Sister Rosita Aranita is a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet of the Hawaii Vice Province presently working in Kenya, Africa. 

Read her reports (below) of the good work she is doing as she ministers in these villages in Kenya. 

A review of the Proposals Page will give you some perspective into the magnitude of the problems she is faced with and the work that goes into providing solutions.

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APRIL 1, 2007:  PALM SUNDAY  People from the 12 centers of Raruowa Catholic Parish walked great distances to celebrate Palm Sunday.  We began with a procession from the Siburi Pond about a mile away.  Leaflets from palm fronds were torn from the main stem and distributed to the people after the blessing.  The people vied for these sparse hand outs.  The instructions from a lay leader about the order to receive palms was mainly ignored by the melee. 

As we traversed the narrow dirt road to the church, different groups sang religious songs and danced rhythmically on the way.  Women with umbrellas, men walking their bicycles and women with infants strapped by cloth to themselves rambled on the hot dusty trail with devote grandmothers.  The procession ended mercifully under the jacaranda trees facing an outdoor stage where mass was celebrated.

The sisters and the students dragged out chairs and stools to sit on.  Most of the people sat on benches from the church or on the ground.  Smaller children fringed the crumbling left side of the stage.  The entire passion was sung in Luo.  With all the singing, dancing and long announcements, the entire procession and service lasted for 5 hours.  The crowd was so exhausted, that it literally faded away.

April 2, 2007:  In the morning, I worked on the St. Clare Orphanage Proposal.  I envisioned the orphans and Sister Philomena at the orphanage in Kisumu as I worked on the document.  Friday, March 30^th, had been a frustrating one for my companion Sister Constance Omollo who had arranged a meeting with Archbishop Okoth.  We had arrived in Kisumu before noon when the Archbishop just began another meeting so were unable to meet as planned.  Instead we visited the orphanage run by Sister Philomena.  I felt that it was a worthwhile day inspite of not meeting the archbishop.  It seemed ordained by God that we were to visit the struggling orphanage, instead.  I was impressed by the spirit and work with these children ages 2 to 7 who are mostly HIV+.   Sr. Philomena has persevered even when food and money were nil.  Her faith in God;s providence always ended with a last minute donor and gifts of food for the children,

Later in the day, I tried to install the printer program and connections unsuccessfully to my notebook.  Toward the late afternoon, I did install the programs successfully on the school computer. 

April 3, 2007:  Since my notebook was depowering and in the process of being unstuck, I spent the day; cleaning the yard around the convent and picking up trash left by the Palm Sunday crowd.  The plastics floating across the grounds is a curse and a danger to the grazing sheep and cattle.  I deposited the trash in our toxic waste burning pile in back of the convent where they were set on fire.

Sister Conrad later supervised the eighth grade class in trimming the grass, weeding the flower borders and sweeping up cuttings.  Sister Christofa assisted the boys by slashing the tall grass with a sharpened cane knife.  There are no weed whackers or lawn mowers in this part of Africa.  Whatever is missed by grazing animals is slashed down by cane knives.  Most of the time,  the lawns here are uneven with different weeds and grasses that animals avoid.

Meanwhile, Rosemary our cook was resealing her harvest basket with fresh cow dung.  She gathers vegetables and stores dry beans in the basket after the dung dries up.  I thank God that the vegetables and beans are boiled pretty well.

April 4, 2007:  The two priests, three of us sisters and a seminarian squeezed into the two seat truck to journey to Homa Bay for the Chrism Mass.  Sister Jamescina had walked to Bala to the opening of an office for the care of orphans.  Along the way, Fr. Greg picked up other passengers who sat in the bed of the truck.  He was nervous about entering Homa Bay with these passengers because the police were stopping trucks packing passengers  in town.  Father had been stopped by the police earlier in March for having a fraudulent safety sticker which a parishioner had purchased for him in Kisumu without his knowledge of the origins of the seal. 

The Homa Bay Cathedral was packed with religious of  two Franciscan congregations, the Medical Mission Sisters,  Sacred Hearts Sisters, Passionists and two brothers of Charles Lwanga.  About 40+ priests surrounded the altar is the circular church.  Most of the diocesan clergy were under 40 years old.  Fr. Greg was considered to be one of the older priests.  He has served the diocese for about 11 years.  Bishop Philip Anyolo is relatively young as bishops go.  He is soft spoken and congenial.

After mass, the Bishop took the opportunity to make announcements about changes in priest assignments.  We were surprised to find out that Fr. Greg is to replace Fr. Paschal in the  St. Cloud Diocese in Minnesota in early summer.  His present assistant, Fr. Kennedy will become the pastor.  It became clear that the luxury of having two priests in Raruowa was a preparation for this future move. No wonder Fr. Kennedy didn’t get a truck!  He inherits Fr. Greg’s bald tired, 4 wheel drive truck to travel the rutted roads in the parish. 

Lunch was served fot the priests and religious at the Cathedral Rectory.  The usual fare of Luo foods were lined on tables for self service.  I met several of the priests and religious while dining or waiting for the next mobilization.  As usual, we were the last to come down the hill.  We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in town while Fr. Greg got his vehicle horn fixed and a new battery put in.  I took Sr. Christofa with me to bargain for an Easter dress and a pair of new sandals.  Sr. Conrad went off to the open market to purchase vegetables and fruit.

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Holy Thursday, April 5, 2007:  After handwashing my pile of laundry, I went over to church to start cleaning.  I swept off the dust laden front entrance and took charge of the Form 1&2 girls sent over to clean the body of the church.  Other adults and students attacked the side chapel and sacristy fouled by resident bats.  Bat guano was piled everywhere leaving a heavy stench that the initial cleaning had hardly reduced.  Fr. Kennedy devised a high cleaning brush at the end of a 20’ bamboo pole to brush the spider webs, wasp nests and bat leavings down from the rafters and ceilings.

For the rest of the afternoon, Evelyn, Mary and I hand laundered soiled soutanes and surplices for the evening service.  I had distributed a pile of surplices to the St. Lucy students instructing them that each girl had to wash one of them. The clothes dried before the late afternoon service. 

Good Friday, April 6, 2007:  Stations of the Cross began about 12:30 in the afternoon outdoors around the back soccer field.  We had trudged around the hot field and to the shade of the jacarandas outside of church for almost two hours.  We had a short respite before the Veneration and Communion Services which began about 3:30 p.m..  The people simply touch the corpus of the crucifix rather than kiss it.  With all the HIV and AIDS, I was relieved about not having to kiss the corpus.

April 7, 2007:  Holy Saturday was spent cleaning house and yard again in the early morning hours.

Sisters Pauline and Maria, the superiors of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph arrived late morning to pick up Sister Jamescina, the architect and I to visit land set aside for an orphanage in Koliech.  It was a 20 minute drive over gutted roads which becomes almost impassable during rainy season. As we neared the bottom of the hill, there were two eroded cuts in the road where resurrected rivers storm through during the rainy periods.  The rivers prevent the primary children from crossing over to their school so the village has erected its own nursery and primary school for their children.

We entered Serafina Okoth Oriko’s and her husband Anthony’s home where we had some refreshments and where we later met the village leaders under a shady tree.  The womens group had been established as far back as 1972. It now has about 40 members who farm maize, peanuts, and vegetables to sell for self support and the support of their orphans.  A group of 12 widows and 2 widowers have divided 45 orphans among themselves to care for in their own homes.  15 other children have only one parent alive.  The group is aging and dying off gradually and are concerned about the continued care of these orphans.  Several land owners have donated pieces of their parcels for a Catholic Mission, a health clinic, for a future secondary and poly technical school and an orphanage.

The villagers have built an nursery and primary school which needs another water tank attached to its rain catchment system.  They have erected a small church that still has a dirt floor and no window panes.  The clinic has brick walls and a concrete floor, but no roof.  The villagers ran out of money to complete the seven rooms and a roof over the building. Serafina’s family have taken the lead in all of these activities including getting the community to envision what they need.

The village lacks a source for clean water.  Now that the drought has dried up the existing water tank,  the women and children must walk 10 kilometers one way to Lake Victoria for water daily.  17 liters or less  is usually all one person can carry.  HIV/AIDS is also rampant among the villagers.  If someone needs emergency health care and is unable to walk, he/she is placed in a wheel barrow and trundled down to the main road about a kilometer down the hill and transferred to a vehicle, if there is one, and driven to the nearest health clinic several kilometers over rough roads.  The distance from clinics dispensing ARV’s is so far away that weakened victims simply die over time for lack of meds and food. 

The village leaders and architects measured the boundaries of the property designated for specific services.  It appears to be over 20 acres.  A surveyor will soon be contracted to lay the official boundaries.  Meanwhile, the architect will do a preliminary plot plan and revise his cost estimates for the orphanage facilities.  The Franciscan Sisters will be deeded the land set aside for the orphanage.  The same design of this orphanage may also be used on the twelve acres in Kisumu that the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph now own.

We arrived back in Raruowa in the late afternoon, hot and thirsty.

Easter Vigil services began at 10 p.m. and lasted for several hours.  The church was so packed that some of the crowd had to sit in the middle aisle and the back of the church on the floor.  Sleeping children were prone on lesus spread out by their mothers and siblings.  Both priests had baptized and married catechumens in the afternoon for at least 3-4 hours before the vigil.  The next day, they were to celebrate mass at each of the centers splitting them in half.  Fr. Greg started off at 4:30 a.m. and Fr. Kennedy at 5:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday after a two hour nap.  

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March 19, 2007: The day opened with celebration of Eucharist for the Feast of St. Joseph; the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph and I hold that day as one of our feast days for both our congregations.  Sr. Christofa made some pancakes that Fr. Kennedy and I shared before the others came to the table; Sr. Conrad had already gone over to teach at the primary school next door.

Fr. Kennedy, the shepherds and workmen and I all headed for Homa Bay.  Fr. Kennedy was off to Owendo, I to the Cyber Link Café and the men to visit their friends at the vehicle repair shop.  On the way, Fr. Kennedy and I talked about raising papayas in his home village near Oyugis.  The valley’s soil is sandy and the area arid.  He has a core group of young men that he has befriended while playing sports with them.  He wants to see if they can go on to more serious concerns like economic development by starting the papaya farm.  A farmer along the Homa Bay road has already offered papaya seedlings to him.

I related my experience with new farmers on the island of Hawaii and my familiarity with papaya farming cautioning him to develop markets for papaya before venturing into production.  Sales at the open market will yield lower prices than markets with established stores.  The farm has to assure numbers and quality of papayas to keep these markets.  Someone or a core group of persons who are trained to administer finances, purchase supplies and equipment, seek out markets, negotiate terms, and coordinate sales to markets must work with the farmers in a cooperative fashion.  Financial agreements of what goes back to production, profits, and any other labor related to the enterprise should be worked out and universally accepted to make the cooperative work.

Internet services were excellent today.  I was able to successfully transmit the sets of reports for the last two weeks and some of the documents.

As always, I was promptly waiting at our designated meeting spot in front of Shivling Super Market.  Fr. Kennedy arrived two hours later according to African time.  Fr. Bennet from Migori tried locating him via cell phone and found that Fr.  Kennedy was ssearching for regular gas rather unsuccessfully.  The workmen had tired of waiting and had started by foot and bicycle.  We picked them up about three miles out of Homa Bay heading for home.

March 20, 2007: I helped Mary, Silpa and Stephen put together the donated desktop computer.  No one had remembered the password so we could not progress beyond the booting up phase.  We also discovered that we needed an adapter to connect the printer power cord to the APC surge suppressor.  I left with Evelyn to ride with Fr. Kennedy to Bala.  We got stuck in deep mud at Siburi.  Some of the neighborhood men came to the rescue.  In the midst of this struggle to get out of the mud, the health clinic land rover stopped on its way back to Raruowa to take Evelyn and I back with them.  My pay back for sitting in the honorable front seat were splotches of mud on me kicked up by the land rover as it spun through patches of thick mud.  Evelyn and I ended up doing my laundry as a result.

We took a break to enjoy the banana bread that I mixed and Mary Lieta baked on the solar cooker.  I had managed to get the right consistency for the dough, but the solar cooker had burnt the bottom and sides of the cake during the hour of brilliant sun.  The good parts of the bread were delicious as we downed piece after piece with chai.  Meanwhile, Evelyn convinced me that we should walk to her home in Kandiege.  We set out again, this time by foot.  We took a short cut, a worn foot path between farm lots. 

I was drenched with sweat when we reached Evelyn’s mud hut.  Her sister in law,  nephew, orphaned niece and widowed aunt greeted me.  I was served the usual warm sprite and “mandasis” or rectangular doughnut.  We talked about girls and boys names that her sister in law could name the baby.  She was nearly due and very uncomfortable.  Evelyn said that if the newborn was a girl, the mother would rest for three days.  If is is a boy, the mother gets an extra day of rest.  During this time, the household chores and the care of the mother would fall to a female relative. 

Since I admired the white hens in the compound, Evelyn instructed her niece to capture a hen as a gift to me.  Her niece got some kernels of dried maize and made muffled hen sounds sucking her lips inward.  Imelda tried to entice the hens into her uncle’s hut, but a bossy mother hen fought off would be intruders to make sure only she and her chicks fed on the kernels.   I said that it was a sign that it was not time to collect my gift.  The family is so poor that I was glad we could not catch a hen. 

Before the attempted capture, Evelyn had related a short story which is the basis of why Luos are hospitable.  She recounted a story about an old woman who had wandered into a village near Kendu Bay hungry and thirsty.  Most of the villagers were rude and ignored her need.  Only one woman gave her food and drink.  The old woman told her hostess that she was to leave the village with her family that night because a great storm would flood out the village.  The woman followed her directions and the violent rain storm began.  It rained unceasingly for several days so that the whole village was washed away and a permanent river is now in place today.   This was a lesson to neighboring Luos to provide hospitality to strangers and friends alike.  Evelyn voiced that it was an honor for the family to have me visit them and they expressed their gratitude to the visitor by giving her/him a gift to take home.

As the afternoon wore on, I took my leave to see if we could purchase some eggs in the markets in Kandiege.  Knowing that I would be overcharged, I gave the money to Evelyn so she could barter.  We met Fr. Kennedy and Sr. Conrad on their way to pick up Fr. Greg in Kadel.  We made arrangements to wait for them at the crossroads to hitch a ride back.

We were not successful in finding eggs.  The one store which had them was charging an exorbitant price.  We waited for awhile for Fr. Kennedy to pick us up, but decided to walk back to Raruowa.  It ended up that it was the right thing to do as the priests got a sick call near Kendu Bay that delayed them.  Sr. Conrad who was with Fr. Kennedy tried to reach me, but I had left my phone at home.

When we reached Raruowa, I began to prepare parts of the St. Joseph Feast Day Meal that we had deferred so Fr. Greg could join us.  I prepared some coleslaw and sausage spaghetti which the priests so enjoyed that they asked for left overs for their lunch the next day.

March 21, 2007: Spent the day catching up with written reports and my diary.  

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March 22, 2007:  Made arrangements with Mary Lieta and Fr. Kennedy to leave for Kanam at 11:00 a.m.; we set out a half hour later.  Mary and I were dropped at the head of the foot path to Aloys and Serafina Mambe’ house about a mile below where we had lunch before the 2 p.m.  village meeting.

After lunch, Aloys, Mary and I walked about a mile and a half up the hill to the county parcel for the village meeting.  We were ushered to the chief’s office of corrugated metal and rough, rock floor.  Men who appeared to be clan elders and chosen water & sanitation committee leaders were seated on benches along the walls of the chief’s office.  The chief introduced himself and his assistant chiefs and welcomed us while some of the designated water & sanitation leaders organized the sublocation villages into three groups seated under three different trees. 

The sublocation leaders explained the purpose of the meeting and gave instructions about the selection of issue process.  The priorities were voted upon then all three sublocation groups merged into one large group to hear the reports from each sublocation.

The chief cautioned the villagers to look at consolidating some of the proposed facilities on public land accessible to the entire village.  i.e.  Child care center, girls secondary  boarding school, resource center and health clinic.

March 23, 2007:  If other villagers want to contribute land for these projects,  the community in turn should reward these land donors with jobs emanating from the projects.  He then emphasized that the census should be done more carefully by the clan elders.  Another week will be spent taking accurate data.

At the end of the meeting, a woman raised her hand and asked if a support group and services for persons living with HIV/AIDS could be instituted.

March 23, 2007: Was invited to become a board member of  St. Lucy’s Secondary Girls School.  The executive board members present were:  Fr. Gregory Otenga Ombuk, Fr. Kennedy Odhiambo Nyumba,  Retired Bishop Collins, Madam Mary Lieta, and Aloys Mambe.  After the reading of the last minutes discussion of reconstituting a new board ensued.  The previous boards had some politically minded individuals who were more obstructive than useful.

The only new addition to the board was to invite the Department of Education Officer.  It was agreed that other politicians need not be on the board.  The board should be constituted of the pastor, assistant pastor, Head Teacher, Religious experienced in education, local leaders and the Department of Education Officer.  The number of board members is to be 15.

Madam Lieta gave a report on the growth of the school since her term began three years ago.  The bishop had asked her to rebuild the school that had declined with poor management before that. The 2007 enrollment is:  Form 1- 21 girls; Form 2-20 girls; Form 3-21 girls; Form 4-13 girls or a total of 75 girls, and increase of about 25 girls from the previous year.  Mary attributed some of the increase to Bishop Collins’ posters and the support of neighboring pastors.

The school’s test scores have risen from a mean of D+ in 2004 to C in 2007.  Madam will pay 6,000 ksh for two girls missing from a minimum of 15 students to have testing done at St. Lucy’s instead of merging with another school. 

The subject of increasing teachers’ pay was next discussed.  They have not had an increase for 10 years.  Mary gave a break down of the current salaries for each teacher and support staff.  She also described the sad state of deterioration of the teachers housing on the compound.  Bishop Collins suggested that a 1000 ksh bonus be given to each teacher so that it would not be taxable by the National Social Security Agency.  Mary stated that the entire teaching staff decided to continue on for this year.  That says something good about the school. 

Bishop Collins wanted to talk about specifics for handing over the school to Sr. Frances whom he had worked with in Masai Mara when he was the ordinary.   Sr. Frances will have a house companion when she arrives in August.  Bishop wanted to have Mary’s present house fixed up before they arrived.  He has authorized the expenditure of a large donation he got from England.  He suggested that some of this donation be used to improve the teachers housing as well in fairness to all staff.  He wanted to know what my project is willing to do to improve the facilities.  I said that we are committed to find funders to upgrade the water system.

Mary then brought up the need to relieve the girls from book expenses each year.  The board agreed that books should be purchased by the school and loaned to each form as needed.  Several ways to raise funds for books were tossed about during the interchange..

All also agreed that a third watchman is now needed.  The expense for this watchmen should be shared by the parish, the school and the convent.  I then told them about the present status of  the sisters finances unless Sister Conrad and Jamescina could be put on the payroll from the Education Department and elsewhere.

Before breaking for lunch, Bishop Collins wanted an accounting of the school’s finances.  The school is in the black for now because spending has been conservative.  Expenses this past February was 241,000.  In January at the beginning of the term,  the school collected a total of 613,000 which included a donation of 90,000 from Bishop Collins.  The last bank statement reported a balance of 400,000+.

At about 3:30 p.m.  Fr. Greg drove Mary, Sr. Conrad and me to Kisii to shop for his birthday party and other household items.  Mary did comparative shopping of solar equipment and Sr. Conrad searched for items on her list.  We were not able to find an adaptor for the printer power cord and other electronic stores had already closed.  We made a stop at Barclay’s ATM machine where I got another cash advance for April and for Milicent’s registration fee of 13,000 ksh.  The next stop was at the open market where Mary and Sr. Conrad bought bananas, mangoes and local pears like Bartlett’s.  Our last stop was in Oyugis on the way home.  Sr. Conrad purchased some fresh beef and Fr. Greg got some cell minutes.  It was after 7 p.m.when we reached home.

March 24, 2007: Milicent’s mother came by with gifts of appreciation for my assisting her daughter to repeat form 3 & 4 at St. Lucy’s.  She had some local greens, tomatoes and a live rooster.

Later that afternoon, Maurice Otieno visited with me asking for financial assistance for eye surgery.  He is practically blind and quite myopic.  The doctor’s medical fee is 3,000 ksh.  The Land Rover will pick Maurice up in mid April and take him to the hospital in Rombo for the procedure.  I made arrangements with the parish nurse to pay the doctor’s on the day Maurice went to his appointment.

Lucy, the priests’ housekeeper and cook, took me to visit her home and the homes of some of her clan.  She had a concrete floor put into her house some time ago after saving up for it.  Lucy is a widow with 7 children.  Her husband’s mother cares for the children during the day making sure the children have their meals when they come back from noon break during school time and in the evening.  When Lucy is detained at the priests’ house or when it is too stormy to walk home  she sleeps in a parish house next to the rectory.  She then took me to Ogama village market in the back of  the parish compound.  She usually purchases milk, bread, sugar and small dried fish there instead of walking to Kandiege about 2 miles away.

On the way back to the parish compound, we met a friend of hers who belongs to a support group for persons living HIV/AIDS.  She invited me to their Wednesday gathering at noon in Siburi.  She was on her way to visit the woman we had picked up a few days ago in Kandiege.  The woman was brought from Siburi to the parish clinic/hospital where Margaret, the parish nurse and women relatives cared for her.  Her infant was with her at the hospital. 

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March 25, 2007: The men slaughtered a ram and cut it up for me to dress with wine and spices for Fr. Greg’s birthday party.  I spent the afternoon cutting up vegetables and preparing the dinner for the evening.  Evelyn, Lucy and another young woman assisted with several of the tasks under my direction.  Mary baked the pineapple upside down cake on the solar cooker. The brown sugar began smoking in a short time so Mary slanted the solar dish to reduce the heat.

Kenyan women cook the same dishes daily.  I have been introducing them to different recipes that are simple to