Home Visits or Not

On the bus to Kiserian, then home!

Today is the day the girls who are going on home visits for the holiday take off. They packed up and left this morning. Most of the girls do have families - if not parents, then grandmothers, aunts, uncles, older brothers and sisters. Others will go stay with friends of Hekima Place. For example, two of the girls will stay with one of the members of our Board of Trustees. Others will stay with Hekima Place ‘mums’ who are taking their vacation. The girls will be away visiting for a couple of weeks while they’re out of school.
The little ones are picked up by family members and the older ones are driven into Kiserian where they connect with public transit to travel to where their families live.

Some are staying here - about 36 of them. In November at the end of this school year according the the Kenyan education system, the Form 4 girls (high school seniors) will have major comprehensive exams covering everything they’ve been taught in 4 years of secondary school. The test results will determine which, if any, college or university program they can hope to enter. The pressure is intense. So they will be staying here to be tutored in math, chemistry, physics and biology to help prepare them for their exams. Hekima Place has hired two experienced secondary teachers to coach them for the next two weeks.

The Standard 8 (8th graders) also have major exams to take at the end of the school year. The results of their exams will determine what secondary school they will be accepted into. They will be staying here for the holidays as well with Mr. Kinyua tutoring them. He is a former Standard 8 teacher and the Hekima staff person who coordinates the education of the girls.

Some of the secondary school girls will be staying here because their grades haven’t been up to par and they need to be doing some catch-up work. Rick and I will be working with them each morning during their school holiday.

There are a few of the girls who just don’t have any place to go, especially some of the newest babies who’ve come here since the first of the year. These babies and toddlers were abandoned as infants and we have no idea who their families are.

Finally, with 65 girls there’s always some problems and all is not sweetness and light. One child is staying here as punishment for bad behavior in school. This girl is very cute and very bright, but has been on an unfortunate track recently. Hopefully this will get through to her that she needs to exercise more self control. She has been fighting with her sisters and classmates and using bad language (in Kiswahili, yet!). She also managed to lose 4 of her exercise books where she has all her homework for the year thus far. Two of the other girls in her class were misbehaving at school as well, but after  they were reprimanded, their teacher reported they were doing much better.

The girls who are staying here for academic reasons did supervised independent study this morning, as they did every day this past week. They will start more organized tutorials on Monday.

But this afternoon we had some fun. Right after lunch, I took some more photographs of girls I haven’t gotten to yet. I’m slowly working my way through the list. I have generally had a very appreciative audience while I’m doing this - the crowd is good for helping to get the subjects smiling. And Rick brought ‘girlie stuff’ with him from the US for bingo prizes - very popular around here. So this afternoon we had a bingo tournament. Winners got to pick from a bag of prizes that included a wild selection of nail polish and lip gloss. Now we have girls sporting some of the most colorful finger and toenails you can imagine!



While we were playing bingo, a storm rolled in. The rainy season arrived on schedule on April 1 and since then it has rained almost every day for some part of the day. The rainy season is not just constant rain (as I feared), but storm clouds roll in, it rains for some period of time and then it stops - today it rained hard for about 2 hours. Mostly (at least so far) when it’s not raining, it’s sunny and beautiful as it was for most of the day today.

After dinner, everyone gathered in the dining hall to watch the movie Shrek.

Rick’s Arrival and Closing Day at Good Hope School

First news item - Wednesday night Rick arrived safely from the States and even a few minutes early.  I went to the airport to meet him accompanied by Maggi Wambui, the young woman from Hekima Place we have been sponsoring for the past 4 years. All of the high school girls (18 of them) wanted to come along, but there was no way to make that happen because all of the vehicles large enough to carry a crowd (short of the school bus) were out of commission. Kate’s car was having starter  problems (fixed on Thursday) and the van was not operational either. So our friendly hired driver, Sam, picked up Maggi and me here and drove us to the airport. Maggi spotted Rick first as he came down the stairs into the baggage claim/check area and the three of us had a great reunion visit on the drive back to Corner Baridi. It is so wonderful to have him here with us!

He has immediately made himself a part of the Hekima family, helping the secondary girls with their studies, playing with the little ones, weeding and sitting with the little ones for their movie night while I chaperoned the computer room. He has also begun analyzing energy usage around here to see what might be done to bring down the very large electric bills.

Thursday was closing day for the term at Good Hope School where all the primary girls attend. Mum Evelyn and I went over to enjoy the end of term ceremony and collect the girls’ grades. The ceremony lasted from about 10 am to 1 pm, and it was great fun. There were the usual speeches, but also wonderful entertainment from the kids - singing, dancing, and dramatic poetry readings. After the entertainment they handed out the academic awards. We were pleased that some of our girls were honored. Teresa Areyo had the second highest score in grade 2. Purity Nyambura took top honors for grade 6. And Edith Wanja came in 3rd and Nancy Wanjiru 2nd in grade 7. In addition, Lavender Atieno was honored as the most improved student in grade 5 and little Regina Wairimu (4 years old, in preschool) as the “most obedient”.

Thursday night after dinner, I announced the names of those recognized for their academic achievements, calling them to come stand on the stage with me. There was lots of applause for everyone and all of these girls are very proud of themselves. But the most fun was calling little Regina up to the wild cheers of the rest of the girls. Her smile as she walked to the stage was bright enough to light up the room!

I took photos and some video, but you’re not going to see any of it because I used Rick’s camera. After I returned to Hekima Place from the school, I found out that he had not brought his download cables. My fault - I should have requested he bring them. Sorry about that!

Portrait Time

Yesterday and today I spent the afternoons taking photos of the girls. One of my assignments while I’m here is to take a complete set of current photos of the girls for their sponsors and big sisters. Each girl here has a sponsor (usually in another country) who pays for her school fees and a big sister (also usually in another country) who regularly writes to her and encourages her and to both of whom she writes letters back (good practice in English). So, without a studio, studio lighting, or studio backdrops, I’ve been trying to get portraits of the girls. They have been really amused by the entire process, as well as very self conscious as I try to pose them. Now, understand, my photographic specialty is landscape photography, so posing people for portraits is not something I have any expertise at whatsoever. But we’ve been having fun and laughing a lot while trying to get something recorded that they will be happy represent themselves to those who care for them.









While doing all this, the littlest ones were busy observing. Bridget clearly absorbed all the contortions of posing as she plopped herself into one of the Amani House chairs and proceeded to cop a pose. Of course I had to stop what I was doing and snap a shot of her.





















Not to be outdone, Mackenna had to get in on the action. Mackenna, however, is DEFINITELY a two-year old and not about to be told how to pose by anyone. Mackenna did her own thing - and I’ve got a whole series of photos to prove it. However, on slow Kenya internet, you’re only going to get to enjoy one!

Happy Easter from Hekima Place

It has been a lovely Easter here at Hekima Place. Father Bukenya came out and performed the mass here on site - lots of singing, dancing and celebrating our Lord’s resurrection. I love the way Kenyans incorporate dance into their worship. Many of the songs they sing are in Kiswahili and have so much rhythm and usually syncopation. Wish I could show you a video and you could see and hear what goes on. I guess the internet service here is just way too slow for uploading videos. I’ll just have to share when I get back. Several of the ‘uncles’ (the girls can’t get used to calling them ‘dads’, though we’re trying to make the switch because they need father figures) joined us for the mass so we had a really good crowd in Dominica Dining Hall. The weather in the morning cooperated, too - it was sunny and warm.

Yesterday I had gone into Karen to buy Easter ham and other needed items. After I got back here around 4 pm, I launched into the making of cupcakes for the 70+ people we expected to be feeding Easter lunch. This is particularly tedious when the only oven on the property accommodates only one 12 cup cupcake tin at a time! Thank goodness several of the girls wanted to help - I was particularly grateful for that around 9 pm when it was time to frost all those little buggers. Since it was late, I originally thought I’d leave them on the counter and frost them in the morning. But then I thought about the ants that seem to be everywhere, and the possibility of mice and I had visions of coming in in the morning and finding just mounds of ants or thoroughly nibbled and useless cupcakes. So I decided they really needed to go into the fridge, but they needed to be frosted to keep from drying out. So nothing would do but it all had to be completed Saturday night. But by 9:30 we had them all frosted, decorated (a pretty gummy candy and sprinkles atop each!) and in the kitchen fridge.

Although it was sunny in the morning, just before lunch, the skies opened up and it came a gully-washer. Everyone had to make a mad dash from the houses into the dining hall. What I thought was going to be a fairly simple meal of ham, mashed potatoes, and cold slaw turned into a belly-busting dinner of ham, chicken, mashed potatoes, cold slaw, rice and juice (meals are usually accompanied only by water to drink) with the cupcakes for dessert.  Mum Susan outdid herself - everything was delicious.  It was quite the feast! Those of the guys who weren’t in the middle of something they couldn’t leave came in and joined us. What a lovely huge family gathering!

The plan for the evening was to have a bonfire with a simple worship service and then make S’mores. It rained a good part of the afternoon, so there was some question about whether the bonfire would happen or not. We had, however, taken the precaution Saturday evening of moving all the fire wood under the roof of the dining hall courtyard, so we did have dry wood, if the rain would ever stop. And, blessing upon blessing, it did! By dinner time the sky was clearing and we moved all the wood out to the fire pit area. After dinner, the ‘uncles’ started the fire and everyone gathered round. One of the boarding school girls, Ann Waithera, had organized the simple worship service which consisted of  an opening prayer, a scripture reading (last chapter of Matthew, vs. 1-9) and singing. Ann and the other girls leading the worship lead the first few songs, all spiritual, then the girls all chimed in with their choices. When one song ended, someone would launch into another and everyone would enthusiastically join in. I videoed some of the singing (as much to record the sound as anything else - it was pretty dark, to say the least), but I guess those won’t be shared until I get back to the US.

By the time they ran out of songs, the fire had burned down enough to have a good base of ashes, perfect for S’mores.  So that’s the way the evening ended - and was that ever in interesting experience! I had a platter of chocolate and marshmallows and a big box of ‘Nice Biscuits’ (Brit’s influence - sweet crackers). Ever try to organize S’mores for 60+ girls? I had girls poking sticks at me form every direction, first to put marshmallows on them and then to pull the marshmallow off between two ‘biscuits’ with a piece of chocolate in the middle. At any given time, I was being (literally) pressed in upon by 20 or more girls each saying urgently “Mum! Mum! Mum!” with very sticky sticks all around. What a hoot! I think all had a good time and everyone got at least one good, sticky S’more to savor. Amazingly enough, I ended up with only a tiny bit of sticky marshmallow stuff on my jacket - I figured I’d be coated with it!

So that’s the way we celebrated Easter at Hekima Place here in Corner Baridi, Kenya! Hope your Easter was as blessed!

Bon Voyage Kate!

Kate left for the US Wednesday night and everyone, mums, girls, dogs had to come out to hug her and wish her farewell and safe travels. You’d have thought she was leaving permanently, not for just 5 weeks! She was sad to be going without at least a brief visit with all the boarding school girls, most of whom weren’t back yet. But five of them had already made it home before she left. So I, the five boarding school girls who were back and both puppies accompanied Kate to the airport for a fond send-off.

Thursday for the first time I was “in charge”. My first official act was to take two of the boarding school girls to the doctor at Nairobi Women’s Hospital in Rongai, down the road from Kiserian. Mr. Kinyua drove us there on his way to a meeting at one of the schools. His meeting was supposed to be at 9 am, but the girls didn’t even make it out to the car until about 9:50. On our way to the hospital, we dropped one of the mums off at a shop in Kiserian where they make sofas. Kate wanted 4 extra sofas for the houses because, with all the boarding school girls here, there’s not enough seating in any of them. She later reported that two or three of the sofas will be ready by Saturday, and that for about $100 each.

Kinyua dropped the three of us off at the hospital and the girls signed in as new patients, having never been there before. The registration form they had to complete was interesting because these girls are orphans. They had to list a “next of kin” and ended up listing me, relationship, their “mum”. That was a bit of a strange feeling for me! Anyhow, it wasn’t long before they each saw the doctor. Then, before any lab tests could be done or prescriptions doled out, I first had to pay. One of the girls has digestive issues and got a prescription for Nexium. To get the prescription, we turned in the sliip at the pharmacy where they wrote the price down. Then it was back to the cashier to pay before they would fill the prescription. The other girl needed lab tests to finalize the doctor’s diagnosis. So we waited while the specimens were collected and while the lab work was done. Finally she went back with test results in hand to see the doctor again. Finally several prescriptions were issued. Total cash paid for doctors, lab tests and prescriptions, about $60.

We were done by noon with the doctors, so I called Mr. Kinyua to learn that, although he was more than an hour late for his meeting at the school, it had just barely started. It’s known here as “Africa time”. So he suggested we take a matatu back to Kiserian where he would call and have someone from Hekima Place drive down and pick us up.

A matatu is sort of an 14 person van that runs like a bus along a certain route and into which typically 17-20 people are squeezed. My prior observations of them is that the drivers are crazy aggressive driving heavily loaded on these really bad roads. And this was my first experience actually riding in a matatu. The first one we saw looked to be full and drove off without us. The second appeared to be equally full, but stopped and we were waved inside. There were two people operating this matatu, a driver and a guy who directed passengers on and off and took the fares. He directed the girls to squeeze into the back. I was waved into the already occupied passenger seat in the front where the man who was sitting there holding a child accommodatingly moved toward the middle so I could share his seat. He got out before very long, but others got in, so I shared the seat the entire way to Kiserian. When folks wanted to get off, they banged on the roof of the van - and people were constantly getting on and off. After a couple of stops, we picked up three traditionally dressed Maasai men who were duly crammed into the back. Not long afterwards, the van stopped for apparent mechanical issues and we had to vacate the front seat. The seat as folded up and the guts of the van exposed, whereupon the driver and fare-taker guy proceeded to pull pieces of something that looked like a fan belt out of the engine area and toss them on the side of the road. While I was standing by the side of the road waiting for this operation to be completed, the three Maasai stared holes in me in a not particularly friendly fashion - I guess old Mazingu (white) ladies don’t often ride matatus with them. I would have loved to whip my camera out and take a photo of them, but was afraid I wouldn’t survive the experience! When the guys running the matatu were satisfied that they had all the belt pieces, they folded the seat back down, we got back in, and off we went. Apparently that belt was nothing essential! Before we arrived in Kiserian, the fare guy tapped me on the shoulder to pay for the ride - about $1.10 for the three of us.

We got into Kiserian and then walked from where the matatu let us off to the KCB (whatever that is) where we found the Hekima van and Mum Elizabeth. She then drove us back to Hekima Place since there aren’t regular matatus routes along the road to Hekima. Thank goodness the girls were with me. I had no idea how to get to KCB from where we got out of the van. Not to mention having no idea of how to negotiate travel by matatu!

Exciting news! Maggie, the girl we sponsor at Hekima Place, returned yesterday afternoon from boarding school and she and I had a nice reunion. She is at Excell School located on the other side of Nairobi from us. It is great to have the chance to catch up on all her activities and aspirations. Excell is near the airport and has one of the few programs in the country in aviation. Maggie thinks she wants ultimately to go into aviation management.

Random Scenes in the Vicinity of Hekima Place

Maasai at Crossroad Center, Karen

Maasai craft market at Crossroads Center, Karen

Maasai woman at Crossroad Center, Karen

Today’s entry will be a lot of photos and not much text. I thought you might be interested in the environs of Hekima Place. First of all, we live in Maasai land. Some dress in western garb, some in traditional clothing, and some in both western and traditional at the same time. Here is a photo of a couple of Maasai men at the Crossroads shopping center in Karen. The next photo is of the Maasai craft market at Crossroads. Notice the woman hiding her face. Maasai don’t like having their photo taken (some will accept money to be photographed) as they feel their image belongs to only them. There’s third image of a Maasai woman in traditional dress walking through the parking lot at Crossroads.

Cattle herded down the main street in Kiserian

Methodist goats?

It’s a pastoral economy here, so when you drive through the towns, you see lots of animals, including goats and cattle. The Maasai are traditionally herders and the number of cattle a man has determines his wealth (and how many wives he can marry). Donkeys are common beasts of burden, and you see them everywhere, either grazing beside the road, walking across streets, but mostly pulling loaded carts. This one has a cart of ‘jerry cans’ for water.

Charcoal kiosk in Kiserian

Fuel is expensive, so, as in Haiti, charcoal is a major source of energy for cooking. Here is a photo of a charcoal stand in town. It is interesting how they display their charcoal by stacking it up into little towers.



 The day before yesterday, I went out on my porch and found a large moth clinging to the rock of the outside wall. It was really pretty, so I took a photo. Later it spread it’s wings to reveal the back wings which were even more beautiful and colorful. I think it must have just come out of the cocoon, because it didn’t seem to be able to fly and didn’t fly away until late in the day. I was watching when it did, and, as it rose in the sky, a bird dived at it twice, but it kept on flying and the bird seemed to give up. Perhaps the large eye spots scared the bird away.

Anyone know what the name of this moth is?

Whup Whup bird

Every morning, I wake up to the calls of a large pigeon-like bird that perches on the peak of my roof. I have come to call it the “Whup Whup” bird because that’s it’s call. “Whup, whup, whup, whup, whup, whup, whup, whup, whup, whup, whup, whup,” starting softly, then getting louder and louder and finally trailing off.

Raven in chef's apron? or French Maid?

Another bird common on the Hekima property is a raven that looks like it has a white chef’s apron on, even to the white strap going all the way around the neck. Kate says she thinks it looks more like it’s wearing a French maid’s outfit. You decide.

Little Dogs and DOOM!

I tried many times yesterday and today to upload a movie clip of the dancing and singing at the Palm Sunday service, but it never did work. I am not happy with Blogger! You all have missed a treat.

It rained off and on all night last night and half the day today. Whooo Whoo! Maybe things will green up around here. Certainly this is one day we didn't have to spend time watering plants.

Kate has two terrier mix dogs who will be staying with me while she is in the U.S. Their names are Rafiki (friend in Kiswahili) and Zawadi (gift in Kiswahili) and they are sisters. Rafiki and Zawadi do their best to guard the property, but, although they bark at anyone or vehicle they don’t recognize, they’re both cute as can be and I don’t think they’d ever bite anyone. Once they have done their duty and let you know that they are in charge here, they are very friendly. They are so alike, but so different. They are about the same height and both have sweet brown eyes and wavy medium length blonde coats. Zawadi’s ears are floppy and her tail is only slightly curled. Rafiki has very expressive ears that perk up when she is interested in something and a tail tightly curled over her back. Zawadi is a bit pudgy and has been known to eat the best bits out of her sister’s food dish. Rafiki is less interested and more picky about food and thus the trimmer pup of the two sisters. Both like tummy rubs and back scratches, but Zawadi is more likely to be at your feet asking for a tummy rub while Rafiki is out chasing away more scary intruders. When they’re not sleeping on Kate’s couch or easy chairs, they have the run of the property. They are very good company and I am happy they will be sharing the Karibu house with me while Mum Kate is away!

DOOM! That’s the name of the bugspray Kate has on hand to do battle with the ants and other bugs that dare to come inside. It has been dry and the ants (tiny little guys) are coming in from every opening. Kate thinks it’s mainly for water, though it probably is as much for food. Everyone tries to stay conscious of the need for cleanliness so as not to attract them. But Friday night before Palm Sunday as we were preparing for doing the Friday night Lenten Stations of the Cross (yes, in spite of the fact that every girl goes to worship in the faith of her parents, we are still very Catholic around here), Kate noticed a very large number of ants moving in a thin line around the room along the bottom of the walls. So she went for the Doom. She was having trouble spraying it, so I took over. As I sprayed all around the dining room, I noticed my index finger was getting very cold as some of the spray bubbled up around the spray button, but I didn’t think much of it. When I was done spraying, I went to wash my hands and looked at my icy cold finger. I saw what I thought was foam on my finger, but when I went to wash it off, I realized it was frozen flesh! It thawed out quickly and painfully under the stream of water, but now I have a large freezer burn blister on the end of my index finger! At least it didn’t turn black and fall off! They must be using a refrigerant like freon as a propellant which would be illegal in the US.