Wayne for the team this time – they kept the best for last! Actually I was tied up until midnight the previous couple of nights getting the vehicles ready for the Tanzania trip and crashed last night so this is my first good opportunity to write.
It was another day of a variety of activities. Carol began her work on redecorating the training center with a little help from her friends – thank goodness I had to write this or I would be over there now helping her get some wooden window valences undercoated. The ELI staff seem quite excited at the possibilities, but Carol may have more ideas than time so we will see how far things get.
Jean and Mary Lou got the sewing training going today and seemed really pleased with the aptitude of some of the ladies from the center here as well as some from the outside. They started off with simple projects but they might have to step up the pace to keep up with their students.
We all went over to the school to present some of the items that we had brought for them. When we opened the suitcase the schoolmaster Wycliffe immediately commented “there is something here that we really need”. It was a hand bell that was visible near the top of the suitcase and they were excited because good quality bells are expensive or not readily available. They were also pleased with the many other things that the suitcase contained. He promised to return it empty so that we could take it home and bring it back full on another trip.
Another interesting note from that time was when Wycliffe took my (Wayne’s) hand as we talked and walked across the schoolyard. Fortunately I had been advised that this was a perfectly natural part of the Kenyan culture so I didn’t shake it off. Unfortunately, nobody took a picture.
We paid a visit to one of the classes where we were introduced by our Kenyan names – for example “Gogo Andrew” was Mary Lou who was the grandmother of Andrew (her first grandchild). The ladies seem quite pleased to be known as “gogo girls” and the children seem very pleased to have a whole bunch of grandmas to dole out the hugs.
Dot (with Marilou’s help) continued her tooth brushing training at the school and worked on the curtains for the training center redecoration.
I went at some window pane replacements today along with my helper Bernard. (Editorial comment: the spirite at Empowering Lives is to train/empower nationals to do work. Though it might be faster for Wayned to do some tasks on his own, the goal is to train some Kenyans to do the tasks.) Before we got far into taking out broken window panes, it was clear that a grinder would be useful. But first, it was necessary to replace the pull start rope on the Honda generator. Bernard got to use a rachet for his first time ever, Laban found some suitable rope which was better than the electrical wire that we were planning to try, and we found some non-essential bolts from other parts of the generator to use for the ones that had been lost when it was taken apart some time ago. The generator is now working fine and the test of cutting the edge off the concrete pad with a diamond blade on an angle grinder got some interesting reactions. Josiah’s eyes got really big as he imagined all the things he could do with that device!
Josiah is a really sharp fellow with a vision for what can be done at the center to help people with really practical ideas. His mushroom-growing project using a plastic bread bag filled with steamed corn stalks is fascinating. Today, Josiah and a carpenter was finishing up a couple of worm boxes to be used for breaking down food scraps into some of the best natural fertilizer available.
An extended family of 6 from California (friends of a staff member) arrived today and filled up the tables to make things feel a bit more like they had been before the guys left for Tanzania.
We will be off to Kipkaren (an hour away by matatu/minibus) tomorrow, and we will provide another update after that.
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