Dont Know Where The Road Leads

I Don’t Know Where the Road Leads

I’m having a hard time composing today’s blog. I know people don’t want to keep hearing bad news, but there’s nothing coming out of Kenya that’s even remotely good. Odinga is organizing a mass funeral for those killed in the riots, but then he’s calling for boycotts and other rallies sure to stir people to a frenzy again.
Yesterday a monastery got surrounded and the terrified priest placed an emergency call because they were being pelted by angry mobs. Seems the monastery is one of the places for the refugees. There are a quarter of a million refugees, mostly from the Rift and Nyanza Province.

This year was a good year for the crops which got harvested before the rioting started, but because of the holidays and then the rioting resulting in an inability to get the crops to the storage facilities, they are rotting in the fields or being destroyed by weevils. What kind of Karmic joke is that? They finally have a good crop but now they can’t get it to market.
AIDS, always a killer in Nyanza will rise in the camps. Women and children are the most vulnerable. What with the raping and all. They will also get malaria and diarrhea. The hospitals are so overcrowded, there are fears of a total health care melt down. (Not by the way that their health care is anything to write home about in the best of times). Seems all the shootings are really taxing the system. Yeah, love that shoot to kill order. 7 more were killed in Kisumu today.

Free education has taken a dive as well. Seems the government isn’t going to give free education if there are more than 45 students in a classroom. We were so optimistic for our children in our village that they could at least start school and when I went over I could bring the funds to cover what the government didn't. I’m not sure I understand the logic. of not paying if the schools are overcrowded. It hasn't stopped them in the past for primary school. I’ve given up trying to understand. And in Nyanza province where I work the schools are shutting down in preparation for more violence. People here can’t fathom what a tragedy that is for Kenyans. Kenyans value education more than anything else for their children. It is the future for them and they don’t take it for granted as we do here in the States.

It may seem odd to you all, but I need to get back there. My heart hurts so much that I feel like I’m going to explode. I want to embrace my friends in Kari and see them well. I want to traipse through the red mud of Nambale and touch every child’s head and show them that Mama Mnboga has not forgotten them. I want to laugh with Miriam and Eunice and drink tea. I want to know that Omari, shy, wise, quiet Omari is all right. And I want to go on as we always have, but I know we cannot. And I don’t know where the road leads now. But I still have a Dream! (And you know I was there that hot August day in Washington, holding my Daddy's hand when MLK uttered those words.) I still believe them!
Keep the faith y'all. Dreams take time.