Mission 2020- New Blessings

Days in Kenya Covid-19

Greetings while in the beautiful Kenyan rainy season. I welcome the cool 80-degree days, wet, dreary, book in hand and the couch. One of my current students, the niece of the caretaker for the Bishops residence upstairs has been spending hours at my place each day writing the immense amount of notes the instructors began sending out this week. I have been cooking lunch for her and getting the opportunity to hear some her stories. She is the daughter of parents belonging to the Massai tribe, which continue to live the way of their cultural traditions. Very interesting tribe indeed, worth spending a little time researching them. She shared with me that they still have the community male circumcision rituals, some still require a human sacrifice after the birth of the first child, using a knife men remove their two lower center teeth so that in case they become sick, milk can be poured through the cavity. So many fascinating stories to hear in these poverty-stricken cultures.
Each day we are increasing the amount of coronavirus infected citizens with Mombasa appearing to be taking the charge. We are currently under a 7pm-5am curfew. Violations include severe beatings by the police, unjustified fines by the police because the courts are currently shutdown, who then pocket the money or thrown into a van and put in quarantine for 14 days. If you are out during curfew you are assumed being positive. Many of those are now scaling the walls of their confinement and escaping, which will be arrested. If you are found without wearing a mask the fine is 20,000 shillings ($200), more than most earn per month.
  
   Julius in his current room
 
 Very few remain working now, and those who are still working are rotating with other employees so are now part-time. Money is drying up quickly now. With that in mind I sent word to locate one of my poorest students. He arrived to my gate the very next day. I sat him down, got the small talk out of the way then I began to question. We went through a similar scenario last spring when he disappeared from school for three weeks.
How are you doing? -Good
Do you need anything? – No
Deep Sigh....hmmm – No response
When did you eat last? – Yesterday
Are you hungry? – Yes
Can I get you some food? – Yes
How is your rent? – My deposit was used up for last month’s rent.
How are you still there? I am waiting for it to be locked, but the landlord is in another county and cannot get here due to the lockdown.
Then what are you going to do? – there is an unfished flat near here where I will sleep
Then wake up and what? – just that and move on.
Let me come to your place? – I am embarrassed, the roof leaks everywhere.
No reason for you to be, I appreciate being able to learn from you guys
Can I assist you in finding another room? – it is your decision
I think there is one just across the street here, go see what you can find? – okay
So why can’t you just tell me things? “BECAUSE WE ARE MENS”.  (I thought I was going to die, men is singular and mens is plural, I just love these kids) That’s the way it is.
These kids are fearless, they have endured so much in their short life span.
Two days later I called him for what he found out and he said he knows of a room near where his mother lives and wishes to be close to his mother, in a small slum just next to me.
His name is Julius Shukurani, know as Shuku in the hood, at school we call him Chamanade because the first day he entered was the celebration of the Marianist founder Fr. Chamanade, but soon to come....mamasboyz...I can’t wait!
 
 
Shuku’s planned living arrangement
 
 I requested he take me to his current room, the unfinished flat and his new dwelling. We got him moved in the very next day. 

Mamaboyz new nyumbani (home)



The outlook does not look promising for Kenya. Along with the pandemic has come so much flooding up county washing people away. All the crops have been planted for the arrival of the rainy season and back again is the arrival of the locust, ten times more than the ones just a couple months ago. The crops will be wiped out. Another problem is the ceasing of imported food from China. Starvation is predicted to double this year for the world, mainly those in the Global South.
Tomorrow, I will be walking to the supermarket to not only stock me, but also for many individual packaged kilos of flour, rice, green grams, oil and bars of soap to prepare for when the time comes. The time actually is already creeping in as the first three boxes of food I began with are almost finished.
As I walk about, I see more and more men digging through the piles of garbage collecting rotten food, some eating it on the spot, one man was chewing on weeds collected along the roadsides. They scavenge right alongside the goats and cattle searching for garbage to eat.
There are 130 some known gangs along the coast, who have begun attacking and robbing during the day light hours now that curfew is in effect.

I am hoping that you are all doing well and being patient as we move through this pandemic. I think of you often and greatly enjoy participating in mass with you on Sundays. The nursing home where my 93-year-old mother who has been locked down for six months, just had their first positive resident on Saturday, since they have found five more. It really brought home for me what so many others have already been experiencing. Compassion is probably the mode of operation for all us now, we do not know what another is experiencing. I am sure that I am not the only one who has been confronted with feelings and emotions that we could never have had before.
Please continue to keep us in prayer!
Happy Easter,
Mike