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 
