An article by Geoff Brown of Crick United Benefice, following his visit to Bungoma in September 2007.
If I had been parachuted into Chebukutumi from the questionable comfort of a jumbo jet I could have been forgiven for thinking that I had arrived in paradise. I would have landed in a luscious green undulating countryside 6000 ft up the slopes of Mount Elgon which rose nearby to 14000 ft; everywhere was strewn with massive boulders from the 5 mile diameter extinct volcano at its peak; everywhere there were fields of maize, water melons, sweet potatoes, ground nuts, coffee, bananas and not a square inch of land was wasted; everywhere there were thatched mud houses scattered among the trees of mango, fig and avocado; everywhere there were happy children playing and working, carrying water and maize, collecting sticks for cooking; women sang while they harvested and the men ploughed with oxen.
But this idyllic scene belies the fact that I had arrived some days earlier on a landing strip alongside Lake Victoria to be driven cross-country in a 4 x 4 from the outskirts of the township of Kisumu where the sights, sounds and smells of raw poverty were right in your face. The 4 of us in our vehicle were silenced for 4 hours as we tried to comprehend the scenes on our way to Bungoma; a constant trail of humanity on both sides of the road walking slowly in the tropical heat carrying, water, maize, timber, iron sheets; indeed anything you needed to survive. Cows, goats and cyclists meandered along the road as we constantly swerved to miss them.
The truth of Chebukutumi was a slow revelation and far worse than I had believed from 5 years of correspondence. I had arrived at the end of the rainy season, at the end of the harvest where food and water were still in abundance. Within a few short months into the dry season the land will be parched and children will be emaciated sitting at the side of the road, head in hands, dejected and desperate for water. By March all the streams and wells will have run dry and the women and children will be forced to walk 6 miles to the nearest river. By the time they reach the river the children have such an insatiable thirst that they can not resist the typhoid and cholera infected water. Many die every year from waterborne diseases and malaria.
If you can find any work in the fields you might expect to be paid only 40p a day. This endemic and appalling poverty means a subsistence existence for everyone. On top of this the issue of water together with the problem of orphans and widows due to HIV/AIDS are high on the list of priorities.
However, despite this the community is developing at an accelerating rate with a vibrancy and contentment not seen here. The church and school are expanding and work closely together to educate the young children. Primary education is free and is producing astonishing results considering the limited resources. The benevolence of the United Crick Benefice has had a dramatic effect which I have now been privileged and humbled to witness. Chebukutumi is a leading light and a shining example of how well the Peterborough – Bungoma Diocesan link is working and we must not stint in our continuing support for this impoverished community.
Geoff Brown, September 2007
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