BLOG 10, 17th Feb.
This morning I spent a time preparing photos and writing a report for Nigel and David. I have to do it so that Paul can read it and check it, so I have to be positive yet gently questioning in it.
Another enormous lunch here at the guest house … goodness me, these retired Mill Hill priests eat well ! After lunch I had asked Paul if we could go together to Dago Kakore school, which we visited last year with Gill and Nigel, where some people living in the Forest of Dean are sponsoring several students. They have sent me with little presents for them, so I wanted to make sure they got to them.
Paul arrived ON TIME in an enormous, borrowed, bright egg yolk yellow pick-up truck ! We got some petrol and drove out of the city to the north. As soon as well started climbing the escarpment it got cooler with more trees, and the rich red earth was being prepared for the planting. The school was about a 20 minute drive from town, and we met the headmaster and gave him the list of the students I needed to see. Some of them are grown men … and I took photos of them all to send to Gay and her husband who is sponsoring them. It is difficult to get photos of people here looking happy and smiling. They have to be so serious, so I joke and laugh and gently tease them until I get smiles ! They were very pleased with the little gifts from the Forest of Dean; indeed, two of the students and one teacher have visited Dene Magna as exchange students. It must have been a culture shock both ways !
Driving back into town, we saw the police were stopping vehicles on the other side of the road near the town market, and people were all running. It was soon clear that an important person was there speaking to the crowds, and so it proved … it was Raila Odinga, the prime minister and a Luo from this area. I held my camera up as we passed to try and get a photo, but only succeeded in getting his orange hat !
Paul escorted me to the ATM at the bank and stood guard as I withdrew Ksh 20,000 to start to pay for my stay here. A white woman seen withdrawing a lot of money from an ATM could be an easy target. I was taking no chances.
I passed the money on to Father Alois (from the Tyrol) after supper as he has a safe in his office. A big storm was brewing and of course, a power cut, both of which lasted for a couple of hours. I always carry my wind-up torch after dark as I've been caught a couple of times when the power has suddenly failed. It's part of my 'Africa' equipment, together with a small wind-up lamp, a sheet sleeping bag and a mozzie net. The storm was fierce, with tremendous claps of thunder which sounded as though they were in the roof, and brilliant lightning over the lake, and torrential rain. I decided I'd go to bed, and read by torch-light.
Father Hans Burgman lives here … he is around 84, and a retired Mill Hill father who began the work in the Pandipieri slums here about 30 years ago. He believed you couldn't help people from a distance; you have to be part of their lives, so he moved into a shack in the slums and slept on the floor with the cockroaches and rats, like they did. He is a quite amazing man, and I learn more about him as I read a couple of books he has written. He has walked from his native Holland to Compostela five times … each time, a distance of 6000 km, the last being when he was 68 or 69, and with a prosthesis hip joint. I know he has also walked from Mombasa to Kampala in Uganda at least twice, on a pilgrimage with a group from the church here. His sense of humour makes meal times most entertaining … at breakfast this morning he was asked if he slept well, and his reply was 'Yes, several times !' He walks with a shuffle now, and his hand twitches, for he has Parkinsons disease.
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