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| Susan and Mama Nemah |
Installation of Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde
Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa
No, neither one of us is the new Archbishop but finally, on 21st February, Archbishop Kivuva was installed at the stadium...see the net beside us!!! I was sitting in the last tent and was very happy to meet Mama Nemah who is one of the pillars of St. Patrick's parish where we also have a clinic. Neither one of us got close enough to really see the Archbishop but everyone was very excited and the average Kenyan seemed to enjoy the day. When I get a picture of him I will share it.
Many people ask me what an average day is like. In truth, there is no such thing for me. But I will share an unusual day. I had gone to do a clinic across the ferry on south coast. It only takes thirty minutes to drive there early in the morning and I drive myself. The day was extraordinarily hot and the clinic had a fan but there was no electricity. Nevertheless, I made it through the day and on driving home found a huge jam at the ferry. There was a long line of cars on the left side of this one way road for those of us waiting for the ferry. The other lane is for vehicles going to town. The other lane usually moves along but on this day the traffic was so bad they, too, were backed up to where I was sitting. The sun was beating down on my side of the car and so I rolled the window down 6 inches and hung up a cloth on the visor to block most of the sun. Around my neck I had my reading glasses on a $2 chain from Meijers. Someone thought it was a gold chain and I screamed when I felt something on the back of my neck. In an instant he had ripped the glasses off and was gone. I never saw him. The people in the car next to me were upset and one of the men ran and found my glasses which had been thrown away. I was so grateful and offered him some money. He refused. He was truly sorry for what had happened and kept apologizing. Good thing for my neck that I had such a flimsy and easily removable chain!
I rolled the window up to 2 inches and started fanning myself. It took an hour and forty minutes to get to the ferry and when I got on I breathed a sigh of relief. I could roll down the windows and enjoy the ocean breeze. You have to turn off the motor while sitting on the ferry. As we neared the shore I tried to restart it but failed. The ignition just clicked. I had just gotten the car back from the garage the day before!!! I opened the hood and the battery terminals were tight. A young security guard came and looked at everything and couldn't see any problem. So, he offered to push me. By now all the other vehicles going in my direction were gone and many were coming on to the ferry. I said a prayer to Fr. Leo Traynor and was able to double clutch and get the engine going just as I was rolling down the ramp. This vehicle is 21 years old and apparently the washing they did the day before disturbed the brushes of the ignition...or something? I haven't had any trouble with it starting every since. Fr. Leo taught me how to double clutch a vehicle in South Sudan but that is another story all together. I got home before dark and had the weekend to recover.
PEACE OF THE WARM INDIAN OCEAN BREEZES TO ALL OF YOU FREEZING UP NORTH. WISH I COULD SHARE SOME OF MY SWEAT!!!
