Kitale Visit

 
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.
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.

new friends

 
 

We've Changed Blog Address

Ever since we found out that we are going to Kenya rather than East Timor we have been thinking that we needed to change our blog name and address. Finally we have made the change. Our new blog is www.KenyaForUs.blogspot.com Click here to see the new site. Don't forget to make a new bookmark so that you can find it easily the next time.

Importance of Laughter

This afternoon we had a chance to attend a lecture by Father James Martin titled Laughing with God. His is an interesting story. He was on the fast track working in corporate finance for General Electric and moving up the career ladder. However, he found that he was unhappy living and working in the corporate world. Surprisingly everybody including himself, he ended up joining the Jesuits and became a priest.

Father James has written several books and I think I will be adding a couple of titles to my Christmas list. In fact we didn't realize that we had bought one of his a year ago titled This Our Exile: A Spiritual Journey With the Refugees of East Africa about his two years spent in Kenya. I doubt there is much humor in that one, but it sounds like his sense of humor comes shining through in My Life With the Saints.

He emphasized that we all need joy, humor and laughter in our spiritual lives. We Christians tend to take ourselves entirely too seriously and don't laugh enough. God wants us to laugh and enjoy ourselves. We need to show our joy and love of life. He gave ten reasons why laughter is essential. I'm afraid I didn't take notes and can't relate them here, but do know that we laughed with him for over an hour. He told great stories as he illustrated his points.

Here is one of his jokes simplified to make it a little shorter: A Franciscan and St. Jesuit priest were killed in an automobile accident. They were killed upon impact and found themselves at the gates of heaven together. The gates were thrown open and they were surrounded by hundreds even thousands of angels. All of the sudden a red carpet was rolled out and ended up at the feet of the St. Jesuit priest. A parade of Jesuit saints came down the carpet to welcome him including Francis Xavier, Francis Jerome, and Anthony Daniel. The final saint was Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. Once all the greetings and hugs were given a blue carpet landed at the Jesuit's feet. Who should come down the blue carpet to welcome him, but Mary the mother of Jesus. Now a third carpet came rolling down out of heaven. This one was white and it was Jesus himself coming to escort the priest into heaven.

The Franciscan priest was thrilled to see how his friend was being welcomed into heaven. The angels, saints, Mary, Jesus and Jesuit priest entered heaven and the gates closed behind them. That left the Franciscan priest alone outside the gates of heaven. While he was there he was imagining who would come out to welcome him. Would it be St. Francis de Sales, St. Bonaventure, Agnes of Prague and even St. Francis of Assisi, founder of his order? He started rehearsing speeches that he would give to each of them. Suddenly he realized that he had been outside the gates of heaven for over 15 minutes. He waited and waited. An hour went by. Then it was two and finally three.

At this point he was starting to get upset. Over at the side of the main gate a small door opened in the wall surrounding heaven. "Psst!" a minor saint hollered. "Over here."

"What?" the Franciscan priest said.

The minor saint said, "Come over here. Come on in."

"What? My friend got such a huge welcome. There were angels and saints, Mary and even Jesus to escort him into heaven. Where is my welcoming committee?"

"Oh that. We have Franciscans coming every day. We haven't had a Jesuit in over 50 years!"

The Widow's Mite

John and I have enjoyed Father Mark's homilies over the years as they are humorous and show much wisdom. They are insightful, relevant, challenging and yet practical. We leave Mass feeling inspired and uplifted.

Brother Jack has been teaching our Scripture studies and has many of the same talents, but an altogether different method of opening up the Scriptures. He is a Capuchin Fransican Friar who travels from Boston to be with us. We all look forward to his classes as he forces us to dig deeper to gain more understanding.

During class we read and look at the Bible in three different ways. First is a exegesis reading. "What jumps out at you? What did you notice?" What does the Scripture text actually say?" Here we are not looking at any interpretation, just things to notice and ponder. We will come back and discuss them later.

Next comes the hermeneutic reading. Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpreting the Scriptures and examining their true meaning. Now we ask those questions and look at explanations.

Finally, Brother Jack gives us the historical and cultural background that impacts the meaning and helps to give a fuller intrepretation.

Lots of big vocabulary words, but here are some of the insights he gave us today as we discussed yesterday's Gospel, Mark 12:38 - 44 (the Denunciation of the Scribes and the Widow's Mite).

Mark's Gospel was written to an audience of the poor. The Scribes are the VIPs in the village. They are one of the few literate people, study the Law, and write down the insights of the rabbis. Because of their education, they would know Jewish Law better than anyone. They would know what is expected of the communnity to take care of the poor.

The Scribes are only supposed to wear their long robes (special symbolic clothing) in the Temple and when they visit the poor. However, they are wearing this clothing all the time out in public to show off their importance. Yet they aren't visiting or taking any action to help the poor. Their actions don't match what they know they should do. Much is expected of them, but they aren't doing what is expected. Mark is telling the poor to beware of the Scribes. They aren't being good role models since they aren't concerned about and helping the less fortunate.

The widow symbolizes the poor and the voiceless in society. During ancient times women were considered property. According to Levite Law if a woman's husband died, she was her son's property if he was of age. However, if her son was young or she had no son, she became the property of her husband's oldest brother. If he died, she was handed over to the next brother, etc. She had no rights, could not own land or property, had nothing, and couldn't support herself.

In verse 40 it says "They devour the houses of widows . . ." The widow is made even poorer by the Scribes. She is expected to tithe as she enters the Temple. A part of this tithe goes to help support the Scribes. Even though they know they should, the Scribes are doing nothing to help her. In fact, they are making themselves richer while trying to make it appear that they are helping others. She forgot herself and her needs in order to help others. Even though her contribution was practically nothing, it was all she had. The rich were getting richer while she was getting poorer. She was helping others. She gave her all, everything that she had while the Scribes gave their "extra" money. It didn't hurt them at all to give the money they tithed.

This passage affirms the place of the poor. God loves them and appreciates them even more because they give what little they have to help one another. Jesus is the supreme example of giving everything for those he loved.

Prayer Experiences

As you might guess, we are having many different types of prayer experiences as we prepare to go into mission. Wednesdays at noon those that are interested are invited to join in Centering Prayer. If you are interested in learning more about it, watch this short video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mfaK6XOq5E


Here are a couple of variations of the Lord's Prayer we've discovered. Isn't it interesting to see how the different cultures interpret it? It makes you rethink it's meaning to us.

A Latin American Adaptation of The Lord's Prayer

Our Lord,
Who is in us here on earth
Holy is your name in the hungry
Who share their bread and song.
Your kingdom come, which is a generous land
That flows with milk and honey.
Let us do your will,
Standing up when all are sitting down,
and raising our voice when all are silent.
You are giving us our daily bread
In the song of the bird and the miracle of the corn.
Forgive us
For keeping silent in the face of injustice, and
For burying our dreams,
For not sharing our bread and wine,
love of the land,
among us, now.
Keep us from the temptation of shutting our hearts in fear;
of resigning ourselves to hunger and injustice;
of taking up the same arms as the enemy.
But deliver us from evil.
Give us the perseverance and the solidarity
To look for love,
Even if the path has not yet been trodden,
even if we fall.
Help us to know and rejoice in your Kingdom
Which is being built for ever and ever.
Amen



The Lord's Prayer
Based on the original Aramaic- source unknown

O Cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration!
Soften the ground of our being
and carve out a space within us where
your presence can abide.
Fill us with your creativity so that we
may be empowered to bear
the fruit of your mission.
Let each of our actions bear fruit in
accordance with your desire.
Endow us with the wisdom to produce
and share what each being needs to grow and flourish.
Untie the tangled
threads of destiny that bind us,
as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes.
Do not let us be seduced by that which
would divert us from our true purpose,
but illuminate the opportunities of the
present moment.
For you are the ground and fruitful vision,
the birth, power and fulfillment,
as all is gathered and made
whole once again.

Kenya Demographics

Word from our Regional Coordinator is that we will be starting language school on January 4th. We will be attending the Anglican Church of Kenya Language School in Nairobi. The following weekend, January 9th and 10th, two lay missioners, one from Kitale and one from Mombasa, will be joining us for our in-country orientation.

We've been working on our regional studies to learn more about Kenya. I thought I'd share some things I've found interesting.

The majority of Kenyans (56%) are living in poverty. Approximately 23% are considered to live in extreme poverty with an income of less than $1 a day. The typical daily wage for an unskilled worker is $1.35. The Gross Domestic Product is $550 per person. Subsistence farming on small plots of rain-fed agriculture is the most common occupation (75% of the population). Only 20% of the land is Kenya is arable and thus able to be farmed. Informal service jobs such as selling vegetables, transporting items by hand, guarding property, working as a "house girl" are typical ways to earn income.

Kenya is made up of 42 different ethnic groups with a population of 40,000,000. There are also an estimated 234,000 refugees in Kenya from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, the Congo, and Uganda. The majority of Kenyans are Christians. Protestants are 45% of the population, Catholics are 33%, Muslims are estimated at 10% with the final 12% holding traditional beliefs.

Education is valued in the Kenyan society. Parents will do everything in their power to provide an education for their children. In 2003 a policy of universal free primary education was announced. However, the reality is that many students are still unable to attend school. Why? There are not enough schools or teachers. Classrooms are overcrowded. There is an average of 50+ children per primary teacher. The target of three students per textbook is not being met due to a lack of textbooks. Incidental costs of having a child in school include uniforms, pencils and paper, lunch, or school improvements which many families cannot afford. Net primary school enrollment is estimate to be 76%. Of those children who do enroll in primary school only 73% ever reach fifth grade. Secondary education, vocational training and university are fee-based which are beyond the means of the majority. The estimate of high-school aged youth attending secondary school range from only 12 - 30%.

The life expectancy in Kenya is 48 years. The three diseases causing the greatest health care problems are malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS. The rate of AIDS infection is estimated from 7 - 15% of the adult population. Approximately 1.2 million Kenyans are currently infected. One hundred children die of malaria each day. Many of these deaths could be prevented with adequate health care and the proper administration of medicine. Medical personnel are too few and often poorly trained.

There are approximately one million AIDS orphans. Churches and NGOs are building orphanages and children's homes, but they are overwhelmed. Then there is the problem that children in these facilities lose their connections to their home community and have no where to go when they become adults other than the streets.

Can't you see why education and health are the two area in which Maryknoll Lay Missioners are focusing their efforts in Kenya?

Make sure to check the Prayer link from time to time. We have learned so many new and great prayers in our time here at Bethany. I am adding ones that I especially like and think you might also want to pray from time to time.