Dear Friends

Greetings from Ewuaso Kedong.

No doubt you will have heard on the TV and in your newspapers about the terrible state of affairs here in Kenya since the elections of one month ago.

It is truly sad to watch a country pull itself apart. However while you see the ‘highlights’, here on the local TV channels we see far more and we hear from friends and friends of friends what is going on in so many different parts of the country, atrocities so bad that they can only be called inhuman. But for every death there are a hundred or more events where people, who have lived in an area for thirty or forty years have had everything taken from them because ’ethnically‘ they were not from that part of the country originally. So many others have received a note, a visit in the night or a warning from neighbours and are given anything from 12 to 24 hours to leave the area. Most leave for a place of safety, which is often a refugee camp, with as much of their earthly belongings as they can carry and nothing else, their lives in pieces.

We have been blessed here in the parish in that we have had none of the violence that has wrecked other parts of Kenya. Only in one mass centre, which is on the very border of the parish have been some cases of intimidation and about half of our Christians (who were not ‘ethnically’ from that district) have decided to go back to their own parts of the country. Hopefully this is temporary.

Our chief has been instrumental in keeping the peace in that he has been going around telling everyone that no one is going to be sent away from here and encouraging the people to be examples of peace to other areas. The other thing that helps is that among the local people here the vote between the two parties was split about 50/50 with even members of the same family voting for different parties.

For those of you who have been reading this Newsletter for some time you will remember that this has not always been the case as just three years ago we had our own clashes between different tribes over water rights. Twenty seven people lost their lives in that short outburst of violence.

What I see happening now is the same tactics as I saw then only on a much larger scale. It is probably because of the experience of three years ago that the local chiefs knew they had to act quickly and decisively to prevent the same happening albeit on a much larger scale.

Before all this began I had been out of the country in November for ten days for the beatification of Antonio Rosmini, the founder of my religious congregation. It was a very moving event and I was privileged to be present at it.

After returning I very busy catching up with work and then with the usual Christmas preparations and work and so I did not get the time (or have the energy) to send you Christmas greetings. On the 26th my younger brother arrived for a visit. The next day elections took place and he spent some days in the parish. We tried one day to go to Nairobi but had to turn back after an hour and a half of the journey as we met other motorists evacuating the city using both sides of the highway.

Luckily he had visited twice before and so had seen Kenya already, as the only parts of it he saw this time was the road to and from the airport and the road to the border with Tanzania. He treated me to a 6 days holiday in Zanzibar.

Thanks be to God we travelled to and from Tanzania without any trouble and found in Tanzania that when people saw the Kenyan car they sympathised with us.

I hope if he is reading this he won’t take this the wrong way….. but I was relieved when he left as I was very afraid with the current situation here in the country that anything would happen.

Update on Projects

With some of the money we have received we have been able to replace the pipes for an old water connection that was coming to our plot, that had a long time ago ceased functioning.

The pipes passed through the Government Dispensary and so they now have water thanks to your generosity.

Local Primary School

In Newsletter n. 13 I wrote of our desire to be able to help the local primary school improve themselves a bit and I can now announce that last week we received a generous donation from Margaret Mc Donnell from Galway in Ireland.

Over the last year Margaret has been holding various fund raising events in aid of the parish and when she heard of this project she expressed the wish that the money be put to use for it.

We have already met with the head teacher and the chairman of the school board and agreed to start, hopefully before long.

Many thanks to Margaret for all your work, I know fund-raising is not an easy job. Thanks also to all the people who gave to your events.

More news on this as the project starts.

Saikeri

Saikeri is one of our mass centres which has grown enormously over the last three and a half years and now we are ready to start fencing the plot and to renovate the broken down rooms there so as a catechist can begin living there. We have also been granted a water connection from the local government water project. Also we have received some help from the Vatican to build the church where the people will be able to worship, instead of under the shade of a tree. This donation covers about half the price of the church but again thanks to you who have been donating money for the work in the parish this project is able to go ahead and we hope to have it completed by the end of April this year.

Montessori Teacher Training

Three girls, two from Ewuaso and one from Kibiko headed off on the 14^th of January to Lushoto in Tanzania to a Montessori Teacher Training College run by the Sisters of Our Lady of Usambara. The course is a two year course and we hope all goes well. When they return it is hoped that they will be able to teach in our school.

For this first time I brought the girls down in my car accompanied by Sr. Eliza who is in charge of our Kindergarten school in Ewuaso. The girls were nervous as they had never been out of Kenya before and never travelled so far from home. They were also concerned as they might not get news on the ongoing trouble in Kenya.

Kindergarten School

The number of people who brought their children for a place in the Kindergarten School this year far out numbered the few places which were available.

Sr. Eliza, the committee and the teachers tried to be a just as possible in the distribution of places. The total number of children this number 65. These are surely signs that more class rooms and teachers are needed.

Christmas

In Ewuaso, this year as every year, the last mass is celebrated on Christmas day and the people all gather for to celebrate the feast together as a community.

Below some photos of the day.

One of the children baptised on Christmas Day in Ewuaso

The women distributing the food after the mass

Two parishioners enjoy their Christmas meal

And so, rather belatedly I wish you all every blessing in this year.

Many thanks to all who have shown their love and concern by enquiring about my welfare in this difficult time in Kenya. Please pray that peace may return to Kenya…. And soon.

God bless you all

John

As always:

Donations are always needed and appreciated and can be sent to:

Fr. Patrick Pierce I.C.

Rosminian House of Prayer,

Glencomeragh House,

Kilsheelan,

Co. Tipperary,

Ireland

Tel: + 353 52 33181

Or directly to

AIB Bank 65/67 O’Connell St.,

Clonmel,

Co. Tipperary

A/c Name: IPIC Ewuaso

A/c No.: 40016297

Sort code: 93 53 79

Or in the U.S.A. to

Fr. Christopher Fitzgerald I.C.

St. Francis of Assisi Parish,

P.O. Box 1218

Seffner,

Florida 33583

U.S.A.

Tel: +1 813 689 4241