Dr Bruce, visiting the mamas, school visit postponed

Tuesday July 7th Bruce was a bit feverish and feeling a bit dizzy, so he rested most of the morning, although he was called out to attend to Luka, who'd cut his head with a panga. He was very happy to have Mzungu medicine and a new razor – with a HANDLE, after Bruce shaved off some of hair, used a Dettol wipe, then applied TCP cream + a bandage to the cut, which healed well.
An elderly part-blind man turned up to greet & thank us + all the others who’d contributed food aid. We were pleased to find out that the church had been targeting the very old & the very poor, and had also started a ‘work for food’ scheme – asking people to divert water to the large dam at Inkoirienito.
John then walked to school to let them know we couldn’t come, they’d expected us to arrive after assembly! They postponed the visit to Friday, and John decided to go to Narok tomorrow instead of today.
Lots of people came to ask after baba, Susanna wanted to know when he’d eat again, thinking it very strange to ask for plain boiled rice with NO oil, and black tea with just a little sugar! They put oil/fat into everything & make the tea quite sweet. We also asked for uji (maize porridge) for supper, but they thought it'd make us get up a lot in the night; they only drink it in the morning, but we only got up once!
While Bruce rested in bed, I was invited to visit the mamas in their homes: Susannah, Joyce & Esther. I was surprised to see Esther spooning something into the baby’s mouth, she’s 1 month old, but her husband, Pastor Petro, back from a few days away, told me it was medicine for a stomach upset. Esther hads a problem with her lips too and couldn’t eat properly.
Lastly I went to Maria’s, the largest home on the manyatta. She's Luka's first wife. I'd never been into the outer room before, on our first visit we'd slept in the second room behind a curtain while John slept in a side room off of ours. Luka & Maria had used the outer room where the cooking area is. It's very large.
Shumbai came over to show me her science and Kiswahili books, also a Christian book from an Mzungu. She's a lovely girl and loves science & maths. She's only in Standard 6, age 14.
John and his brother Daniel were back late that night. Daniel’s very quiet and only knows Maa, he isn’t a Christian yet. Their mother has 7 children: John, Daniel, two married daughters living elsewhere, Yasintha, Soinkan (15-16) & Pirisat (10-11).

A seminar and Moses Teeka

Saturday July 4th We had an early breakfast of chai/chapattis, then had time to bathe + wash my hair, waiting for Ezekiel to come. It was a bit embarrassing having a big audience of mamas and children when I went outside to comb hair in the breeze - one mama had a go too!
We left at 9.30, carrying our day packs, to attend a seminar at Nalepo Baptist Church. On the way, we visited a family badly affected by the drought, and had chai in the mama’s hut, listening to their story. One son owes 10,000 Ksh school fees, so he can’t get his Leaving Certificate - which means no work or college prospects. Bruce shared a word about having hope: the mama started crying, so I stayed in the hut to pray with her; we had a tearful hug.
They had 400 sheep/goats & 300 cattle, but now only have 200 sheep/goats and 30 cattle. 2 sons took us round the manyatta, some corrals are not even used now, although all used to be full.
We were all told to go to the toilet in the bush before reaching the church – no facilities there + the seminar would have NO breaks!! When we arrived at 11, it had already started. As it didn’t finish till 5, we were glad of the frequent opportunities to stand and sing between speakers. John & another man took turns translating into English. We enjoyed the messages apart from one. The preacher was repeating a message he’d heard in town: the drought was God’s punishment on the Maasai as they hadn't been giving to Him; they needed to give Him everything, especially their best. He also said their church was too small so they should build a big stone one! It's true there were over 400 packed into the iron building, but a lot were from other churches!
The 2nd speaker was good, sharing from 1st/2nd Timothy, firstly about the need for wives to be obedient, and not want to emulate women in other places who strive to be church leaders. Instead, they should set a good example for the other women. Men and women are equal but have different roles. He encouraged the men to ‘fight the good fight’, i.e. to be diligent in the faith and not give up.
When the meeting ended, we were told to stay inside to eat with the pastors: potato stew, chapattis & beef -it was so tough I finished ½ hour after the rest!
After 1 ½ hours' walk, we reached Moses' manyatta just before dark, to be greeted by many people. One baby had a pale swollen face – malnutrition? - but I didn't get another look at it.
We sat chatting with Moses in the hut we were to stay in. There are 20 primary school children + 15 pre-schoolers on the manyatta. Soinkan, John’s full sister, is the only one at High School, she's in Form One at Najile, and has been chased away for owing fees. John’s youngest sister, Pirisat, changed primary schools this year as the teachers were absent so often her studies were affected.
Only 3 of Moses’ 5 wives are still living here, John’s mother is at Luka’s to get feed for John’s stock and another is with her eldest son.
Moses had 300 sheep/goats and many cattle, but now has only 60 sheep/goats, and a few cattle. As a fat sheep is now only worth 1,000 Ksh instead of 5,000 (over $100!) he’d have to sell 20 to be able to send all his children to school!
It was hard to get to sleep as dogs were fighting outside our hut until very late; one of the young ones kept getting picked on, making me jump with its sharp yelping.

Part Four: Kenya

Tuesday 30th June Descending into Dubai, 2 small children started vomiting, one was panicking, and her dad was rather brusque.  She coped much better when she sat by the window with her mother. 
What a hot place, 32° at 5.30 a.m.!
We had a rather frustrating time trying to get our homeward journey organised.  We wanted to use our Skywards points to upgrade to business class from Nairobi to Dubai, and also wanted to find out whether we would be able to get a shuttle to/from our hotel.
Everyone had a different idea as to where the Skywards desk was!  First we were told it’s at Gate 121 in the old terminal – nothing!  The information desk sent us upstairs, two sets of people directed us back through security to another desk where we were told to go upstairs to the Business lounge.  However, we couldn't get there from where we were, so had to go back to Transfers passing through security again!  Well, we were back where we started, halfway down Terminal Three! 
When we went upstairs, we were confronted by a large lady who asked if we were registered!  Only Silver and Gold customers can use the Skywards desks at the airport, so we'd have to use the internet or phone!
After walking around the airport for 1 1/2 hours, we were feeling rather tired!  After having orange juice and sundaes at McDonald’s, we put our feet up for 20 minutes before heading off the the boarding area.  We were very surprised to be upraded to Business class along with many others!  God has a real sense of humour!!It was good to be able to put our feet up on the plane, no swelling for once!  None of the other planes had had foot rests.  You certainly get a much larger variety of foods (including a glass pottle of jam!), larger servings of juice, a choice of teas & coffees, a bottle of water and good earphones!
Take-off was delayed by the paper war that ensued after a passenger didn’t board, also their baggage had to be offloaded, caused a paper war.  Further delays were caused by rescheduling the runway!  However, we were still on time in Nairobi!
Part IV – Kenya
It was humid, and warm, 21° at 3 p.m.  We were shocked by the brownness of the countryside, it should have been green.
After waiting in the queue for ½ hour for a visa, we found we needed another form!  That meant another ½ hour wait!  They were certainly taking swine flu' seriously, you were given a special form to fill in with a tear-off slip for a doctor in case you got sick.
We were met by 5 Maasai including our friend John Tino. They’d been there since lunchtime, although I'd told them not to be there before half 3!  Some had never seen planes before, so had been having lots of fun watching them take off and land.
Unfortunately I managed to lose some travellers’ cheques by accidentally replacing them between my money belt & skirt.  I was trying to be very careful as it's offensive for a woman to show her waist!
We went to the Kenya Airways office outside Departures hoping to pay for our tickets to Tanzania, but they wouldn’t accept our voucher although we’d been assured it would be OK.  That meant planning a trip to the Precision Air office in Nairobi the next day.
We all went in Nicholas Teeka's ute – one of John Tino’s half-brothers – to his house in a small Maasai settlement near the airport.  He and his wife Agnes live in a 3-room corrugated iron hut with their 2 children and one of his other wife’s children.  The other lives with its mother at his father’s manyatta.  Pictured from L to R: John, Nicholas, Agnes + child, Elizabeth (John's fiancée).The house is surrounded by netting fences - animals live on three sides in pens, the fourth has a gate.  A smaller hut contains the jiko (stove), a bed and cupboards.  Hens fly up to peck scraps off the dirty plates stacked in the wooden dish-stand in the yard.  Young animals stay around all day, older ones are taken out to grazing.  The bathroom is a tiny iron shed behind the 'house' with a branch for soap and wire for towel + clothes.  The toilet was a padlocked long-drop in the open space outside the fence.
The settlement has sll kinds of houses from traditional mud/thatch huts, through mud brick to iron.  Many are dilapidated or derelict.  It's approached on a dirt road that first passes between home-made dukas (shops) and kibandas (roofed stalls).  It's a noisy place to live, there are planes all day, (a Red Cross one at 4.30 p.m.), and at night: cow bells; animals snorting, coughing, & urinating; little children crying; people talking; even 2 birds that together sounded like a squeaky see-saw! 
We were only able to eat half the food offered as by the time we got to eat, it was so late at night! However, it was good to meet John’s fiancée, Elizabeth, who’d been staying with Nicholas and his family for a couple of weeks.  She finds the city hard to get used to as her home is out in the bush. 
We were quite shocked and very sad to hear, during the after-dinner discussion, that their wedding had been postponed.  The church leaders had decided this at a meeting on Friday: because John's house isn’t finished, and people can’t afford to bring gifts due to the drought.
It was hard to sleep too as it was so cold and we only had a bottom sheet – usually you supply your own, but we hadn’t packed one!  Everyone else had gone offto bed too, and we didn't want to disturb anyone, so we put on sweaters and socks, and huddled together under my dressing gown all night! 
I woke up in the middle of the night feeling very upset about losing the money, feeling such a fool! I'd only found out when we went to bed so couldn't do anything about it straight away.