Letter from Fr. Martin to Friends, Sponsors, and Donors of

Fr. Tom's Kids and Our Lady of Grace Shool

25 June 2008

Dear Friends, Sponsors, and Donors
of Fr. Tom’s Kids and Our Lady of Grace School,

Thomas Edison once replied to a request that he offer some advice to youth, “Youth does not take advice.” Well, you don’t have to spend much time trying to counsel a teen age, runaway girl before realizing just how true his insight can be. Amongst our youths at Our Lady of Grace School and in our Fr. Tom’s Kids program, we have so many who have experienced the deaths of parents and loved ones, who have been abused, abandoned, betrayed, and beaten, who have been ignored by those who should have been there for them. In the polygamous family, these kids have often seen the competition of mothers for the attention and resources of the father. The child learns that loyalty to the mother is the ultimate standard. They can learn to lie as a form of self preservation and self protection. Something as simple as: “Honesty is the best policy” can become a threat to familial loyalty and peace. Where is the virtue, the character?

Virtue and Character
Those of you who have seen the school emblem will have noted that the motto is “Your character, your destiny.” This is a distillation of “Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.” Our hope is to instill in each child a strong sense of indestructible personal dignity founded upon the truth that we are made in the image and likeness of God---An understanding that living a life of virtue, making good moral choices which flow from good moral habits, is grounded in an awareness of one’s dignity. There are some things a person of virtuous character must do out of duty and must avoid out of integrity. Good character breeds self respect and respect of others. It orients all of our gifts, abilities, and talents, our person, towards a destiny of holiness.
As religious and teachers, we cannot be true replacements for parents and family. Nor can we have just the right words for every situation. Our hope, nonetheless,  is that by being there when we are needed, by remaining loyal to each youth, by treating each with decency, by emphasizing personal honor and good humor, we may show them by example, academic and otherwise, that the path to holiness allows us to pass through moments of sadness and sorrow without losing our sense of joy in life.

“Enjoy Today, Die Tomorrow” sang Our Lady of Grace’s kids last Friday on my 59th birthday. In a “sentimental” moment, they switched to “Kata Keki”--- Swahili for “Cut the Cake”--- to celebrate this milestone on my transit into antiquity. Just the right words?

2008
To date this has been a trying year characterized by substantial joy in the midst of much turmoil. The post election violence resulted in considerable death and destruction. Many feared that Kenya was about to come apart along the tribal seams.  The seams stretched but held. School is back in session. Kids are resilient and ours are now starting to feel their oats in the newly founded Our Lady of Grace School. While still teaching under trees and in a warehouse, we entered the students into this year’s Music Festival poetry reading competition. We have passed the post at zonal and divisional levels and are into the provincial competitive events--- just one step from nationals. These kids have gone, in a matter of weeks, from Our Lady of Who? to a school to be reckoned with.
Back before we were even the “Who?,” there was considerable doubt about 2008 as a school year. Buildings burned, cars overturned, tires smoldered leaving their steel belting covered in powdery burned rubber to decorate all the major road ways . In some places dead bodies were actually used to block traffic. Schools in the more tranquil parts of the country, those comprising essentially one tribe, continued with business as usual. Not so for Kisumu’s own Nyanza Province.

Our Lady of Grace School

Luo tribe members refused to allow any schools or other institutions to continue to operate until the post-election mess was settled. At the Dominican compound, we limped along offering tutoring and a few classes to a yard full of kids and displaced persons. We did keep our ears to the ground to see where to go next. In early February, we decided we had no choice but to begin formal classes as a new school. We started with a handful of students, jumped in, and hoped for the best.

At first, we figured we’d just settle for teaching 7th and 8th graders. Soon it became clear that we would have to help freshmen in high school and some of the middle grades in primary. Eventually, we settled, after much tooing and froing, on grades 4 to 8 and freshmen in high school. The other kids we got into various high schools and some others into lower grades of primary schools near us.

Our warehouse classroom was full of boxes, junk of various sorts, and a few desks. On clear days, the kids studied outside under mango, orange, cypress, passion fruit, and other trees. There is no publicly supplied water system here; so we were surviving with a relatively productive bore hole (a well that does not open to the surface) and rain water; but limited storage capacity. It was a close run thing. Thanks to generous donors from New Orleans and other places, we had a new water storage tank; but we could not get it connected to our bore hole. All the plumbers were hiding out due to the violence. When we finally got it connected a month into the commotion, everyone who knew how close we were to running out of water let out a collective sigh of relief. It is amazing the difference a reliable, fresh supply of clean water makes to a compound full of penned up kids and refugees.

More than a few thought we were loony to choose this historical moment to open a new school. I began to receive daily missives from students pointing out how I was ruining their future by not sending them back to their former schools. Because our population resided inside a walled compound, it was difficult for the kids to appreciate the turmoil, bloodiness, and danger in Kisumu. We deliberately did not want to hike up the anxiety within the walls by giving blow by blow descriptions of the outside activity. So we decided just to hang in there and leave things in God’s hands.

Rising Expenses
While we bided our time, we saw the price of everything---food, drink, transportation, cement, steel, gasoline, diesel--- you name it---just shoot up geyser-like. Where it cost KSh 200 for a student trip from home to school, we suddenly found ourselves paying KSh 1,000 and more. And this was with no guarantee that the student would find classes in session.

Believe it or not, while all the dust was still in the air, we were able to hire a core of highly talented teachers from private schools in other parts of the country. They were apparently intrigued by the challenge of beginning a new, Catholic, private school in the midst of all this commotion. It took courage for them to come to us, some at considerable risk. Mobs were still attacking cars and waylaying buses and public transportation vehicles throughout the country. Nevertheless, come they did. The new head teacher for the primary school, Mr. Stanislaus Bukachi, travelled with his wife and daughter, in the dark, furniture carrying, back of a half ton truck loaded with their belongings. The trip, normally four hours in duration, took four days as it passed through one trouble spot after another. We are eternally grateful that he had the courage to come and passed through the gauntlet without injury or loss of property.

While the teachers and students were laboring under the trees and in warehouse corners, we were trying to find buildings or houses to rent or to buy. We really did not have the money to do much of anything; but the buildings we were pursuing ended up not being available any way. Then we got word that an entire conference center located just a ten minute walk from the Dominican compound was up for sale.

Knowing that we would not be able to afford it, we asked nonetheless whether we could bid on the property. The owners, a non-profit organization called Action Aid, decided that our idea of starting a school for kids who would not otherwise be able to get an education was something they wanted to support. They offered us the conference center at a most reasonable price. At the time that we agreed to this reasonable price, we had nowhere near the money we needed to pay even this amount. Within two days, remarkably, we received a donation which enabled us to pay for the whole thing. This convinced us that somehow this school must fit into Our Lady’s plan for these kids. Hence the school’s name, Our Lady of Grace.

Water is Life
Unfortunately, the conference center had no water supply. There is no well or bore hole. The roofs had no gutters to catch and channel rain water. As noted earlier, there is no reliable public water supply system in this area. Action Aid had water trucked in whenever there was a significant event. We cannot afford to do it that way. Consequently, we had to run a pipe from our elevated water tank down the middle of a mud road which we maintain, under a highway, and into the conference center, now school. While this was going on each kid was given a ten liter (2.5 gallon) plastic container for a day’s supply of water for bathing and drinking. Once the water was connected, we lifted the restricted water usage to see how disciplined the kids would be. So far, so good.

The conference center rooms are now dorm rooms for one, two, or four students. For the moment, at least, the kids think they have died and gone to heaven. They can actually take showers in their own dorm rooms. The rains are on the verge of stopping; so this ample supply of water may not last. It is nice, however, to see the kids smell the roses for the moment.

There is no doubt that we will have to conserve water and soon. I know this may sound strange; but we are already digging pit latrines to substitute for the flush toilets and are taking a financial gamble by fitting all the buildings with gutters to channel rain water into a large, 50,000 gallon, ground water tank we are constructing at the base of our property. The gamble is that we will have enough money left to get through the rest of the school year. Without money, however, we can scrimp and scrape. Without water we cannot continue. So we gamble and trust in Our Lady of Grace.

Independence
We are also hoping to insulate ourselves from dependence on the government by installing, some day, solar panels to provide the electricity we need. We are growing our own corn, beans, and other vegetables and are looking into buying a few cows to give us a reliable supply of milk for the kids. These economies will help us cut back on fuel costs in the long run.

Our Lady of Grace is still swapping single beds used by the conference center for bunk beds we are having constructed locally. Eventually, we will be able to house about 175 kids in the new school complex. We will need to add both classroom and dormitory space for next year. If we had another 200 dorm spaces we could fill them now; but we don’t. We figure the day will come when we can have a primary school and secondary school each, at first enrolling 200 to 250 and, perhaps, later 400 each. We do not, however, want to get to a point where we do not know the students as individuals. So for the moment we are looking to build twenty more classrooms and a dormitory housing about 250 by next year.

This means that we will have to buy some additional land. We are swapping a small piece of property near the school for one the same size that touches the school property. This small addition may be enough for either classrooms or a dormitory.
Due to the rising international costs of fuel, food, cement, steel, and more, our expenses have risen substantially. Founding the school has actually allowed us to save a considerable amount of money on transportation fees; but the savings has not really matched the rise in expenses of most other things, especially fuel. In the United States, drivers suffer when they pay $4.00/gallon. Here the cost of auto fuel is over $7.00/gallon. We are simply staying off the road, if we can at all avoid it.

New Sponsorship Fees
Our new sponsorship fees have, of necessity, risen and I know this is not a good time to have to do this; but our only other choice is to send some of the sponsored kids away. We understand the sponsorships have created some pressure on those whose financial situation has changed due to the difficulties in the US. We have lost a number of sponsors who could no longer afford to make their generous donations. We are most grateful to all of you for your dedication and generosity. Be assured that you are in our prayers.

For primary and secondary school boarding, we are asking for KSh 51,000/year ($850). This includes room and board, uniforms, books, medical care, everything.
For primary day students the annual fee is now KSh 34,600 ($577) Because of the fluctuation of the dollar/shilling rate, we use $600 as a round figure.
The secondary school is entirely boarding, at least for this year.

School Items Needed for Remainder of 2008
If anyone is interested in assisting us by paying for some school things we are still lacking for this year---Bibles and Science Laboratory Materials---Here is your opportunity. We need the following:

GOOD NEWS BIBLE                  $11.33/copy       120 copies ($1,360)
REVISED STANDARD (RSV)     $9.66/copy         40 copies ($387)
CATHOLIC BIBLES                  $15/copy         20 copies ($300)
TOTAL                                                                   $2,035.00

SCIENCE LABORATORY    MATERIALS             $925.00

Tailoring School
We are also continuing to run a small, ten students, informal, tailoring school for those, all girls at the moment, who have not finished primary school or who could not go to secondary for one reason or another. These girls are all day students. We pay only KSh 500 ($8.00/quarter). We subsidize the classes entirely and all of the girls who have taken the national exam thus far have passed. They have either gone on to additional training or have entered the job market.

I know this has been an especially long letter and, if you have read to this point, I am most grateful to you for your patience and forbearance. Once again, we are most grateful to all of you for your generosity, kindness, and personal interest in our efforts out here in Kisumu. We understand all of the problems of so many types which have beset the people of the United States over the past few years. We are especially in your debt for remaining so faithful to your commitments to the children and students of Fr. Tom’s Kids and Our Lady of Grace School.

in Christ,

Fr. Martin Martiny, OP
E-mail: Martinyop@gmail.com