I didn't think you'd come

My title comes from the words of one of my students today when I met him at his school. He's in Form 4, the last year of secondary school. It's an intense year for students since they spend most of the year preparing for the national exam that will take place in late October to mid-November. They won't find out their results until next February or March, to know whether they will be one of the lucky few to get government sponsorship to attend the university.

I had just seen him (let's say his name is Zach) on Saturday, when he brought his younger brother to our workshop for students in primary school. I was surprised to see him, since he's one of the students who is difficult to trace. His story is not too uncommon for a middle child of three boys who were orphaned by AIDS. His two brothers live with two different uncles in two different areas. Zach has stayed in the family home to make sure that it remains theirs. Land rights are not respected, particularly in an urban area, where traditional mud houses like his get knocked down when someone comes in with money to build something new.

He told me on Saturday that he's hoping to bring his younger brother "home" to live with him next year. Both he and his older brother are finishing secondary school this year and they want to live together in the simple home built by their parents - which I understand & admire, knowing that they will struggle to find casual labor jobs to put food on the table.

In the meantime, I told him today - it's game time. Now is the only chance he has to improve his results. He was inconsistent in going to school last year - which isn't uncommon for kids left on their own. As a result, he's far behind in his math skills and performing poorly in other subjects, in spite of being bright. We have a volunteer tutor set up to meet with him on Saturday & I'm not sure how much ground can be made up, but I want to encourage him as much as I can.

From what he said to me today, I wonder how many other adults have let him down. I know I'll never know his whole story, but today was a good reminder of the importance of just showing up.

Speaking of showing up ... we had a few new neighbors drop by our kitchen window

Busted! We realized that it wasn't the neighborhood crows that took a loaf of bread from the kitchen a few weeks back and left the bag outside.
The getaway ... down the drainpipe ...

and down the alley ...

... to the coconut tree. We had quite the stare down. I outlasted them, possibly because they were more entertaining to watch than I was.

Siku Njema - A Good Day

Today was a good day. I was able to be part of something good. My part was being a connection and a driver.

In the past month, I've been a part of a number of different things, besides my usual work leading an education project for kids. I've met two different groups of visitors from various countries - some only here for a few days. Sometimes even these brief connections with people can be ever so meaningful.

Today I was able to help a young man get a wheelchair - his first ever. If he's on a smooth surface, he can maneuver himself around, set his brakes or get going again. He's stronger with one hand than the other, so he'll take some time figuring out how to really get going. Even when he's being pushed around, the dignity of being able to sit upright and watch the world, rather than being carried like a child swaddled on his mother's back reminds me of why I am here, to listen, to help where I can, and to celebrate the joys in life that come in spite of the struggles.

One group of visitors came to help construct a house. I was able to pitch in for one day & got my first experience of local construction by hand! We literally passed globs of mud from one person to the next into the house, then packed it between rocks for the walls, then sealed the wall by throwing mud at it.

Preparing the mud - right next to the house.

The house

One of the volunteers showing us how it's done. Rocks, then add mud.

Due to my height, I was assigned the top part of the wall

One other treat in the past month was going to a nearby national park with coworkers. We stayed at a lodge right at the edge of the park with a waterhole, where the elephants and other animals came for a drink. It was amazing.

Surreal!

Yes, that is an elephant dropping!

Waterfalls are always a favorite spot of mine.

I also celebrated being another year older and know how very blessed I have been. Thanks to all of you for being part of my life.

Palm Sunday

Hello dear friends! It's weeks past Palm Sunday as I write this. I started it on the day, but now am home in Iowa enjoying time with my family. As I sit, I am babysitting, waiting for my niece to awake so we can go outside & play with everyone else.

This year I journeyed into an area called Kibarani with the faithful of St Francis' church. It is an "outstation" or extension of another parish served by the Missionaries of St Patrick, friends of mine from Ireland. For Palm Sunday, we processed from the main road - laden with trucks importing goods from Mombasa to all of East Africa, down through the homes and into their small but welcoming church.

Since I work in the next neighborhood, I was happy to see some familiar faces as we walked along, singing Hosanna. Palm Sunday is a day of remembrance for Catholics - we read the story of the Passion of Christ, his trial, suffering and death. As I listened in Swahili and felt the sweat running down, I could envision more of what it might have meant to the followers of Jesus so many years ago - the uncertainty, disbelief and disappointment.
Remembering those who still await hope in their disappointment, uncertainty & disbelief,
Mary

Two ways defeated the hyena

Njia mbili zilimshindwa fisi!

Proverbs are very common here, used for storytelling, advising and commenting on situations. This proverb was told to me yesterday by a student explaining why she's not interested in dating anyone while she's in school.

The story goes that the hyena couldn't decide which way to go, so he tried to go both ways - two feet on each side. He stretched and stretched until he split in half. I was able to use it later in the day so I know this proverb will be used again!

In our complex world, there's so many paths to chose from, and in some cases it's not even clear where the path is at all. Someone I work with seems to have chosen a different path or perhaps is split between two and it's been a challenge for me to know how to respond in a way that is fair when I've lost the trust I had in the person. I have to keep my frustrations in perspective with those who have lost much more.

On the brighter side, it's report card time again! The students here get reports for 1st term in April, 2nd term in August and 3rd term in December. This week I had two of our 1st year students (Form 1 = Freshman year of high school) surprise me with their grades and I am SO PROUD of them!!!

Moments from the past two weeks...

Did you ever wish you were a goose so you could play in mud puddles?

I'm learning about cracked cam shafts

and engine repair ... Unfortunately also learning about lack of ethics in the auto part business. Lots of learning experiences to be had!
Therapy session in the kitchen was successful - Thanks to the blog of Joy The Baker, which had an excellent garlic potato soup. I only had 18 of the request 40 cloves of garlic, but it was still amazing!
One of our students that just finished a welding course asked for a new pair of wedding goggles to protect his eyes. For a few dollars, we were able to help protect his sight. It was fun to see him try them on and pose with them (here demonstrating how to weld).
And the kids who come to the church after school usually provide entertainment. We were doing a "photo shoot" of a student who was given a uniform and everyone wanted in on the action.
I hope you don't find yourself torn between two ways!

To brighten the day

Sometimes things aren't so easy for a whole number of reasons.

Today I asked one of the kids who is HIV+ what helps her when she is down and this is what she said...

• Talking to someone, particularly someone who can give her advice
• Praying
• Doing things that makes her feel like everyone else, so she doesn't feel like she's different because of her disease

I'm in a Small Christian Community at my church, which is like a faith sharing group in the US. Here it's called a Jumuiya in Swahili. We usually meet for an hour on Monday nights with prayer, songs and reflection on a short Scripture reading. It's been good for me to connect with people outside of my work & challenges me to keep trying to learn more Swahili since the meeting is 95% in Swahili, even though all the members are at least bilingual, usually trilingual (Swahili, English and their mother-tongue, typically another local language). Last night instead of our regular meeting, we went to someone's home to comfort her since she lost her first and only child the day before. Sometimes being here is humbling.

So tonight I'm thinking of things that help me lighten the load when the situations I am trying to navigate or the stories I hear get too heavy to carry.

• Morning prayer in silence with the crows and birds outside
• Seeing things anew
• Cinnamon in my coffee
• Seedlings breaking forth in my mini-nursery
• Laughing
• Cooking
• Talking with friends and family from home
• A delightful email from someone I haven't heard from in a while
• One of the kids succeeding at school
• Guardians who manage to smile in spite of the struggle
• Someone understanding
• A good book (escapism i know!)
• Ripe avocado or mango
• Dark chocolate
• The multicolor lizards doing push-ups on the steps to our house
• The smell and sound of rain
• A cool breeze
  

Last week I helped with a Mission Symposium put on by the Maryknoll Fathers. It was really great to connect with others in this new family of mine!

I've been visiting schools to check on the progress of our students who are completing Std 8 this year. Here I am with Leah and Halima.

Today I was visited by Obama! This little guy was born the year President Obama was elected. I told him that he might be presidential material too...

A few faces that brighten my day...




Okay this one wasn't so much to brighten, more like frighten and enthrall at the same time. He was the uninvited guest to a dinner party last week.

Giving and Forgiving

It's Lent, the season of preparation for Easter. For many Catholics, it means giving up something special or trying to do something extra to bring our faith more in focus during the 40 days before Easter.

I decided to give up coffee, an indulgence in my day - and relatively easy to do - and spend extra time in reflection and prayer - not so easy for me to do. Even as the number of students and new requests for assistance that come to my office are fewer, I still find my time occupied with many things and my mind preoccupied.

I've been following a blog of a former campus minister, John Donaghy, that's been helpful for me this Lent: Walk the Way and there are two reflections I'd like to share. The first was from a week or so ago:

Do not condemn,
and you will not be condemned.
Luke 6: 36-38

It is so easy to condemn others and to demonize whose who oppose us. But the message of Christ is different. As the Russian novelist Aleksander Solzhenitsyn wrote in his classic novel, The Gulag Archipelago:

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of their own heart? During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being.

These words have been helpful in the daily struggles to do what's right and to try to interrupt life around me. Yesterday's reflection he shared from Henri Nouwen:

Do I truly want to be so totally forgiven that a completely new way of living becomes possible?… Do I want to break away from my deep-rooted rebellion against God and surrender myself so absolutely to God’s love that a new person can emerge. Receiving forgiveness requires a total willingness to let God be God and do all the healing, restoring , and renewing.

Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son

Tomorrow I am to give a short presentation on Lent to my small Christian Community (called Jumuiya in Swahili) that meets each week. I realized today that I'm going to talk about giving and forgiving, knowing well how I need to forgive myself for not being or doing all that I'd hoped and ask God to make something new.

A couple photos from March...

John O'Donoghue is a Maryknoll Lay Missioner who has just transferred from East Timor and came for a visit in Mombasa last weekend. He arrived just in time for the local St. Patrick's Day party and one of his many Mombasa adventures was meeting with the Amkeni (Wake up) Support group for people living with HIV.

After talking to them about their lives and aspirations, they gave him a clap. Here claps can be very organized and fun. Usually there's someone that leads the clap and starts with demonstrating which clap they will be leading. John was given the big soda clap, where the 2-L bottle lid is twisted and twisted and twisted until finally it pops open with a BIG CLAP!

And one of my Irish friends at the St Patrick's Day party, Fr Peter. He and I went to an amazing concert under the stars the week before - it had a local Italian restaurant owner that sang to move mountains and hearts, a Kenyan opera singer and another performer who played the soprano sax.

Happy Lent everyone!

The way forward - Njia mbele

Often times I've been talking to people about kutafuta njia mbele - searching for the way forward. It's not always clear, but today clarity came in another form. The value of human dignity was crystal clear today, as I was reminded by a boy named Pius.

I have been touched by people living with disabilities in various ways before. In Los Angeles, there was a guy named Norm who lived across the street from me who very kindly offered to walk me home when we were crossing the street together. He was living in a group home and was really proud to show his other friends that we knew each other on subsequent times we'd see each other.

Last month I met the newest member of our Maryknoll Lay Missioners group in Kenya, who last worked at a shop where people with disabilities made equipment for others with disabilities. And last weekend, I was visiting with the brother of a friend who happens to be deaf. He and his friend gave me a "sign-name," which is taking your right hand and making the sign for M and then running it along your hairline from front to back, indicating my long hair. Our communication was entertaining for all - from my one semester community course in American Sign Language, I could at least provide some laughs.

And today, I entered my office to find a young boy sitting on the floor next to his mother, who had come seeking help. He fell sick within the first few days of his life and has not had good control of his muscles in the 16 years since. I'm not sure of his diagnosis, but was really moved by his spirit. He's not able to say much, but I was told that his mind wasn't affected and it was clear he understood what we were saying. His mother and I struggled to understand each other (in Swahili) and find the way forward. I know we will find a way for him to go to school. From what I could see, he's bright, but has never had a chance to go to school - perhaps from a combination of lack of funds for transportation, lack of influence, lack of knowledge of resources available, poverty and disease.

Pius showing us how he can hold a pen to write.

We'll find a way. It will take time and might not be as straight-forward or clear, but what is clear to me is how special this life is. A spirit unbroken after many years of trial and tribulation.

Tomorrow starts the season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter, a time of prayer and conversion. I am committing myself to more time in reflection and hope to share more in these weeks.

May we all keep our spirits strong in spite of the challenges we face.
Mary