Every once in a while just stepping out of the front door of my house is the start of an unbelievable series of events. Tonight, at about six pm I guess I stepped out of the door and spotted Ian and Duncan (friend from Scotland and Farm Manager respectively), having a chat outside the office door. I joined them. As we spoke a wind was picking up and it looked like we could expect rain fairly imminently. Our manager Mary had been away from the compound for a short while and we needed to make a decision about who to send to a local hospital to stay overnight with one of our girls who has been suffering from malaria and put on a drip. Ian and Duncan were just finalizing the details. Given the likely turn of the weather we decided that the best bet would be to send Janet, our Stores Manager, fairly quickly on a motorbike to avoid the chance of dropping the Landrover off the road again. (See previous post from May). Just as the decision had been made Ian's wife Hilda returned from a visit in the community and told us that an elderly man, who had previously been treated at the same local hospital, had collapsed by the side of the road and would need transporting to his home in Kosele, just up the road. Ian and Duncan took the Landrover to pick up the old man, Mary arrived back with a motorbike for Janet and all seemed set for a satisfactory conclusion to the evening's 'cases'.
At some point during the comings and goings of Mary, motorbike, Janet and Landrover a young woman with a small baby had slipped in through the gate and sat down to wait for a chance to present her case. The unbelievable bit started to develop at this point. Over the course of the next hour and a half her story unfolded. She spoke no English so Mary and Ishmael, our night guard, translated between them. It was obvious from early in the proceedings that the young woman had some mental health problems. She told us that she had been to Oyugis, (our local town) because somebody had told her that a man there was in search of a wife. Despite being married to two men already (according to her account) our young visitor had taken herself to Oyugis from her home, some distance away, as she was desperate to get married. She was disappointed to find out that the man was married already (though it sounded like he treated her considerately when she spoke to him). She had walked from Oyugis in our direction on her way to her home. Somebody she had spoken to told her that if she came to see us she could receive assistance, hence her visit.
It was quite a difficult job to get any sense from the young woman. She was clearly very poor and hadn't eaten properly for a while. She made quick work of bread, milk, tea and peanut butter sandwiches as we talked to her. As Mary became more sure of the story it turned out that our visitor came from a village where one of Mary's aunts lived. Mary asked if the young woman knew the Aunt and was surprised to be told the nickname that the Aunt was known by. A couple of phone calls later and Mary was speaking to the Aunt, who was visiting Nairobi. The Aunt confirmed the girl's story and was able to fill in some of the details that Mary hadn't been able to establish. There is very little assistance for the mentally ill where we are. Mary's Aunt said that our young visitor frequently absented herself from her home and went wandering, seeking assistance where she could find it. This pattern of behaviour clearly leaves her in a very vulnerable position.
The young lady is now spending the night in a small rental house just over the road from us. In the morning Mary has arranged for a lady who lives in the rental houses to escort our young friend in a taxi to Kendu Bay (a town by Lake Victoria about seven kilometres away). Once in Kendu Bay she will be put on another taxi heading to her home. Mary was worried that just giving the girl the required fares would not ensure that she reached home safely. She'll take with her the clothes for herself, baby clothes and blanket that we were able to find for her this evening.
This young lady's story is not uncommon. We've come across similar hardship cases before. Sitting in our guards' hut listening to the story unfold and seeing how much hardship she had suffered made me think again of Thomas Hardy and his tales of rural woe and tragedy. You really couldn't make it up. The Mary connection was the most bizarre coincidence. It made me think that this young woman's visit wasn't just by chance.
In Matthew 25 Jesus explains our responsibility to the poor and needy. "Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, "When did we give you something to eat or drink? When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear or visit you while you were sick or in jail?" The king will answer, "Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me." (Matthew 25:37-40). Ragged, confused and no doubt mistreated and exploited this young women matters to Jesus.
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