The last month flew as we had two sets of visitors from Ireland and then several rounds of goodbyes. At the end of October three of Iarlaith's Gaelcholáiste Chill Dara classmates and their Dads visited us in Iten. The boys spent a day in school with Iarlaith, went out on the murram roads running with the Kenyans and got to meet David Rudisha. His coach, Patrician Brother Colm O'Connell runs an athletics training camp a few times a year for promising junior athletes. Over the years, many have progressed to be world and Olympic champions. The boys had fundraised for the camp as part of their TY activities and came to see at first hand where the money would go.
Most of the athletes are from poor rural families so the training camp provides accommodation and food. Part of the nurturing of the young athletes is to ensure they stay in school as this provides a greater chance of success on the track. Teenagers who drop out of school after primary education end up working on family farms or getting a job leaving no time for training and little encouragement to succeed. Therefore the athletics training project often pays school fees for families who can't afford them.
A day out at a hotel for Siobhra's birthday - hence the frock
Our visitors also accompanied us to a 'Happy Day' an annual fundraiser for Mindililwo, a local residential home for children with intellectual disabilities. The main event was a Kenyan (long) mass and as mzungus we were accorded celebrity status and given seats under the tent. Our kids didn't exhibit much happiness at the length of the ceremony. The local schools came and contributed bags of maize, live chickens and other foodstuffs as well as money. This fundraiser provides the bulk of the food and running costs of the school for the entire year. Food security is a huge issue for the homes.
Not that happy at the Happy Day
During their stay we visited Kitale, a big town about 90 minutes north of Eldoret in Trans-Nzoia County, where Fr Leo Staples lived, a friend of one of the Dads. Paddy Lavelle had been headmaster of a school in Sigor, West Pokot county 25yrs ago where Leo was parish priest and we were going to see how it had fared since. Fr Leo is a famous (infamous?) Kiltegan Father nonagenarian who has lived in Kenya for over 60yrs. For most of his life he lived with the Pokot tribe, setting up schools and other social services, earning kudos by learning their tribal language at an early stage. It was an oral language and Leo was the first person to write a Pokot dictionary and the first to translate the Bible to Pokot.
The road from Kitale to Sigor, a three hour drive, was rough and nonexistent in places. Paddy remembers it as a pristine tarmac road, having just been built by the Norwegians, a 300km stretch from Kitale to Lodwar in Turkana. The development was part of a massive livelihood project for the extremely poor and nomadic Turkana to link the aid-funded fish factory built on the shores of Lake Turkana to export markets. It failed because the Turkana were not fishermen, didn't eat fish and had no background in fishing. The plant needed huge amounts of energy and fresh water, both precious commodities in the region. Brother Colm's exhortation to support Kenyans with what they need rather than what we think they need sprang to mind, not for the first time.
The journey would have taken longer except Paddy rediscovered his inner Kenyan and drove like a native, skidding on gravel, bumping over potholes and generally giving me several heart attacks. It was interesting to visit the school he and wife Lorna ran for two years. Built as a co-ed school on the insistence of its European donor, it is now single-sex. As soon as Fr Leo got more funding he built a girl's school changing the first to a boy's school. It is a harsh reality that single-sex schools provide a safer environment for Kenyan girls and given a choice, there is little demand for co-ed schooling. The Fr Leo Staples School for Girls was set up shortly before he left West Pokot and he hadn't been back in fifteen years. Our visit to the school saw the girls giving Leo a Pokot welcome, where they danced him in from the gate, singing and yodelling (my name for the lilting which accompanies singing and dancing.
Tea plantation in Nandi Hills
This blog can only document a tiny portion of our lives in Kenya over five months, there were so many amazing experiences. We visited Kakamega rain forest and watched the sunrise and the baboons playing. We drove the worst roads imaginable, meant to be linking main towns. We drove through tea plantations in Nandi Hills and visited Kisii, famed for its soapstone sculptures and Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria. I will always have the video evidence of Kieran and Siobhra dancing on the well-appointed lawns of St John the Baptist Centre in Eldoret, trying to keep up with the groovy moves of Brother James as they all starred in a video being produced by the Parish choir for charity. Siobhra had a wonderful surprise on 15th October as Bro Colm had brought letters and gifts from her relatives and friends in Ireland when he returned to Iten a few days before her birthday. And it didn't matter that she had to read them in the dark as we were without electricity once again.
Siobhra reading birthday cards in the dark
I even took a matatu from Eldoret to Nairobi to negotiate funding for the Diocese with a couple of aid agencies. The constant beeping in the minibus on the five hour journey was an indication of how much the driver ignored the limiter. The return journey was a little better. Before we set off, I was chatting to the driver about how scary I found the Kenyan driving. He drove at a somewhat sane speed, obviously doing his bit for Kenyan Irish relations, and I didn't need to understand Kiswahili to know that my fellow passengers were giving out yards about his slow progress.
Kieran, Siobhra, Bro James and parishioner strutting their stuff for the video
We had a reprise of Siobhra's fright with the hippos surrounding the tent at Lake Baringo except this time we all heard them. No matter how many people tell you they are herbivores, four or five hippos snuffling and grunting around your dome tent in the middle of they night does require some evasive action. We sat up on the veranda of s nearby house until they wandered back to the water, ignoring us all the while.
The Hungry Hippo in Lake Baringo
We hung out with the Brothers and greatly enjoyed the times Bro Colm dropped in for a cup of tea and stayed to play a few rounds of 25s. He regaled us with stories of past times when the Irish Brothers and Sisters (the Killeshandra Sisters ran a school close by) played cards each week and drank an Irish coffee to help them negotiate the dirt roads on the drive home. While I was aware of the contribution many male and female missionaries made to the lives of ordinary Kenyans it didn't really sink in until we listened to those stories. They gave up a lot to spend their lives away from their family and culture and in the early days got home very little, missing important family occasions. I was also impressed that some of the Irish teaching Brothers resigned their positions as employees of the Kenyan Ministry of Education before reaching retirement age, thus foregoing their pension. The reason was they felt Kenya now had its own source of teachers and they shouldn't be taking up the positions. There are generations of Kenyans who received education and healthcare from the Irish which wasn't forthcoming from any other source.
Colm teaching us about the 'short corner'
Colm and his fellow Brothers made us feel very welcome and gave us huge practical help during our stay. We didn't expect it to be so hard to say goodbye to them and we still miss them. Their friendship allowed us a deeper insight into Kenyan life throughout our five month adventure. Their stories from the olden days of the missions gave us a glimpse of their entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to the people which no doubt has contributed to Kenya now being one of the fastest growing African countries. The sight of the kids in the back of Bro Paul's well-worn pickup truck as he drove us to the airport or their trip on the motorcycle Boda Boda is a symbol of how 'far' we've travelled in five months. These are things I would never have let them do six months ago.
But before the last goodbyes, we had farewells in several other places. Our departure at the end of November coincided with the end of the Kenyan academic year. At Sacred Heart of Jesus where Siobhra attended, there was a big ceremony for those graduating from kindergarten. There is much pomp and ceremony and lots (and lots) of speeches. Parents dance up to the teachers with gifts, waving them over their head, before handing them over. Money is presented publicly - the Bible's directive to not let the left hand know what the right is doing doesn't hold much sway here. But most of all there is much laughter and fun - the Kenyans really enjoy a good knees-up.
It was no different for the elaborate goodbye the Diocese gave me. After an audience with Bishop Korir where he tried out his few words of Irish learned during his time studying in Ireland, there was afternoon tea in the boardroom. Each Department Coordinator thanked me for the help I gave them and presented me with gifts, including some for Kieran and the children. Cake in Kenya has to be fed to each other in strict order. So the Caritas Director, Fr George fed me and in turn I had to feed him and then the two Sisters present and then go around feeding everyone in the room. I'm not sure of the reason but I think it has to do with a commitment to sharing with each other and a hope that there will always be cake. When Siobhra's classmates helped her celebrate her birthday, her teacher had to feed her first, then she fed her parents, teachers and then her best friends. At my gig, we also sang and danced around the table after presentation of the gifts. There are prayers to open and close all events and people are called upon or volunteer to say a few words or give thanks for everyone and everything they have. I haven't yet come across a Kenyan who is shy about speaking in public.
As we hadn't paid fees for Iarlaith's school we bought them sports equipment instead - and our initial idea it would be handed over quietly had no chance of success. At a more sedate event than the others, both Iarlaith and Kieran had to address their thanks to the entire school. There are times when patriarchal societies have their uses as I sat in the back row. This was after a fairly lengthy awards ceremony where the league tables for tidiest dormitories and highest achieving students in different subjects were announced. The stand out award for me was that of the three boys picked as being the cleanest for the year, and sure enough they looked particularly clean and tidy. Even though St Patrick's Iten is a relatively prestigious State school, the boys' uniforms are often quite ragged and about three growth spurts too small for them. The clean boys were given money as their prize to buy soap for the following term. We learned later that gifts such as blankets, buckets, cleaning products and other very practical items are very popular in Kenya.
Sitting in the back row of the St Patrick's end-of-year awards ceremony
So it was when we cleared out our house of the household items we had accumulated in five months, we understood why Rebecca was overjoyed with the warm fleecy blankets we gave her and which she intended passing on to her parents as part of the dowry from her husband. Rebecca had saved my life taking over most of the hand washing and so well deserved the buckets, basins, brushes and other items. Her words of thanks were very touching - she thanked God for having sent us to her and for making her life special. The privileged lives we lead weighed on me a bit and so I couldn't bring myself to tell her we were not going straight home but would spend over a month travelling in the Middle East including Christmas in Bethlehem. And so we left Kenya on the day the Pope arrived, sad to be leaving but happy to have been there and excited (and a little apprehensive) about Middle Eastern travels.
Kwaheri Kenya
