A two week diary of an
American Nun in Kenya

Please consider a direct donation. Address labels and consideration for prayers requests for the sick and dying are also enclosed. Aloha and may God Bless you and protect you forever and ever. Amen. -PMWG

Dear Sisters and Friends,
I have attached the last week's report and message!
Thanks for the prayers,
Rosita


Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:53:02 -0600

Dear Sisters and Friends,
It is becoming clearer to me that we should concentrate in setting up water projects in Raruowa Parish which has 45 villages. Adiedo is one of these villages. Adiedo’s census is a reflection of the entire community of 45 villages. The area is arid and receives rain only for a month and a half a year.

Situation Today

Women and children fetch water from polluted streams and ponds that are shared by the many clan herds of cattle, sheep, goats and burros who often eliminate in the water as they drink. Crops are rain fed so as the dry season prolongs, there is scarce food.

Sister Jamesina (1) the social worker, has identified over 300+ children who have lost one or both parents.
The HIV/AIDS disease has ravaged the parish. There are multiple funerals each Saturday and some during the week days.

Many infants and young children under five years old succumb to diarrhea and worms.
Other water borne diseases and related mosquito borne ones like malaria and yellow fever are rampant.

The parish has a nurse, 2 priests, 3 sisters, a secondary school for girls, a primary school, faculty housing for the secondary school, and a network of basic Christian Communities throughout the area.

The social worker and nurse need a four wheel drive vehicle to be more effective in their outreach efforts.

Funding for a nutrition program for the orphans and children with single parents is needed. A facility for orphans is also needed.

Grandparents who are disabled and elderly are having difficulty feeding these orphans and are often in need of food themselves.

The large women’s group which is trying to care for orphans and poor elderly needs funding to for income generation so that they can provide food and clothing.

If there is a way to garner enough water from ponds and streams for agriculture and aquaculture, the area could provide more food for the people. IFAD has been constructing aquaculture ponds and trying to make the access to ponds more sanitary by providing water troughs for animals. I have met the consultant for fresh water fisheries and can call on him to work with IFAD (Institute for Agricultural Development).

I urged the women’s groups to go back to the chiefs and clan elders of their villages to invite me to discuss putting in water systems. They should be getting back to me or Sr. Jamesina. The initiative for these important projects should be theirs.

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:54:05 -0600

REPORT FOR WEEK OF FEBRUARY 25- MARCH 3, 2007
SISTER ROSITA ARANITA

February 25, 2007: Took some video shots and recorded some of the music at the Raruowa Parish mass which was concelebrated by Fathers Gregory and Kennedy. During Lent, the girls do not dance.


February 26, 2007: Went to Homa Bay and was dropped off at Sr. Constance Omollo’s office at St. Martha Girls Secondary School. After chai, Sister dragged out all the estimates and architectural renderings for her ideal school: New dormitory, a set of four classrooms, cafeteria, faculty housing, animal housing and a campus store. I pressed Sr. Constance to name her 3 top priorities. She first wanted a donation of 5,000 ksh ($72 US) each month for teachers’ salaries; the school can come up with 5,000 ksh each month. Her next two priorities were the construction of the new dormitory and the set of four classrooms. Two weeks ago, the enrollment was 130 girls. Today it is 195 girls, an increase of 65 girls in two weeks.

I asked sister how she could cut construction costs. She said that they could make bricks locally and purchase building stones from the Kandiege/Raruowa quarries. St. Bernard Technical School could do the carpentry and metal work for window frames, gutters, etc. I suggested that she consider using local eucalyptus lumber instead of pine wood to counter damage from carpenter ants and termites.
Two Scholarship Requests from Sr. Constance:

Scholarship for nursing school/college for Celestine Amoit, her clerk. Celestine’s Date of Birth is 12/09/1982.

She is a member of the Iteso Tribe, a small tribe near Kisumu and Busia.

Celestine can be reached at:

St. Martha Girls Secondary School
P.O. Box 333, Homa Bay, Kenya (0727157269)

Another scholarship is requested for Eugene Patman, age 22. He is the son of Margaret, the secretary. He wants to attend the Busia Township Youth Polytechnic to take the Automotive Mechanics classes so he can get a job. The boarding tuition for the year is 20,250 ksh or about $290 US for the year. Margaret cannot afford to send him to this school. Margaret can be reached at the same address and phone number as above.

Sr. Constance took me to the area where her new hire, a needy young man, was repairing metal chairs and making new ones from materials sister had ordered. She then took me to the dormitory to show me the 14 double decker beds, this young man had welded. The design and end product of both the chairs and beds was superior to what was previously made.

We then revisited each of the classes. Forms 1 and 2 had mushroomed since I last saw them two weeks ago. I posed an issue for the seniors (Form 4) who were in a theology class considering ethical issues. “Why is Lake Victoria so polluted and what can you do to clean the lake up?” A bright young lady was able to address the first question. The girls needed to do more research and tie solutions to what they learned in chemistry, biology and social science classes.


February 27, 2007: I spent two very slow hours trying to e-mail and download my e-mails at the internet café. The electricity had been down the day before so the computers were somewhat scrambled and slow. I decided to download the important messages and left all of the action alerts alone since many of them were from U.S. based movements.

Sr. Constance and I then took a taxi to Rongo after I spoke with Brother from St. Bernard Technical School. He wanted to know when the donations for the new desks, chairs and beds would be sent. I told him that I had no control over the financing arm and that my team in the U.S. had that responsibility. Brother will tell his materials vendor to wait until the monies are available.

When we arrived in Rongo which was about a half hour drive over terrible roads, we waited a bit for Sr. Raphael to come back from the computer center. Her secondary school was out of session for a few days and she had gone to do some grant proposals. When she arrived, she whipped out some cost estimates and architectural drawings for a set of new classrooms.

St. Bonaventure Mixed Secondary School has 100 students enrolled in the first three forms. In Form #1, there are 23 boys and 22 girls (42). Form #2 has 16 boys and 16 girls (32). Form #3 has 14 boys and 12 girls (26). There are only two classrooms. One class is taught under the trees. 60 of the students are either total orphans or have one parent. Many of the parents have died from AIDS leaving the oldest child or a grandmother as the head of the household.

The ensuing poverty means that the children and youth go hungry. Sr. Raphael provides one good meal a day for the 100 youth and 68 nursery school children between ages 5 and 9. A few of the children from the community are also fed. Sister is now short of food and money. She had planted ten acres of the 20 acres the school got from the community of Rongo in maize. That crop needs to be replanted in March when the rains come. Until the crop of maize is harvested in three months, she has no food on hand. She had gotten a small donation of food from the Red Cross and is now worried about how to feed all these young people.

Sr. Constance and I will go back to Rongo when the school is in session so I can get some pictures. I took the taxi back to Raruowa after we dropped Sr. Constance off at St. Martha’s.

February 26, 2007: Left early to hop the bus with St. Lucy’s Form 4 girls (12), the Norwegian exchange students (5) and their 3 chaperones, some teachers and a spouse and baby. We were on our way to Kisumu, two hours away, to visit Impala Park and the museum. For many of the girls, this was their first trip outside of their villages. The Norwegian chaperones financed the outing.

Impala Park had a few poorly caged animals: a beautiful leopard, a handsome 14 year old male lion, a pair of ostriches, a hyena, a few silver back jackals and two large male baboons. The impala and a pair of monkeys ran loose. Crocodiles come up from the Lake Victoria at night to forage for unlucky victims. The hippos also emerge at night to graze on grass and leaves in the forest.
We then went to the museum which housed local artifacts of tribes residing in the area, crocodile cages and a snake pit, and a snake house which contained live venomous snakes. I wanted to make sure that I could identify the snakes from the region. I was surprised to find out that the male Black Mamba was actually a bright chartreuse color and that the female is a silvery gray with white underside. There were two kinds of spitting cobras and three types of vipers and a puffy adder. The adder actually puffs up when sensing something nearby. The Gabon Viper was the most beautifully colored one with diamond designs against green, blue and yellow markings. The top of its head had a bony frame giving it a three dimensional look. Its body was fat and somewhat flat ending in a triangulary tail.

A group of the snakes had venom that destroys muscular tissue and another group has venom that paralyzes the nervous system. Most live in grassland areas. Most of Kenya has been so deforested, that there are large expanses of grasslands. Most large mammals like lions, elephants, giraffes, etc. have been relocated to large national parks like Masai Mara in the Serenghiti plains.

March 1, 2007: I spent the morning chopping vegetables we had purchased at Nakumatt in Kisumu. I helped prepared late dinner for Bishop David Collins, who is retired from the Asumbi Diocese, the Norwegian contingent, some St. Lucy alumna, the faculty and the kitchen help. I showed the women how to prepare chicken chow mein and mutton. The shepherds had slaughtered a sheep in the morning that I dressed with Bay leaves, sherry, salt and pepper. I regretted not buying the fresh rosemary the day before while in Kisumu. The mutton was roasted. Over a charcoal brazier.

Kenyans have a limited repertoire of foods so I have been introducing the Raruowa groups to new dishes which they like.

March 2, 2007: Worked on my personal financial report and the past week’s report. Also prepared lunch and dinner for the sisters: Bean & potato soup, sweet potato leaf salad with tomatoes and onions, spaghetti and coleslaw mixed with fresh pineapple. Cooking meals for them is a lesson for new recipes and an insurance policy for me to have nutritious food.

March 3, 2007: Sister Jamescina Mary Okinda, FSJ handed me a list of her women’s group. The mission of this group is to lift up their standard of living from poverty through income generating activities and education. As previously reported, the group needs micro loans or funds to purchase materials for income generating activities like hand weaving of stoles, sewing, baking, etc..

All of the women stated that their villages need clean water systems to reduce water borne diseases and promote health/sanitation. The names of the women are listed:

MEMBERS OF THE RAURORWA
WOO WOMENS GROUP
P.O. BOX 20, KANDIEGE, KENYA

Instructed the girls of St. Lucy about signs of premenstrual syndrome, how to reduce bloating and swelling, nutrition, rest and giving medical doctors correct information so they can properly diagnose a problem.

Taught them some yoga exercises for flexibility, energizing them, building strength, and switching to right and left brain function. Introduced them to some Tai Chi movements.


Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:54:05 -0600
MESSAGE #4

Dear Sisters and Friends,

The MDG goal of reducing poverty is certainly multi-faceted. Providing clean water is a major step toward promoting good health and sanitation so that people can pursue raising more nutritious food and diverse means of economic development. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has impacted the normal functioning of families immensely in Kenya. The country has a very large and young population under 18 years of age, a devastated generation of 18 to 40 year olds, and a segment of elderly persons over 55 years old who are trying to care for grandchildren. Most of the widows are infected with HIV and looking for ways to generate income for their children. The fear and belief that if one is tested for HIV, one will die quickly prevents many adults from getting tested and treated with antiviral drugs.

Centers of trade along the shores of Lake Victoria coincide with high incidences of HIV infection. Strangers seeking sex do not tell their unwitting partners about spouses who died of AIDS so the infection and re-infection rates are between 35 and 40%.
The social mores among most Kenyan tribes promote the education of males over females. Males are the decision makers and women wait on them. Males are not taught how to cook or care for a household. Females who do not marry when they become 18 years old are considered a financial burden. Kenya considers 30% female to 70% male employment policies significant and just.

Religious educational institutions have undertaken primary and secondary schools as a way to transform the cultural mores favorable to males. Boarding schools are dominant because of poor transportation, bad roads, and the significant number of orphans and poor families. In some ways, some families take advantage of religious institutions and plead poverty so that institutions do take care of their children. The principal of St. Lucy’s try to have parents take responsibility for educating their children by requiring some minimum payments, payment in kind, or volunteer work in place of payment of tuition.
The people are very religious. Liturgy is not rushed, but celebrated with rhythmic song and dance. Homilies and music are dialogic with initiation and response mixed with wonderful harmony. Solemn seasons such as lent forbid dancing during the services. Since most of Kenya is agrarian or pastoral, funerals are usually held on Saturdays. Multiple funerals occur because of the high death rate from AIDS. Loud wailing and crying from households accompanied by dogs howling is usually the first clue that someone has died in that household. Last week-end, I could hear wailing on both sides of our church compound. A father of a primary child from the parish school had died on the west side and a neighbor on the east side.

I had an insight into our pioneer days when I saw how the sisters here ironed their habits. They light charcoal in a primitive looking iron to heat it. When the coals glow, they proceed to iron their clothes. We also hand wash our clothes. Rose Mary, our housekeeper/cook, showed me how to draw well water and situate my buckets of soapy clothes near the clothes lines so we could rinse the clothes, wring the water out, and hang them without taking too many steps.


Life in Kenya is like a living revelation!
Until next time,
Aloha,
Rosita


Dear Sisters and Friends,

Thanks for the article!
Send any donations to

Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet,
St. Paul Province for Kenya Water Project,
1884 Randolph Avenue,
St. Paul,
MN 55105-1700.

They can wire me the money at designated contacts here in Kenya.
Hope all are well!

Love,
Sr. Rosita

Addendum
PROPOSAL FROM ST. LUCY SECONDARY GIRLS SCHOOL
MaRY LIETA, PRINCIPAL 3/06/2007
St. Lucy’s in Raruowa is a Catholic mission secondary school that helps supplement the government’s efforts to uplift the status of female children. It has a capacity for 320 girls. The school was built in 1972 by the Mill Hill Fathers. The buildings in the parish and church compound have deteriorated over time and badly needs repair.

The most pressing priority is to repair the above ground holding tanks and catchment system. Enrollment has been limited because there is insufficient water. The underground cement cisterns are badly cracked so hold little water. Rain catchment systems on the faculty housing also need to be replaced.

The second priority is to improve the solar lighting system. Presently, there are only three solar panels which produce 64 watts each. More solar panels and batteries must be installed on the other school buildings to supply light for the whole school.
The third priority is for text books for both students and teachers. Girls who come to this school cannot afford to go to any other school. Their families have difficulty raising money for basic school fees. It would be of great help if they were spared the extra burden of purchasing text books.
Last, is the repair of faculty housing and the two girls dormitories and the installation of good bathrooms and toilets. Attached are estimates for each priority.

Please copy this form if you wish.

Dear Sister Rosita

Send to:

Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
St. Paul Province for Kenya Water Project
1884 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105-1700