July 5, 2011

PICTURES BELOW: Just some explanation. In the earlier text, I talked about being up in the bush in the middle of some maize fields and finding two babies all alone—one 3 years old and the other a newborn. After we passed them in shock, and being told by the branch president they were okay and to leave them alone, Neal was able to get a picture later. When he passed again, the 3 year old had picked up the crying baby and was trying to rock it back and form and whimpering “Mamma Mamma . It was pretty traumatic for us. Anyway, he got a picture of them. If you blow it up by clicking on it, you will be able to see them. It broke our hearts.

Then you will see pictures of Paul and Eunice. They were so excited to buy their new home only to have the roof crash in with the first rainstorm. So, he has just built a new one.

July 5, 2011
I just want to get all of this down before the weekend and I forget it all. We’ve had quite a day. We went with a branch president out to visit some of his less-active members. We had such a wonderful day with him and with these wonderful people. He is such a humble, kind man.

CHILDREN ALONE:
So, we had another shocking experience with little kids today. We drove to meet a family that has been quite upset and hostile for several years. We have been to their home twice before. They live off the road, back in a narrow dirt lane almost completely covered over with high maize plants. You keep driving as the maize gets closer and closer over the car and then finally opens out at the back of the fields. Today, we got out of the car with the branch president, but the house looked deserted and all the doors were padlocked. Then around the corner came a little 3 year-old and a one year old with almost nothing on. The one year old looked like she really had a bad cold, bad nose. The President knew the older child vaguely, but the child didn’t recognize him.

There wasn’t an adult anywhere. President questioned the 3 year old, who told him they had all gone to town. It was just shocking to us because they are so remote. I asked, “What would happen if they were hurt?” He said, “They would have to go cry to a neighbor, but this family is on the outs with their neighbors. They are embroiled in a lawsuit. The member bought this land from a 2nd party. The original owner still owned the land, but the 2nd party took money from the member, and now the original owner is trying to kick them off the land. So, the little kids couldn’t go to the neighbors if they got hurt anyway! Those words the other Branch President had said to us rang in our ears…”Little kids are economic liabilities”. This president said that is not generally the feeling people have about their children. Many are loved and wanted….it is very sad. He also said, “The mother in the other case…in the maize field was probably plowing in the maize and couldn’t afford a caretaker, so she brought her children with her to work and had to leave them on the edge of the field.”

We ran into a hedge of Mauricious stone…a plant used for hedges to keep the animals from the maize. It has some nasty thorns on it.

Most interesting life story—a woman’s experience
We went to visit Josephine. She comes miles walking to Church and is quite active. Her husband is also a member but inactive. She understands more English than she can speak, but our accents are very difficult for most Kenyans to understand. They can understand British English much better. She struggled to understand us. She lives in quite a nice mud and cow dung home. It has much smoother walls and appears more sturdy than most of the people’s homes here. The missionaries built her home in 2005. A mud and cow dung home will last 50 years the Branch Pres said.

Her home, like most here, was very dark. She decorated it in calendars of a Catholic Jesus and political people. Many people have pictures of Obama hanging in their homes. I was impressed that she had strung several yards of lace on the walls to cover the mud. One swatch was very beautiful lace…with human figures and ducks on it. It was tattered and dirty, but very beautiful.

We began to ask her about her life. Sometimes she answered us directly, and other times, the Branch Pres translated. It was so interesting. She gets up before it is light each morning to walk 1 hour 1 way to the spring to get water. She carries 20 liters on her head plus 5 liters in her hand. Then she walks 1 hour back, drops the water and returns for a 2nd trip. She does this every morning and tries to get back before it gets too light. Then she cooks (outside on a mud stove), cleans, gardens, and all the other things women do here. She said “the old lady”..same age as Neal…born 1942…”can only lug 10 liters…5 in each arm any more.”

Courting-Marriage
I asked how she met her husband. She lived in one village and he in another. She said he worked for an NGO (non-government organization) that was planting seedlings in her area. She worked as a guide to the land that he was looking at. Her brother had orange trees and her future husband came to inspect them. They talked a bit, and then he went to her parents to talk about moving in with her. They told him to go away and come back later. He went to his relatives and talked with them and together, they all went back to talk to them about the cost. It was to be 3 cows and some money. It was paid in small amounts. I asked her if she loved him then. She, like other Kenyans, giggled and laughed…they are so shocked when you use the word love or refer to it in anyway. She said, yes, she loved him and that that love grew because they have five children! Then she giggled again. It was so cute.

She said that she had all of her children at home. We looked around the small room completely filled with wooden rough furniture. There isn’t any room to even walk to get between the coffee tables (this rough furniture with very little overstuffing) and asked her where she could birth a child there. She said, “Oh you can have a baby wherever it comes” Then she gestured outside in the dirt by the door. Neal asked her where they all sleep (she has 3 kids still at home). She said they eat at night, and then the kids go next door where grandma lives and sleep with her.

We asked who delivered her babies, and she said her neighbor did with gloves and a sterilized razor. The Branch President explained to all of us that it is now against the law to have the babies at home because if the midwife is HIV positive, and she has a wound, she can transmit the disease to the mother. Josephine was not aware of that law.

She said she had her boys circumcised down at the river when they were 15 years old. Again, she said they had to bring their own knives so they knew they were sterile. She was aghast when we told her we circumcise at a few days old. She questioned how we could explain to a child that young the rules of sexual conduct.
She also confirmed that once circumcised, the boys went to live with other friends (boys) and not in the home of their mother.

She said she came from a home of 4 boys and 5 girls. Three of her brothers died: 2 of amoeba-waterborne diseases and one from a lorrie accident.

NEXT we visited a counselor in the branch presidency. Although they live very humbly, they insisted on giving us some bananas, which we gave to the Branch President. They live in a large mud home with a tin roof. It just poured while we were there…rains every day about 3PM. Some of the rain came down on us while we talked. It was very dark and we could hardly see each other. They have just had a run of Malaria in their home as well. It was nice to visit with them. He has just built some “African chairs” very comfortable, made with tree limbs and slabs of wood.

It was still pouring rain when we left. We made our way through the maze of muddy roads to finally emerge onto the tarmac, but we could hardly see through the rain to make our way home. On the way, the President mentioned that the Primary President had come to Church Sunday with a large bandage on her face. She has 4 tiny children. Her husband has been active, but is now inactive. He is a motorcycle driver for a living and is gone a lot. She had gone to the market to get some food for the children (they haven’t much and are often hungry). He returned home unexpectedly to find the kids hungry and crying. He beat her quite badly because she had left them without food. She went to the Chief and he made the husband take her to the hospital where she was treated. But, she has gone back. She really has little recourse. Her parents live far away and they were starving when we went to see them last week. We asked the President what are her options? He had no answers. It is so hard.

MALARIA
He and his wife are in their 60s. We have written about them before. He pumps her on his bike to church over really rough roads. It takes them over 2 hours by bike, 4 hours walking. He is really a saint in the true measure of the word. She is sick again right now. She has Malaria again and is diabetic. They often have Malaria, and so I asked him how often they have it. He said he has been good for about a month and a half. He said they usually have it (one or the other of them) about 6 months of the year. He said also that it is very expensive to get the medicine and the test to be sure you have Malaria. It costs 90 ksh for the medicine That is about $1, but a lot to them.

He described different kinds of Malaria they get: dizzy, weak (“if not puking”) he said. Some kinds make you “puke” a lot. Fever, diarrhea, chills…”it just makes you want to sit in the sun because you are so cold”

VOCAB: a picky picky is a motorcycle, a boda boda is a bike

VISITING
We went first to visit John 33 an Elder, and Elizabeth 28 and their 4 children. John’s younger brother, Alfred was there (23). John has been really active in the past and served in Br. Presidency as a Counselor. He turned down a good job because he had to work on Sundays. Then he got a job as a matatu driver, and hasn’t been to church since. We met with them in their humble home.

They were very gracious and kind and welcoming to us. Elizabeth speaks very little English. They are a handsome couple. I don’t know why but the house was teeming with flies…they were all over us for the entire time we were there. They live up on the crest of a beautiful green hill that overlooks an entire panorama of a valley.

John bore a strong testimony and promised to come to Church. He has just stopped his job. We didn’t find out why. They live and he works on a 4 acre plot of ground belonging to his cousin, who lives in Maryland. She has a large garden. Gardens are the women’s work. We were very impressed with them. They live very, very far from the Church.

So, it has been such a full day. We typed two patriarchal blessings this morning, prepared them with pictures for the people. Then we worked on CES reports and submitted pictures of our prospective missionaries to the office secretary, who is kind enough to duplicate them for the young men. The rest of the day we spent cleaning, washing, and packing for next week.