18 July update

Here nearly 3 weeks now – the time is flying past, although some things in Africa just can’t be rushed. We’re very well and enjoying hot weather in the middle of the day and often a thunderstorm in the evening.

We’ve had good chats with the church leaders and Kennedy and Duncan, but have continued to spend much of our time on home visits to people in the community. Update on the 3 families we mentioned in our last post – the teenage girl who was living in a small house with her big brother now has a space in the Home; the lady with 6 children – we have paid her rent for the next month and we are finding a space in the school for her 6-year-old daughter who is HIV+; the lady with teenage sons sharing the tiny house with her sister – she has got a place of her own and we have paid rent for the first 3 months.

We’ve also visited Isaiah and seen his new house being built. It must be grim living in a house with a leaking roof when the rain is as heavy as it was last night! There’s a list of people needing new houses and with money that has been donated for houses we’ll be able to get 5 or 6 built over the next few months. With self-help by the benefitting families and sourcing timber from local trees, Mary has been able to bring down the cost of a new house.

Last Wednesday we went to Kisii (large town) about an hour away in the Land Rover and Oyugis (small town) on the way back. Oyugis is about 30 minutes from here on a very rough road. The road from there to Kisii is tarred - so much better. We saw a camel in Oyugis ridden by a Maasai – an unusual sight here. We returned with a new handle on the kettle and with 7 knifes sharpened. Everything can be repaired here for a small amount. Things don’t get thrown out when they are broken. Mary ordered a new supply of sandals for the children and a 10,000 litre tank for catching water from the roof of the main block of classrooms. We bought 10 blankets and 8 mattresses for grandmothers with money that the older women at church gave us before we left.

The maize grown by the Duncan and the children from the Home has all been harvested and totalled about 6 sacks – a good result for their first attempt, and the sukuma wiki, onions and tomatoes are also doing well. We will share some of it with people from the community but the level of hunger is not nearly as bad here as in Northern Kenya or as severe as it was in 2009.

On Saturday afternoon we set off to the “stadium” (public park?) with 16 kids, only to find it locked up. The kids were happy enough to walk on to the village where we each had a “soda” – something of a treat here!

Two visitors have just arrived and will be with us for a few days – 2 young guys who are travelling by Land Rover from London to South Africa through 22 countries and visiting a charity project in each country. They are filming each project and part of the outcome of their adventure will be a TV programme “Real Way Down”. It will be on The Community Channel, but maybe not for another 12 months. We’re going with them tomorrow to visit some of the people in the community who have been helped by Hope & Kindness.