A two week diary of an
American Nun in Kenya

REPORT FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 8-14, 2007
SISTER ROSITA ARANITA

April 8, 2007, Sunday: Everyone slept recuperating from the long Easter Vigil Service which commenced at 10 p.m. and ended after midnight. After two hours of sleep, both priests woke early to make their Easter Rounds at the 12 centers where they celebrated mass for each Christian community in the remote rural villages. Fr. Gregory woke up at 4 a.m. and Fr. Kennedy at 5:30 a.m. to begin their rounds. They returned from their rounds in the early afternoon and concelebrated mass at the parish church in Raruowa at 2 p.m.. The faithful from the villages nearby gathered and crowded the church.

Earlier in the morning, Mary Lieta and I put a raspberry cake mix together and baked it in the solar cooker. Mary is gradually getting the knack of regulating the heat from the solar cooker so the bottom of the cake was only slightly burned. Sr. Christofa made some pineapple custard which we slathered onto the cake for a topping. The priests were so tired that I sent slices of the cake to them to revive them. They came by the house later remarking how delicious the cake was and how it perked them up. We had shared the cake with Lucy and Rosemary, housekeepers for the priests and sisters, and with Mary Lieta, St. Lucy’s principal.

Easter ended with sharing stories with friends at the dinner table.

April 9, 2007: Spent Easter Monday resting and reading the mysteries I purchased from Nakumatt in Kisumu.

April 10, 2007: Worked on additions to St. Lucy’s proposal. These included estimates for the improvements to existing cisterns, shower, water tower, and latrine. I also included the list of girls in St. Lucy’s who are orphans, have a single parent, or are in conflict with their families about further education. Some girls have run away from home to escape forced marriages. Their parents exchange the girls for a measly two cows. Cattle are like currency and a sign of some financial means.

Erica Hintergardt called from Nairobi to say that the Akamba bus was running 2 hours late. I called Sr. Constance and gave her Erica’s number so they could connect when she arrived late in Homa Bay. St. Constance called her and Erica stayed at the convent over night.

April 11, 2007: Erica interviewed and filmed the girls and premises at St. Martha Secondary School in the morning; she arrived at Raruowa by 3 p.m. via taxi. We first sat with Kenneth Nyatoc, the deputy, and talked about the kinds of girls in St. Lucy’s. Mary Lieta arrived as we ended our interview with him. Girls that Mary Lieta had selected to be interviewed and filmed were gathered and sent to the convent where they could have some privacy. By nightfall, Erica had interviewed 17 girls.

April 12, 2007: Erica spent the morning filming the premises of St. Lucy. Fr. Greg was late taking us to Kanam where Erica interviewed and filmed the Marit Womens Group’s Tailoring Shop. Serafina Mambe was in the process of teaching two young women how to sew backings on hand crafted images to make place mats.

We rushed off to visit with two womens groups who had gathered since morning at the Mission for Africa Orphanage. Laban and his staff have recently gathered widows around the orphanage. The large group of women were organized into two groups: The Odhier Womens Group has 20 members who have 42 primary children and 8 secondary youth who are fatherless. The Mission for Africa Womens Group has 30 members who have 30 primary children and 15 secondary youth who are fatherless. Most of the widows are HIV+. Both groups farm their shambas and sell their produce for self support and the support of their fatherless children. They sell used clothing for additional income.

Both groups have similar needs: The need for safe/clean water, financial assistance for their fatherless children; and financial assistance to begin more lucrative microenterprises. After some discussion, the groups chose what enterprises they want to pursue. The MFA Womens Group want to start a beauty salon. It has two certified cosmetologists and a building to begin. The other women in their group want to raise cows to produce milk for sale.

The Odhier Womens Group selected a fruit juice processing project and a poultry raising to sell eggs and meat. Both groups of women will research what they need to start these businesses and put together budgets to begin.

Erica filmed the MFA orphans and the facilities. We got to the Cathedral Convent in the late afternoon only to be marooned on the back porch while a fierce rain and thunder storm raged on for 40 minutes. I held the umbrella over Erica and her cameras to safeguard the equipment from the squall. Simon, the architect who designed the Koliech Orphanage and St. Martha’s Secondary School additions stood with us while Sr. Constance searched for the back porch door key. No one was home during the storm. The rains ceased after 40 minutes so we finally walked to the front door to enter the convent.

Both Erica and Simon decided to go to their destinations fearing that the storm would recur. A Cathedral pick-up came for them. Erica went to the Easy Coach Bus terminal to go back to Nairobi. Simon went home to Ahero promising to have the plot plans for the Koliech Orphanage ready by the following Friday.

The electricity went out and stayed out overnight in Kisumu, a usual occurrence.

April 14, 2007: After breakfast, Sr. Constance and I walked to the front gate of the Cathedral compound. Constance went on her way to catch a matatu back to Homa Bay. I waited across the street in front of the Chancery building to wait for my ride to Mumias to attend Serafina and Aloys’ daughter’s wedding.

Fr. Kennedy had a punctured tire in Kadel that delayed him. We got to the wedding at St. Peter Mission when the couple were pronouncing their wedding vows to young girls squealing and adults clapping. Frs. Kennedy and Valentine who both knew the bride Jacqueline dressed in their mass cassocks and stoles and went up to the sanctuary to join other concelebrants. Small cloth banners were strung over the assembly. The dancing girls were all dressed alike in their bright pink polka dot dresses. They certainly were well trained in their high stepping synchronized movements.

A large assembly crowded 3 quarters of the church. It was a very joyous celebration with the choir leading the assembly, the dancing and cultural rituals. The groom is draped with the brides’ train as a sign of their covenantual joining after the vows are recited. Besides a ring bearer, another young boy bears a lighted candle symbolizing Jesus Christ’s presence in the newly weds’ lives. Guests are acknowledged at the announcements and asked to address the assembly. I was surprised to be called up. I had just gotten to know the bride’s parents who are active in the Kanam Village community. The bride and the groom are both school teachers.

After mass, Frs. Kennedy and Valentine, Srs. Modesta and I, and Mary Lieta were summoned to visit with the pastor at the rectory. We had some sodas and talked a bit before going over to the reception at the school hall. I learned that the Mill Hill Missionaries were relegated Western Kenya to evangelize. They have built some impressive facilities at some of their missions including the ones in Raruowa. St. Peter Mission in Mumias was the first mission in Western Kenya. The Catholic Church in Kenya is only 120 years old. Mumias is a sugar plantation town. Workers from all over Kenya settle there to work on the fields and sugar factories. The sugar fields reminded me a lot of Waipahu in Hawaii when I was growing up. The nation has yielded many priestly and religious vocations so most of the dioceses have indigenous clergy and religious.

On the way back, we had a flat in Ahero and had to coax the car’s radiator to cool down after we passed Adiedo.

REPORT FOR WEEK OF APRIL 15 TO 21, 2007

April 16, 2007: Fr. Kennedy and I went to Oyugis and his village of Kolunga to meet with the villagers about a water project. Oyugis is at the eastern edge of the Homa Bay Diocese which was split off the Kisii Diocese. The villages sit at a higher elevation than the land immediately bordering Lake Victoria.

After purchasing a tight radiator cap, Fr. Kennedy, Carolyn and I went to lunch while pieces of the car were being welded back to the carriage. Carolyn was interested in entering the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary after she completes a secretarial course. She needs a scholarship to sign on to this particular course. Her personal data and need is as follows:

Carolyne Ochollah Akoth, Ong’icha Secondary School,
P.O. Box 90, Oyugis, Kenya, Age 20

We took some back roads to Oyugis and Father’s village of Kolunga. We first visited with his parents at the family compound. Fr. Kennedy has lost three brothers to AIDS who left widows and children. His elderly parents had gathered 15 parents and relatives of priests and sisters from the area to form a support group for their dedicated children. They were just concluding their meeting when we arrived.

After short introductions, we went to the home of the family where the meeting was to beheld. Storm clouds threaten to rain on the gathering so everyone was ushered into the home of the leader, Pamela Pete. I took pictures of the people gathered and special ones of the grandmothers who are caring for their orphaned grandchildren. The introductions could hardly be heard because rain was battering the metal roof. Wind, lightning and thunder struck for a good half hour. The storm tapered off when I stood to describe what I do and how to put together a water project. The people were encouraged to learn that the Rotary Clubs in America would fund the projects. They will get the technical assistance they need to follow up with planning details.

The village had previously listed their concerns, their members and their orphans. They saw an advantage to keep organizing and working together after I described what needs to happen before a Rotary Club will commit itself to their project.

April 12, 2007: the parish truck was full with six girls from St. Lucy, Stephen Anudo, Sr. Christofa and myself, and another male passenger. We were on our way to Homa Bay to drop one girl off in Kadel and five girls and Stephen at the Akamba Bus Station. The girls and Stephen were to board in the evening for Nairobi where they are to catch their plane to Norway. Their partner school in Norway funds the entire exchange trip. Sr. Christofa was going to the St. Paul Health Clinic and I to the Cyber Link Café. I e-mailed my weekly report and documents and downloaded my other e-mails before the electricity went off.

I met Srs. Laetitia and Ann Prisca at the convent. Both are nurses. Sr. Laetitia is a ’99 graduate of St. Lucy Secondary School and her family lives in Raruowa Parish at Oriens near Kendu Bay. She is at Asumbi Health Clinic and Sr. Ann Prisca is at the one in Fandango Island. Sr. Ann Prisca told me about the lack of money to pay staff at the clinic because of the poverty of the people who could not pay fees for care. She lives with two other sisters on the island. One is a housekeeper and the other teaches at a primary school. Since they have practically no land to have a garden, food is bought with the little money they can put together. She was on her way to a meeting in Rongo.

April 18, 2007: I made arrangements with Joshua Agutu to meet on April 19 about the rain catchment segment. After working on weekly reports, Frs. Kennedy and Greg, Srs. Conrad and Jamescina and me went on our way to have a birthday lunch at the Tourist Hotel Restrurant in Homa Bay. The past Thursday was Sr. Conrad’s 31st birthday. We sat under a large umbrella under a tree on the hotel grounds to enjoy the breeze from Lake Victoria. We each ordered from the menu and enjoyed our lunch.
I mailed blueprints and estimates for the Koliech Orphanage and the Kisumu projects for the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph to Sister Irene O’Neill. After lunch, we went on our way to Ruma National Park which is about 22 kilometers away. We saw a family of spider monkeys just about a kilometer before the park entrance. It was late afternoon when we arrived at the main gate to pay entrance fees. We saw several kinds of birds: a red eyed quail, guinea hens, a large owl far away, a long legged water fowl and some gray and white cockateils. When we cleared the high brush, we came upon a herd of beautiful giraffes alongside the road. They were grazing on the high trees in the savannah. Only one panicked and ran a short distance. The eight or so others simply stared at us batting their long lashes and gazing calmly at us. Their coloration were different shades of brown against tawny gold. The pattern of their browns were arranged in distinctive designs.

We went on our way to see the antelopes grazing in the distance. As we drove toward them, some ran toward us to see who we were and what we were. They were sleek brown with gray markings down each of their legs. Their faces had black markings with some yellow and white fringes. They had short horns about eight inches long that curved toward their noses. Handsome animals! We had to roll up our windows to keep the tsetse flies from biting us. They carry some kind of sleeping disease. No one except Fr. Greg had been to Ruma National Park before this. We all said we needed to come back at an earlier time of the day. We headed back to the main gate after going about 8 kilometers into the savannah. The park is about 42 kilometers long. Hills surround the park. A fence separates homes on the edge of the park.

April 19, 2007: I met with Josuah Agutu, Samuel Odhiambo, and Esther Opap from Adiedo at the Raruowa convent after lunch. We agreed on two basic budgets for 6 homes with a total of 7 tanks. A week from today, the group will have the budgets ready, a list of vendors with a list of items to be purchased from them, and a bank account for Adiedo Village Community.
Later that evening, I communicated with Sister Irene O’Neill about needing 6 different Rotaries to fund each of the segments for installing rain catchment systems for Adiedo. Budgets, a list of vendors with itemized purchases, and the bank account number and data will be e-mailed to her.

April 20-21, 2007: Worked on Mission for Africa Rain Catchment Proposal and the beginnings of the Kolunga Village Proposal which still needs specific plans and estimates for a borehole and possible rain catchment systems. Mrs. Mwaya came to ask for help to wipe out an outstanding debt for her daughter Joan Akoth Mwaya. Joan has not been able to obtain her certificate from the The Kenya Institute of Management for her business degree because she is unable to pay the last 15,000 ksh or $215.00. She needs the money to be sent to:

The Business Office of Kenya
Institute of Management Kisumu Center,
Tivoli Cinema Centre, 1st Floor,
Court Road/Jomo Kenyatta Highway
P.O. Box 1083-40100, Kisumu, Kenya

Telephone: 057-22424 E-mail: kim@kim.ac.ke Website: http://www.im.ac.ke

Joan Akoth Mwaya’s receives mail at:
P.O. Box 241, Homa Bay, Kenya

Remarks from the founder of ENP. 050607

Aloha,
We are blessed with the gift of Sister Rosita.

I pray you will continue to support our Sister Rosita. We light church candles. We kneel in prayer and lay at His feet. We Bless ourselves with Him and water. It certainly is a seamless Holy lifestyle that we enjoy. Sure there are times when our morning cream curdles. We recover. As Catholics we simply reach for the fount. There is always enough.

Sister Rosita’s daily bread.
Hot dusty and broken down on the side of the dirt road. Stuck outside in a savage electric rain storm. Wet to the bone. Solar baking for the visiting Bishop. Scrubbing cake soap on white vestments. Being called up front and honored at a important local gathering. Learning a whole lot of lessons every day. Making the work a little easier for simple good folk. Giving some a second chance. Making things grow. Making the light a little brighter. All because of You.

Stay the course.
A weekly visit. More requests. Some urgent. Sister Rosita praying with the voiceless. Asking for our prayers. Restoring hope through charity. So very simple.

Please give generously.
Thank you very much and Aloha. Patrick M. Walsh

P.S. Please send donations to:
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet Saint Paul Province for Kenya’s Water Project, 1884 Randolph Avenue, Saint Paul Minnesota USA 55105-1700

We did this Book-kit without outside counsel.
We (ENP) are solely responsible for all errors.

[ This Book-kit is available online encraap.info ]

Until next time,
Aloha,
Rosita

Dear Sisters and Friends,

Thanks for the article!

Send any donations to:

Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet,
St. Paul Province Kenya Water Project,
1884 Randolph Avenue,
St. Paul,
MN 55105-1700

They can wire me the money at designated contacts here in Kenya.

Hope all are well!

Love,
Sr. Rosita