Wednesday

This has been a long but productive day. Amber met with the Primary School Curriculum Committee, actually only seven of the sixteen were able to attend.  The meeting was scheduled to begin at 10. Few had arrived so Amber and I skimmed the newspaper. Article titles included: Manhandled!; electrocuted as he pruned tree; Granny narrates rape ordeal from grandson; Fight over milk earns villager years in prison (7); Even with Facebook, Kenyans can’t unite. Man Here are some quotes from the FB article: ‘they may be economic giants but democracy and an open society is only good for the God-forsaken West, not for the pious east”, “at the advent of the internet, the temple curtains were torn. Anything is now possible”, “there is one thing that unites us, singular pursuit for the embellishment of our individual stomachs. Mine is so full I’m belching.” Don’t they have a way with words?

By 10:50 five had arrived so we began. The other two made it by 12. (Transportation is a problem here. Those who were late may have been on the road for hours and stuck in a matatu somewhere.) The conversation began slowly. It took some time for everyone to feel comfortable. Tea and queen cake was served at about 11:30 and we worked through. Questions were asked several times in various forms as Amber tried to understand some areas. After two hours of intense interviewing which included a few animated conversations, the “light bulb” came on! It was the key to the confusion. 

And then lunch was served at 1:30 pm! We had chicken, beef, chapatti, ugali, sucumawiki and raw cabbage. After lunch came the summary and appreciation speeches. Amber shared small gifts with the teachers. Several had conversations with her about classroom concerns. One is working on her PhD and Amber was able to give her a book title that will be helpful in her research.

We tried to leave by 3 pm but had to wait for a couple of people to come to the vehicle. Finally, we were back at Sosa by 4pm. After taking care of some things, I took my flashdrive to the office to post two blogs and three pictures on each. At least that was my plan. The internet is very slooow. It was fully 5 minutes to get to my email. I skimmed through that and went to the blog page. Three-four minutes to load it and then I copied from the memory stick to the blog. It took five minutes to load the first one. I tried to load a picture and it was still transferring after ten minutes. I still had a second blog and six pictures to upload. I don’t know how long the picture would have taken; I just gave up. I did load the second blog and read a little on Facebook. Very few messages!!

By this time (6:30) Amber came down to say that John Muhanji had asked if she would interview Joseph Makokha, the clerk of the Friends Church Peace Team. They are on the way. Amber and I had a pineapple Navida soda as Muhanji and the Brits arrived. Amber gave a summary of the day. The Brits visited for a while and then went to order their supper. It is 7:30 now and Amber asked John to call and see if Joseph could wait until tomorrow. John said they had said they would eat supper first and then come so they were, in fact, not on the way at 6:30. He did call and they were now about 3 minutes from Sosa. They arrived and even though we had all been together all day and had just parted from Henry and Sasita at 4 pm, we shook hands all around and asked about one another’s day. Of course, everyone had to chat for a bit.

It was beginning to get cool outside so we moved inside. It was nice even though the windows and doors remained open. I mentioned to the waiter that it was getting cold so he brought in firewood and lit the fireplace but the windows and doors remained open. The conversation with Joseph was rich. He told stories of his youth, of tribal skirmishes, of being chased out of his home on three occasions, of being treated unfairly when taking his KPSE, of his own struggles with tobacco and alcohol. It was touching, humbling and gripping. He is indeed a wise and gentle man. He shared his passion for peace and why this Peace Curriculum is so important to him. It is his desire that his grandchildren will learn to be peacemakers and live in peace. Even though he had scored highly in every class in secondary school, he did not go to university. His father did send him to Teacher’s Training School in Kaimosi. He earned a diploma but not a degree. He is now 55-60…hard to tell and who asks? He taught for many years, was retrenched at age 51 with pension, was the Presiding Clerk of a Yearly Meeting and is now the clerk of the recently (2008 after the post election violence) organized FCPT.

Makokha shared that he was the second son, seventh child, of his father’s first wife. His father had a total of 5 wives and 35 children. When the elder died, he left 150 grandchildren but more have come since he passed. He had been a businessman and was able to educate all of his children. Polygamy was common in the past. As you read this and form an opinion, I would say to not be too judgmental. There are positive aspects of polygamy that the western mind does not comprehend. I am not saying it is right but that there are things we would not consider.

This morning Makokha had said to the committee, “history has your name”, “do not let your names disappear”. We would say “Leave a legacy.”

Our day ends looking at the wisdom of men like Makokha and Sasita, enthusiasm of young men like Mudavadi and others. It was a rich, rich day and we are blessed to know these people and so many others like them that we have met this week.

On a lighter note, the hot water worked better today! It was fine on Monday but we only had cold water on Tuesday. I don’t do very well with cold showers. We had a spider meltdown yesterday but none today (Amber did not deal well with the 3-4 spiders in our room!) Her hand is still swelled but much better. I am still looking for Aleve…I must have left it in the bag in storage at the Hilton. And….we are still getting along very well! Lots of laughs! We find hilarity in the same things.