WEBVTT - 37 Pounds 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:02.680 What you hear in this podcast does not implicate any 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:06.120 individual or entity in any criminal activity. The views and 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:09.440 opinions are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast. 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:15.200 Previously on the Missionary I founded Serving his Children, How 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:19.600 old I was nineteen nineteen. Obviously the Lord really had 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.639 a special plan for you. You were either pro Renee 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:24.400 and going to stand up for her and you know, 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:28.240 have her back, or you were very much against what 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.920 she was doing and just kind of outraged by it. 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.880 All and five children died at an unlicensed treatment center 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.680 for malnourished kids in Uganda. I used to take the 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:42.440 did Buddhist Renee is being sued and ugand in court 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:44.600 every time a kid dies. You're writing a blog post, 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.320 You're getting all its attention. You might become addicted. What 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:54.080 leads Renee to go down this path? She thinks that's 0:00:54.080 --> 0:01:03.920 what God wants her to do. Ye Just two days before, 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:09.360 I had heard a horror story. After driving all morning, 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:14.360 I approached a small, half collapsing hut. The home was 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:21.080 littered with trash, animal waste. My mind was reeling. As 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:23.640 I walked closer and closer, a dread came over me, 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:27.800 but also a strong desire to run as fast as 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:32.000 I could to comfort those hurting to fix the problem 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:39.040 at hand. I remained calm. I prayed. As my eyes 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:42.120 adjusted to the dark, I saw a little skeleton of 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:47.720 a child sitting on the dirt floor. Her name was 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:51.520 Naba Cosa, and she wasn't a child. She was a 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:54.960 woman in her twenties. And the woman telling this story 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.800 is Renee Bach. She wrote about her encounter with Nabucoza 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.800 and Vivid Deep Hill and her blog. We had an 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.560 actor read the post and we edited them for clarity. 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.960 But this is what Renee wrote back in August of two. 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.680 When she saw a movement, she slowly lifted her eyes, 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.920 and when I saw a fear, deathlike look in her eyes, 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:24.760 I screamed inwardly. My heart stopped. No one was caring 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.640 for her, no one was feeding her, no one was 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:31.919 even looking at her. And that is how Napacosa has 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:36.960 lived every day for the past twenty three years until now. 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.880 Renee wasn't the only one in Napocosa has had that day. 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:48.799 Her friend Ashley Laverty was there too. She smelt very 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:55.040 foul and it was just it was horrible. It was really, 0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:03.120 really horrible. Okay, As Renee and actually walked closer, they 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:10.639 heard a slow, continuous tapping. Napacosa was holding an empty 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:13.960 mug and using the little energy she had to tap 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:18.240 it on the ground. I feel like she was tapping 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.840 that cup to signal that she wanted something to eat 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.760 or drink. I had a flask like a travel mug 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.720 of tea in the car. It was just black tea 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.120 with maybe a little bit of honey or sugar in it, 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.320 and I ran and got it and she just started 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:40.760 like downing it, like just gulping it down. Renee and 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.720 Ashley wanted to get her out of that hut immediately. 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.360 She was a full grown adult woman, but I was 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:49.560 able to like just scooper up in my two arms. 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:56.000 According to her medical documents, Napocoza Wade only thirty seven pounds. 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.240 But the needy will not be forgotten, nor the hope 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:06.320 of the afflicted ever perish. Some seen outside, they cleaned her, 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.960 wrapped her in a cloth, and held her tight as 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.720 if she were a baby. I wanted her to know 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.640 that she was loved not only by me, but by 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.120 a great, big, huge God, and that he had not 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.640 forgotten about her. I wanted her to know that he 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:29.280 was coming to her rescue, but Napocosa wasn't rescued. Within 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:34.359 a few days, Nabocsa would be dead. In the next 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.240 few years, there would be one hundred five deaths according 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:43.839 to Serving his Children's own records, but Nabokoza was the 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:51.320 first to die under their roof an association with I 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:56.839 Heart Media. I'm Hellymaca CONDI, I'm Roger Gola, I'm Malcolm Burnley. 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:10.640 This is the Missionary episode two thirty seven pounds. Renee 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:14.080 and Ashley brought Napocoza back to Serving His Children to 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.400 try and nurse her back to health. As always, Renee 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:23.760 was hopeful, determined. Renee just started feeding her bryson beans, water. 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:26.920 She would eat as much as she could and drink 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:32.160 as much as she could, and she started to perk 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:37.080 up and like gain more energy. Ashley went home for 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.800 the night and left Renee with Nabucoza and a new 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:44.800 volunteer named Shanna, who declined an interview. But according to 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.800 Renee's blog, it wasn't long before things got worse. I 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.560 felt sure that Nabacosa was going to be with Jesus, 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.279 that at any moment she would leave this earth headed 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.080 to heaven, where a heavenly host would welcome her with 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:02.159 open arms. Renee wasn't going to let that happen without 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.000 a fight. She bundled Nabucoza in a blanket, loaded her 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:11.839 into a van and took her to the hospital, but 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:16.000 they were turned away. We were driving frantically through the 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.360 city of Kampala in the middle of the night, searching 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.599 for anyone who would give her a second glance. I 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:29.560 was terrified, hysterical, sad, angry. They tried three more hospitals 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.800 but were turned away again and again. In one of 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.440 our last attempts, I ran into a hospital barefoot, carrying 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:41.120 Nabucoza in my arms like a small infant. No one 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.119 even looked up, and after sitting on a cold floor 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:46.680 for over an hour, the doctor told me to leave 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:51.760 her existing ivy in and take her home. Take her home. 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:56.120 They were out of options, so that's what they did. 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.279 They got back to serving his children in the middle 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.160 of the night and laid Nabucosa in bed with hot 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:08.880 water bottles. Renee slept by her side to keep her warm, 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:14.840 and then a small miracle happened. Today, Navacosa is awake, 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.800 she can sit up, she's eating small amounts of food 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.520 and keeping it down, and she can move a little 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:27.040 bit and make noises in response. Today, Nabucosa is very 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:36.080 much alive. Renee and I started off as friends, and 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:41.200 we had similar passions or interests in that, like I 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:45.960 had worked with children suffering from malnutrition. Ashley and Renee 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.840 were part of the same missionary community in Ginger. Ashley 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.920 says she even volunteered at serving his children, but she 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.640 saw herself as radically different from the other missionaries. She 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:01.360 wasn't raised in an evangelical family, and she was well traveled. 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.680 Her father was an American diplomat. From the time I 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:06.600 was a little girl, like, I always had dreamt of 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.280 coming to Africa. And I don't know if it's because 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.160 like I had been to all these other you know, 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:16.040 countries and continents. Um, this is gonna really silly. But 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:18.960 as a child, I really think it's because I was 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.680 such an animal lover and like idolized women like Jane 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:26.080 Goodall and Diane Fosse, and like it was the wildlife 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:30.000 that initially attracted me and like the nature. In college, 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:34.080 actually studied health sciences and worked with disabled children before 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.960 moving to Uganda was like, but it made her nervous 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:41.440 to see what little experience her peers had. She was 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.520 surrounded by young women who felt called to do service 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:47.600 but had never actually studied or worked in these fields, 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.199 and felt like they could just figure it out as 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.480 they went along. And Yeah, a lot of young girls, 0:08:54.120 --> 0:09:00.760 you know, late teens, early twenties, generally not educated beyond 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:08.040 secondary school or high school, never having any work experience 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:12.720 like none, but would then graduate and come over here 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:15.520 to set up their own organization. I'm going to come 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:17.480 and do my own thing so i can be my 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:21.800 own boss and run my own show. That was very, very, 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:27.600 very much a trend, I'll be honest, though. One thing 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.600 that I found a bit ironic about this story is 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.439 how many of these relatively young white American missionaries were 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.080 ready to criticize each other but think of themselves as 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:42.000 the one white person doing it right in Africa. I mean, 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.720 how did these young women without any medical training end 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:48.520 up taking care of an incredibly sick woman in the 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:54.480 first place. Back then, in missionary communities like Ginger, experience 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:59.160 was often overlooked. What mattered most was your compassion, your piety, 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:06.640 and your it meant in two thousand ten, serving his 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.920 children was feeding hundreds of children every week, sometimes as 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.000 many as a thousand. It was also around this time 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.559 that Renee started doing more than feeding kids. She began 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:21.200 taking them in. Children who were sick with tuberculosis or 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.120 malaria now nutrition. Renee's team would bring them back and 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:28.080 forth to the hospital for treatment, while letting the kids 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.199 in their families stay at the center for free. Here's 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.679 how Katie Davis, one of Renee's old friends, described her 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.240 in a blog back in two thousand ten. We had 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.920 a voice actor read this too. Renee lives with purpose. 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:45.360 She is intentional about loving people with the love of Christ. 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.800 She stops for one person and loves that person as 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.560 if they were Christ himself. In her living room, she 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:55.200 spends her day's nurturing children who we all swear will 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.720 surely die back to health, preparing awful smelling high calorie milk, 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.560 and mopping vomit off the floor and herself. And she 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:08.600 doesn't complain because she knows she's doing it for Jesus. 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:14.320 My childhood hero was Mother Teresa. By today hero is Renee, 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:21.120 a modern Mother Teresa. That was her reputation back then, 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.920 even people who had never met Renee were inspired by 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:28.200 her and wanted to help her play a tiny role 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:32.040 in her mission. In that same blog post, Katie asks 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.480 people to help Renee buy a new car for work, 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:37.240 a car that could be used to rescue more people 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.680 like Naba Coosa. Renee needs a car, and a good one. 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:44.480 The kind were looking for a cost between ten and 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.360 twelve thousand dollars that serving his children currently just doesn't have, 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.280 and people in the comments promised to donate. Weeks later, 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:59.720 they got that car, a white Toyota land Cruiser. Navacosa 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:03.600 is a proving tremendously. It is nothing short of a miracle, 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:07.199 and no doubt, due to Renee and Shannon's devoted around 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.400 the clock care and a God who is more awesome 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:20.000 than I can fathom, Nabacosa's recovery wouldn't last. Within a 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.920 couple of days, her health took a turn for the worse. 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:27.160 I do remember coming back and she was lying in 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.680 there hooked up to I v S that had been 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:37.040 administered by Renee. She was very uncomfortable and she was groaning, 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:41.600 and there was just like a very foul smell coming 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:47.880 from her and that room. I just remember just being 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.760 in shock by all of it. She wasn't in a 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:55.560 medical facility, she was just being treated from the center. 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.360 She wasn't getting any better despite having you know, a 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:04.440 so called treatment plan and and food and water, and 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:15.520 then just declined so rapidly. My friend Napocosa went to 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:19.120 be with Jesus. God decided that it was time for 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:23.360 her to come home, to leave her earthly pain behind 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:28.400 and come worship Him for the rest of eternity. Now 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:30.080 I have to say, this is not the way I 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:34.800 wanted things to happen. I had other plans. I had 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:38.640 a different end to her story and mind. But this 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.480 is God's perfect end to her story, and the story 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:50.800 is not mine to write. Renee told a moving story, 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.280 and as we'll see, she'd keep telling it. But here's 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:59.320 the thing. From the beginning, actually doubted Renee's version of events. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.400 A blog of her running through these hospitals barefoot. I 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:07.920 feel like that was maybe for exaggeration purposes. Ashley wasn't 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:11.640 with Rani that night, but she did know about Ugandan hospitals. 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:14.920 She had fostered dozens of kids and often had to 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:19.400 navigate Uganda's complex health care system, so actually doubted that 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:23.640 Renee Nabucoza would be turned away like that again and again. 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.720 The details just felt off to her. I don't know 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:33.480 what kind of doctor would prescribe treatment for somebody that's sick, 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.200 send them home and say you can just continue this 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:42.040 treatment from home, you who has no medical training. Like 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:44.080 that is shocking to me. I mean, it would be 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.160 one thing if all she needed was a dose of antibiotics. 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:51.360 But like when somebody is dying, starting to death and 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:55.800 rotting from a host of infections, you don't just give 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.640 a list of instruction to say, take her on home. 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:03.120 She can be managed for him home. As Renee tells it, 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.560 Nabokoza fought to live until the very end until God 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.000 decided it was her time to go. But Ashley says 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:14.640 she was there when Napocosa died, and she remembers a 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:20.200 completely different version where Nabacosa's death wasn't dignified, wasn't peaceful 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:24.800 at all. At this point, she had been allowed to 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:27.560 go outside and she was sitting on the veranda, and 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.840 I believe she had been eating lunch, and all of 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:35.840 a sudden she took a turn for the worst. She 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.480 just like the eyes started rolling back in her head, 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:47.360 gurgling as if she was like gonna, you know, possibly 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:55.320 faint or honestly die. And Renee ran into the house. 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.920 She had her own little pharmacy set up, and she 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:06.720 grabbed a medication, came outside and injected her with it, 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:20.800 and then she died, but fell backwards. In Ashley's description 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:25.520 is so alarming and almost violent. We were left wondering 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.240 how much had Renee's faith blinded her. Did Renee call 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.440 us the death of the woman she set out to save. 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.040 It's not like she was held by Renee As she 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.520 peacefully slipped away. It was like, oh my gosh, like 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:40.880 something is happening with her. I'm going to run inside, 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:48.400 come back out, jabber, and then bool, she's dead. Nama 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.760 Coosa's death spelled the end of Ashley and Renee's friendship. 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.080 Nine years later, Ashley would write an affidavit against Renee, 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.560 accusing her of illegally practicing medicine in and she would 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:26.120 use Nabokoza as her primary example. You get it, y'all. 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:34.000 Get Missionaries weren't just something I read about in history books. 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:41.160 They were something I grew up hearing about for years. 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.520 My family comes from a place called Tuntumu, a two 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:49.720 hour drive from Nairobi. Yeah, it's a beautiful town, nestled 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:53.600 in the rolling hills and highlands of central Tania. I 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:55.840 live in the US now, but when I first heard 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.440 about Renee, I was living in Kenya. I moved there 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.879 back into I was and eighteen, mostly to be a 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:06.120 freelance reporter. But I also wanted to travel the country 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.320 with my cousins and spend time with my grandmother or 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.360 show show, as we say in cuckoo you or native language. 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.480 I wanted to know her and record her history my 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:28.919 never days like me. When I wasn't practicing my cuckoo you, 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.080 I was walking in the family farm, picking mangoes and 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:37.560 avocados straight from the trees, or playing fetch with the 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:45.439 dogs and saying hide my uncle's cows path. But whenever 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:47.760 I walked through it, I also felt like I could 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.520 feel the weight of history on my shoulders. Britain has 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.359 brought much good to Kenya. A standards of living are 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.800 growing still higher as more of her people learn the 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.679 lessons that the white man has to teach. More than 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.800 a hundred years ago, Tumutumu became one of the very 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.920 first missionary outposts of the Church of Scotland and across 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.000 the ridge from our home, that's where the Catholic missionary 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:16.000 set up. Down the street were the Anglicans. Mister Littleton 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.959 lens of the maumas threats on the lives of Catholic missionaries, 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:21.920 and in the Nyanza province he talks with elders of 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:25.480 the Kukuyo tribe from which the Maumau drew hundreds of recruits, 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:31.120 many of whom have not been arrested. You can see 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:35.080 the presence of missionaries everywhere. They established one of the 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:39.159 very first hospitals in the region to Mutumu Hospital, and 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:43.000 one of the best schools to Mutumu Primary School where 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:51.800 my father went. He The one thing my grandmother would 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.400 talk about proudly was her lifelong membership in the church 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.159 as women's Guild. It was a point of pride for 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.960 her and in our town. It made her a respectable woman. 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.520 What does she want us to remember? I might remember then, 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:12.320 which it tell us about the women's guild? He give them. 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:16.800 On the day I recorded her, she was wearing her 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:21.200 favorite light blue bandanna. It read p C E A 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:26.719 Presbyterian Church of East Africa and If you ask some 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.960 of the older Kenyons about missionaries, this is what they 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:34.440 talk about. The good things. For her generation. The church 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:38.320 represented a new Africa with a brand new set of opportunities. 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.960 When my grandmother died last year, dozens of women from 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:49.840 the guild came to the church. They wore the same 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:55.280 blue bandana that my grandmother always wore. Together, they carried 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:59.520 my grandmother's coffin out of the church, her bandanna draped 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:15.439 over it. To me, you can't talk about missionaries without 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:19.639 talking about colonialism. The missionaries had come with promises to 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.520 educate and convert Kenyon's, but they were also complicit in 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:27.240 the theft of their land and their resources. But whenever 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:30.040 I asked her about the other side of that history, 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:34.360 the dark side, how the British detained tens of thousands 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:39.479 of cuku Are tribe and forcibly relocated people to barbed 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:44.399 wire camps, burned down homes, set up curfews, all to 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:47.960 keep them down. I always had the sense that my 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:53.280 grandmother just didn't want to speak about those things. To her. 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:57.560 The British had done terrible things, but the missionaries had 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:01.880 done God's work. They brought hospital is to save children, schools, 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:05.880 to bring opportunities, and I get that when I think 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:09.160 about Renee Boch. The question isn't whether or not all 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:13.080 missionaries are bad, but I do wonder what would the 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.760 you Gonde and she encountered say. That's what has driven 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:20.760 me throughout this entire podcast actually hearing the you Gonde 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:24.000 on side of the story. Would they see her as 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:28.320 my grandmother did, doing God's work by bringing hospitals and schools, 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:31.840 or would they see her as a harbinger of something darker, 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:37.640 an enabler of something more dangerous, something so terrible that 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:47.280 no one could speak about it now. A lot of 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:50.040 things Renee wrote in her blog are hard to believe. 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:54.439 Did she really run barefoot through a hospital? Did a 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:58.720 doctor actually tell her to manage a patient herself? But 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:01.800 what grabs my attention the most is something that Renee 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:05.840 implies again and again in her blogs, this idea that 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:09.760 you Gondan families didn't care enough and that was why 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:13.200 their children were starving, as if love could heal any 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:18.840 amount of poverty. After Nabacosa died, Renee wrote this, you 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:21.520 should know that thousands of people are praying for you 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:24.680 and your family. I know your mom is feeling so 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:28.080 sad about the past twenty three years. I told her 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:31.240 you forgave her. One of the only things Renee and 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:35.960 Ashley agree on is that Naubakoza was neglected, had been starved. 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:39.560 In fact, in her affidavit, Renee says that one of 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:42.879 Nabucoza's relatives told her they put her in a room 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:47.040 to wait for her to die. Sweet Nabucosa lived a 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:50.520 life full of incredible pain and suffering. She lived a 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:54.400 life of neglect, a life of abuse. She was even 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:56.840 denied the right to be loved by her own mother. 0:23:57.960 --> 0:23:59.919 Can you even begin to imagine what that would be, La, 0:24:01.800 --> 0:24:06.520 I can't. After Renee posted Navacosa's story, it spread like 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:11.320 wildfire from one Christian blog to another, the parable of 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:15.480 poor Nabacosa, who had never received love until the day 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:19.240 she was rescued by these two young white women. Here's 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:22.080 some of what they wrote. She was in her awful 0:24:22.119 --> 0:24:24.960 state only because no one had cared for her, No 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:27.720 one had loved her, no one had even given her 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:30.199 a second thought. That she survived as long as she 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:32.920 did in the care of Anti Renee is a miracle 0:24:33.040 --> 0:24:36.240 in itself. I've never held a starving person in my arms, 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:39.800 her dry skin warm against mine, and prayed she lived. 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:49.000 Renee has it was just too easy, too convenient to 0:24:49.160 --> 0:24:53.360 cast off Nabacosa's family as these silent villains in Renee's 0:24:53.359 --> 0:24:57.679 heroic story, a cheap plot device that was eerily familiar, 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:01.240 like the casual mention of fly is swarming around an 0:25:01.280 --> 0:25:06.359 African child's head. But what would Nabucoza's family say. We 0:25:06.440 --> 0:25:09.960 needed to hear in their words what happened. So Regiv 0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:21.320 went to go find them. I set out early one 0:25:21.359 --> 0:25:26.480 Sunday morning, all right. I headed north from Gina for 0:25:26.520 --> 0:25:30.280 about an hour, following the Nile downstream along the same 0:25:30.400 --> 0:25:32.760 dirt roads that Renee would have taken when she found 0:25:32.840 --> 0:25:36.560 Nabucoza ten years earlier. I'm on the back of a 0:25:36.560 --> 0:25:41.280 motorcycle with smy my translator, and fix her. I'm holding 0:25:41.280 --> 0:25:43.640 the recorder in one hand and the seat would together. 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:54.400 So Mom and Nabokoza is still here. No, she's gone already, Okay. 0:25:54.600 --> 0:25:57.120 So May was a former employee of serving his children 0:25:57.280 --> 0:26:00.520 who had been fired back in over a pay dispute. 0:26:01.400 --> 0:26:04.440 Now he's a witness in the case against Renee. So 0:26:04.480 --> 0:26:07.199 he's not exactly a neutral party, but he knew the 0:26:07.200 --> 0:26:11.000 local language and where Navacoza's village was, and we had 0:26:11.040 --> 0:26:14.679 all his translations checked with the third party in full disclosure. 0:26:14.720 --> 0:26:19.040 Our team chose to pay some for this work. Anyway, 0:26:20.600 --> 0:26:23.000 we got to the village and asked around for Navacoza's mother. 0:26:23.280 --> 0:26:30.000 So where are we now? Yeah? Okay, And pretty quickly 0:26:30.280 --> 0:26:35.360 we found not her mother but her sister, Lydia. I'm 0:26:38.760 --> 0:26:41.240 she was outside of a small brick house cooking over 0:26:41.280 --> 0:26:46.000 a fire. Her kids were nearby sorting some nuts. Actually, 0:26:46.080 --> 0:27:02.080 does she know anything information? Litia's eyes got big as 0:27:02.080 --> 0:27:16.199 she told sam story Ginger masses vunteers in bazoong I 0:27:16.240 --> 0:27:25.280 recognized some words ginger Messungu. She's going to the term 0:27:25.480 --> 0:27:27.960 as so far as she's the sister to the little 0:27:28.000 --> 0:27:33.359 Navakosa and when Navakosa was sick, she's among the people 0:27:33.359 --> 0:27:40.480 who escorted Navacoza to the clinic in Gina suburb. In 0:27:40.520 --> 0:27:43.359 all of Renee's blog posts about Navocosa, she told the 0:27:43.400 --> 0:27:46.520 story of neglect, a story about a woman cast aside 0:27:46.560 --> 0:27:50.480 by her own family. She never once mentioned that Nabucoza's 0:27:50.560 --> 0:27:56.000 sister was by her side for four whole days did 0:27:56.040 --> 0:28:03.320 she believe that these missouis were doctors? Well, you kid, 0:28:04.760 --> 0:28:13.920 but no, it is this money. She said, she didn't 0:28:13.920 --> 0:28:17.119 know whether they were doctors, but she felt like a 0:28:17.160 --> 0:28:32.399 goat being dragged along. I met Navacosa's mom, Jane a 0:28:32.440 --> 0:28:35.479 week later at her farm. She had a bundle of 0:28:35.480 --> 0:28:37.720 corn husks on her head and wore a tied eye 0:28:37.760 --> 0:28:41.400 green tashiki and a long skirt. She sat down the 0:28:41.400 --> 0:28:43.560 corn husks and brought a few logs for us to 0:28:43.600 --> 0:28:46.680 sit on in her front yard. I wanted to hear 0:28:46.720 --> 0:28:49.280 about how Navacosa came to be the way she was. 0:28:50.400 --> 0:28:56.000 I brought along another interpreter, Sophie tell Us from Navocosa's birth. 0:28:56.440 --> 0:29:01.080 When was Navacasa born and was she healthy as a child? Oh? 0:29:01.160 --> 0:29:10.560 Yea as valubuality. Did I have my nine? It did 0:29:10.680 --> 0:29:16.200 two and she was a healthy baby, no problems. Jane 0:29:16.240 --> 0:29:19.959 said that at age three they noticed Novacosa's hands were 0:29:20.080 --> 0:29:23.720 different sizes. One hand was big, another one was small. 0:29:24.200 --> 0:29:27.960 That's how it started. And she was speaking normally like 0:29:28.240 --> 0:29:32.440 her brand developing like everybody else or how get a balloon? 0:29:32.600 --> 0:29:38.520 Jean going to nyog the okay, she could not speak. 0:29:39.840 --> 0:29:43.280 I learned that Nabucoza used to walk despite half her 0:29:43.320 --> 0:29:48.800 body being paralyzed, but she also regularly had seizures. Nevertheless, 0:29:49.240 --> 0:29:53.280 for twenty seven years they got by. When Jane spent 0:29:53.400 --> 0:29:56.160 time with her husband, Nabocoza would stay with her grandmother 0:29:56.960 --> 0:29:58.719 and they had always done their best to take care 0:29:58.760 --> 0:30:02.760 of her. The people, the Missoulus that found Navocosa, they're 0:30:02.800 --> 0:30:06.120 saying that she was neglected, that she was not eating, 0:30:06.480 --> 0:30:11.640 that they were trying to starve her. That's the way 0:30:13.120 --> 0:30:17.760 she's saying, you know, towards in that case, we are lying. 0:30:20.000 --> 0:30:23.800