Cold in Kenya

Donna, Agnes, Joseph and I had a delightful get away to Nakuru last weekend, but more about that a little later.  When we got back Sunday evening Donna got busy packing her bags and stowing her treasures.  By the time we left for the airport for her flight Tuesday evening, it was clear that I was catching a cold.  I wasn’t much company for Joseph on the (typically) harrowing ride home in the rain on dark and crazy Kenya roadways.  About the time we arrived home, my cell phone sounded.  It was Donna telling me she was on the plane and they were ready to depart.

            So, I awoke Wednesday morning to a bed cold from loss of my partner, and sick with a serious cold.  Of course, whenever a foreigner gets a sniffle around here, there is worry that it is malaria.  Happily, this just seems to be a stubborn cold.  But that is bad enough – especially without my favorite nurse and chaplain.  And all this explains why the blog posting is a little later than usual this week.  I am on the mend; not back to full strength yet, but feeling well enough to resume most of my normal activities.  Donna had a delay in Paris which caused her to miss her Newark connection, so she arrived home about five hours later than expected weary and frazzled, but in one piece with all her luggage.

            Now, back to Nakuru.   The highway was good all the way and we made it in just over two hours; arriving around 10:30 Saturday morning.  We checked into the Kunste Hotel and headed to the market.  Donna had a few more gifts to purchase before heading home.  From my Lonely Planet Guide to Kenya, I had selected Kokeb, a Kenyan-Ethiopian restaurant.  It turned out to be a good choice.  Unfortunately, as we were leaving it began to rain.  We wanted a little more time for shopping before heading for the Nakuru National Park.  We tried a bit of shopping in the rain, then retreated to a coffee shop until it let up.  We had hoped to stop by and visit Patrick, one of our CPE students and started that way.  Then the sun came out and we headed for the Park instead.

            There we found Lake Nakuru and its famed Flamingos – and there were thousands of them.  We were greeted by this little fellow who wanted to hitch a ride (remember the mischievous Vervet monkeys).  Joseph tried to convince him otherwise.

            Not far into the park we began to see wildlife.  There were Hippos, Black and White Rhinos, Impalas, Gazelle, Cape Buffalo, a lot of Baboons and one Oryx. 

There were also Lions, Leopards, and Cheetahs, but they didn’t come greet us.

            The Park gates close at 6:30 PM, but Joseph assured us that once inside we could stay a late as we liked.  So we drove the length of the park, finally arriving at Makalia Falls (which we shared with a large troop of Baboons) before heading back.  Darkness was upon us.  Then the rain started.  Visibility was poor.  We missed a turn and found ourselves ascending the escarpment to the West gate – not where we wanted to go.  Turning around on a narrow dirt road with drainage ditches along both sides, in the dark, in the rain, miles from “civilization” in a Park full of dangerous animals provided several very tense moments.  But Joseph patiently upped and backed, turning little by little until we were headed back into the valley.  With a collective sigh of relief we found the sign we had missed and made it back to our gate.

            Sunday morning we visited the Anglican Church in Karunga where Leah (another student) had grown up.  We stopped by her home (Shamba) and visited with her husband and friends.  Then we stopped at Gladys’ home for another brief visit with her and her husband before heading to Baraka Farm in hopes of seeing Arthur Ndoro.  Joyce, Arthur’s ex-wife, met us at the road and led us up to the farm.  She was very welcoming and served us a nice lunch (for which she kept apologizing).  At all three stops, I was wandering about trying to learn what I could about animal care and gardening – they kept geese, chickens, sheep and a cattle.  Joyce and Arthur were married soon after we knew one another when he returned to Kenya in the mid-sixties.  At some point along the way they separated.  He now lives on the opposite side of this huge farm and they see little of one another.  I may make one more effort to see him, but it now looks unlikely that reunion will occur.  This picture was taken in front of the church built on the farm with their support.  The youngster next to Joyce is her grandson, Adrian.  He and I became fast friends and Donna is convinced he was the donor of the virus that has laid me low.

            Last week was tough on our whole group.  Four of the six students were doctoring one kind of malady or another.  Joseph has been searching diligently for a house to rent nearby so Agnes can spend more time here.  This week he learned that the second one promised to him was given to someone else.  Agnes made the long and difficult journey back to Maralal by matatu (12- 14 seat vans that scare me to death), and their son, Ike, was hospitalized briefly for food poisoning.  We are all hoping next week will find us well and able to concentrate on the last month of the program.  Please continue to hold us and the program in your prayers.  Peace, Cal Brand  PS: This Oryx posed so nicely for us, I wanted to squeeze him in.

Rough Weekend

            Whether it was Mexico or Kenya, we have always been advised to avoid salads when eating out.  Apparently that is good advice, even at fancy restaurants.  Donna ordered a Caesar’s salad Friday night and paid the price.  She didn’t get much sleep nor did she stray far from the bathroom.  Saturday morning she took some medications that helped and with some rest she felt well enough to get to Church Sunday morning.  I was thankful and relieved.

It is my intention to share some more pictures from our Maasai Mara excursion each week.  I kind of like the contrast between these two Baboons and the Maribu Stork couple.  What do you think?

We attended St. Andrews PCEA church in downtown Nairobi.  It is more or less the “flagship” PCEA congregation in Nairobi and it was a lovely facility.  We were not the only visitors attending.  A group of perhaps 12 young adults from Hungary were completing a week long mission trip to Presbyterian churches in Kenya.  They apparently had a good experience and were inviting a group to come from Kenya to visit Hungary.  (Photo by Dan Chira)

            St. Andrews is only the third church I have had the opportunity to visit.  Some things were pretty much the same in all three settings.  What is the time for a prelude (usually on the organ) in our churches is given to singing “Praise” music beginning up to 30 minutes prior to the formal beginning of the service.  At the Church of the Torch, this is led by all those primary school children.  At St. Andrews, the singing was led by a group of praise leaders – a small chorus.

            This is interrupted by the processional of clergy and worship leaders, led (usually) by a youth carrying the Bible.  By this time I am beginning to know some of the songs and enjoy clapping and singing along.

            Once underway, the service is made up of prayers, scripture lessons, introductions and intimations, offering, preaching, and singing – much like our services.  Visitors are typically asked to stand and introduce themselves.  At St. Andrews Donna and I were given rose buds to wear or carry.

            I experienced some nostalgia Sunday on seeing a pipe organ as we entered.  I was looking forward to hearing organ music.  But, alas, as has been the case in each church we have attended, the organ has been replaced by an electronic keyboard.  It just sat there at the back of the sanctuary, silently.

            I called this Post, “Rough Weekend” not only because of Donna’s bout of the Kenya Kwikstep, but for what we learned as the new week began on Monday.  Gladys, our Saturday On Call chaplain was called to comfort the grieving after the drowning death of a high school student at an “open swim” party.  Earlier that day we had passed through quite a crowd along the road near here as we made our way to Nairobi to do our weekly shopping.  On Monday we learned that one of our students had the misfortune to be in the middle of a shoot out Saturday morning (the crowd we had seen) between the police and some thugs who had hijacked an automobile.  At least three persons were killed including the owner/driver of the auto.  We were glad to know Patrick was not injured, only frightened.

            It is a sad fact of life here that this kind of violence is fairly common.  Donna’s psychology about this is to presume there are still lions or other dangerous animals in the bush and stay on the alert at all times.  As a general rule, women do not walk alone (and many men exercise similar caution), especially after dark.  We are told to go in larger groups of four or five at a time.  Even so, we hear stories of persons being beaten or killed when caught out by these thugs and robbed of money, jewelry, cell phones, anything of value.  And this danger is particularly relevant for whites, who are presumed to have money and valuables.  I have been grateful for the availability of the Dykstras and Joseph to take me around when needed, so I don’t feel like a total prisoner.  Thankfully the area around the hospital and university are relatively safe.

            We had planned to visit the National Museum last Saturday, but as noted above, Donna was in no condition for an outing.  So, we went on Monday afternoon instead.  Lyle and Terry had not been there for a few years and were delighted with the changes and improvements – except for the loss of a model Kikuyu house they were hoping to show us through. (Beneath the sculpture, that is Donna, Lyle and Terry)

I was particularly interested in the early bones.  Pictured is “Turkana Boy,” one of the most complete early skeletons, estimated to be 1.6 million years old.  Kenya is the home of many of the earliest human fossil remains and the National Museum is home to many of those discoveries.  It was also fun to find the stuffed versions of many of the birds we had seen last week at Maasai Mara.  I learned a good deal in three + hours we had to wander about there.  I couldn’t resist purchasing a copy of Peoples of Kenya by Joy Adamson (author of Born Free and other well known books).  She went about Kenya photographing and painting persons for the more than forty tribes who make up Kenya’s population.  It is a fascinating book and I look forward to continuing my education.

            This coming weekend we are off on another excursion – this time to Nakuru.  Nakuru is the fourth largest Kenyan city.  Three of our students are from Nakuru, and it is the home of my friend Arthur Ndoro with whom I have (so far) been unable to connect.  Nearby is a spectacular volcanic crater with active steam vents, and a National Park famous for Flamingos and Rhinoceros.  One thing that will make this trip very special is that we will be going with Joseph and Agnes (his spouse).  Donna has yet to meet her, and we are looking forward to an opportunity to get acquainted.  Joseph has said he would like us to visit a nearby lake which is known for its hotsprings.  We will leave Saturday morning and return on Sunday evening, so it will be a pretty quick visit.

            I have invited the students in our group to write a paragraph or two about their experience in CPE so far.  I hope to be able to begin including one or two of these contributions in the next posting.  In the meantime, we are doing well.  I am already grieving Donna’s return to Indiana on Tuesday, March 23.  Her month here has gone by way too fast, but it has been wonderful to have the time we have had.  Please continue to keep this mission, our students and the persons they serve in your prayers; and prayers for safe travel for Donna.  Peace, Cal Brand

Maasai Mara

We learned that Mara means “spotted” and refers to the appearance of much of the land – vast areas of grass with dots of small trees and bushes here and there.  Whatever, we had a wonderful, inspiring and refreshing visit to the national park known as Maasai Mara.  The “Maasai” designation reflects the fact that this portion of the Rift Valley has been grazing land for the Maasai people for generations.  The Maasai people agreed to set  aside a portion of the land to preserve the natural landscape and animal populations.  Not so long ago the land was mostly brown from a serious drought, but the rains this fall and winter have made it lush and green.  The animals seemed fat and content.

I would like you to meet Landa Tanyassis, our guide and driver from 8:00 AM Friday till Noon on Monday.  A Maasai himself, he was both skillful and experienced – and kind to old white people as well.  I don’t know how many muddy miles we put on his van in those three days, but it was many.  He managed to introduce us to the varieties of landscape within the park as well as many animals.  I would love to show you all our pictures, but I doubt this blog would allow such a deluge.

Even before reaching the park we saw herds of Giraffe and Zebra.  At first it was a bit startling to see these creatures which I had only known in zoos wandering around with no keepers or warning signs.  However, by the time we were headed home, it seemed quite natural.  Amazing!

Interspersed with the “wild” animals were large herds of cattle, sheep and goats.  The Maasai are pasturalists and much of their lives are centered around their animals.  We would see hundreds of animals grazing in the distance or near the road, accompanied by a lone Maasai shepherd in his red garb.

The last hour and a half of the four and a half hour journey was over hard scrabble dirt roads that threatened to destroy the van – or so it seemed to us – and we were glad to dismount at the Siana Springs Lodge with plenty of time to clean up before

before lunch.  We fell in love with our “luxury” tent.  We had all the comforts of home along with the delights of nature all around.  Except for times when we took picnic lunches, we had our meals in this happy, open air dining room.  We found both the food and service to be excellent, though perhaps a bit too familiar (a lot like home, if you know what I mean.)

We shared the compound with Bush Bucks, Vervet Monkeys and Colobus Monkeys.  One night a Baboon managed to enter which led to quite a stir as lodge staff showed him/her the way back over the fence.  We were warned to tie our tent flaps securely to prevent a disaster of cosmic proportions should a band of Vervet Monkeys manage to get inside our tent.

After lunch we were given an orientation to Maasai culture by two young warriors, JJ and Patrick.  JJ introduced himself as a living example that people can complete college and continue to live the traditional Maasai way of life.  I was glad we heard from them.  It helped us understand what we were seeing as we drove by Maasai villages and often, through their herds of livestock coming and going to the Mara.

There is no way I can put that experience in a blog.  I will share several more pictures and stories and hope you are blessed with some small measure of the awe we experienced and by which we were so refreshed.  We saw several kinds of Gazelles, several elephant families, a couple of warthog families, ostrich families, many very large hippos sharing the River Mara with scarey crocodiles, more giraffes, zebras, wildebeast, hartebeast, water buck, buffalo, and heyena. 

And we enjoyed a close encounter with a pride of lions.  Five lovely ladies strolled out of the tall grass and right up to our van as

 they went out to find some lunch for several youngun’s back in the bushes.  They were absolutely beautiful, though I wouldn’t want to meet them outside the van.

One of Donna’s favorite sights was the Secretary Bird.  She casually asked Landa, “Are we likely to see a Secretary Bird here?”  Maybe five minutes later he called out, “There’s your Secretary Bird, Donna.”

Landa took us off the main roads onto tracks that often turned out to be too soft to traverse.  Several times he had to stop and leave the van to check before driving on.  He managed to avoid getting stuck, though he did come to the rescue of others who weren’t so lucky.  We spent more than an hour of our last afternoon helping get a jeep out of a ditch where it became mired trying to free another van.  [The white van was actually here from Tanzania.  It got nose down in a ditch with its frame partially grounded.  The brown 4WD Jeep got stuck trying to pull it out.  The white 4WD Jeep eventually pulled the brown one free and it had to make a long journey to come from behind the van to pull it free.]

We returned a bit early Sunday afternoon in order to do a bird walk with Patrick around the compound.  We had gone out in the dark at 6:00 AM with packed breakfasts and lunches.  By the time we hiked around the compound with Patrick and learned the songs of many new birds as well as other Maasai nature lore, we were ready for some quiet time in the tent before supper.

All through this adventure we kept thinking of people we would like to share it with – starting with our grandkids!  We were sad for packing time to arrive.  The staff were friendly and helpful, and we felt like God smiled on us.  It was raining when we left Kikuyu Friday morning and we had a light shower in the park that afternoon as we headed for the lodge.  Then we had sunshine until our van climbed out of the Rift Valley west of Nairobi Monday morning when we encountered more rain.  We learned that torrential rains had caused serious flooding, especially in the northern part of Kenya where Joseph lives.  He and his son Ike had started for Maralal but never made it.  The roads were underwater and mud.  I believe a dozen people were victims of fast flowing waters and much property and crops were destroyed.

I want to report that the CPE group had a very fine mid-unit review day last Thursday.  I found them to be at least on a par with comparable students in the U.S.  Lyle and Terry made the trip to Nairobi to the nearest pizza parlor and returned with five large pizzas.  Happily, it turns out that these Kenyans liked pizza!  We have now begun the second half of the unit.  The students have new ministry assignments in the hospital and some different writing assignments.  After consultation with Donna, I decided that a good use for some of the “pastor’s purse” funds provided to me by First Presbyterian Church of Columbus was assistance to the two students who seemed most in need of help with their fees.  So, FPC Columbus paid Ksh 7,500 (about $100) of each of their outstanding fees.  The whole group breathed a sigh of relief.  I was very grateful to have that discretionary fund to help out.  Here is the picture we took at the end of the day last Thursday – a very happy group.

Standing left – right: Gladys, Cal, Patrick, Daniel, Lyle, Susan, and Joseph

Seated: Donna, Leah, Terry, and Lucy

As we made our way back to Nurok and the across the Rift Valley again, our friends the Giraffes came out to bid us farewell.  It was a very special few days beginning with our CPE Mid-unit review and having a dream adventure to Maasai Mara.  Peace, Cal Brand

Big Scare plus Odds n Ends

In some ways this was the worst week so far.  It would take several pages to explain it all.  I will try to be brief.  To begin with you need to understand that PUEA is run on a shoestring and is battling substanial debt.  This situation makes collection of student tuition a very important process.  At the same time, most of the students here have very little money, and I am learning that many Kenyans attempt to get by by putting off every payment as long as possible.  So, at the first of this week all students (including our six CPE students) received letters from the finance department that unless they had a zero balance on their tuition account, they were dropped – no meals, no room, no classes.  Two of our students were to have their tuition paid by their churches – that money had not come in yet.  Two others were paying their own and they still owed about Ksh 17,500 with virtually no possibility of raising that entire amount in 24 hours.  It was a terrible situation.  We were scheduled to do mid-unit review on Thursday, but it seemed likely that four of our six students would be gone.

We did everything we could to persuade the finance folk that we were on schedule with original arrangements and that these new requirements were unfair and impossible.  There was no flexibility.  Then it appeared that they would check with the PCEA (Presbyterian Church of East Africa) for a guarantee of payment for the two who were expecting help from their parishes.  We had to wait till that negotiation could be completed.  This morning, Terry Dykstra pledged funds from CPE money raised in the US to pay for the two self-payers if they did not pay in full by the end.  We learned at 9:30, just after the communion service in the chapel, that these arrangements had been accepted.  Praise the Lord!

We all expect the money to come in and, in fact, payments were being made according to agreements at the beginning.  I had a powerful cross-cultural experience.  We have had to threaten to withhold certificates and evaluations from students, but I have never been at risk of losing a program because some of the group were  behind in their tuition payments – not in 40 years.

While I am complaining, there is a whole lot going on in Kenya that seems a bit incredible to this country boy from southern Indiana.  I don’t mean to suggest that we don’t have our share of bad apples, graft, corruption, pedagogues and greedy rascals – witness the disaster we are still living through from our wall street high rollers!  But I think when one gets involved in mission service or other charitable work, we are inclined to romantacize those we intend to help.  Running into reality is almost always disillusioniong.  Anyway, not a day has passed since my arrival that the Kenyan news has not been dominated by one scandal after another.  I can’t tell you how many conversations I have heard or participated in about mismanagement and theft in churches or church sponsored institutions. 

It breaks my heart to know that funds were raised to pay the tuition of a couple of needy girls only to have that money go into the pockets of a school administrator.  There is poverty, deprivation, exploitation, and disease enough without the harm done by greedy leaders.  We are learning that there is an ancient tribal tradition here that essentialy legitimizes the “chief,” the one at the top, taking what he (usually he) wants to help himself, his family and friends by whatever means happens to be at hand.  Even when these folk are caught, they are seldom punished – on some level, this behavior is expected.  I find it makes me pretty angry.

On the one hand it makes me want to get out of here.  On another it gives me new admiration for the Kenyans and others who keep giving, serving, praying for these people.  When I consider the sacrifices being made by our students to give up 14 weeks of their lives to participate in this program in the hope of learning to provide better pastoral care to their churches or institutions, I get inspired to find reasons to be hopeful myself.

So, tomorrow our group does mid-unit review.  We will end the day with a pizza party.  Now only one of the six members of the group has ever eaten pizza.  I hope they will like it!  I know they will try to like it for my sake, since it was my idea and they do go out of their way to be kind to me <smile>.  Next week we will begin the second half of the unit and Donna and I will be fresh back from Maasai Mara and we hope many close encounters with elephants, buffaloe, lions, zebras, etc.  Wish us luck.

I promised you a photo of my Kikuyu dentist, Dr. Olale.  I managed to catch her this morning and she graciously allowed me to snap her.   She was late getting in because of a traffic jam.  That is a fairly common problem here.  While I waited for her, I got a picture of (left to right) Fred, Rahab, and Lillian.  When I was there waiting as a patient, I thought I recognized the music playing in the background.  I was sure it was Fernando Ortega.  Fernando is a very popular Christian keyboardist/vocalist, and he is the son of an elder in the 2nd Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque.  Because of that relationship, we heard him play in our services several times, bought some of his CDs and even heard him do a concert in Indianapolis a few years ago.  I asked Fred about the music.  He had put together quite a collection of gentle Christian rock music on the computer and he was also a fan of Ortegas.  Small world, huh?

And even with all the stress and strain reported above, I did make it out for another round of golf last week with Frank Bertram before he and Nancy left.  That’s him on the 1st Tee – a dogleg left par four with a steep drop off the right, making a mid iron the club of choice.  Unfortunately, I was too far left and in the trees.   Frank took a picture of me on the next tee.  Once again I was too far left and back in the trees.  O well, its only a game and a wonderful diversion.

Its raining again – comes most every night now making the red road muddy and the walk sloppy.  Still we gather at Rafiki and consider how to do a better job of caring.  Keep us in your prayers.  Peace, Cal Brand