"For decades people have come from miles around to seek Elisabeth’s services. The initial charge is little or nothing, but when her patients feel better, they often return with“ something to show their appreciation. ” Those gifts have helped Elisabeth and 23 family members in her compound survive the past several years, when drought has besieged her hilltop farm in Kenya.

“Over the past ten years we’ve gotten less and less rain. Last year the drought was very, very bad and we had to sell almost all of our livestock to buy food, which was going for high prices. It was the same for most people. The price we got for our oxen was very low. Later the Red Cross arrived with famine relief food, but by then our money and livestock were gone.”

Elisabeth estimates that the family’s food consumption dropped about 25–30%. Her grandchildren grew skinnier and became lethargic, but no one starved.

At sunset, Elisabeth's family prepares a meal of (a stiff maize mash), some beans, and a bit of pumpkin. Without a radio for entertainment, the family will sit and chat by lantern light into the evening. The grandchildren will banter with their grandmother, who says she is looking for signs that one them has inherited her healing powers, but that hope is tempered by what the dry hills of Kitanga might hold for the generations to come.