Shinkou

June 29, 2011
Kisii, Kenya

Woke up to the church sermon on the radio at 4:45am. It's pitch black outside - how can these people be working? After breakfast, we packed up. On the way down the hill to the bus, we stopped off at an adjacent property. The Israelis have donated numerous high tech greenhouses to local projects. The only criteria is that a landowner must donate the land to erect the greenhouse and the entire community must be involved in erecting and maintaining the plants. The greenhouse we visited was going to be a tomato hothouse.

Our next stop was James' house. Tammy brought some of the dresses and passed them out at the gathering. The team brought out new mattresses, pillows, blankets for James and his family. Food donations were made as well. We took James and his family into his new home. The floors were still not leveled but that would be done after we left. And the mud would take a few days to dry. I made the sign of the cross on one wall in each room. His entire family were so quiet, so humbled and so in awe. Everyone just sang Hallelujah! Since the new house is next door to the old home, the old home would continue to remain in the family. It would be used for storage and shelter for the goat.

A lady named Lydia befriended me. We worked side by side and she told me about her family. She has two children. Her teenage son scored 17 points too low to qualify for free tuition for Form 2 school (high school). She needed several hundred American dollars to put her son through high school. I wanted to give her the money. She had been serving for the past two days. It was difficult, but it was recommended that I allow the Kenyan system to work and to not interfere. Knowing how things work in Kenya (TIK: this is Kenya so don't hold your breath), I have a hard time believing funds would get to Lydia. However if I handed cash to Lydia, it may not have been used for education or she could be in danger if neighbors knew she had cash. I have regrets.

It was sad to leave Kisii. We were saying good bye to Huma and Isaac, two HEART workers who had been with us since the beginning of our trip. They needed to return to Nairobi and we would continue to Maasai Mara for 2.5 days.