On March 21, five Seattleites and another from Snohomish will grab their tools and start in on a week-long mission to help build a four-room secondary school for Mulundi Village in Kenya, over 9000 miles away.

The school is named Mulundi-Kwa Muema, which translates to “place of” (kwa) “good” muema. Muema is also the last name of the man who donated his land for the school to be built. Mulundi villagers have started the construction and school, with one room complete and four teachers teaching, but there is much more to be done.

The group of six is made up of five members of St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church on California Ave: Janet and Mike Johnson (Janet is from Mulundi), Nina Boe, Kate McCormick and her son James Saadeh. Joining them is Amber Strehle from Snohomish.

To understand Mulundi’s great need for the school is to understand the conditions in Kenya. According to Janet, who grew up in Mulundi and who’s parents still live in the village, going to a secondary school (synonymous with high school) in most areas of Kenya is a rarity.

“The path is elementary school is probably the highest you will ever go in that village,” she said, estimating one in 600 elementary students gets the chance to attend high school. She said most students and their families cannot afford the fees associated with that next step in schooling that can lead to a college education.

From Mulundi village to the nearest town of Kitui (about 60 miles east of Nairobi), Janet said there are three elementary schools, each with about 600 kids attending.

“We are talking about 1800 elementary students having two high schools taking only 120 (students),” Janet, who is in her 30’s and works at Costco, said. “(Right) now there are only 58 at Mulundi, so there is still a lot of kids not going on to high school. I mean the need is there, (but) they probably need three more high schools to just get moving.”

The situation is further exacerbated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Kenya.

“The background of the village is every household has lost at least one member of their family from HIV/AIDS, and that’s mainly the husband who is working in Nairobi as a bread winner or the wife who is a teacher,” Janet said. “Mostly the breadwinner has been wiped out by HIV/AIDS.”

Janet said families in Kenya are generally quite large, ranging from six to ten children per family in an area where polygamy is the norm. As parents and extended family are lost to HIV/AIDS, the number of orphans in Mulundi and much of Kenya has skyrocketed, Janet’s husband Mike, 71, said.

“Generally there is family somewhere that will take kids, and if not they become street kids,” he said.

Without a safety net of financial support, orphans are highly unlikely to move far in their education.

Finances are also an issue for teachers at the burgeoning secondary school in Mulundi, Janet said.

“They haven’t been paid since they started the school and they probably won’t be paid (for some time). But in Africa you live in the farm so they … have food everyday, water is free, bathroom is free, so the basic things they need … the teachers have,” she said.

It is a complex situation for teachers in Kenya according to Janet. On one hand, “teaching is the only profession that is paid by the government so you are ensured a salary for the next 30-plus years so it’s better to be a teacher than anything else.”

On the other hand, getting a school recognized by the government so the teachers will get paid is an arduous process.

“It’s political, so it’s one of those things where the community has to march together, just move together and go to the district commissioner in Kitui Town and the district commissioner in Kitui then decides to go to Nairobi and tell the Teaching Service Commission to add these people to the payroll,” Janet said. “It’s a long process,” taking at least three years.

The crew of six understands their aid in building the school is one small step in improving education for the children of Mulundi, but are unanimous in agreeing it is worth the effort.

For Janet and Mike Johnson, this mission is the latest in a long history of helping education in Janet’s homeland.

Janet spent the first 20-plus years of her life in Kenya, and says she was one of the lucky ones who went to high school and college. Her parents are both educators and her thirteen siblings are all either teaching now or going to school to become teachers.

After a short stint in college interrupted by riots, Janet moved in with her parents and started teaching physics and math at a secondary school in Kitui Town. Like many teachers in Kenya, she was initially not paid for her work.

“When I taught at Kilanzo (secondary school) I got paid when I got paid,” she said. “So, me and my parents felt good I was teaching so money wasn’t a factor but I didn’t have kids, I stayed at home, I didn’t have bills and expenses, but I was a girl and I lived at home and my parents took care of me. If you are a man it’s different, you have responsibilities so there is no solution right now.”

When Janet finally started seeing paychecks (about $30 US a month), her inner philanthropist took hold and she spent most of that money paying a girl’s tuition at Kilanzo school.

She went back to college, finished up and started helping the Worldwide Anglican Church in humanitarian efforts.

Meanwhile, Mike had retired from 35 years working for the US Forest Service in 2000 and set his sights on philanthropy.

“I went over as a missionary as part of the Worldwide Anglican Church,” he said. My first assignment was in Zimbabwe and I ultimately ended up working with street kids, then they (Mugabe’s government) started getting rid of foreigners.”

He went to Kenya next and applied his agricultural forestry background to helping educate people on planting trees ideal for feed, medicine and crops. Mike and Janet crossed paths in Mulundi, brought together by their shared passion, and have been together ever since.

On September 11, 2001 they left Kenya with plans to live in the United States. They never made it beyond England in the wake of the 9-11 attacks and ended up spending a year there before moving to Seattle.

Since then, Janet and Mike have continued to help the Kitui region, helping pay for and traveling back to build two schools and a church and paying the secondary school fees for around 10 students every year for the past 10 years.

Their efforts have been aided by their church in West Seattle.

For the rest of the crew headed to Kenya in a few weeks, their backgrounds are varied.

Nina Boe, 23, just graduated from University of Washington and is working at a coffee shop while waiting to hear back on graduate school applications where she hopes to pursue peace and conflict studies.

“It’ll be my first time in Africa, I’m really looking forward to it,” Boe, who’s sister spent two years in Tanzania doing mission work, said. “My sister said, ‘Whether it’s two weeks or two years, being in Africa will really change you so I’m really looking forward to it.”

The only thing holding Boe back from the trip was money – selling coffee and paying student loans doesn’t lend itself to affording plane tickets to Kenya. One of Janet’s co-workers from Costco, Andy Deceunyk, had initially planned on going to Mulundi but with news his wife was sick he decided to stay home. Instead, he donated his plane ticket so Boe could go.

Kate McCormick, 40s, and her son James Saadeh, 21, know the Johnsons through church and Janet initially asked McCormick if James would be interesting in going, primarily for his “muscle.”

As they talked more, Janet learned that Kate was a civil engineer for Boeing before hanging up her CAD programs to become a full-time mother.

“My background is civil engineering and I thought it would be interesting to see a third world construction project,” McCormick said. Janet thought her expertise would be a great addition to the construction team.

Saadeh is currently studying marketing and music at Seattle University and is looking forward to his predetermined role as the water carrier, joining the women of the village in traveling four kilometer routes for each circuit.

He said a “full scholarship provided by Mom” made the trip possible.

Amber Strehle, 36, learned of the trip through her husband who works at Costco with Janet.

“Him and Janet got into a conversation one night at work and he came home (I’ve always had a lifelong dream of going to Africa) and he said, ‘Honey, I think I found your trip to Africa,’ so Janet and I started emailing and it wasn’t, ‘Are you going?,’ it was, 'You are going.' So since she is so wonderfully tenacious I am going.”

Strehle has four children and is a professional photographer by trade, so she will document the mission. She said she looks forward to sharing the pictures and experience with her children as a lesson in cultural relativism. One of her daughter’s has caught the philanthropic bug and her class has raised $100 to buy bricks for the school.

Fundraising for the trip has come from many sources, including private donations, donations from St. Johns, grants and selling t-shirts.

Janet provided the following thank-you’s in an email:

-Bishop Rickel ( Episcopal Church of Western Washington) is the one who heads the Carl Knirk Scholarship that awarded $1000 towards the construction of the second classroom
-Dianne Aid oversaw a second grant from The Commission to the Church in the World that also gave a grant of $1000
-Andy and Robin Deceunyk are the employees at Costco who gave the airfare grant when Robin was found sick with MS and Andy couldn't travel- their generosity is more than I can imagine.
-And also Rev. Peter DeVeau of the St. Johns church for his spiritual leadership for this mission and support for all missions that we have ever done in the last 10 years involving Kenya.
-Robert and Krista Livingston, Scholarsticjourney.org., they have provided over 600 pens to be provided to the students at Mulundi Primary and Secondary school during the week we are there.

Funds have already been sent to Mulundi village to help buy building supplies ahead of time.

There are still opportunities to donate to the mission including an African Dinner at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church at 3050 California Ave s.w. on Saturday, March 5 from 5 to 9 p.m. The suggested donation is $5 for an authentic African meal with recipes provided by Janet.

Donations can also be sent to St. John the Baptist c/o Mulundi-Kwa Muema School at the address above.

Although a very spry 71, Mike said this might be his last trip to Kenya, “so we really wanted to take some young people and expose them to mission work.”