Victory Highway: March 22 by Wayne

We just completed a delightful supper by Joel (our Kenyan cook) - it is amazing what that man can do over a charcoal cooker
- meat samosas
- french fries
AND fresh mangoes

The ladies continue to sew and iron curtains (and visit as ladies do). I am in the room next door at the children's home computer. As I understand it they will complete the curtains for Kipkaren and the rental Plateau project tonight. That makes over 60 windows worth of curtains and the accompanying 120+ tie-backs. The sewing machines have been near smoking but are apparently humming along very well.

Dot and Adele spent part of the day at the Plateau rental project getting things ready for the grand opening tomorrow. We will all be there for the special occasion.

I spent my day adding as many projects as I completed so the list remains long. I am trying to do as wide a variety of things as possible so my Kenyan helpers (primarily Benard) can understand how to continue after we leave. Today we replaced a defective valve on the solar water heater, extended the pipe outside the cabinet and added a shelf to set a pail on so it would be more practical to get at the hot water. That required that we thread a piece of iron pipe and that was just one more new thing for Benard to learn about. In the process of doing the repairs we broke the rotted crossbar on the clothes line so that added the afternoon project.

There were two badly leaning posts in front of a stone water tower so instead of attempting to redo the posts, we just lag bolted a crossbar to the stone wall. When I suggested it, Benard was very worried because he could not imagine how we would drill into the stone to set the anchors. The new Dewalt cordless hammer drill did the job with little effort and continues to amaze Benard and others. We also completed the entire redo of the clothes lines and supports.

We spent some time today discussing weather phenomena and they were fascinated by some of the concepts. We also got into aspects of the airplane instrumentation that allows us to tell the windspeed etc. - they are very interested in these things. I am still curious about the effects that lead to the rainy season from April to August. If someone has the answer to that or is prepared to research it for us I would be pleased to hear about it when we get home. It is kind of odd to watch the sun head straight overhead during the day

Discussions of the guardians day that will be held on Saturday are beginning. Since we will be leaving here later on Saturday we will not be able to update that until later so let me give you a bit of understanding of it now. Once a year the guardians of the orphans are invited to the Ilulla childrens home to see where the orphans live and how they are doing. Keep in mind that all 92 of the children are true orphans with no mother or father. However, their siblings, relatives, members of their churches, etc. come for the day. Last year there were around 300 - they are expecting more this year, but really don't know how many to expect. We will be helping where we can and it should be interesting.

I guess that is enough rambling for today - good night.