Features » Faith

Subscribe

Local Catholic sister takes vacation from building African wells, health clinics

  • Print
  • •
  • •
  • Post a Comment
  • •
  • Favorite
  • •
  • Report an error Report error
    • Thank you for your submission.
      Error report or correction
      Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  
      Sending report
    • Close
  • •
Sister Rebecca Janacek, a sister from the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament Convent, talks about her projects in Kenya, where she was able to facilitate the construction of water wells for nomadic tribes.
  • Erica Rodriguez •
  • Originally published July 29, 2010 at midnight, updated July 30, 2010 at 2:35 p.m.

  • About Sister Rebecca JanacekBorn in Weimar; raised in Karnes City

    Has been a sister of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament since 1974.

    Age: 56

    Quote to live by: "Never crystallize. Always remain open to change."

    ...
  • SHOW ALL »

    • About Sister Rebecca JanacekBorn in Weimar; raised in Karnes City

    Has been a sister of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament since 1974.

    Age: 56

    Quote to live by: "Never crystallize. Always remain open to change."

    For more information on how to help, contact Janacek at rebeccajanacek@yahoo.com or Sister Evelyn Korenek at 361-575-2266 or srevelynk@yahoo.com.

Sister Rebecca Janacek, a sister of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament Convent, can often be found in shorts, a T-shirt and sandals, doing anything from repairing Land Cruisers to getting roads bulldozed.

Janacek, a 56-year-old Karnes City native, is a missionary to the Pokot people of northwestern Kenya in Rotu, a remote area surrounded by armed tribes deep in the African bush.

Drought is common in the dry, rocky terrain and the nomadic tribe lives constantly on the move to find water and food for their animals.

"There's a big divide between modern Kenya and these people who are just deep in the bush," she said.

For the past two months, Janacek has been vacationing in Texas and readjusting herself with American culture, something she does about twice a year.

After 23 years in Africa, she feels more a part of it than Texas, where the noise from cities and people wear her nerves.

"I'm peopled out," she said, smiling. "I can't stand all this city and so many people and so much noise."

But her stories of the Pokot Africans are never far away.

"The challenge is these people are extremely traditional," she said. "They live next to the earth. Their values are different. Life is lived real close to the earth."

Before Janacek arrived in Kenya, the Pokot people had no access to clean water. Shallow hand-dug wells from dried riverbeds were a common source of water during dry seasons and contaminated water led to many diseases.

Basic healthcare facilities were usually about two to three days walk through the brush. Only half of children born survive and genital mutilation among women was a common practice.

"These people were kind of dying out and marginalized by the government," she said. "It's kind of out-of-sight, out-of-mind, and they don't care how they live."

Janacek, a trained nurse, with a passion for health care is the only sister from the convent to be on a mission to a foreign country.

She worked with the people for 17 years to establish and train locals to run their own health clinic. In 2004, she left her job when the clinic became self-sufficient.

Before she left, Pokots in other remote areas asked for her help.

"They asked me not to forget them and asked me to come help them set up their own health program," she said.

But the convent could not support her. After raising the funds herself from international donors, Janacek returned to do what she believes God called her to do.

"I packed up my tent and went into the bush and just stayed with the people," she said.

For nine months in 2006, she roamed from one family compound to another asking the community about their needs for water and medical care, then tried to make it happen.

"I knew nothing," she said. "I just had to learn, and I just educated myself."

During the next four years, Janacek worked to bulldoze roads, build three wells and a health clinic.

The whole mission has been a step of faith and determination.

"I just said 'God you're the one giving me this direction to help these people, so if you want it to happen, you make it happen'," she said. "That's how I do this whole thing. I said, 'OK, God. It's yours. I'm just your instrument.' I've had my moments when I've sat down and cried and said, 'What am I doing here?'"

Janacek believes her family, who will often raise funds for her, has been a big source of support.

"She's teaching them to fish," said Mark Blanchard, Janacek's cousin who is familiar with her work. "She's not giving to them. So they take ownership."

Those at the convent admire her spirit.

"She's really got the missionary spirit," said General Superior Evelyn Korenek. "Not everybody has that, and that's why I think it's a special gift from God."

Janacek hopes to eventually train the locals to staff the clinic in Rotu themselves and in doing so, work herself out of a job. She believes it could easily take another 10 years, but doesn't seem to mind.

"My heart is there because I see what they really need," she said. "They need my help and I have something to contribute."


Sign Up
CLOSE

  • Print
  • •
  • •
  • Post a Comment
  • •
  • Favorite
  • •
  • Report an error Report error
    • Thank you for your submission.
      Error report or correction
      Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  
      Sending report
    • Close
  • •