REPORT FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 29 TO MAY 5, 2007
Sister Rosita Aranita, CSJ

April 30, 2007: I took Everlylne Anyango Mbui with me to Kisumu to extend my stay in Kenya; When I arrived at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in late January, the immigration official gave me only a 3 month stay. As a result, I needed to prolong my stay for another two months until I return to the U.S. on June 23rd.

We started by foot to Kandiege about 2 kilometers away where we boarded bicycles to Kadel to catch a bus to Kisumu. I let Everlyne handle the transportation fares because I knew I would be consistently overcharged as an American. Evaline would know how to bargain down fares if she thought they were too high.

It was a two hour ride to Kisumu. We walked to the Immigration office several blocks away from our bus terminal in the busy market place in the middle of town. The streets were full of pedestrians, bicycles and roaring matatus. The sidewalks are virtual obstacle courses with cracked open sewers, vendors and pedestrians. We took the median strip part of the way to avoid the congested walkways.

When we arrived, the aisle and guest seating were full of waiting customers. Three clerks worked the counters that were besieged with people waving application forms. When my applications got the first look over, I was missing two passport photos so had to take a short trip across the courtyard to obtain some photos. Having done so, I returned to the clerk who then waved me to the line to the finance office.

A slowly moving queue lined the inner wall to the fiscal officer’s gated stall. When I finally reached his office after forty minutes, I handed him my application and fees through the grill. He was already hassled and a bit flustered with having to service so many people. I discovered why he was so slow. The poor man had to manually write out 5 copies of receipts for each person after checking on what each person required.

After receiving my set of receipts and applications back, I sat with Everlyne briefly until I was summoned back into the inner sanctum to wait for fingerprinting and finalization of my extension and alien registration. One of the clerks fingerprinted each digit on both hands then took prints of the thumb and four digits on each hand. I almost presented my feet, too. It was not necessary. The total fee was 2,200 ksh or about $25 U.S. dollars.

It was early afternoon by the time we shopped at Nakumatt for some snacks and for some baby clothes for my namesake, Rosita, who was born on the Monday of Holy Week. She is Everlyne”s niece. We went to an Indian snack shop for some chips. I got a Paneer Cheese sandwich and Everlyne indulged in a local sausage. We quenched our thirst outside the shop with drinks we had gotten earlier.

After I replenished my monies at Barclay’s ATM, we began our long trek home. When we got to Kadel, the streets were flooded from a recent rainstorm. We were able to take a bicycle to Kandiege, but had to trudge through thick mud back to Raruowa.

May 1, 2007: Fr. Kennedy celebrated the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker and prayed for all workers. It was the national Labor Day holiday. I went to the rectory later and went over how to do proposals and budget with Fr. Kennedy. I later went to the school office at St. Lucy to work on the Soko Village Water Proposal and to charge cell phones and my computer simultaneously.

May 2, 2007: I spent the morning doing my laundry and repairing my underwear until Fr. Kennedy was certain that the mud had dried enough to be able to maneuver his vehicle through our Raruowa roads.

Sr. Christofa and I were dropped off at Kadel to catch our bus to Homa Bay. Father proceeded to Oriens for mass then to his home in Kolunga to check on his elderly father. On reaching Homa Bay, I went to the internet café and Sr. Christofa to shop in the open markets and at Shivling’s. We were to meet in front of Shivling’s at 5 p.m. to begin our trek home.

At the appointed time, I instructed my taxi driver to meet me in front of Shivling’s because he could not make out where the internet café was located. We began our journey back and got all the way to Kandiege when we found out that the taxi could not cross the recently rained upon road to Raruowa. I took the heaviest bag of fruit and vegetables and Sr. Christofa got two young children to heft the rest of the groceries. She took the muddy short cut while I proceeded on the vehicle road thinking it would be less muddy.

When I reached Siburi, it was nightfall and I missed the turn to Raruowa. Thus began my nighmare of slipping into mud, trucking through thick sludge and getting lost for a few hours in the dark while hefting a heavy bag of groceries slung on my back like an African baby. I had gone several miles before I ran into a yonng man to ask for directions. He graciously led me through a shortcut through maize fields and clan compounds. I was huffing and puffing and occasionally falling into the mud. I finally had to hold on to him toward the end of our long walk back to Raruowa. My sports shoes were caked with thick mud and felt like lead weights.

When we finally arrived at our gate, the sisters and housekeepers rushed out to greet us. They were all so worried that I had fallen victim to robbers and had been raped. They had called Fr. Greg who was on his way back from Mbita. He and Everlyne parked at the Siburi junction for a long time trying to decide which road I might have taken. I dispatched Sr. Conrad to tell him that I had arrived safely and not to worry.

I got a second wind after my two bucket bath so joined the sisters at late dinner. It was after 9 p.m. when we sat down. We all exchanged stories about my recent escapade and their search.

May 3, 2007: The entire house decided to go with Fr. Greg to Simbi. On the way, Fr. Greg recounted the legend about the strange woman who visited the former hillside village of Simbi. She first requested hospitality from a group of men who were drinking. They were rude and inhospitable so she went off to a nearby home to ask for hospitality. The woman there received her well. After resting a bit, the elderly stranger persuaded her host to walk a distance away from the village.

After reaching far enough, the stranger asked the woman to look back on her village. A fierce rainstorm had ensued and continued for several hours and days until the hillside village had completely dissolved into a steep crater. Every villager had drowned and the entire village had sunk to a bottomless crater with no outlets. To this day, the water in the crater has a foul odor and is undrinkable. No one can cross the lake because there is a strong gravitational pull in the center. Stones thrown toward the lake are pulled down prematurely.

Blue-green algae colors the lake drawing myriads of birds to feed on it. We spied a pair of black swans placidly swimming along the edge of the lake. Flocks of water birds populated a sandy stretch of shore. A few egrets grazed on the eastside next to groups of women laundering with water from holes dug in the sand.

We met Fr. Kennedy at a roadside market then Fr. Greg led him to the Simbi Catholic center where three of us were dropped off. Sr. Conrad accompanied Fr. Greg to another center west of the lake. The chapel was an elongated mud hut with a dirt floor. The children sat on the floor to the right of the makeshift altar. The women sat in front and the men in the back. Srs. Jamescina, Christofa and I sat in the very back. Fr. Kennedy began with confessions outside before celebrating mass.

After mass, the people served us late lunch of ugali, collards, and boiled chicken and fish. We departed the center going west to meet Fr. Greg and Sr. Conrad. Both vehicles continued toward Koliech where we branched to go back to Raruowa. Fr. Greg and Sr. Conrad continued toward Kanam via the hot springs.

We eventually met in Kandiege where Fr. Greg led us to the head of the trail to the hot springs. Fr. Kennedy parked the car several hundred feet from the trailhead. We all hopped into the truck to go to the end of the road where we disembarked to walk about a kilometer below. The trail went down into a depression of limestone, sulfur, red dirt and very black basaltic rock. There were layers of rock eroded by centuries of water lining the lowlands below that flattened out into a large grassy plain.

Shepherds drove herds of cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys up the trail toward Kandiege while we carefully threaded our way down to the hot springs. At the bottom, streams of water bubbled from the ground. As we approached a wall of conglomerate basaltic and limestone rock, we noticed that the hottest springs bubbled right out of the rock wall and flowed into the thin streamlets below. Steam rose from the springs, hot to the touch. Sr. Conrad had lowered a net with two raw eggs into the hottest hole of water. Sr. Christofa hathed her feet and face in a warm streamlet while I took pictures of the group and the terrain.

Since a rainstorm was fast approaching, we started up the trail toward the truck. We were able to make to Raruowa just before the rains came down.

May 4, 2007: Everlyne and I started out early to begin our journey to Asumbi. We picked up her orphaned niece, Margaret, who was to return to St. Terrycam Deo Gratias School in Asumbi. We caught a crowded bus to Homa Bay then a commercial vehicle to Asumbi. We reached our destination at noon.

Everlyne and I went to meet Fr. Kevin Shalom to look at pictures and to learn the history of the school. Fr. Kevin was in Oyugis when he began burying scores of parents afflicted with AIDS leaving many orphans behind them. Fr. Kevin decided to start two boarding schools in Oyugis and Asumbi to care for these orphans. He has sold portions of land inherited from his parents Teresa and Camillus to build these schools. He named them St. TerryCam after his parents and Deo Gratias in thanksgiving for the gift of land that funded the schools.

The present board of the school is in process of applying for NGO status with the government so it will have the capacity to fundraise for school needs and construction. Father has purchased 15 acres in Asumbi where he hopes to construct the primary and secondary schools and dormitory facilities. Father’s personal resources are getting slimmer with time so he has to look toward other ways to fundraise. Meanwhile, the school and dormitory facilities are mostly of mud construction or rented buildings in Asumbi Market place. The project lives a hand to mouth existence on a daily basis. Over 90% of the thousand primary and secondary students are orphans or have lost one parent. Their caretakers or relatives are not able to pay school fees for the most part.

Inspite of the financial and material handicaps, the eighth grades placed 20th among 400 schools in national exams in 2005 and 12th in 2006. The latter group of students are now in Form I and the former are in Form II. There are 510 primary students and 346 secondary students.

A donor brought a number of double decker bed frames the day we visited. About 30 secondary boys who have no home to go to for the holidays helped to unload this gift. Most of the resident students sleep on foam mattresses on mud floors. Father is continually looking for donations to feed, clothe and provide medical care for his students. His teachers are dedicated volunteers for the most part since he is unable to pay them regular wages.

The proposals for the school are attached. Designs for the permanent primary and secondary schools have been done, but there is no money to construct them at this point in time.

Mr. Vitalis Oriwi, the secondary principal, toured Evaline and I around the secondary campus. Vitalis is from Raruowa and had come out of retirement to establish the secondary school. The students have helped to plaster the wood framed buildings with mud. A skeleton of two buildings designated for needed classrooms stood opposite the two classrooms and dorms of the same construction. The girls dorm is now being built in the back to house those who are temporarily occupying rented space in the administration center.

I took a picture of few of the boys who were studying. Vitalis told us the story of the one seated in the front. His stepmother had recently disowned him and his younger brother after she wasn’t able to poison him. She had prepared a nice meal for him one day. He was suspicious because she had not bothered to do on any other day. He fed the cat his food. In a short time, the cat went berserk and died. The boy went to Father Kevin for refuge and brought his younger brother with him. Both are resident students and have no other home now.

We took our leave to return to Raruowa after I obtained copies of St. TerryCam’s proposals and incorporation documents.