I was so tired last night after the long bus journey yesterday, that after supper I went to bed under and enormous mozzie net, with the balcony door open. I just lay on the sheet and drifted off, only to be woken about 1 by a dog barking outside; this started a chain reaction with another dog a few streets away, and then dogs down by the lake. As soon as they stopped, the first dog started again !
But after a long drink of water, I was asleep again and woken by my alarm at 6. Shower, the Catholic mass in the chapel led by Father Alois, and then breakfast. We were joined by Father Hans Bergman, the elderly Dutch priest who first came to Kisumu as a missionary in 1979, and has been here ever since, living amongst the poor.
I called Morris, who was the tuk-tuk driver we used last year, and he came to pick me up at 9, and I went to the workshop. It was good to look around it without Paul there; nothing has changed. The ground around it is still in need of levelling; the windows await glass; only the name painted across the front is new. But inside, there are signs of its usage … piles of half completed school desks; some half finished chairs, and heaps of wood. The tools we had sent out by Work Aid didn't seem to be there, so I wonder where they are ? There was one work-bench with a vice. No other equipment. So I have a big job on my hands to talk to the trustees and Paul and students next week, to see where they feel they have reached in the project. HATW can probably raise some more money for the workshop, but we need reports and evidence that more is being done locally. I know its not the African way, but it has to be, for trusts we can get money from, have that key word 'accountability' …
I have a job on my hands I think !
Off to find a Cyber Caff ... Morris is picking me up as the temp is 33.9 C and there is no way I'm walking anywhere ....
... to be continued
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