Photo Albums

Father Philip Owegi greets DeVan Taylor during the Wabash students visit to the Legio Maria Of Africa Church Mission in Chulaimbo, Kenya. The Legio Maria Church is one of 14 congregations that participate in the work of the Umoja Project, whose overall goal is to develop a coordinated community-based care system which responds to the multiple needs of vulnerable children and others. The project is one of many initiatives of the Indianapolis-based Global Interfaith Partnership.
 

Our visit to the Umoja Project sites was almost derailed when an electrical fire sidelined the van.

On Sunday and Monday our group split into three separates teams—one group visited Machakos to teach in rural schools nearby; another visited Eldoret and IU/Kenya Partnership and AMPATH there; and our group (including DeVan Taylor, Jose Herrera, Steve Stankovich, Steve Woodruff, Brother Matthew, and Steve Kizito (plus Jake German and Michael Jon Mondovics) visited the Umoja Projects sites near Kisimu.

Jose Herrera holds up the culprit—the wire (without insulation) that caused the fire that almost ended our trip.

A clergyman with the Legio Maria welcomes our group.

Father Philip explains some of the beliefs of his congregation. The Legio Maria combines traditional African beliefs with those of the Catholic Church and broke away from that Church in the early 1960s. Here's a description from wikipedia: 
"In 1963 a movement of dissatisfied Roman Catholics in South Nyanza Province left the Diocese of Kisii and formed the Legio Maria Church, or Legion of Mary Church, under the leadership of the messiah-prophet Simeo Melkio Ondetto. Both were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s.
"By 1980 the church numbered 248,000 adherents.[3] Government estimates at the time of the split from the Catholic Church stated that there were nearly 90,000 followers of Legio Maria. By 1968, it had become a member of the East African United Churches."
The Legio Maria care for widows and orphans in their compound here.

Inside the sanctuary at the Legio Maria compound. Here's an entry about the church from the Encyclopedia Brittanica:
A charismatic movement closely resembling Pentecostalism, Legio Maria emphasizes the gifts of the Holy Spirit and incorporates such practices as speaking in tongues and exorcism into its services while retaining Catholic hierarchy and worship. Its head is called “pope.”
Legio Maria practices the Latin mass, though sermons are delivered in vernacular languages. Portraits of Ondeto and his mother are displayed on the altar next to representations of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Legio Maria rejects Western and traditional medicines, alcohol, tobacco, and dancing.

Coffins for sale on the road out of Kisimu.

Countryside outside of Kisimu.

Jose Herrera and Steve Stankovich listen as a member of the Umoja Project's guardian program explains the new gardening techniques she employs to help feed children under her care. With so many parents dying of AIDS (there were more than 250 AIDS orphans in the school we visited here), guardians play an essential role of helping to care for the children while allowing them to keep their land. 

A simple but innovative way to wash your hands!

Thanks to hens and a rooster from Heifer International, guardians are able to improve the nutrition of their children. And each guardian is also required to pass along a hen to the next person, reestablishing the tradition of sharing that has been undermined by the extreme poverty and ravishes of AIDS.