Hi All,
Just an update on what went on during the visit to Brian's home on Sunday the 24th, I will just try and state as much as possible not in any given order. so forgive me for that.
His home or rather his grandmother's place is at a place called Lun'ganyiro around the border between Kakamega and Busia counties. To get there one has to connect from Bungoma and get a Matatu heading to Busia, especially those passing through nambale. If driving, from Bungoma one takes the road to Mumias and take a right turn at a place called Mayoni on to the Mumias - Busia road straight to Lung'anyiro.
From the main lung'anyiro center one moves around 500 meters to another center called El-Nino and from there you branch in and walk a distance approx 500 meters to the homestead.
A bit of background on Brian, at least what I managed to gather; his father passed away when he was about 2 years old and from there he was taken in by an uncle (his mothers brother), the uncle them moved to Nairobi where Brian attended uhuru gardens primary school upto to class 5, and then he was moved to a boarding school (st augustine, hope I got that right) back in Mumius, where he sat his KCPE.
I managed to meet the Grandmother and Brian's Mother during the visit, they were separate because the Mother happened to have been admitted to Matugu sub county hospital on Friday, and she requested that I pass by the hospital to see her, which I did since she is the only parent and it would have been good to talk to her and also because she had insisted that at least I pass by to see her.
Primary school fees was being paid by relatives contributions, well I got a bit confused by that, so I asked if the relatives would continue to ay for high school but I got the impression that help was not forthcoming from the same, I did not dig much into it since it was getting to personal family issues.
Looking at the immediate family of Brian, his grandmother who is not working and definitely can not afford the school fees, and then Brians Mum who is sickly, is not working and can not afford his school fees, but there is an extended family who maybe can afford to see him through though I don't know the willingness from the that side, so its a case of 2 extremes, the immediate family that is needy and qualifies for help, and a part of the extended family that maybe can afford, and has been paying his fees for primary school but whose willingness to continue is not certain.
I will leave for all of us to give feedback on that issue.
I arrived at Lung'anyiro health center, where I had been asked to wait at around 10 in the morning and using the contact person, actually the one who notified the group via Leona of Brian's case, a lady called Imani who happens to be Brian's cousin, the ones that had hosted him up to class 5.
They were expecting me later on in the day so my arrival at that time was not expected, the grandmother was at the hospital and since she is the one that had a phone, arrangements were made to have Brian come and pick me, which he did after some time.
He is a very tall boy, taller than me around 5 feet 9 or 10 hapo, dark and slender - just a typical teenage boy. He seemed very quiet and polite, and spoke only when spoken to, and he only asked me what I do. My dressing does not inspire a lot of confidence
, guess he must have been confused by the khaki trousers wearing man with an old number 7 Spanish football team jersey with the name villa inscribed at the back.
Anyway we got to the home and the grandmother had arrived from the hospital, some little chit chat, also met a couple of neighbors, who to my surprise handed over Brian to me 'tumekupatia kijana wetu', which I quickly countered with a measured refusal, trying to explain that we do not 'pick' the kid, but we just work with the guardians to see them through.
Its just a typical western Kenya homestead, a main mud walled house beautifully painted on the outside with a brick red color, with stone patterns giving the impression of a stone/brick house, and another small mud house which must have been the store. Those sit on roughly half an acre of land, with a well maintained green lawn all of that surrounded by the wonderful silent mashinani atmosphere with lovely tall trees all around as far as the eye could see. Only some faint drum beat could be heard in the distance, which I was to later learn was coming from a church a few homesteads away.
The home visit did not last long since we had to head to the hospital, I just managed to get a sneak preview of Brian's document which he showed me, birth certificates, result slips, some certifications on leadership from him being a prefect in his primary school. I also met a couple of his relatives and a neighbor who happened to be visiting.
Now coming back to the Mother, she has been sick from September last year, and has been in and out of hospital since then, the latest being that she is very sick, at least I happened to visit her, the conditions in the hospital as in most government institutions are not for the faint hearted, the ward was being shared by some very sick people, I saw a kid who was burnt very badly, and some other patients who were sad to say most likely on their death beds, the hygiene and just the condition of the hospital is just dire, the grandmother had mentioned that she had not eaten in the 2 days since the daughters admission and once I got in I understood why.
The moment I got to her bed side all she could manage to mutter to me was that she wanted us to help her kid go to school, all the time tears rolling down her face, as she tried to brief me on her family, the Husband dying and all, she seemed very weak so I made the visit short.
Brian is an only child, and to add to the info the grandfather also died a long time ago, as mentioned Brian got 'called' to Maranda High School and since as he told me letters are no longer sent via the post, but he will have to travel to Mumius where he can go to a cyber and have the same printed out, only then I guess can we know about the admission requirements and school fees, but reporting date should be towards the end of next week or early the week after.
I did not manage to carry y camera around, and unfortunately after the night journey and the constant calls to Imani for directions my phone had already zapped all the juice from the battery, and I guess after seeing the mum in hospital I was just not thinking straight.
I left the hospital at around 1 PM, and made my way back to Bungoma where I boarded a matatu for Nairobi and I safely got home at around midnight.
Please give your feedback and any queries just in case I forgot anything, especially if you feel we should go ahead with the case, if so Iw ill go ahead and get the details on the admission letter and we can plan for the financial part, we would also need to arrange or agree on if we will get some of us escorting him to school, which will need some good amount of planning.
Best Regards,
Enock.