A Day of Miracles

Today was the day for passports and yellow fever shots.

Passport application needs: The application. ID and copy of ID, birth cert and copy of birth cert. Recommender letter and copy of recommender ID. 2 photos with one signed on the back certifying it’s a likeness of the person. Marriage cert if you’re married… and copy. Passport and copy (If you have an expired one… or if the father has one, his family members need a copy.) Children need birth cert and copy and a recommender letter from the parent and a copy of the parent’s ID… oh, and money. And everyone applying MUST be there in person.

We’d organized everything we could—got letters, signatures, photos, etc. I was a bit stressed about it. Trying to get things organized is like herding cats. And even with the best intentions, life happens here to interfere. Would they show up? Would everyone have all their documents? We knew some still needed a recommender’s signature so we tried to factor time for that.

One mother and children were coming from up country. Each family had to take their children out of school to come, and there was a question about whether they would have exams that day. No exams… they could come. Another was still searching for her birth certificate. (We THOUGHT everyone had theirs before we slotted these families into this trip.) One family had a sick husband. Would he be well enough to come?

The day did not start off promising. I reminded women that all those 15 and over needed to have a pregnancy test. They would not administer the YF shot without it. The Up Country family with 3 girls… didn’t manage to get it done. They were at the hospital early Friday and would be a little delayed.

The Mama searching for her birth certificate 110 km away was waiting for it and might miss the YF “jab”.

I said, “Tell her to get into town. It’s better she have to go back and get the birth certificate than she miss the shot.” You see, the shot cost 2000 shillings individually. However if you buy the 10 dosage vial, it only costs 1000/-per person. BUT—the agent is only good for an hour or so after it’s been opened or mixed or whatever. So all 10—or in this case 20 people needed to be there at the same time.

So we were scheduled to meet the father of the 2 up-school teens (husband to the mama searching for her BC) at the passport office at 10:30. About 11:15 the family of the sick husband arrives sans husband.

He’d left earlier to go to the hospital and was to meet them there. We organized things and processed the wife’s passport. The children needed the father’s signature on a permission form. The agent agreed to let the wife sign… and just then the husband walked in. Oh, but the wife had an expired passport. She needed to go and get photocopies of some of those pages. Another problem was the youngest child didn’t have the recommender signature on the back of the photo. We were waiting for the up-school teens and dad to come because they also needed the recommender signatures on the passport applications.

But the passport office closes between 1-2:30 for lunch and then, on Fridays is only open until 3:30. The up-school teens and dad arrived about 12:00. Elder Fox dashed off to get the recommender form signed and the photo. The passport people really were VERY nice!. they let that family go and pay and then when the photo came, we inserted it in the application. About the same time, the Up-country family arrived with all 5 of their children.

They went to the window. The forms were not fully filled out. They went back and wrote some more. Still there were problems. Time was ticking away. Finally E. Fox got back with the signed passport forms. At about 12:45 the up-school family got to the window. It was too late. They were told to come back at 2:30. The Up Country family got about ½ of their children’s passports processed. By then it was 1pm…. Er we’re supposed to be about 8 km away at the airport for the YF shots. So E. Fox took the two delayed families (about 11 people), stuffed them into the truck, and headed out to the airport for the shots. I waited until the sick father family had their photos taken. YES! They were DONE!

Then I said, “I’ve helped you here. But you have to lead me now. We need to get a tuk tuk and get to the airport.” So we walked a bit and flagged down one and they negotiated for 150/- (I was thinking it would be twice that—and it would have been for a muzungu.) We got there not long after E. Fox and group. We had asked a family planning on going to the temple in August to go and get YF shots to make up the 20 people. They were there. As we pulled up in the tuk tuk, the mama seeking her BC arrived from Busia! What a blessing from God. So we walked in together. WOW! All 20 people there on time… or at least on Kenya “on time”!

They took the people one by one and gave them the “jab”, filled the forms, and made out the yellow fever card. There was a delay as the baby had heat rash. They decided it was okay. The up-school teen had NOT taken a pregnancy test. They called me in and told me she might be pregnant, they didn’t know. I say, “In our church we promise to be morally clean and not have sex before marriage. If she has not had sex, can we be confident she’s not pregnant?” They agreed. And on her assurance, they gave her the shot. I was grateful. Last time they insisted on the test for everyone. Again, it was the Lord’s blessing. By the time all the shots were given it was after 2pm.

E. Fox started ferrying people back to the main road so they could catch transport home or back to the passport office. I learned that the sick dad was released from the hospital for a few hours to come and do this! Wow. Again, a major blessing.

I was in the last group as I was finishing up collecting the YF cards and paying. We installed our family of 7 in the truck and headed to the road. It’s now 2:40. When we reached the main road, the up-school teens and dad were on the roadside… still waiting for transport. It’s such a hassle to pull kids out of school and an expense to bring them back to town. They really needed to get their passports today! So we did something we’d never done before. We took the tarp off the back and had everyone climb in the back of the pickup and drove them into town. (6 in the back and 9 in the cab).

Last time we got passports, they only wanted 1 photo. This time, they said they needed two. So E. Fox had taken a photo of one of the up-school teens who didn’t have two copies. He dropped me off at our favorite photo place. I begged. “Please! Can I have these five minutes ago?” By the time E. Fox dropped off his passengers and returned, I had the photos!

Okay, so by that time they had about 30 minutes to process all these passports. Could it happen? With the Lord’s help, YES! They all got the application submitted, the photos taken and the money paid and we left the office about 4pm.

So we did it! 20 jabs, 13 passports! Can you see the happy dance??? We just have 2 passports and one more YF shot to have all the families complete. I really feel the Lord is blessing this group and that all things will work out for them.

A good day… and I’m exhausted!