Day 13 and 14 28th & 29th October

Monday was busy; I was interviewing Pauls carpentry students to get some home background from them.   It stretched my Dholuo to the extreme, so thank goodness Paul was there !   HATW wants to try and get sponsors for the boys, but people who want to sponsor children in Africa want more than just a name, otherwise they can't get interested.   These teenage boys suffer the temptation of maybe earning a few shillings a day (if they are lucky) riding a boda-boda or piki-piki and picking up passengers, or taking part in training and earn nothing at the moment.   The carpentry workshop training is free !! We try to get sponsors for each student, which covers their materials, exam fees and basic lunch each day.   But once they are qualified with a government certificate and their own tool kit we provide, they have a very good chance of employment.    They are learning by making furniture with Paul, which is sold to provide him with a salary, and pay the workshop bills .... electricity and water. 

Oh no, not MORE bricks to move !

Evans 20' up on top of a wall, one brick wide, no safety considerations .. 

After lunch on Monday, we went to Pandipieri, the catholic centre where there are workshops, health clinics, a rehabilitation centre for street children and a school for them, baby clinic, etc. etc.   We took along 9 carrier bags jambed full of baby and toddler clothes we had been given in England, plus all the bra's !  The Irish sister in charge got one of her colleagues to show us round.   Its very impressive .... visit   https://www.facebook.com/Pandipieri  to find out more about this amazing centre started by the Mill Hill missionaries, who include Father Hans I wrote about earlier, in the slum area of Kisumu, where people weren't being reached by the government and couldn't afford schools or health care.  

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Today, Tuesday, we went to the workshop as usual, but as there wasn't anything Wendy and I could do (the men were building rickety scaffolding) we went along to Nyamasaria market to visit Lilian again, taking her some baby clothes and a lovely Per Una top I had quite fancied !  I had also collected a bagful of cotton reels, poppers, hooks, needles etc., for her sewing business.   Poor Davis, her baby, wasn't well .... he had malaria, but she had taken him to the clinic for treatment.  

Poor Davis, with malaria ... and one of the baby hats we took !

Wall plate level reached

Then back to the workshop, more brick moving, cement lifting and general sweaty work until lunch-time.   The workshop is now up to wall plate level, and we hope to start the roof tomorrow or Thursday !!

After lunch, we went with Fr. Gerry to visit Nanga, along the lake shore where there is an amazing new church, St Peters, that he wanted to show us.  It had been built for 7,000,000 K.shillings, in about five years, every shilling donated by members of the parish.   I am very impressed by what these catholics can achieve.   The Anglican cathedral in the middle of town is still in the slow process of being built after about 15 years .... no money !

Then we went to visit something completely different ... a Hindu/Sikh shrine by the lake, built by a Punjabi family who have been here since the building of the railway at the start of the 20th century.   We were shown around by them, and given tea.   They can watch hippos from their garden, and we saw two, not near enough to get good photo's but we saw them nevertheless.  

Finally we went to Hippo Point to watch the sun go down !!    No more hippos there, but a lovely sunset over the lake .....