So it’s come to the time when I step back into the 21st
Century a bit at a time. I’m sitting on the bed in my room at St. Anna’s Guest
House in Kisumu killing time before my flight to Nairobi early tomorrow morning. The rainy
season seems to be setting in again. It’s a dark grey evening in Kisumu and the
rain has been on a steady drizzle for the last hour or so. St Anna’s has
developed a lot since we first started coming here. I’m in room eighteen
tonight, one of the rooms in the original building. As well as adding another
block of rooms each room now has a TV in it. There’s nothing on except bad rap
videos so I’m watching a video of U2 from a recent Glastonbury festival. It’s a bit of a tenuous
link but I know Bono, U2’s singer is a big advocate for Africa.
It always feels slightly surreal sitting in the relative luxury of a room with
TV, electricity and a warm shower after spending time in rural Kosele. Our
neighbours are still working on witchcraft as a plausible explanation for the
sudden death of a young mother whose son we are now caring for. I think the story
has taken a new twist since the death as there seems to be some intimation that
a genie is involved somewhere along the line as well. Meanwhile the U2 light
and sound show flashes in the corner of my laptop screen reminding me of an
even more bizarre world that I am returning to.
The journey from Kosele to Kisumu today presented, as always, an
interesting and ever changing panorama of people, funny road signs, skinny cows
and insane matatu drivers hurtling along the road apparently oblivious to the
safety of their passengers. Children played by the side of the road, one
skilfully pushing a bike wheel, (minus tyre), along the dirt track with a metal
rod. Happy as Larry, totally engaged in what he was doing. Old men stood sticks
in hand, watching over their small flocks of sheep and herds of cows like old
men have since time immemorial. Ladies sat by small piles of vegetables waiting
for customers. In all the time I’ve done this journey I don’t think I’ve ever
seen a transaction being made at one of these roadside businesses. Prize for
the funniest sign today went, I think, to an advert for paint, painted on a wall in Kisumu. If the sign artist had started the last line of the advert about a
foot to the left of where it was he would have fitted the last letter of the
last word on and would have made a bold claim. As it was the last line claimed
that the paint was “The toughest on the plane”. I hope they used it on the
plane I’ll be traveling on tomorrow morning.
There is a craft market in Kisumu which sells the full range of craft
souvenirs that Kenya
has to offer at much lower prices than the airports. We stopped so that Mary
could buy some small soapstone hippos. These are good sellers at church and
help us to raise funds. I no longer get
involved in buying them. Mary our manager knows what sells best and is able to
buy the hippos for a much cheaper price than I do. She doesn’t create the
'Mzungu inflation' effect. We managed to buy the smaller hippos for 30 shillings
each today. Just after we had pulled up and parked discretely under the shade of a
tree a bus full of bona fide tourists pulled up and poured out. You could
almost feel the sense of anticipation growing in the craft market. A couple of
guys came running in to the entrance, eager to man their stalls before the
bonanza opportunity passed. As we were leaving the tourists were still shopping. I hope the stall holders had a good day.
As I look forward to fairly lengthy waits for flights in Nairobi and Dubai tomorrow U2 have
got to the crowd sing-along of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,
(link below). It’s probably my favourite U2 song and seems like a good anthem
for our neighbours in Kosele. We’re still looking for ways of helping the
children we care for to really make the most of their potential and make a
difference in their country. As long as we keep looking together I’m sure we’ll
get closer to a real, lasting solution to the problems that are drawn to our
attention in Kosele so frequently. This visit I’ve felt that we’ve taken some
more firm steps in the right direction. We’ve grown some strength in our legs and
will keep going. As long as we continue to love God and love our neighbours I
believe we can do the impossible and achieve our dream of inspiring hope in a
new generation and kindness where the harsh reality of life in rural Africa would drive it away.
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