Life and death

Life and death
Death is so much present in the lives of people around us. We are often asked for 'help' for the costs of a funeral. We give a few hundred shillings, thinking of it as if we were sending flowers or a card. A good friend, Florence, a young woman whom we have known now for seven years has just lost her mother. She often told us how her mother's hard life, struggling to educate her children and start them on a better path, inspired Florence to work with women to try to alleviate their poverty. Florence has just married (she told us how happy her mother was to see her settled) and now lives away but over the years she has helped with the small micro credit schemes we have set up. Her enthusiasm and encouragement was always inspirational to the women.
Her mother was a tea picker in Kericho (where Brook Bond tea started) As you drive through the fields around the town, acres of tea bushes look like smooth green fields. Florence's mother had work and a place to live, but they often went hungry and without shoes.
A couple of years ago she wrote her story. She is now finishing her studies and has the strong support of her new husband, a teacher. They are expecting to move back to Kisumu next year and we hope to meet him. Here is her story in her own words.
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My story:- FLORENCE IMINZA
I am a Kenyan woman aged 29 years
I was born into a family of seven, and am the fifth born in the first family. I never got to know nor see my father as I was told he died while I was too young. My mother remarried and had some other two children in the new family who are my stepsister and brother. My mother laboured in the tea plantation estates in order to bring up her first five children. We were privileged to access good primary education, small cramped housing and casual medical facilities as the company incentives to the employees. The meager income of my mother was always supplemented by my elder siblings absenteeism from school to pick tea. They never performed well in school. All of them left school at elementary level. They lead a miserable life since they cannot secure paying jobs. It’s been 19 years since I saw my two elder brothers!
I was smart at school. I remember being the first girl in my class. I also went to school very early; I knew how to read English and write at grade two. I hated the way my mother struggled to bring us five children up. We went to school with tattered clothes, no shoes and no lunch. The camp life where I lived exposed me to women suffering either in the hands of cruel husbands beating or hard labour to raise children on their own after divorce or death. I remember saying to my mother that when I grow up I will not get married.
I always hoped that I can change this lifestyle. I wanted to be a nun when I grew up. My mother did not like this idea-- she wanted me to get a well paying job. As it turned out later this was never to be. The government paid part of my fees at high school because I was a bright, needy student. My mother struggled with the rest. After high school I won a scholarship with the Canadian organization (ACCES) to study Accounts and Computer application packages. This I did for three years, 1998-2000. I secured a job with one of the leading companies in the western province in Kakamega town as a junior Accountant. I also worked with the Non Governmental Organization ACCES as their Book -Keeper. I had a good pay check and life was to some extent what I never dreamed it would be. BUT MY HEART NEVER FOUND SATISFACTION. For three years I was discontented. As a Christian I sought more. In 2003 I had an answer clear and straight that I was meant to be in the Christian ministry. Louise Pollock, a Canadian friend, accepted to pay my Seminary fees at Friends Theological College. I quit my job, something that many people thought was crazy. I have never been the same since my heart has found peace. I have since served in the Anglican Church as a lay minister.
I have specifically found interest in the ministry with the women. I know most of the time I had with my Christian mother I have seen her through her struggles. I see most of the women struggle. They need to be uplifted in their faith as a result of the changing roles in society. I can't wait to bring hope through all the possible means I can. I have finished my diploma in theology and after working in Uganda as a missionary for sometime I realized that I was lacking in the methodology approach of the complexity of the issues with women since it is not just preaching and following that homiletics procedure, it is more. I would like to specialize in Women’s Studies and so I proceeded to the St. Paul's University in Limuru near Nairobi.
Here I have had the support of my good friend Prof. Esther Mombo who has the conviction that women must be brought in the theological institutions in large numbers in order to address the women’s sisterhood that is in travail out here. She has tried to do the fund raising for women with a call into this ministry. Yet she is only able to pay the tuition of 120,000 One Hundred and Twenty Thousand per year ($2,000). The rest (accommodation, materials and other incidentals) amounts to 160,000/- ($2,600) and has been an on-going struggle. Some good friends like Patricia and Rod Crossley give in some money, which I use to pay rent and travel to college.
The church accounts are not doing well and this I understand because the Diocese is located in poor economic area (There is need to initiate development projects ) I can always see their willingness to put in some effort but I realize the inadequacy. Another way I have been able to survive is to rent outside the campus in cheap and humble conditions and which mostly have poor security (I trust that there is God's protection and yes, it has worked). I also cut on food expenses and submit my assignments in handwritten form, a situation which the lecturers dislike leading to lowering marks.
Yet I can't believe I have already cleared the first year! I have two years to finish. I know there is always a price to pay to serve God and I am determined to go this way. By being at the university I have been able to address development as an evangelical tool. I have even learnt the skill of proposal writing as well as original biblical languages (we do Hebrew and Greek) and been able to reinterpret the scripture in the African context and through the woman’s lenses, to liberate the wailing poor. I have met strong willed women with the same conviction I have and so we have made a circle of friends and networking has been possible. For now I have relied on the Good will of Prof. Esther Mombo for my continuity, which is not a guarantee.
I hope one day I will sit back with a sigh in my heart that I have lived to the call God put in me when I was still a young girl. Florence Iminza
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Kenya inspires tears one minute and laughter another (often on the same topic) Last week on our way with our 'medical' student to fetch his certificate we passed a boda boda (bicycle taxi) with a coffin strapped across the passenger seat. We decided it must be empty but didn't ask. "Coffin alley" leading to the hospital has several casket makers, strategically placed. They have been asked to keep their wares inside their sheds but the gleaming coffins, often garlanded with tinsel and with very fancy linings, are clearly visible.
This morning we passed a pick up truck with passengers in the back, all lined up sitting on a coffin like a bench. No idea if it was occupied.