Dear Sponsors, Greetings and I hope all are fine. I'm kind of writing in clusters, although when I get my act together I hope to have all the sponsors who have emails on a common send out, kind of like a newsletter thing. I will put everybody on as bccs in order to respect the privacy of people's email addresses. For now I'm sending in clusters, but I'm looking forward to getting everybody onto one string of bccs.
Although I was planning to return home anyway, things took a strange turn very abruptly and I'm now already home and just out of quarantine. When our Embassy offered an evacuation flight recommending American citizens take it as there wouldn't be another offer for many, many months, I booked it. I left very suddenly hardly having time to pack or say goodbye to people. The main part of the trip was 18 hours on an Ethiopian Airlines charter, 1 hour of that being a touchdown to refuel in Togo. It was jam packed and no entertainment on it ....by the end of the flight there was no soap or toilet paper or towels in the bathroom, and the toilet seat cover would not stay up so kept hitting your back, so of course I was worried about the virus. Plus the guys in the seats next to me were coughing. . We landed in Washington, D.C. at Dulles Airport and my connecting flight was cancelled, so I had to get to Regan Airport. From there I flew to Charlotte where there was a connection to Buffalo. So 6 county changes with check points to even get to Nairobi, six airports, 3 planes, 3 taxis ---- I would call that exposure. But now having no symptoms at the end of quarantine, I guess I escaped it for now.
Now we are following the sponsorship program procedure we had decided on ahead of time; that is, I will continue the project from here in Williamsville, New York, at our motherhouse, (which is now known as Fredonia Place of Williamsville). I am daily liaising with the social workers in Timau, as well as with our very good parish priest, Fr. Moses. He is a prince of a man and I'm honored that he's willing to help us keep our project going so that all our kiddos can finish school. That is my main aim, that they can all finish school.
School however is closed for now ..... all Kenyan schools as is the case here in the States. The government is saying they may open in June but I don't think that's very likely.
In the meantime our big thrust is to make sure all our kids have food, as many depended upon their schools for their food. Since large gatherings are banned, we cannot at this time continue our big group distributions, so we are instead working through a voucher program and through mpesa payments to shops on their behalf through which our kids can go and pick foodstuffs out. Daniel and Rosemary are our trusted social workers and Fr. Moses has, as I said, agreed to work closely with them. We are very lucky to have him. So the long and short of it is that all the sponsored children are being well cared for foodwise. Also the medical and housing programs are in effect.
The virus infections are happening much slower there and we don't know why. Maybe it's because Kenyans have had experience with pandemics like the sleeping sickness when their forefathers self-isolated, or the more recent Ebola epidemic during which Kenya struggled mightily to keep it out of its borders. It might also be due to the fact that sunlight and heat are deleterious to the virus. It might be because the majority of the population consists of young people. Whatever it is, the people are practicing social distancing and wearing masks, and are not able to move from one county to the other, and have to observe the curfew. Everybody's world is turned upside over there as here.
I watch Cuomo's briefings every day......he says, and it's so true, he just doesn't know what is next because this has never happened to us before. Am praying that treatments and vaccines will become safely and widely available sooner than later. It's a shame that your kiddos' educations are interrupted because they can't do home schooling there...many parents never finished school. And they don't have the gadgets for digital teaching. We won't know the way forward until we see what Kenyan officials decide. They seem to be following the best practices of the countries that were afflicted ahead of them, so I'm hoping for a better outcome.
This is a strange new journey we are all on but we just have to do our best with what we know. Kenya has not only the virus but also floods and mudslides and locust plagues to deal with, as well as violence and disruption where people can't accept the isolation, curfews, and lack of movement between counties etc. Just as we are getting protests here, so are they there. Some especially our people in the slums can't even follow the directives because they don't have soap and running water, they don't have masks, they're living with big numbers of people in single rooms and so on.
I'll keep you updated on your kiddos as information comes in from Father Moses and Daniel and Rosemary. They can't do home visits at this time but they meet them when they come in or call for help. In general, photos and letters from your children will resume when the schools open.
The baby nutritional program is also proceeding as we are using some non-earmarked funds for this. We are also lucky that now that both our cows have calved, the milk is enough for each one in the baby project to get a little milk every day.
Stay safe and healthy and pray for a good outcome of this all in the long haul. I read there are many other viruses out there (like 1.7 million) so this challenge may be the first of many. I hope our government prepares better for eventualities now that it's seen how fast these things can overtake us. Prayers and peace and love and joy in the midst of all this upset! God bless you all. Sr. Joanne
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