8 May 2007
The wet season seems to have fizzled out a little early here, which means the roads haven’t deteriorated as badly as usual, but I dare say the farmers would like a little more rain. Ben’s work paving the entrance at the medical clinic means that even when it does rain, the clinic remains fairly clean—people are not traipsing mud through nearly so much.
I am working at adjusting how the clinics both run—the Korogocho Clinic where the maternity is being built, and the Kibera Clinic. The plans are to get each clinic to take on a lot of the administrative tasks rather than the main office, to get both clinics working the same way so staff can go from one to the other and know what to expect, and to have both clinics telling the gospel to people often. Kibera clinic does not know the three aims yet—treat everyone with respect, treat everyone with quality medical care and treat everyone with ‘Gospel Care” (because medical care only goes so far in helping people).
Me outside the maternity clinic
Since I now have a staff of 19 people to look after, and more when the maternity opens, I am feeling the need to increase my management/business skills. So it is back to school for me. I have just applied to do a distance learning course part time for the next few years. Writing essays is not attractive to me (I failed my first attempt at an essay at Moore College). I feel my brain is fusing as the hair over it gets greyer and thinner, but being equipped to do my job better is attractive. The approval from the Church Missionary Society (CMS) came last week, and so I have just sent off the application to the University of New South Wales. The first subject I will take is Project Management, starting late July.
We were planning a holiday in July, but my work permit renewal is taking a long time, and it is hard to book things without knowing if our passports will be in order.
12 June 2007
The good news is that the clinics are going well. I am making changes to the way they run and it seems to be going well. For instance, the bank account signatories have been changed so we can write cheques again, and some staff positions have been adjusted. However there is still no progress on the maternity clinic construction yet.
The big, big problem is my work permit: the Anglican Church has delayed its renewal and it is now out of date. That makes me in the country illegally, and I will need to go to the CID [Criminal Investigation Department] to give an explanation. Hopefully they will accept it or I will be in real trouble and may be held by them.
The school year has ended for the kids and Sue. The kids are rapidly getting bored and are missing their friends. Most have left for the US or Korea or wherever, and many will not be coming back. The last day of school was a teary affair. There was an all-school farewell ceremony for teachers (six of them!) and students who were leaving.
You may have heard a bit about some violence here. Six police have been killed by Mungiki followers recently and the police have retaliated by killing dozens of young men that they say are Mungiki. Mungiki followers are young men who belong to a traditional religious sect. They are basically thugs that a few politicians use occasionally for their own purposes. Mostly they gain income by charging matatus (buses) to use their routes. The police have decided to try and stop them, and the Mungiki are retaliating. In some towns, they are causing havoc. The clinics are unaffected by all this which is very generous of God. It is not affecting suburban Nairobi either.
Hopefully I will write the next prayer points from here in Kenya (and not in custody!)
18 June 2007
Armed with a letter from the Anglican Church of Kenya explaining the delay, and a copy of my letter to Immigration explaining why I was till in the country three months after my work permit expired, and a visitor’s pass in my Passport, I went off to the CID to present myself as an illegal alien.
It all went so well! One hour, and I was through and cleared. The officer read my letters, and saw that I was legal again because of the visitor’s pass (though I’m not sure he could work out how I managed to get one!), and then approved me for a certificate of good conduct, which should take away the red flag I have at Immigration. So now my Work Permit renewal can proceed, and the only issue is if Immigration now find some other reason (or just decide on a whim) to refuse my renewal.
So God is very good, and I am so thankful to him for allowing the CID to approve me, instead of teaching me another lesson in humility. Maybe I am learning slowly, and maybe God knows just how far he can push me before I crack.
20 July 2007
Our break down the coast was great, apart from a few too many showers. But it was very relaxing. The kids are still enjoying sleeping in, going on morning walks, playing on the computer, reading, and so on.
Construction of the maternity clinic is being restarted after a seven-month stoppage. It will be good to get things there underway again. Costs of building materials here are continuing to skyrocket. The peace in Sudan and the reconstruction going on there is taking huge amounts of steel and cement north over the border! It’s very good for Sudan, but difficult for here.
The clinics are now on a surer footing than they ever have been, but this is still Kenya and things happen. I have pushed for a meeting of all the social welfare groups at church. There are a few of us! It would be helpful to know each other and help each other. One of my aims is to encourage gospel proclamation through these loving ministries. I have introduced Two Ways to Live at the Kibera clinic, so we’ll see how keen they are to use it. If they memorize it in English, they get lunch on me, and again when they learn it in Swahili. That is a big deal as normally lunch at the clinic is cheap (costs 30c AUS per person), and to go to a restaurant or café is something they never do.
10 September 2007
I finally have my work permit!!! I have been granted an extension to my work permit as a missionary for three years to August 2010. It will go into my passport in two weeks, but it is all signed and paid for. This is quite a relief! It has been hard to plan and think about the future without knowing if we are staying in the country or not.
Last year was very difficult for me, not knowing whether I was wanted by the church here to continue my work or not. It was not handled very well by them, and it caused a lot of stress and grief to me. Then it was all settled in my favour in April this year when I was not only allowed to continue the work, but I was given charge of the clinics ministry. In May, the issue of my work permit came up and the church that had been providing sponsorship for my work permit refusing to continue sponsoring me. That too has now finally been settled. In April, I thought I would have suddenly sprung back and got on with things. But emotionally I have only slowly recovered, and my recovery was delayed, I expect, by the work permit issue. It is hard not being wanted, especially when I have had little understanding of the reasons for these decisions.
If God was teaching me patience the first few years here, then the last year or two I have been learning the humility of accepting decisions enacted by others that affect me greatly, but to which I am not privy. Can’t wait to see what God teaches me next!
The consequences of my difficulties for the last year and some months is that the maternity building has been stalled for 10 months: nothing significant was built from December 2006 to August 2007. This has put me offside with the donors to the maternity clinic, as has my lack of access to records. There has been delay upon delay trying to get cheques from the money already held here to continue the maternity project. The donors couldn’t understand why I was not spending it as scheduled. As my emotions took a tumble, I became less able to deal with things, and became less organized and decisive. That didn’t help my communications with donors either.
So now I will be staying here to finish the maternity project. I have the backing of a keen church that is positive towards me, and I can hopefully get the donors to continue sending money for the project. I feel more capable of writing reports and meeting deadlines, but my ‘recovery’ has been surprisingly slow.
9 November 2007
Kenya, like Australia is also approaching elections later this year—December 27th, while people are up country at home, visiting family. The last election went well, with very little violence compared to those before it. We are hoping for a similar result this time. The electoral commission is putting ads in newspapers and on billboards promoting peace and decrying violence. Some of the ads are graphic, showing faces that have been hacked. Sue and I don’t remember ads like that in Australia around election time. We boast to people how boring elections are in Australia. As I am constantly saying to my teenage children, boring is underrated! In addition, in Australia, it doesn’t matter who wins as both sides have the best interest of the people at heart. Here, politicians seem to feel it is their destiny to be impressive rulers. Each President has made both himself and those around him very wealthy. One of the candidates this time is from the ODM [Orange Democratic Movement] party, and his slogan is “One Deserving Man”, though this has been changed to One Dedicated Man lately.
Corruption is rife here, as it is seen as a quick way to get rich by many. The argument against fighting corruption is that it is backward-looking, focusing not on the future but on the past.
One of the election billboards in Nairobi
The construction of the maternity continues, and should be finished by January. Both clinics now are using Two Ways to Live to challenge patients about their relationship with God, and to encourage Christians. It has been harder to get it going in the Kibera clinic, but they are getting there. I am using Esau and Jacob motivators. I teach them about doing work for God’s kingdom, and every time they tell a patient or visitor the gospel, they can have a lolly (usually chocolate éclairs). It is proving effective having a temporal motivator that is gone in a few minutes (like the lentil stew Esau focussed on), and an eternal one (like the inheritance Jacob focussed on)!
17 January 2008
A change in editorial staff! (from Joe to Sue)
Thank you all for the emails concerning our safety here in Nairobi. We are all quite okay, but many of our Kenyan friends are not. No expatriates have been targeted in the rioting; it is mainly between two tribes, the Kikuyu and the Luo. Most Kenyans we speak to are very saddened by the violence, and want people to regard themselves as Kenyans rather than from a particular tribe. One Luo man told me that Kikuyus were throwing words at him in a village where he had lived peacefully for many years. He was concerned that it might escalate to more than just words! There has been some signs of violence near us. A Coke container down the road was trashed, and some vegetable dukas (stalls) next to it were destroyed. Ya Ya, the main shopping centre near us, has only one entrance opened, and the windows are boarded up. A service station on the same road had windows smashed. We had no power on Thursday for five hours as a transformer near us was set alight. But we were amazed and thankful when it came back on at 7:00 pm.
We still haven’t heard about the clinics in Korogocho or Kibera. However, many people have fled Kibera, and our church, which is a huge tent, has opened up as a refuge centre. Ben was supposed to go back to school on Tuesday but it has been postponed for a week. The Australian High Commission has rung us up and checked on how we are, but American friends have been told to be on standby with bags packed!
Brackenhurst Conference went well, although it was overshadowed by Joe being very ill, and the violence made quite a few people change their travel plans. People from Uganda were not able to drive home, and had to travel in convoy to the airport, leaving their cars here in Kenya. Tanzanians either went home a different route (which added an extra day of driving as they had to go through the Serengeti) or they organized a MAF plane to fly to Dodoma. I drove the two Australian med students, with Jono Vink and Ben as my body guards, up to Kijabe Hospital which is a very quiet and rural area. It is also home to RVA [Rift Valley Academy], the big American missionary boarding school. We stayed, along with quite a few others, an extra day at Brackenhurst and then drove down with the Archers back to Nairobi. Some shops were open so we were able to stock up along with all the other Nairobians in town!
Joe went to the conference feeling very unwell, but thought it was malaria and would recover after taking Malarone. Unfortunately he didn’t, so I drove him down to the Aga Khan Hospital on very deserted roads. They also thought it was malaria, although the blood slides showed no parasites, and so they gave him a different medicine. After 24 hours, there was still no change, and after Joe and another two British doctors discussed it, they decided it was typhoid, and after taking that medicine, he slowly started to improve. He finally made it for morning tea at the conference on the last day. He is still very tired and gets dizzy easily.
12 February 2008
Things are not back to normal here. Kofi Annan is putting a great effort into getting the politicians to work out a solution, but they aren’t too interested. The President will have to lose a little power at least, and that is not likely. Kenya has been one of the most stable countries in Africa, and so the instability is unexpected here.
There have been maybe 1,000 deaths since the election on December 27th, and 350,000 displaced people. Kikuyus are driven from Luo areas, and Luos are driven from Kikuyu areas. The government tries to play things down, and so tries to disband the camps so the problem isn’t visible. There is a displaced persons camp near us at the show grounds, and numbers are increasing despite it being officially closed a few weeks ago.
Schools all started late after Christmas as people couldn’t travel during the worst clashes. Our kids weren’t so disappointed with that. Both our children’s schools have supplies of food and bedding in case the kids can’t leave due to riots. Some days they leave school early if the schools are worried about getting buses through areas where there are riots developing. Some students have left the country, and most people are prepared to if necessary. It all makes for a tense environment. Our passports have just been renewed, and we have US dollars on hand if a quick flight to Tanzania becomes necessary.
The slums are more tense and disrupted than the rest of the city. Continuing the construction of the maternity clinic has not been possible since Christmas as we can’t get materials in. The next step was glazing, but taking in $2,000 of glass is not feasible. The good news is that the staff are all well, and their families and the buildings are undamaged. Korogocho clinic is opening most days, but Kibera clinic opens half the time. If the situation gets too tense, the clinics close early. I did manage to get into Korogocho a few weeks ago during a lull in the riots, and found my way out blocked by thugs taking advantage of the situation by robbing people. A lot of gangs of youths with knives have sprung up. On the whole, though, Korogocho has been remarkably stable, but Kibera is still very tense.
It is hard for displaced people to go back to their homes in the slums when the environment is still hostile. Their house may have been looted and burned. It is also hard to restart a business when it may get burned down again and when your previous customers are hostile towards you. Even if the politics were settled tomorrow, people will take years till they trust each other again, if ever.
We (the Radkovic family) are fine and not very stressed. The shops around us are open and well-stocked. We can drive around Nairobi as normal again. It is not possible to drive to other cities like Naivasha or Nakuru or further west though.
My health is improving. It seems I had acute Bilharzia (Katayama Fever). It is cause by a worm from Lake Victoria giving me high fevers and weakness. In late November, we were on a boat on Lake Victoria. It was very choppy and windy at the shore, so I helped my family get off the boat by standing in the water. I’m never going to be so helpful again! The worms went through the skin of my legs and up to my liver and other organs, and five weeks later, I was very ill. Last weekend the diagnosis was made and treatment given. These last few days, I have been eating properly, but I still get tired easily. So I am not doing much. My brain is now clear enough to write emails and read a bit, but my memory is worse than usual (it never was very good!).
5 March 2008
God has been very gracious to me, and I am feeling much better. I still can’t keep going the whole day without getting very fatigued afterwards, but it’s improving.
The political situation in Kenya has improved, with a power-sharing deal by all parties brokered by Kofi Annan after six weeks of meetings. There are still people in displaced persons camps, but hopefully that number will fall. Many will not go back to their houses, but will end up in their tribal areas—their traditional homelands, even though some have little connection with anyone there. The regions of Kenya are now more ethnically homogenous. It may take some time for mixing to occur again. Other tribes have also been involved. It seems God has been trying to tell Kenyans not to be so reliant on leaders for their future, and to be reliant on him instead. It would be great if the chaos brought people under Jesus’ rule.
I will begin a six-week teaching series for pastors this month, emphasizing what are the main issues of Christianity and what features in their church are just local traditions. Kenyan churches tend to a lot of style, with the substance often taking a backseat. I would like the pastors to be clear about what is worth dying over and what isn’t.
It has not been easy to get the maternity clinic finished. Thugs have been emboldened by the chaos, and getting materials into Korogocho slum has been problematic. I hope we can now get things going again so that we can finish soon, then get equipment and staff and licensing. A wonderful person in Canberra fundraised for us to have an ultrasound machine. It will be so good to be able to see the unborn babies, to check for twins and to clarify due dates!
Let me remind you again of the three aims of the clinic:
- Treat everyone with dignity and respect.
- Treat everyone with good medical care (we are a clinic, after all).
- Treat everyone with gospel care.
Christians need the encouragement of the gospel because being a Christian is tough going. Non-Christians need to be encouraged to get right with God. So telling the gospel is so important. Medical care is good, but limited. Everyone gets sick again, and in the end, medical care fails because everyone dies. Gospel care benefits people in so many ways forever! I am excited by this formal teaching of pastors I am planning. If all goes well, I am hoping to start preaching in slum churches when I return in October.
Some of us Radkovics
