Did Not Understand Rules, Go Back to Start

Just found out that this story from a month ago never made it to publication. So check the date so the sequence with other stories makes sense. - Paul

New Year‘s Day 2009 – I’ll get to the title story in a moment, first a few other misc items.

I’m back for more blogging now that the power has been restored after 3 days. On New Year ’s Eve day whoever needed to showed up and reconnected the power so I can now charge and use my laptop. Not sure why they could not do it last Sunday because as far as I know nothing has changed. Father C had to cancel a Mass because he had to wait for the electrician to show up. I don’t know when this happen during the day as Joyce and I went to Homa Bay for New Year’s Eve.

Joyce and I went to Homa Bay for New Year’s Eve. Not really to celebrate, but to get away and visit with Dr. John. The kids stayed in Mbita and celebrate by going into town to the bar and roasting pigs in a blanket over a fire. They did a little more, but they can report on that. I thought I wouldn’t have any more public transport stories as me had experiences most of it already, but new stuff happens. Our trip to Homa Bay started off as expected – 8 passengers and 1 driver comfortable crammed into a cockroach. On the way we dropped one and picked up 5 for a total of 13. Still nothing surprising until we saw the lady headed for the front seat – she was one of the largest Kenyan women we have seen, and she was carrying a baby. It’s like seeing ‘that’ person walking down the aisle of the plane and to your relief, sit down 2 rows in front of you. Joyce and I glance at each other in mild amazement and amusement. The driver comes around, does sort of a double take, glances in the back seat, points at Joyce and says – “can you hold the baby?” Sure, she gets handed the about 1 year old baby and we are off. The babe is fine for about 90 seconds then starts crying not liking the situation. Soon she sort of crawls up, leans over the front seat back and lying on her mom’s shoulder while kneeling on Joyce. All is peaceful again, until the car pulls over and drops off the lady next to Joyce. At this the driver gets out and motions for the large lady to get out and get in back next to Joyce. I guess this is our payback for snickering to ourselves about the misfortune of the driver and passengers in the 2 front bucket seats.

Homa Bay was quiet and relaxing for us. A little internet since our Mbita connection is closed for the holidays. Only a couple quick or urgent e-mails sent. Then a lunch of chips (French fries) with Dr John and catching up on happenings and current events in both our lives. Back to the hospital and more visiting with John, staff and some of his boys. A lite dinner, a couple games of Yahtzee and off to bed, in the hospital, about 10pm. The next morning was not more exciting than the night before and we were back in Mbita before noon.

We have been using a Steripen UV light water sterilizing pen lent to us by the Sellkes from church. Thanks. Hard to believe a light you can not see can make your water, particularly Lake Victoria water safe to drink. While we usually use a second method also, such as Waterguard or boiling, it seems to work and as far as we know we have not been sick because of our water yet. We have used it as the only method some, but only with well water at the sister’s place in Sero.

Also we have passed out some the underwear that Maddy (hope I got that right) one of the young girls at church collected for us to hand out as needed. She collected over 50 pounds, removed from the package, all individually labeled, and in a suitcase ready for Ashley and Travis to bring to Kenya. The underwear was well received and a big hit. And we had people asking for it for days afterwards. Not only the kids who found out and didn’t get any, and the kids who did get some and lied to us and said they didn’t but adults looking for some for their kids. Sure some ended up with an extra pair, but better than then none at all. Thanks Maddy.

Some one please make sure N. H. and A. H. find out about this piece. If you get the significance of this story, you know whom I’m referring to and they’ll appreciate being told. Nick taught a few of the young boys who regularly hang with us about titty twisters. The battle waged for a few weeks with Nick getting the worst of it. Nick was badly out numbered 3 or 4 to one and they were relentless on going after him. He did get in a few good shots, but not nearly the number they got on him.

Now to the title story. The tale of the Polytechnic continues with an abrupt turn and several steps back. We got the Polytechnic Manager hired who seems on the ball and knows what needs to be done to get the Polytechnic up and going. We had 4 candidates, but he was the only one even close to qualified. We took him even though he as not been a Polytechnic manager before.

The first order of business was to hire some instructors. As previously mentioned, the advertisement for them was posted along with the one for the manager. John was all over this and was wanting 4 candidates for each of the 4 coursed that were being offered. We had 15 by the day of the interviews, some gave no contact info, some did not answer the phone when called and some were contacted and didn’t show. We still had enough in the Carpentry and Dressmaking to interview and have a decent selection, and we hired one in each area. Salary 5,500 shillings a month, about $80 US and housing supplied for one person. If they want a bigger place so the family can also be with them, they need to chip in some rent money and nothing will be available until the end of February. For masonry and metal work none of the candidates that came were close to being qualified so none were hired. Some candidates weren’t even close, as they applications they turned in showed, but John still wanted to interview them in person. A waste of their time and ours.

Joyce and I got to sit in on most of the interviews, and it was really not a very bad experience, unlike some of the committee meetings. The kids have been excused from all meetings by Joyce and I. It’s a waste of their time and just frustrating for them to sit though. Their time is much better spent in other areas, such as sing painting and fixing things up. We just bring their apologizes to the meeting and nobody seems to care much.

After the 2 instructors were hired, we, that is John the Manager, Joyce and I, tried to get some of the limited funds shook loose so John could get some stuff accomplished, such as get the all important ‘official’ rubber stamp, visit some NGOs and buy maybe a file folder or two for the manager’s office. The board would have none of that, they wanted to see a budget first and then they would act. We tried still to get a little released, but no luck. John and I said we would prepare one, for the first 6 months and have it ready for the next meeting.

Oops, I left a few relevant details out.
1) When Manager John was asked when the Polytechnic should open, he said Jan 5th, 2009 just like the other schools. This was on like Dec 15th he said this. Joyce and I were shocked questioned being able to be ready that soon. The board thought it was a good idea, so Jan 5th it was.
2) Father C and John discussed the fees to be paid by students. They wanted to be competitive with the surrounding Polytechnics. Since the kids would be cooking for themselves, they decided on 10,000 shillings ($130 US) for the year. Supplying food for the students would add another 10,000 per year to the amount and force us to buy food and have a cook, which would be too burdensome at this time. The board thought this was too high, we needed to lowball a little to attract students. So they said make it 9,000 / year.
3) Interviews for students were set for Jan 2nd, 2009.
4) There is 22,000 shillings ($260 US) in the bank that the Polytechnic has from when it closed.
5) It is the holiday season.
6) Just having 10 students start would be a good goal seemed to be the thought.
7) Most of the tools we have are in poor shape, if usable at all. Dressmaking has 4 broken sew machine stands (no machines), a pressure foot and 2 thimbles. A few tools are needed to start and show students we actually have enough that they can actually do hands on work.
8) Tools should really be purchased in Kisii, about 3 – 4 hours away, because they are cheaper, have better quality and actually have the tools available, where Mbita doesn’t, such as sewing machines.

Okay, back to the budget. This meeting was on Monday, Dec 22nd. I’m thinking Wed, Dec 24th, Christmas eve would be good. Friday the 26th at the latest. The board goes for Tuesday, Dec 30th. Holidays and trips are in the way, people won’t be around, Monday people will just be returning, etc, etc. Great, we need maybe a day to do the budget and have to wait 8 days for the committee to review and act on it.

John and I do a bare bones budget for 6 months. Start up tools and salaries are the big expenses. Revenue is only from student fees which aren’t always easily collected. Anyway, we end up with a 100,000 shilling shortfall. We wait for the committee to meet. They wonder about the shortfall, that can’t be, revenue must cover expenses they say and that needs to be addressed. I agree and say how does the committee plan on handling that. They seem shocked that they need to address it. Joyce and I are totaling frustrated as we have brought up the need for money at almost every meeting, just to be put on hold to a later time.

About this time they look at the number of students we estimated and say we shouldn’t be so aggressive on the number of students we are expecting. They say to use only 10 total for the first 6 months. We had planned on being up to 25 by 6 months and it would take almost 50 students just to pay the projected instructor and manager salaries and have a little left for supplies. BOOM, the shortfall goes to 200,000. Total expenses were only projected at 305,000, so revenue in the first 6 months will cover about one-third of the costs.

Then it’s decided that the whole 305,000 should be in the bank as collecting fees may just not happen with any level of certainty.

About this time John gets a call from one of the teacher’s husband who wants to move the whole family, including a couple of extra sisters into a house now, is it available. He had already been told the end of February for anything other than a small one room bedroom. He was at the meeting with his wife when we explained to them the housing situation. Selective hearing in Kenya is really prevalent.

The committee addresses the 300,000 as follows. The Diocese wants the Polytechnic opened, they should chip in 200,000. The Maier Family, maybe another 100,000. The committee with the help of the parish should raise the other 5,000.

“STOP” Joyce and I say. Frustration rises in us. Any time the Maier family and financial support has been mentioned, we have said it is not going to happen. We said it to the Diocese, the church committee, Father Charles, and the committee itself on more than one occasion. Joyce is near tears. Selective hearing is so bad, especially it seems when it comes to Mazungus and money. Both of us repeat again that the Maier Family is not here with a bankroll for them. They backtrack but we really wonder if they aren’t still expecting us to come through.

Okay, still need 305,000 shillings. The committee is bewildered. How can it fall upon them to have to work out this problem? Something must have gone wrong way back someplace. We tried to remind them that Joyce had reported from St Bernard’s manager that we should have 2-3,000,000 in the back before we start. Of course it was too early at that time for it to be relevant, or needed to be addressed. Ah, okay the committee (chairman) thinks, there has been a case of miscommunication here at the start. The Diocese did not make itself clear about this start up process and how the financial jumpstart was suppose to be handled. We need this addressed. Father Charles needs to get right on this. This needs to be resolved now, students are coming in 3 days for interviews, and classes start in less than a week. He needs to go to Homa Bay tomorrow (New Year’s Eve when he as a 8 pm Mass to be done) or Thursday (New Year’s Day – also a mass day and sure they will be open for business.) Father C is not even around, a big celebration for a bishop’s 25th anniversary is going on.

Joyce and I are appointed to talk with him when he returns later that night. We say a committee representative needs to be there. They 3 that showed up to the meeting agree to come back at 5 and wait for Father C to show. Father C said he hoped to be back by 4pm. Pius shows, the others don’t as expected. Father C gets in at 10pm, long after Pius has left and we are already in bed.

We catch Father C the next morning. Explain the situation and our frustration, particularly about not being heard about not being the financial backing. He seems to understand. Even mentions that is why he is reluctant to have us visit homes of families as they would expect money just because we are white. All he expects that the Diocese might do is loan the Polytechnic some money to start, but even that doesn’t sound promising. He’ll call and try to talk with someone, but doesn’t expect to be able to reach anyone until probably Friday the 2nd. For now, the recommendation from Father Charles is put it on hold. That’s as much detail as we got. Sorry John, you are caught in the middle.

We didn’t realize the committee was so clueless and that we had so little clue about how different here is from the US and how we needed to play our roll. The game directions were in some foreign language and translated by cheap off shore labor into broken English that is full of typos, misspellings and nonsense filled sentences. We missed step one, draw the chance card, get sent back directly to start, miss our next turn and start all over again.

This is a major set back. Can it be overcome? Maybe. We are still going to hold out hope. How long can we hold on? We don’t know but I’m sure it will be obvious when it’s time to let go. Tomorrow the student interviews start.




Doesn't look like I finshed this one. I'll get back to it -it looks like we may get power on a regular basis for a little while now.

Paul