Our visitors

Well, the weather hasn’t been that hot but it’s been hot enough for David and Yvonne. By now the rainy season is usually over but we’ve had a lot of rain, particularly on Saturday and Sunday in the late afternoon and evening, resulting in us all being caught in a downpour, having to shelter for an hour and walk back from the stadium (actually just a playing field) through some floodwater. On Sunday, David and I and Mary took our big boys back to their school in Oyugis after their half-term, and had an interesting journey back to Kosele in the Landrover, driving through torrential rain along a road that’s in bad condition at the best of times.

David and Yvonne have been enjoying their visit here and learning to get by without some of their home comforts. They have been visiting the school, playing with the younger kids, visiting homes in the community and shopping in the bustling market in Oyugis. Today we have all been helping to build a house. The funding for the new house came from part of the money raised through the ceilidh which we organised in Paisley - and Yvonne’s employer, Santander, doubled the money raised. The house will provide a new home for Julita, a young widow with 4 daughters who has been living in a tiny 1-room house. Our part in this ,along with some church members ,was helping to apply mud to make the walls of the house. It’s hard work when you’re not used to it!

David has been taking football training for the older boys and we hope to organise a friendly match against another school nearby. Yvonne has been helping some of the children with their maths homework and also visited the young mothers group at the church and saw them making beads. Another day we went with 37 of our older girls and two teachers to the county primary schools music festival. Our girls were doing a traditional dance and song from the coastal region, and did so well, coming first in their class and beating 5 other schools. The music festival was good – most of the choirs and dancers were of a very high standard.