You Can't be Serious!
I meet Tonny at TICH at 7am and we leave at 7:20, headed to the showgrounds, but first diverging to the airport to drop a couple of TICH guests. Our group of TICH graduates are leaving for Goma in the Congo today and because I’m joining them, Tonny will take over the details of preparing our exhibit at the agricultural showgrounds. Once at the show grounds, we hire an electrician and demand the landscaper removes the used fencing boards and put in new. We also demand new gravel instead of the dark, used gravel mixed with bits of soil and hay.
Tonny’s cell phone rings and it’s the school saying our group is leaving for the Congo at 10 am instead of Noon. We rush back to campus to find a hired matatu waiting. Then they say we must have a devotional before beginning our journey, so we all crowd into our chapel and the director reads from I Timothy, an epistle from Paul. The director says we are like the men in the scriptures; a warrior, an athlete and a farmer. We're pushing forward on our mission, to see the first batch of students graduate from our affiliate university in the Congo (we've partnered with Great Lakes University because Kenya’s Commission of Higher Education wants a bribe to give us a letter of interim authority, declaring TICH a university, and Dan, TICH’s director, refuses to pay bribes. So our partnership with the Great Lakes University enables our students to take classes in the master’s program. Now they’re graduating!!
For hymns, we sing “Count Your Many Blessings” and “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Everyone is praying for our safe passage and return. There are lots of handshakes and hugs and cheek-touching, first on one side, then the other. If the person is from the Congo or another country formerly colonized by France, then there’s a third cheek touch. We pile into the matatu, all 11 of us including the hired driver, and head off, stopping in town to buy snacks for the trip. Then we stop to get petrol. Then we stop at the next petrol station, not sure why. Finally, we’re heading out of Kisumu, around Lake Victoria, rolling toward Uganda, the gowns tucked snugly under the back row of seats.
We eat our snacks and pass them around. Sister Margaret is giddy about graduating. The roads aren’t bad, which means book reading is possible. We pass the newspaper around, everyone in high spirits. As we near Busia, close to the border, Ugutu’s phone rings. He talks for five sections and is off the phone. “The graduation has been postponed,” he says, “we are to go back.” Gertrude laughs and says, “Right, Ugutu. What was the call really about?”
“Turn down the music,” someone yells. “Pull off the road,” another says. “Call the director back.” So Lucas dials and puts the director on speakerphone as we all listen to him saying the university has postponed the ceremony until next week. We should go back to TICH. We’re all rather stunned and I feel especially badly for the students. Melvin came all the way from Malawi to graduate. Richard took a week off work. Others have flights that will need to be rearranged. Maureen will now have to go back to Nairobi and return a week later. ‘Oh crap,’ I think, ‘I have to go back and work on the show.’
We turn toward Kisumu. Within five minutes, they’re laughing again. I’m always impressed with how African’s deal with disappointment. Then we all decide there’s a reason we were delayed for a week. We decide there’s an excellent reason that will eventually reveal itself. For now, as a comfort and consolation, we decide to stop at a hoteli on the lake and eat fish. So we roll over a rough dirt road to the water’s edge and sit under a thatched shelter, watching cranes and other giant birds preen on the rocks in the water. Giant fish are brought out on platters, covered in masala sauce and sukuma wiki, served with ugali. Sister Margaret and I share ugali and the fish, along with Bavon.
Our bellies are soon full and our feelings are soothed. We can now proceed to TICH and resume work as usual, only minimally inconvenienced by the postponement. Just one more week and we’re off again. Next week, we’re leaving at 8am so we’ll be in Uganda by Noon, before they can call us back!
Tonny’s cell phone rings and it’s the school saying our group is leaving for the Congo at 10 am instead of Noon. We rush back to campus to find a hired matatu waiting. Then they say we must have a devotional before beginning our journey, so we all crowd into our chapel and the director reads from I Timothy, an epistle from Paul. The director says we are like the men in the scriptures; a warrior, an athlete and a farmer. We're pushing forward on our mission, to see the first batch of students graduate from our affiliate university in the Congo (we've partnered with Great Lakes University because Kenya’s Commission of Higher Education wants a bribe to give us a letter of interim authority, declaring TICH a university, and Dan, TICH’s director, refuses to pay bribes. So our partnership with the Great Lakes University enables our students to take classes in the master’s program. Now they’re graduating!!
For hymns, we sing “Count Your Many Blessings” and “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Everyone is praying for our safe passage and return. There are lots of handshakes and hugs and cheek-touching, first on one side, then the other. If the person is from the Congo or another country formerly colonized by France, then there’s a third cheek touch. We pile into the matatu, all 11 of us including the hired driver, and head off, stopping in town to buy snacks for the trip. Then we stop to get petrol. Then we stop at the next petrol station, not sure why. Finally, we’re heading out of Kisumu, around Lake Victoria, rolling toward Uganda, the gowns tucked snugly under the back row of seats.
We eat our snacks and pass them around. Sister Margaret is giddy about graduating. The roads aren’t bad, which means book reading is possible. We pass the newspaper around, everyone in high spirits. As we near Busia, close to the border, Ugutu’s phone rings. He talks for five sections and is off the phone. “The graduation has been postponed,” he says, “we are to go back.” Gertrude laughs and says, “Right, Ugutu. What was the call really about?”
“Turn down the music,” someone yells. “Pull off the road,” another says. “Call the director back.” So Lucas dials and puts the director on speakerphone as we all listen to him saying the university has postponed the ceremony until next week. We should go back to TICH. We’re all rather stunned and I feel especially badly for the students. Melvin came all the way from Malawi to graduate. Richard took a week off work. Others have flights that will need to be rearranged. Maureen will now have to go back to Nairobi and return a week later. ‘Oh crap,’ I think, ‘I have to go back and work on the show.’
We turn toward Kisumu. Within five minutes, they’re laughing again. I’m always impressed with how African’s deal with disappointment. Then we all decide there’s a reason we were delayed for a week. We decide there’s an excellent reason that will eventually reveal itself. For now, as a comfort and consolation, we decide to stop at a hoteli on the lake and eat fish. So we roll over a rough dirt road to the water’s edge and sit under a thatched shelter, watching cranes and other giant birds preen on the rocks in the water. Giant fish are brought out on platters, covered in masala sauce and sukuma wiki, served with ugali. Sister Margaret and I share ugali and the fish, along with Bavon.
Our bellies are soon full and our feelings are soothed. We can now proceed to TICH and resume work as usual, only minimally inconvenienced by the postponement. Just one more week and we’re off again. Next week, we’re leaving at 8am so we’ll be in Uganda by Noon, before they can call us back!
posted by Cindi at 2:15 AM
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