evening with his friend while Ted played in the pool with Silvanos’ wife and children. Silvanos was the manager of MCOH in Mikinduri (locally called MHCDO), and was murdered in December 2005 in Nairobi. His family has remained a part of the MCOH family and when Ted mentioned playing in the pool at their visit last year, the children remembered and were quite overjoyed to go in a pool for their first time.

Now that the pre-team was more acclimated to the time change, they were ready to get to work.  Monday morning at 8am, Ed, Father Bernard, Antony, Bernard and Jack met with APDK. Kathy, Ted, and Anne met with the Lion’s Club. The meeting was with Eunice Wandei of APDK, coordinator of community based rehab programs. They reviewed requirements for establishing community based rehab programs and learned about the micro-financing programs for people with disabilities. They saw the outside of the factory that produces wheelchairs for only $200, tailored to the specific needs of the disabled, with larger wheels for the rough road, more like a mountain bike would have so it can be repaired easily in the villages. They also make crutches, braces, and prostheses.  In a different part of town, the meeting with the Lion’s club was with Dr Khan and Mr Datoo. Their mission statement is ‘we serve’. They were eager to partner and support and outreach for eyecare. It was a beautiful hospital and they balance the services well. People with money would pay for dialysis and eyework, which allow them to offer services to the poor for a minimal price. A second meeting was set up to discuss the possibility of the partnership. At 10am (yes all that was in only two hours!), they all promptly returned to the Methodist Inn to meet Zarah and Leah, consultants recommended by Amref Canada, who were hired by MCOH to do an environmental scan (more detailed than an assessment), as part of a feasibility assessment for community based health care. They presented a preliminary report with the promise to deliver a final comprehensive report mid-February. They spent so long in the meeting that the consultants nearly missed their plane!

Data measures they track for Community Based Health Care

Monday afternoon, they took off for Makindu, a town East of Nairobi, half way between Mombassa and Nairobi in a place called the ‘hunters lodge’. Makindu is a model Amref site for Community Based Health Care that they visited on Tuesday. They learned so much about Community Based Health Care and were able to visit two different sites that day. They met two CHEWs (Community Health Extension Workers) and were show the types of data collection and indicators that were used by the Dept of Health to monitor program effectiveness. The second site was a demonstration on using computers for data collection for Community Based Health Care. Community Health Workers (CHW) directly entered the information on their areas on health conditions to send to Amref that they’re responsible for monitoring. It gave them insight into the relationship between CHWs, CHEWs and Community Development Committee (the board). On the trip back to Nairobi, Jack purchased a GPS for better investigation of water locations…and went on a second shorts shopping trip.

On Wednesday, they had a more extended tour of the Lion’s clinic and were quite excited to start a partnership that the Lion’s would provide support at the vision clinic during the Mikinduri health clinics this year! The Lion’s club will do screening for diseases and eye conditions, i.e. cataracts. They can do very accurate vision testing. It provides an interesting opportunity to facilitate referral of patients to Nairobi and possibly more regular clinics if the need is present. Meanwhile, Jack and Fr Bernard went to the national statistics agency and got some great information about the Mikinduri area. They bought two publications on Population and Household Statistics by Administrative unit, the smallest unit in the country, which gave them a good baseline on the population that they’re serving. That book cost 4000 shillings ($50). They bought a second book called Socio-Economic Characteristics which was a bigger geographical unit and will be very representative. That book was also 4000 shillings. They were searching for topographical maps of the Mikinduri area. On Wednesday evening, they had the pleasure of meeting Bernard’s family: Emily and Joy.



Education before clinic began

The next week of their activities are in the previous blogs, so jump to Tuesday February 9^th:  APDK from Embu and Meru had a clinic at the Mikinduri dispensary where MCOH clinics are held. We learned many things from them about how to run clinics.  They started with micro-education, and taught a large crowd preventative teaching: the importance of immunization and particularly how it relates to polio; they emphasized the importance of vitamins especially in pregnancy; they reviewed the importance of early recognition of club foot (with the consent of a four year old teetering by with club foot, the Occupational Therapist, Peter Kareoke, the Embu Regional Coordinator of APDK, demonstrated club foot, the importance of early diagnosis and treatment to prevent the need for later surgery or amputation); and the importance of health insurance and joining the national health Insurance Fund and national disability fund the Kenyan government has established. That also provided an opportunity to instruct the people to be screened in the manner the clinic was going to be conducted. They divided into three teams: Physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), and orthopedic technologists, with one person from Meru and one from Embu. Those from Embu were training the Meru staff on how to run a clinic so the Meru staff can come back on a monthly basis for screening and assessments.



Boy with Club Foot



They saw 176 patients. Approximately 40 custom made wheel chairs were ordered. They will be made at the facility previously toured and sent directly to Mikinduri. Crutches were measured and ordered. Orthoses, custom footwear, were measured and ordered. Patients were referred for follow-up for school assessments, and subsequent follow up with the OT and PT. The patients were amputees, one with a bilateral above knee amputee walking around with 5-year old limbs that were in great disrepair, but he was able to walk around with his crutches. It was inspiring. He was fitted for a new wheelchair. There were 18 year olds carried on their parents back, who have never had wheelchairs. There were people with spina bifida, cerebral palsy, leprosy, scoliosis, muscular dystrophy, downs syndrome, spinal chord injury, elephantiasis, development delay, autism, epilepsy, ADHD, and mental illnesses. There was a man who arrived carrying his wife on his back, and on her back was her 6 month old baby! She was paralyzed from the waist down and the baby was malnourished. The APDK team was very surprised at the frequency of malnutrition, leprosy, elephantiasis, and they commented on the relatively high frequency of upper extremity amputations due to trauma (from machetes).



The APDK team had previously indicated that they would consider monthly clinics in Mikinduri if there was need, and due to the overwhelming response, there will be clinics the second Friday of every month. This is a great success that will continue even after Kathy and Ed head back to Canada. The number of people who arrived for the clinic was overwhelming, due so much to the local Mikinduri community. They found out the clinic was going to occur in less than 5 days, and the community banded together, Antony, Fr B, Chief Alex, Cynthia, and the community did a great job passing on the word! A fine example of the effectiveness of community based health care.





Stakeholders Meeting - Monday Feb 7, 2011

Today was a great day! We woke up and immediately made last minute preparations to the presentation and agenda. Keeping in line with the true Kenyan schedule, we planned for the meeting to start at 9am, and when people began to arrive at 10am, we finally started at 1030am. We totally took over Fr B’s church, St Massimo, as it’s the biggest room in Mikinduri, and we were expecting 40 guests consisting of chiefs, the local member of parliament, doctors and nurses from Meru, Embu, and Mikinduri clinic, people in the Mikinduri and surrounding communities, Fr B, and us wazungos (the plural for muzungo – white person). We had a great meeting once it finally started, discussing the current deficiencies with the health care system in Kenya, and introducing the idea of Community Based Health Care.

Stakeholders meeting participants

We discussed in small groups and brought our main ideas back to discuss as a large group. Some things are the same everywhere: in small groups, people are happy to talk, but once you get the whole room together, no one wants to be the first to speak. It was neat seeing everyone that we had spent in meetings with on their turf over the last few days, as I felt like I knew nearly everyone in the room! Some of the differences in cultures are significant though, as in Kenya, it is not considered rude to have your fingers in your nose. These dignified people with professional careers were sitting in the meeting itching the inside of their nose, something that we would be shocked to see in a Canadian office. It’s also interesting to note that we were the most casually dressed in the room, as everyone else dressed very nicely for the occasion, as seems to be the case in most situations. Additionally our meeting room had a concrete floor covered in dirt, and there was no air conditioning. One of the muzungos said ‘Long meetings in Canada are hard, but without A/C they’re much harder!’ The meeting was quite successful as we had hoped for networking, the introduction of Community Based Health Care, and awareness of services for local groups. It was fantastic to have a meeting come together so last minute, with a structure, charts, statistics, and yes...even graphs. We had farmers from our feeding project sitting at a table with their leaders and doctors, discussing concerns they had with health care, and more significantly, both were issuing the same concerns. One of the women who has three children and lives in Kaguwru told Ted that the meeting was great, and when pressed why, she said ‘So she is more aware and has something to take back to her community’, which is the whole point of Community Based Health Care!

Playing spoons with Kenyan Partners APDK

After a successful meeting that ended with traditional Kenyan tea, water that is boiled with tea bags and added to a cup of whole milk, so it is more milk than tea, we headed back to our hotel. The people from APDK (Association for Physically Disabled Kenyans) were staying in our compound and we had a fantastic evening playing spoons and dominos as a big group. Ted won, but Bongoman (and everyone else) insists that is because he cheated. We are tired tonight. Tired as a whole, but not just because we’re busy, but because every moment is networking. Even when we’re in the hotel compound, there are honored guests that come by and you have to be on your social ‘game’. It’s exhausting but so rewarding after a day like today!

Summary: A successful meeting with 40 varied participants! Today Kenyans and Canadians came together to have a great discussion!

Heavenly Service and Successful Farm - Sunday Feb 6, 2011

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.



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!

Kaguwru schoolroom (Brand new!)

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’.



Stream where children play



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.