2023 KENYA MISSION TRIP

MICHELE SNOW | KITCHEN

I’m assuming this is what a 1920’s modern hospital kitchen would look like! It was an experience like stepping back into time when everything was so labor intensive. My first thought was “Wow! What A Kitchen!” More like a huge Walk-In Cook House where Hansel & Gretel would have fit nicely into the six Big Cooking Pots that were placed into the cylinder wells that you see in the photos.

There were no small gas knobs to turn on, only a room off to the side of the kitchen that was stocked with kindling and huge chopped logs to start your massive fire for the day’s cooking. I didn’t get to see that task but came when it was teatime and lunch was being prepared. Tea is made in the kitchen and every department sends workers with large thermoses to pick it up. Teatime is about 10:00 a.m., lunch is about 1:00 p.m.

I was warmly greeted by four Cook House workers: Evangeline, Julius, Shaun, and Purity! Like all Kitchen/ Cook House workers, we have a sense of Familiarity/ Family/ Fun and Food even if you live clear across the World! Our tasks were to prepare lunch for all Departments of the Maua Hospital - patients, doctors, administrators, the patient wards, maintenance, etc. Now, the food we made was just simple basic foods- Cabbage, Potatoes, Pinto Beans, Corn and Rice. These vegetarian foods are the basic foods for most of the Maua community.

Most of these folks are farmers who also raise goats, chickens, and very skinny Brahma bulls. Life here in Maua is a simple way of living, but such a hardship at the same time due to the state of their economy, low income, and high unemployment.

Most of the people working in the Maua Cook House have been employed for a lengthy amount of time for very little pay. They make about $3.45 a day, based on a 6-day work week. But yetHakuna Matata!! (No worries!) They have so much resilience, perseverance and The Most Beautiful Smiles that will light up your day!

And the day must go on! Preparing food for the day consisted of a lot of chopping, peeling, washing, and stoking the fire pits below the metal cooking cylinders. Then food was prepared for each department according to a list provided by the department.

When stoking the fires, there is no real ventilation only the open windows and doorways on each side of the cookhouse, so therefore, you are constantly working in smoke with your eyes burning but thank God we all have a Sense of Humor!!

Julius and I threw 5-gallon buckets of soapy water across the floor to not only scrub away the wastes, but our sweat as well. Working with the Cook House Crew you get to know each other rather quickly and can share your personal stories with each other over a cup of hot tea, beans, and cabbage (a veggie plate)!

This was one of the highlights of my working in the kitchen, because the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach! I’ve always heard that if you know how to cook, you’ll never go hungry, but in some cases it’s not always true. Food is not the only thing they hunger for in Maua. A Better Economy - More Opportunities - And Free Education!

I’m in tears as I write this because I really have so much to share, and now, I’m really feeling The Roughness in my Heart! I ask myself, “How can one get so close to people in the kitchen in such a short amount of time?” And then God speaks to me, “Because we are as one!”

Michele Snow