Couple of the boys clowning around, feeding each other
I had a great time at the village. A neighbor saw me walking toward the matatu stage and picked me up and took me almost downtown. I was able to catch a bus to the city center and get in a matatu going to Kitui. It is always fun to ride from Nairobi to Kitui since all the passengers are usually Kamba and are freaked out when I speak Kamba to them and the driver. We made it in about three hours to KwaVonza, the little town before Kitui where I jumped out. I called one of the motorbike drivers when I was on the matatu to tell him I was on my way and to get a ride to the village – 14 km from where I jumped. Musyoka took me to the guesthouse where I was warmly greeted by friends and co-workers from the past. Then I took the walk to Cluster 4 to find Benerd and Mwendwa (who are like other sons to me). These are two of the kids I came to see especially. They were home from secondary school. We talked about life and school and the village. Ben’s 17-year-old brother Charles Darwin is asleep and that is not like him to sleep in the middle of the day. I wake him and he looks up at me “Ed, is it really you or are you a dream?” Charles has an eye infection and his only relief from the pain is sleep.
Picture of Benerd above.
I went with Ben to the clinic. Ben wouldn’t want me to share this but doubtful if he’ll read this blog – Ben has a cyst of some sort on the back of his ear. I’ve been concerned about it since I met him in ‘07. It is growing in size and he went to the clinic to get a letter from the nurse. The letter is to be taken back to his school on Monday (about four hours away!) asking that he be released from “tution” (which is like tutoring over the break.) All 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students don’t get their full break but come to school to study. Anyway the letter asks that Ben not be made to attend so he can go to Kitui Hospital to have his ear checked. If agreeable with the school, he gets back on a bus and comes back to the village. I asked – “why cant the village call the school and save the long trip and expense?” Ben’s response “I am not aware.” So anyway, Ben will call me when he finds out what is happening. My hope is that he will come to Nairobi to have it removed and I can be with him. Ben is 16. After waiting for a couple hours for the letter, we got cleaned up for Holy Thursday church. It is to start at 3pm (said one of the Brothers of St. Joseph who are stationed nearby the Village.) Ben and I get there after 4pm and we are early. TIA. The mass lasts until dark, washing feet and such. Then we head to Ben’s home to hang out with friends. The grandmother of the house has gone to her rural home so there is no adult authority in the house. Nevertheless, dinner is cooked. Clothes are washed. Water is hauled and firewood cut. Everything goes on as usual by the kids. I am given my “big chair” out of respect and a huge plate of rice and beans is served with three spoons. One spoon for me, one for Benerd and one for Mwendwa who dropped in from next door. We make plans to meet the next morning to go looking for monkeys.
At 6:30am I meet Benerd and Mutuo to look for monkeys in the main farm and woods. We almost never see monkeys. That’s not the reason we go looking for monkeys – It is to talk and walk and share stories. This time we did all that and still saw some baboons and monkeys. Later that day we met up with the rest of the village for The Way of the Cross. It was to start at 2pm outside at the main gate to the village. I got there at 3:30 thinking we’d be to the seventh station but . . .it hadn’t started yet. We finally began after Fr. Julius made me remove my cap. I kept pointing to the sun, which would burn my balding head, but he persisted. It was Good Friday. I could suffer a little sunburn. The Way of the Cross led into mass, the reading of the Passion and darkness. That afternoon I was able to talk with Mwendwa. Mwendwa is 17 and a “freshman in high school.” Since he was from the same area as Benerd, I asked him about Ben’s parents. He remembered them both, when Ben’s dad died, when Ben’s mom died, when his own father, mother and brother died. It was all so sad yet he spoke resolved to the fact that death is so much a part of life in Africa. If Mwendwa returned to his rural home (which he does sometimes) he would find it empty, even his bed is gone. It was a good talk and I promised to come visit him at school on parent visiting day. He is so smart! He missed four years of school providing for his brother and sisters when his mom and dad were so sick and after they died. But he is now always at the top of his class. He says he will be either a lawyer or an accountant, depending on how his test scores progress.
This morning I met with the kids in cluster 4, shoved some shillings to Benerd for a computer book he needed for school and took off home for Athi River on a motorbike, knowing I wont have the opportunity of seeing the village kids again this trip to Kenya. Even if I visit the village, they’ll be away at school. I’ll miss them.
Here at home I cleaned the floor AGAIN and did some laundry, trying to get out the Kitui dirt from my jeans and socks. Tomorrow I meet up with Mwololo in Machakos for Easter Sunday. Alleluia.
