Commun ty Matters Lawrence Presbyterian Manor
November 2017
Recognizing Hopsice Month November is National Hospice Month, and to recognize the importance of hospice services to quality end of life care, Presbyterian Manor’s Heart and Soul Hospice would like to share Clayton’s story. It was not long after Clayton was diagnosed with a life limiting illness that he was told that curative treatment was no longer an option. Clayton quickly made the decision to seek hospices services. At first, Clayton thought hospice was a way to avoid burdening his family with his illness. Clayton soon began to understand that by deciding to utilize hospice, he had put together a supportive team for himself and his entire family. Together, Clayton, his family, and the hospice team created a plan of care that included Clayton’s medical needs as well as emotional and spiritual needs for himself and his family. HOSPICE, continued on page 2
Ken Lohrentz is to the far right of the four teachers in the front row. The photo was taken on the occasion of the school dedication, Sept. 1, 1962, two weeks after Ken’s arrival as the first American teacher. Students are smartly dressed in their “double whites.”
A lifelong love of Africa Resident revisits Tanzania, where he taught 55 years ago In the 1960s, Ken Lohrentz taught English in Tanzania for two and a half years. This summer he returned to the continent to see old friends, reconnect with former students, and soak up the breathtaking beauty of the landscape, the culture, and the people of eastern Africa. “I think it’s terribly unfortunate that many people have the impressions of Africa that they do. The idea is that it’s all a place where violent acts and nonfunctional governments are found, and that it’s all a dangerous place. That’s not true,” said Ken, a resident of Lawrence Presbyterian Manor. “My biggest takeaway of the whole trip is that we here in the U.S. get a very skewed view of what life in Africa is like. We only hear about the problem areas -- the violence and unrest that are occurring, and the poverty and hunger. We don’t hear about how wonderful the people are. They are so friendly, hospitable, kind and open to visitors.” Ken graduated from Bethel College in North Newton, Kan., in 1962 with a history degree. The Vietnam War was escalating, and Ken was a religious AFRICA, continued on page 2
HOSPICE, continued from page 1
Clayton’s wishes are prioritized. Clayton is not a fan of baseball, but his family loves the game. Clayton’s wish was to have a baseball party for his entire family. The hospice team helped him make that happen. That day there was baseball, air hockey, and a room filled with family, laughter and smiles. Clayton beat most of us at the air hockey challenges!
Clayton has been with hospice since June and is still facing terminal illness with no cure. But, with his hospice team’s focus on providing medical care and emotional support that enhances his quality of life, Clayton has had more good days to be able to make memories with his loved ones. For information about hospice services available at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor, contact social
services. Heart and Soul Hospice is based in Farmington, Mo., and Wichita, Kan., and is a proud member of the Presbyterian Manor of Mid America Family. Learn more at: HeartAndSoulHospice.com wichitahospice@pmma.org
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government. He has six children; five have gone to college (the objector to the war. His search for youngest is still in secondary an alternative form of service that would satisfy the draft board led him school). Ken said it shows how education can lift up future to the faith-based Teachers Abroad Program of the Mennonite Church. generations. “Once a student like that is able to position himself in Two months later, he was headed to a very successful job within the a boys’ boarding school in Kigoma, academic, professional or economic Tanzania. For the next few years, he elite, he is in a position to carry his taught English to high-school age own family along. I came across a boys, mostly from rural villages. number of examples like that,” Ken They grew up speaking their tribal said. language, and most also knew Ken said he doesn’t think he was Swahili. quite prepared to go so far from This year, as Ken went to retrace his home when he did, but neither does steps in Tanzania, the reunion began he regret it. “That was a huge jump. before he even landed in Kigoma. I would have to admit now, in some On his flight from the major city ways, it was probably too big for of Dar es Salaam, Ken noticed one me,” he says. “Sometimes we have a of the attendants had the same last vision that gets a little ahead of us. name as one of his former students. It takes time for parts of us to catch He asked if he was related to a up.” Jonathan Mdadila. “He said, ‘Yes. He is my father.’ He was very successful, Back in the U.S., Ken taught high school for a while and later became and I was really, really pleased to an academic librarian. From 1984 hear this was the case for quite a to 2006 (and again from 2012 to number of my previous students,” 2015), Ken was the bibliographer Ken said. for African studies at the University Jonathan had gone to university and of Kansas. had become a senior agriculture Ken also returned to Africa in official with the Tanzanian AFRICA, continued from page 1
On the flight across Tanzania to Kigoma to visit his former school, Ken had a chance meeting with an attendant on the flight who was the son of one of his former students.
1998, when he went to Senegal, West Africa with a KU exchange program. As part of that trip, he completed a five-week book-buying trip in five countries for the KU libraries.
In 1984, Ken was delighted to make the acquaintance of Walter Bgoya, who was a book publisher and distributor from Tanzania. They met through the years since then at professional conferences in the U.S. and Canada. Ironically, Mr. Bgoya had been a student at KU from 1961 to 1965, at the same time that Ken was teaching in Tanzania. They became good friends, and Ken was able to visit him on this trip. Exploring the world as a young man, and again in retirement, has had a tremendous influence on Ken’s worldview. “It opens up your mind and consciousness of others parts of the world. It was extremely educational to me. In so many ways, I was probably learning more myself than I was teaching,” Ken said. On the left: This memorial marks the spot where Henry Morton Stanley found David Livingstone in 1871. It is just a few miles from the school where Ken taught and after which the school, Livingstone College, was named.
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