February 19, 2011

This will be a shorty because I don’t have a lot of time today. Just some interesting impressions. I

I could have wept when we were out in the field (literally—newly plowed) last week and were met by about 15 school kids (Elementary). Most were barefoot—shocking when you see what they walk through, but one had high-topped shoes (picture the 1930s), laces askew, and soles flapping, with plastic bread sacks stuffed inside for socks. It will be one of my cameo image remembrances.

Yesterday, we visited a woman who has been very, very ill this week. She has

AIDs ,and her immune system is compromised. She asked Neal to come and give her a blessing. We had just finished teaching a Mission Prep class to a young man preparing to leave. He had never given a blessing before, nor had he or his younger brother ever seen one given. We took them with us. The woman had a very serious case of malaria, and had become dehydrated, so had been hospitalized 3 days before. She had been released day before yesterday. She was still very, very ill. She was so thin, when I held her, it seemed she was hardly there. She tried to be brave, but it was obvious she was in great pain. She said she hurt to move any part of her body, and her headache was excruciating.

Her husband was off to community meeting to build a new school in the area as a part of a non-denominational Christian coalition. Word was sent to him that we were there, so he and a field agent for this group, arrived by motorcycle to welcome us to their home. Her husband is a Quaker—this is a new marriage. He has 10 children by his former wife, and I think this lady has 5 children herself. He and his supervisor were very kind and gracious to us. He left again as soon as we did. I felt so sorry for her.

We are continually being asked for help, for money, for notebooks, pencils, you name it. I was mildly surprised last week, when a member who is often asking us for services and goods, called and asked for a dictionary for his daughter’s school teacher because she didn’t have one in the school.

The pay for digging post holes and deep wells is 150 ksh a day…about $1.70.

We have a sister in one of our branches who has moved back with her mother. She is about 35 I would guess. Her husband kicked her out when her baby died during delivery. She was devastated.

We hear drums all the time—almost every morning when we walk, during Church we have drums and chanting

One member told Pres Mat. He couldn’t come to Church because he is afraid someone will steal his property while he is there. Pres Mat told him, “I live on a compound with my extended family. I spend most of the day on Sundays (and other days) at the Church. My chicken and eggs (under a cover) were stolen, my pineapples, maize, bananas, and other fruits have been stolen while I’ve been to Church. I still come. My neighbors work very hard all week and every Sunday. I see them working so hard in the fields. I come to Church on Sunday and do not work in the field. Yet, my fields yield much more than their same amount of land because I pay my tithing and come to Church. The Lord will bless you if you come to Church.”

We related that story to our missionary yesterday. Pres Bar was sitting in on our meeting. He is br pres of a different branch. He said, “Yes, I have had the same experience. I have a 2 acre shamba which I cultivate. My neighbor has 10 acres which he plants with the same seeds. Yet, he comes to me to ask for food because the Lord blesses my work.”

If a younger brother marries before his older brother (in some tribes), the younger can never again enter the home of his older sibling.

A young member said his baby died at birth, 10 months after the couple married. They had married outside their tribe. They were told “This is a curse, and if you have any other children, you will die.”

There is something called temporary burial and permanent burial. They occur in different parts of the cemetery. Most of the people here fear being buried in a cemetery because the bodies are just piled on top of each other without boxes, and if they do have a box, it is flimsy. Most want to be buried on the home plot and worry if they do not have land to do so.

A widow cannot paint the outside of her home after her husband’s death if he is from a different tribe. That is a slap in the face of his tribe because it shows she is happy when he is gone.

One of our members has lived 23 yrs on government land as a squatter. The govt is changing and needing to use that land, so she must find a different place to live. I noticed paintings on her outside wall. She said her husband had done that before his death, but that she could not do it without offending his tribe in Uganda.

During the clash, the Luyas fought with the Kikuyus. Our little pre-missionary talked of his family running to this area to get away from the problems because their cattle were stolen, house broken into and people hurt. The government provided these victims shelter with tents until they could find permanent lodging.

Yesterday we visited a R.S. Pres: B. M. Her teenaged daughter was standing over her as she sat in a chair in the dirt outside her home (one of the houses the former miss couple had built). The R.S. Pres was wearing a very tight wig with coils of hair sewn onto a net. On top of this tight (close to her head) wig, the daughter had placed another net onto which she was taking hanks of polyester hair (from a plastic bag---hair as long as a horse’s tail). This fake hair, she rolled in long coils---like a snake. Then took a long (3 inch) needle, with which she was attaching the second net on her mom’s head. So the mom had a tight wig of coiled hair next to her skin, and then the daughter was building another wig on top of it and sewing the coils to the top one. She said the fake hair was 200 ksh, and the top wig (which she will sell) will bring her an additional 200 ksh….200 ksh is about $3. So mom is basically serving as a mannequin for the production of the wig. Almost all of the women here either wear a wig, have cornrows, or have shaved heads or very close cut hair. Most wear wigs---all kinds of varieties of lengths and styles. One whole row of counters in the grocery store is dedicated to wigs and hairpieces.