Visiting the workshop

Day 3            Friday 18^th October

Up in time to see if anyone was taking mass in the chapel … and Father 'Chuggy' was there. (That can't be his real name, can it ? He's from Glasgow). So I was the only one apart from him, but it was good to share it with him.

Before chapel, I'd been thinking of the parable about 'the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few' and could see that applying to the work of HATW here and elsewhere …. and then when in chapel I discovered that parable was the reading for today ! Strange coincidence.

After breakfast we called Morris and his tuk-tuk to go to the workshop …. oh ! that TERRIBLE road again …. and in a tuk-tuk …. Wendy and I suffered from agonising boob-bounce as the tuk-tuk leaped from hump to hollow to mud to dust. We got off the tuk-tuk at the side of a new bit of tarmac, and walked through to the workshop, where Emily (watch-mans wife) saw us and hugs all round.  Her second son Gerald is walking now, but his umbilical hernia is even bigger, I think.   

I think Wendy is surprised at all the friendliness of everyone …. you couldn't walk along the main street at home and be greeted by everyone with hand-shakes and “ 'ow are you ? “ and even hugs from strange women.

The workshop is progressing, but so slowly (but then this IS Africa !) The builders that we were going to help were laid off last weekend as they had run out of bricks; the new bricks came on Tuesday, but the workmen weren't to restart until Monday 21^st, but then that is Heroes Day … a public holiday, so maybe on Tuesday ?

Wendy and I went for a walk around Nyamasaria while Jonathan talked to Paul about the drawings for the upper rooms and the roof. We looked to see if we could find Lilians house, but the earth road has changed, and I couldn't find her house. (Lilian is the lady who cooked for us in 2011, and I hear she has a new baby).   We stopped at a small house where four people were making the paper beads for the necklaces they sell in the craft market.  

So back for lunch at 1, more boob-bounce in the tuk-tuk, which is actually quite painful after ten minutes ! …. but we have found some 'bounce control' bra's amongst the 100 or so we have brought out with us …. and will borrow them !!

After lunch the three of us sorted out the 50 kg of childrens clothes we brought with us, into bags of baby clothes, toddlers, older childrens, etc. We will take some to friends near the workshop, and the rest will go to Pandipieri, and the clothes for the biggest children we will take to the school for handicapped children.

I fell asleep mid-afternoon whilst reading as it was so hot and humid ….

… and that was basically the first day we had planned to work.   

A lazy day to acclimatise.

Day 2       blog for Thursday 17^th October, 2013   (Ignore automatic dating !)

Eight hours blissful sleep ! I awoke at about 4.30 and after hearing a mosque nearby calling the faithful to prayer, got up at 5. Its delightfully cool at this time, with a slight breeze coming through the mosquito wire covered windows.

Wendy was only just up in time for breakfast, but had had a good nights unbroken sleep. I went down to the chapel for the catholic mass, but Father Gerry sleeps late, I think, and no-one came to take it, so I'll try another morning, maybe !

After breakfast of porridge, bacon and eggs and malarone pills, Jonathan went off for a walk to Hippo Point, where he sat and watched the hippos for an hour, and Wendy and I took a more leisurely walk round Milimani. I'm enjoying our conversations.

Then back to Mill Hill to do our laundry, and for me to attempt to get online. They have a new ISP now, and I can actually link in from my room, which is good. I connected to Skype with no problems, but couldn't open and thus post on this blog. I think its something to do with this ancient laptop which has XP and nothing more up to date. But I later found that by down-loading Google Chrome, all was suddenly well ! I'm not a techie enough to know why, but it works and I was able to blog.

Wendy and I had a problem with our two phones; we need to be able to call each other if we are working or visiting two different places at the same time. I could text and phone her; she could text me …. but NOT phone. I decided we ought to visit a Safaricom shop to try and sort it.

After lunch I called Morris to collect us with his tuk-tuk, but due to some misunderstanding he didnt turn up, so Raphael (the gate-keeper here) called a tuk-tuk man he knows …. who turned out to have the same name as my son ! We went to Mega-City Mall, and he took us via Nyalenda, and Wendy saw her first local shanty area. Such a contrast there …. slums one side of the ring road, large posh houses in security fenced compounds on the other.

We found the Safaricom shop in the Mall, and we still don't know what the problem was, but the man fixed it ! Then we followed a huge group of children upstairs to the childrens area, and watched them going on a helicopter roundabout, and some on the dodgems. The tiniest children looked terrified but the older ones enjoyed the experience. I think perhaps for them the best bit of the school visit was seeing the two ancient white ladies sitting on the steps outside eating ice cream !! 

It is both interesting and terrifying to know that this Mall in Kisumu is almost the same pattern as the one in Nairobi. We see today in the newspaper that a bodiless head and some guns and an unexploded bomb have all been found in the Mall there …...

Letters in the paper saying Kenya will not be defeated by terrorism .... 

Waiting for the tuk-tuk to return, I had a phone call …. it was Morris calling to say he was back in town …. and I looked up and there he was walking towards us !    Its lovely having friends here in the city, and suddenly meeting them on the street.

Here at Mill Hill House, we all gather in the common room for 6.30 drinks …. very civilised, before the evening meal at 7 ! Various visitors, such as priests travelling through to Uganda or Rwanda, or nursing sisters, come and go and stay for a meal, or for a few days, so there are always new conversations. I discovered that my eldest daughter who was born ¼ of a mile away, was delivered by a Mill Hill sister who used to stay here 40 years ago ! Another link to the past …..

We've arrived, just about in one piece.

Wednesday, 16^th October, 2013

Day 1.   (Ignore automatic blog dates .... I may have to run two days into one, and post it a day late anyway !)

Landed at JKIA at 5.30 local time. The airport after the fire in arrivals seems to be functioning well; we had to walk down the plane steps to an awaiting bus which ferried us to temporary arrivals, which one of the stewardesses had told me was in a building that had been begun as a new car park, but had hastily been converted into a temporary arrivals. We saw part of the old building all fenced around but the burned roof could be glimpsed.

It took very little time to get through immigration, though the man there poo-pooed the idea that I pay him in Kenya shillings for my visa – he wanted dollars but I paid in pounds ! The bags came very quickly, mine almost the first off, and then we loaded the trolleys and were through in well under half an hour. Very impressive for temporary arrangements.

We then found a low wall outside to sit on to wait …. and wait …. and wait for Paul !

Its very good to be back …. familiar scents, sounds, and the cheerful greetings of people meeting friends, and the African laughter …. always laughter.

After an hour of waiting, I went back into the arrivals and found the Safaricom shop, and topped up my phone, and got a new SIM card, and managed to phone Paul.  His reply was 'We are near you, very near!' but he didn't say whereabouts !! So I bought the local paper to read while we waited .... and found this cartoon .....  fair comment on the Westgate Mall incident.   

By about 8.30 Paul and wife Lucy had arrived. Wild waves and cheerful shouts from across the car park, and then hugs and greetings when they reached us. Paul had hired a mini-bus, which considering we each had two bags, totalling 50 kg of luggage per person, was a good thing.

Within 100 yards of leaving the airport, we had already seen some giraffe in the National Park …. and then we hit what Paul called 'Jams'. The year before last, I didn't believe the traffic could get worse, but it did, and last year … I thought the same …. but it did. And now …. impossible to describe … some sort of Dante's inferno of buses, mini-buses, lorries, vans, private cars, tuk-tuks, bicycles, boda-boda's and pedestrians all fighting it out together for space to pass. The exhaust fumes, the thick black smoke from lorries, the hooting and shouts and gestures as one vehicle tries to fight it out with another for an extra yard of road …. eeeeee ! (That's a Luo 'word' which covers all sorts of situations from pleasure, agreement, amazement, horror …..) I took some photos of the butchery area of Nairobi and also a street where the tinsmiths and metal workers were bashing away making everything possible from metal, right there on the street. Saucepans, sufuria's, metal trunks, storage bins, jiko's, washing tubs, car and bicycle spare parts ….

It took us about an hour to get through Nairobi and out to the Westlands suburb where the traffic thinned a little …. a distance of maybe four or five miles ? I think Wendy must have experienced something of this sort when she went to India a few years back, but this was the African version !

Once clear of Nairobi we got up speed and headed for the escarpment, where we stopped at the place where the curio sellers are, on the edge, with the staggering views. I took lots of photo's …. but to my horror, I find today I have somehow wiped them !!!!!!!!!!!!      I just hope Jonathan and Wendy have some I can 'borrow'.

I had an interesting chat to one of the curio sellers; we were among the very few who had stopped there in the last three weeks after the Westgate Mall terrorist incident. He said tourist mini-buses were just racing past the viewing point, rushing from one hotel to the next safari lodge with no stops inbetween.  They are afraid to stop in case terrorists are waiting in the bushes !   He was grateful we had .... and I had to buy a curio !   I'm a mug for a sob story !

Then down the escarpment to Naivasha, and on to Nakuru,   We saw eland and zebra's and impala from the main road.   I didn't know whether to wake Wendy up to ooo and ahhh at them, or to let her sleep, but the bumps kept her awake most of the time !   At Nakuru we stopped for the loo, and chips and samosa's.   The loo was interesting ...  lo-type, but the water tank above it for flushing had a small waterfall of water over-flowing, which when I squatted, flowed down over my backside !   I had four squares of loo roll which were somewhat inadequate to dry myself, so went into the cafe feeling decidedly damp !   

Once past Nakuru, I had thought we would turn left towards Kericho (tea estates), but no, we turned towards Londiani.  Paul said the road through Kericho was almost impassable so we were using the better road.   Dear God !   In all the years I lived here and on subsequent visits, I have NEVER travelled a worse road !   The old tarmac had been removed, or would 'ploughed up' be a better description ?   Then the 'new' road had been begun by Chinese engineers with ENORMOUS imported road building machinery.    So why did it appear that the workmen were doing stretches of 500 yards new tarmac, and then moving on a few miles to do another 500 yards .... and then another gap.   I was wondering if the new bits would actually join up ! 

So we bumped, swerved and swayed our way down the second escarpment onto the Kano plain, bouncing in our seats (at that point Jonathan pointed out that the oil light in the mini-bus has been on for at least two hours !) ... driving through the sugar cane plantations, and then finally the rice paddies.   Wendy wasn't dozing at all on the last 100 miles !!  

I had heard that the new road from Kisumu to Kericho was well on the way to completion ... ha ha !!  As we entered Kisumu, going through Nyamasaria where the work-shop is, the road still had the appearance of a ploughed field ... and this is the main highway from Kisumu to all points east.   It was strange that Paul's driver thought the road from Londiani to the west was a 'good' or 'better' road !   We had noted there were NO other cars on it, and only the occasional motor bike ... they must have been on some other road !!    We can't go back to Nairobi on that road ... I'll have to investigate buses and the routes they take. 

So we arrived after a gruelling eight hour drive.  I was beginning to suspect poor Wendy thought she had been kidnapped by us, or was literally being taken for a ride !    Thank goodness Mill Hill House met with Jonathan and Wendy's approval ... on his last visit Jonathan had stayed at the YMCA, and discovered his room abutted the snake park at the museum, and just through his wall were black mamba's !!   

Wendy at Mill Hill House ... she'd quite like her husband to buy her a house like this one !!

One day to go ......

I've taken my first anti-malaria tablet.   That means tomorrow we go !!

This is where we are heading .... the carpentry workshop in Nyamasaria, on the edge of Kisumu.   You can get some idea of the crowded nature of one of the shanty areas, although this is nothing like so crowded as some of the others.

But showing this to a friend, she commented on how green it looks.   I suppose it does; there are hedges of indigenous plants around most peoples property, and the odd bits of land not built on greens up with the rain.   It always surprises me how many people keep a cow or sheep in what is basically a city suburb, where there is actually very little for animals to graze on.   Maybe its why the cows are so scrawny.

More luggage .... two days to go .... and the ICC

Went to visit my son and daughter-in-law today; R. gave me another bag of outgrown children's clothes from grandson N. !!   Oh dear .... I'm just on the right weight, having re-packed and redistributed tools, books, clothes etc, and more clothes would be the straw that broke, etc.

BUT, I think its quite possible Jonathan is underweight, so we might be able to do a bit of repacking on the street in Chepstow as we wait for the bus !!    Surely everyone repacks on the pavement ??    No ??

 

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I've been following the news about the International Criminal Court and the discussions with African leaders in Ethiopia.  

 

The BBC reports:

 

The African Union summit in Ethiopia has demanded a deferral of The Hague trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, due to start in November.

It also agreed a resolution stating no sitting African head of state should appear before an international court.

With both Kenyan and Sudanese presidents facing ICC cases, African leaders have long complained that the court unfairly targets them.

The AU had discussed withdrawing from the ICC, but failed to get support.  Senior figures including Kofi Annan have criticised plans to quit the ICC.


It seems to me that as the ICC is situated in The Hague, African leaders must see it as something created by the past colonial powers, (and to some extent I agree).  Surely African criminal affairs are the responsibility of the African countries themselves ?   Perhaps such a court would be better accepted if it was on African soil, and totally run by Africans ?   Kofi Annan is from Ghana, but by many Africans is regarded as an African with a European mind, so although I have a great admiration for him and his past work in the UN, I'm not sure he is the right person to comment.   

Four days to go .....

Wendy just called round with her two big bags to weight them, as I've got one of those hefty spring balances.  She's overweight on one .... so has gone home to repack !   My two cases are black, so I must get some ribbon or something on them for easier identity at arrivals.  

I haven't weighed anything yet, but am starting to fill my two cases.   I called Jonathan to see if he has spare weight capacity; he's going to let me know.  We'll be unpacking and re-packing into his cases on the pavement in Chepstow I expect !    He warned me that any electrical things we might carry, e.g. camera, mobile phone, laptop, might have to be turned on at baggage checks to prove its a working item.   Never had that before, even when I flew El Al last year, and they are super-security conscious (thought they waved me through with a full bottle of water !)

We are going to do our check-in on Monday afternoon, online.   Not like the first time I flew, back in 1965 going to Aden !   Then, we checked in the old fashioned way, in person, an hour before the flight !

Packing ........

Goodness me, I have a LOT of stuff to take to Kisumu and the school at Maua !

 

Lots of little items like crayons, books, our anti-malarials, a couple of wind up lamps, roll of masking tape and ball of string (without which I never travel), packets of nibbles .... nuts, dried fruit etc., for snacks and lunches for the carpentry trainees, etc. etc.

My sandals, a bubble making machine for the handicapped kids, a plane, hand-knitted jumpers ....

As charity workers, we get double normal luggage allowance on the flight, so can manage about 50 kg. in two cases and a carry-on.  Not that I could carry that much, but once off the bus at Heathrow, its trolleys for luggage !  And we are being met in Nairobi.  

Now I must consider what I'm taking in the way of clothes for me .... about 25 kg of my luggage is clothes for children, and books for them too !   I don't want to end up like I did last year when I went to Kenya .... http://luolaughter.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/braless-in-nairobi-read-on.html  ...  so that's one item already packed for me, as well as the 83 bra's Wendy and I have collected !!   Funny, we couldn't persuade Jonathan to carry any of them !

The weather in Kisumu is wet, wet, wet at the moment !   The rainy season should be coming to an end soon .... I hope !

BBC weather forecast for Kisumu for next week.

Five days to go .................

It's that time of year again ..... and why do I feel guilty ?

The postman brings charity appeals by the dozen at this time of the year; Red Cross (with free pen and cards !), Oxfam, Salvation Army, Smile Train, RSPCA ..... and there is something about them that makes me feel SO guilty.  

I've stopped opening them now, but then even putting them straight into the paper recycling makes me feel guilty .... I do wonder just how successful all these appeals are, and how much of their (donated by people like me) money it costs to do these mailings ?  

The mental tussle continues ...............

Jumpers !

Jacquie, one of the supporters of HATW is a great knitter !   She collects and knits up odd wool into jumpers which we send out to chilly children in Africa.    And yes, it can be VERY cold in Africa !  Parts of Kenya, for example are at quite a high altitude, and the temperature drops rapidly at night .... there are even frosts in some really high parts.    Kisumu is at an altitude of around 4,000 feet, which is about 4/5 of a mile high ! 

 














Aren't they colourful .... and they will be much appreciated by young children at the school for handicapped children we are going to after Kisumu.

Twelve days to go !!

I can't believe its over a month since I was last on here, and the three of us go out to Kenya very soon.

News from there hasn't been good recently; firstly there was the fire at Nairobi airport arrivals, luckily I suppose, at night, when there were very few people there and no planes arriving.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23598012     Apart from one report a couple of days later when they re-opened the airport, using marquees and the presidential arrivals area, I haven't heard any reason or explanation on how the fire started.

The other news was about the terrorist attack at the Nairobi Westgate Mall shopping centre filled our British papers for about a week.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westgate_shopping_mall_shooting      I heard on the news today that there are still some people unaccounted for and DNA investigations are being carried out to try and identify bodies recently discovered in the wreckage.

Some of my friends have suggested we should abandon the visit .... but trying to be sensible about it, I know that people didn't stop using the London Underground after the 7/7 bombing, nor did people stop visiting New York after the 9/11 disaster, so it seems to me that a terrorist attack in Nairobi shouldn't stop us going to Kisumu.  

 

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I've been given a new task at the Hands Around the World office.    We publish a monthly 'Prayer Prompt' on the Facebook page and our web-site, and I've been asked to take it on !

Here is my offering for October .....

I’m a great fan of the books by Alexander McCall Smith about the Botswana No 1 Lady Detective, Mma Precious Ramotswe.   I’m reading all of them for the second time, and I see there is a fourteenth book being published very soon ! 

Mma Ramotswe is a traditionally built Motswana lady, keen to keep up the old ways of Africa.   She is a kind, fair, moral Christian lady, so it was with delight that I recently discovered a book written by the  Bishop of Worcester, John Inge, (who is obviously a great fan of Mma Ramotswe) called ‘Living Love: in conversation with the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.’

Bishop John comments that in these books we learn through the stories of the individual characters to empathize with different peoples who have suffered, and are suffering.     Isn’t this what we do in Hands Around the World ?    A friend of Mma Ramotswe,  Mma Potokwani,  who is the house-mother at the Gabarone  orphanage, comments, “We must look after other people.  Other people are our brothers and sisters.  If they are unhappy, then we are unhappy.  If they are hungry, then we are hungry.”   (Tears of the Giraffe)

There is a sameness of the human condition, so that recognition of how much we have in common with people in different situations makes empathy easier.    Mma Ramotswe herself  comments  “If only more people knew there was more to Africa than all the problems they saw,” (Blue Shoes and Happiness).     Working and praying for Hands Around the World shows us every day that   “There is plenty of work for love to do” (Tea Time for the Traditionally Built)

So very true .... we hear  all about the problems of Africa, but we rarely hear what is good about Africa, which is so much greater.  

Meeting

Today we had a meeting in the HATW office for Wendy, myself, Jonathan and Nigel, who went out on the project in 2011, and has been out once more as part of a holiday.    It was good to be able to discuss the project, and for Wendy to meet Jonathan and Nigel.   David, the originator of HATW nearly 20 years ago, and who runs the charity, updated us on the money situation re the carpentry workshop.   Paul Achola has already booked Stephen who was the foreman builder on the last part of the building, and it looks like the work on the upper storey of the building will commence very soon; it might be half built by the time we get there !

David wants us to try and promote the workshop more with the local schools in Kisumu, and the sub-chiefs (the Kenyan version of local community councillors).   That will be interesting !  I'm not sure quite how I'll get on with that, being (a) a woman, and (b) white !! 

Then he brought us up to date on the Athi school and the Disabled Community Centre  (DCC) in Maua where we will be going second.   It looks like we may spend some time going on visits with out-workers to visit the communities where the disabled children live, so we can get an idea of their home backgrounds.   I'm expecting to be challenged ... see this
http://www.hatw.org.uk/default.asp?section=7&id=145   which is an article written by a past volunteer at Athi school.

An unexpected letter !

I just received this today from someone who has been to Kisumu and met up with Milly, the little girl whose twin sister was killed ....

I had sent Milly's mother one thousand Kenya shillings (about £8 UK)  some months ago with the lady who organised Milly's bereavement counselling .... nothing much, but I had a spare Kenyan note.   

African Friends and Money Matters

This is an interesting book, which I think everyone working in Africa should read, as an important insight into how people in Sub-Saharan Africa view money, (or the lack of it), and other possessions.   Totally different to the way we 'westerners' see things.  

One of our local volunteers with whom I work here, wrote this review of the book for  a certain internet company that sells everything under the sun, including books !

"I spent over 3 years living and working (as a volunteer) in Uganda. Despite all my preparations and a very open mind I still found the Ugandan attitude to money bewildering. Why were they so reluctant to show me bank statements? Why did everyone, and I mean everyone - strangers, friends, employers, think it was OK to ask me for money? What was the problem with keeping clear accounts? How could they use NGO money for personal needs? Towards the end of my stay I was lent this remarkable study. In it I found all of my experiences analysed and discussed in a clear, thoughtful and logical way. There was little that was new to me, the richness was in the clear analysis. I am now working with a small development charity in UK and as I talked with volunteers and Trustees it became clear that they needed this analysis to support our development work across Africa so I bought my own copy. They are squabbling over who reads it first..... "

I didn't squabble; I bought my own copy !     After 45 years of living in and visiting Africa regularly, I suddenly understand African 'money matters' !!

Catching up; time is passing and things are gathering momentum !

Plans have changed; but that happens whenever you try to plan something months ahead.    Our team going to Kenya is now myself, Wendy B, and Jonathan P.    Wendy hasn't been before on a HATW task, but Jonathan went the year before my first visit and helped build the carpentry workshop.   He's a retired architect, so knows all about ring beams, concrete and technical stuff !

Which is good, because as I said, plans have changed !   We have suddenly had money released to build the upper floor at the workshop, and this is what we are going to do.   So we will travel to Kisumu first, and then on to Athi school/Maua for the last week.    Not yet sure if Jonathan will come there also.    So it'll be mixing concrete in the mid-day sun again, I guess !

The two volunteer girls who are at Athi at the moment saw a need for some sort of little booklet showing in diagrams Kenya sign language for the deaf (there are many deaf children at the school) .... which can be used by them, and for others to use to learn to 'speak' to them, such as parents and teachers. So the two volunteers have produced a booklet which I've passed on to Wendy as I believe she 'signs', though using a slightly different form.

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I received another bicycle last week from friends in Manchester, which although smallish, will be fine for a young teenager to use to get to school, probably in Zambia, when we send another of those containers there in the new year.   As well as bicycles for Zambia and Benin, I'm collecting school books, clothing, bra's (!), tools and other stuff to take out to Kenya.   We get 'missionary' rates of baggage on the plane, so can easily take a large suitcase full of things to distribute. 



Planning for my next visit to Kenya in the autumn !

I've been very remiss about blogging ... too busy !   But HATW are sending me and another lady, WB, to Athi School to the north of Nairobi, which is a school for handicapped children.   I haven't been there before, and can only remember one or two visits to that area in the past .... its up near the Meru National Park, about an hour from Maua.   We are going to stay there about a week, so that I can write an update on how the school is doing, see if there is any help we can give, and assess what more is needed for the school.   More is always needed !   I think WB will be an excellent travel companion; she has worked with disabled people before, and is very open minded, willing, and keen to observe and learn, as well as to work !

Then we go to Kisumu for three weeks, planning to paint the workshop and visit friends.  Making friends with people running 'our' projects (they are really the projects of the local communities) is the whole point of HATW, rather than us just going, building something, coming home and forgetting !  

I always remember that the core of HATW is summed up thus:    'Our hands around the world may get grubby and blistered, they may need to hold a sick child or comfort a grieving parent, they may sometimes be asked simply to hold the hand of another, but there is always more to these hands than practical help alone.' 

This is a bit about Athi School ........
http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/projects/kenya-children-disabilities-school-surgery-equipment/?rf=ggWidget

 

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One of the HATW trustees, Chris Barrell, is in Zambia at the moment .... read his blog !  

 

http://www.ourmaninmonze.blogspot.co.uk/

Madiba .... Nelson MANDELA

The African world is waiting .....

I like this quote ......... it says so much about the attitude of many people in the developed world.

Quote from American singer Mariah Carey:

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but NOT with all those flies and death and stuff."

Its high time I updated this !   Lots has happened with various Hands Around the World projects, and I'm starting to prepare for another visit later this year.

So .... the project in Benin ... the local paper had a letter last week from our volunteer who goes out to Benin regularly, and who sent out the shipping container last year with tractor, bicycles, etc.

 

 We are now looking for volunteer labourers to go out in about February next year to help with building a residential unit for children who are orphaned and/or have a disability in Benin.   

 

I'll continue a bit later to update the other projects ! 

Three little girls from school !

Remember Milly ?   The child whose father had died, and whose identical twin sister was killed on the road ?  

Friends returning from Kenya say she (and her mother Rose) have obviously benefitted from the bereavement counselling I managed to organise for them. I was so pleased to see this picture which Gill took of her (in the middle) and two of her friends.    She has lost that 'frozen' look.

I look forward to seeing her again next year !

 

... and again !

The two of last years volunteers that returned to Kenya last month, have posted a second YouTube video ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qroW75hUjPU&feature=youtu.be

... which shows the first piece of hi-tech equipment we have bought for the workshop.   All they need now is a permanent supply of electricity .... but its coming !    I think part of the way they will earn money is to use the planer to plane wood for others as well as use it in training the boys.   Earning money is essential for the workshop; one day there will not be any more support from HATW, and they have to swim free by then .... self-supporting, so the planer is a first step.

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It was sad to hear this on the news a few days ago ....

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20128070

 

... so much anger, hatred and violence between politicians and their supporters.   The presidential and general elections to adopt new MP's are still four months away.   Can they be free and fair, and without all the violence and killings which following the elections almost five years ago ?