WEEK ONE:  Part I

After celebrating the Holy Eucharist at All Souls on Sunday 13^th July we set off up the M4 for Heathrow, and the ‘journey of a lifetime’. Following all the security rituals we found a nice spot overlooking the apron and relaxed to await boarding and departing Heathrow at approx 8.30pm.

We had, ahead of us, an eight and a half hour flight and we were to arrive at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi at approx 6.30a.m. the next day. Anybody who does maths will quickly work out that these times do not correlate, that is because of a two hour time difference. We flew with Kenya Airways, whose advertising line is ‘The Pride of Africa’. Both ways were very comfortable flights, with good meals and in-flight entertainment. A movie or two later, some shut eye and we were beginning our descent into ‘Darkest Africa’.

It was at this stage that I (Phil), began to develop a very jippy tummy, and started rushing to and fro to the smallest room. After several such trips, I was sternly spoken to by my wife, and settled back in my seat. On disembarking I became increasingly worried as to what it was I was letting myself in for. My wife who is the adventurer, and the trip was to placate a childhood urge to do missionary work in Africa. We joined the long queue to go through Immigration Control, in a rather dark and dismal part of the airport complex. Following this, we then joined the crowd ‘carousel gazing’, awaiting the vision of our baggage. We collected each and every one of our bags. I then become even more agitated, what would I do if Bishop Joseph was not (immediately) recognisable and waiting for us, directly on the otherside of the door marked ‘EXIT’. It was at this rather traumatic moment that my minder (Sian) decided that she urgently needed the toilet, and I just wanted to get on, so I waited for her leisurely return.

The intrepid travellers are reunited and gingerly make their way towards the doorway that leads to ‘Darkest Africa’ – we step through and we find ….there, waiting for us the Rt.Revd. Joseph Mutie Kanuku, Bishop of the Diocese of Machakos in the Anglican Church of Kenya. Phew! What a relief – as we load our luggage into the car and set off. We have arrived – there’s no going back now, whatever we find!

As we leave the airport complex, the Bishop prepares us for the poor state of the roads that we will encounter in the next four weeks. No preparation would ever be adequate for what we actually endured on some of our journeys in the more rural and mountainous areas of Machakos Diocese. After about twenty minutes, we arrive at our first port of call, the Parish of Athi River, the parish is centred around a small local shopping area, the main employment in Athi River is a large cement factory, ‘Blue Triangle’, which dominates the town. We meet the Vicar (who is also the Rural Dean), his Curate and various Parish Officers. This would include the Churchwarden who is the Personnel Officer at ‘Blue Triangle’

The First thing we saw was a tree, surrounded by seats, and we were told that this is where the first meetings were held to pray about, and to plan for the building of the first church in Athi River. This tree has such significance to the local people, that simple seats have been constructed around it, and this area is still used today, to meet with young people and to share prayers. We were then shown into the ‘tin tabernacle’, which was the current church, very typical of a Kenyan church. We were then led to the part constructed new church, much larger, to hold up to 1,000 worshippers. This was the first of very many new church building projects that we wee to see during our stay. This would be a very spectacular building when completed, they hoped that by the end of the summer to have completed the roof structure (it was currently open to the elements).

It was now time for an early breakfast in the Vicarage, here we were presented for the first time with the African ritual washing of hands before we could eat. A lady with a bowl and a jug of hot water was to become the regular prelude to any meal. This was done in front of everyone else present, so that they could witness that your hands were clean. No knives and forks are used, everything is picked up and eaten by hand, therefore it is important to be seen to be clean. We met so many people at this gathering, people who were to be with us for many of our adventures in Machakos.

We learned another important aspect of Kenyan culture, and that is that it is not normal for males to enter the kitchen. If a man goes into the kitchen, it is a sign that he is abused by his wife and that they don’t have a proper relationship. They were quite enthralled when Sian explained how different, in this respect, our culture is.

Our breakfast consisted of bananas and various other fruits, jappatti’s – which are like a kind of savoury pancake, Kenyan porridge – very different to our porridge. Here they make it with maize and hot milk, it has quite a thick lumpy consistency, and is an acquired taste. Kenyan tea was another experience that we were first introduced to here – this is tea made with tea bags and boiled milk, the locals drink it with lots of sugar.

We were then joined by Josephine, the wife of the Bishop who was hosting us. This was a very warm and emotional reunion, renewing our friendship, begun in St.Thomas Parish in 1998. After a little while, we set off for the Bishop’s residence in Machakos town, some 30 kms away. By this time it was almost noon, and we were beginning to feel quite weary. We arrived, and were shown to our temporary home for the next few weeks. A double bedroom, no carpet, and concrete floors, we had our own shower room, but the Bishop could not afford to run the hot water system, installed in the house. Each morning we were to get a knock on the door, and be presented with a large plastic bucket of hot water, to be used for washing. We were also presented with a small bottle of Dettol, and told that if we throw the water over our heads, in the form of a shower. We were to add a few drops of Dettol to ‘kill all known germs’ that might be in the water. Bottled water was to be used to brush teeth, and only water that had been boiled was to be drunk. This is why locals drink large quantities of Coca Cola, Fanta and other sealed, bottled drinks, which they referred to as soda.

After these initial instructions, we were to rest for approx 3 hours, before being taken to the Diocesan Office, about 1.5 km away, to meet some of the Diocesan staff and to discuss the planned itinerary. And to have yet more food! Here we were introduced to food that was to become our staple diet, offered wherever we went, meat stew, with rice and jappatti’s, followed by fruit, often bananas, mango and paw paw.

By now it was mid afternoon on Day 1, and our itinerary said ‘rest’, but the Bishop suggested a visit to a local hospital. We had given the Bishop a long list of things that we wanted to experience, that we had to somehow make up time. We went just around the corner to Machakos General Hospital, structurally and in layout like Hill House Hospital (a small cottage hospital in Swansea). There we met the Chief Executive Officer, who set up a very interesting meeting with the Senior Nursing Officer. We were told about the work that the hospital does, and particularly looked at the AIDS/Hiv situation. A great deal of work had been done on treating those suffering from this dreadful disease, and they had managed to reduce its prevalence from affecting 31% of the total population to now 6% affected. Sian was very interested to hear of the outreach programme into the community, and the Physiotherapy Clinic which we toured. She was able to reassure the Physiotherapist that we were using similar equipment, albeit more modern and better quality versions.

After quite an interesting visit to the hospital, we briefly return to the Bishop’s house, to collect Josephine, for we are now going for Dinner at 8pm in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kihumba, Vice-Chairman of All Souls Cathedral. Mr. Kihumba is the Plant Production Manager for the local Coca Cola Company in Machakos, and his house is within the factory compound. Cocal Cola has recently made a commercial decision to close it’s plant in Machakos, and to concentrate production in Nairobi City. Mr. Kihumba was overseeing the final stages of the de-commissioning of this plant. We drove up poor roads to a large security facility, with guards and locked gates at the entrance to the factory compound. Again, this was to be something that we were to see at most private homes, locked gates, with security watchmen both by day and night.

I am afraid that by the time we arrived at the Kihumba’s, when we saw a lavish spread of yet more food, and more guests to socialise with, both Sian and I were very tired, and craved for sleep. The first very long day in Kenya finally came to an end at 11pm. The last time we had slept was about 48 hours earlier.

Day Two began with a little disappointment, as Sian had been given permission by the Senior Physiotherapist to sit in on a consultation with a stroke patient. As Sian’s main patient base is stroke patients, this was something very interesting to her and close to her heart. Unfortunately, the patient didn’t turn up – apparently a public transport problem.

The day got better, later we visited a very different hospital, Nairobi General Hospital. Before leaving Tycoch, I visited Sketty Primary School to tell the children of our trip. Rather interestingly, one of the teaching staff told me that she was born in Kenya. She went on to tell me that her father had recently passed away, at his funeral she heard this story for the first time. He had (some 35 yrs ago) a bicycle shop in Nairobi. One day on his way to the shop, he saw a local being mugged in the street. He intervened, but ended up being stabbed 16 times, he was rushed to Nairobi General Hospital, where it was thought unlikely that he would survive. One of the reasons that he did survive was that he received large quantities of blood, the gentleman telling the story was the donor of that blood. This lady asked that if we would visit the hospital with a financial donation, in thanksgiving for the great recovery of her father all those years ago.

We were very glad that Bishop Joseph was able to set up such a visit. We were met by Winnie Wakoli (Credit Manager), who took us to meet Mr.Isaac Litali (Director of Finance). We were able to give the donation, and Mr. Litali very kindly gave us a tour of some wards within the hospital. The donor had asked that this money be used for work with children, so we first visited the Paediatric Ward where the money will be used. We also visited a general Medical Ward and finally the North Wing, which is for private patients who pay approx £150 per night. For this they get one-to-one nursing care, a suite of rooms and a huge bathroom, complete with bath and shower. These suites were of an exceptionally high standard in terms of facilities and décor. Before we left the hospital we had a very interesting meeting with the Hospital Matron, Mrs. Janet Mathiu. Interestingly three of the nurses we spoke to(including the Matron), had all visited Swansea.

We went to the ACK Guest House for lunch, this is a fully equipped Guest House with conference facilities and a restaurant, in the middle of Nairobi, run by the Anglican church. After lunch we visited the ACK Provincial Offices, we met Mothers Union workers, and AIDS/Hiv workers. We were told how the problem is lessening, but that there were increasing numbers of Aids orphans. There were more and more of these orphans who have lost both parents to Aids. This complex of offices is shared with the United Nations Organisation, and in the car park there were several of the white vehicles with the large UN letters on the side of them.

This day was to provide a rather distressing image of health provision, when we visited Jomo Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi. The Bishop was told that a vicars wife had suffered a dreadful road traffic accident. We visited an adult surgical ward to visit her. What we saw were patients topped and tailed, two to a single bed. Patients were also laying on mattresses on the floor in the ward and also in the corridor outside. Sian was quite shocked, she was later told that hospitals are a matter of last resort, where people go to die.

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All Souls Tycoch

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