Two wells: Imulama and Muluanda

In addition to the three springs needing protection mentioned earlier we are hoping to install two wells.

Imulama has a dispensary but no water supply. The water is either harvested from the roof or taken from the pool pictured here. The one nurse that serves the community estimates she deals with 200 people per day. We have received the estimate for a simple well and should be able to start digging after the rains. If funds permit, we shall consider piping the water directly into the nursing station.

In Muluanda the small stream that supplies water looks clear but is in fact severely contaminated by houses on the hill. In the rains the stream will flood and the pollution increases as contaminants are washed down from the pit latrines. Many people suffer from cholera and dysentry. We will place the well part way up the slope. The estimate for this one is also reasonable.

The Muluanda children were very curious to see what we were doing. The 'big sisters' have the latest baby on their hip.

Is polygamy bigamy?

In Kenya, it might be, depending on how you choose to marry.

If a man celebrates his first marriage under the African Christian Marriage and Divorce Act, the Marriage Act or the Hindu Marriage and Divorce Act, he becomes a bigamist --a criminal-- if he marries another woman or women unless the first marriage is legally dissolved. (Incidentally, there is a case in court right now of a European woman who married under the African Christian Marriage Act. Since she is not African, her marriage may be null and void.)

But if this hypothetical man celebrates his first marriage under the African customary law or the Mohommedan Marriage, Divorce and Succession Act, he remains a law-abiding citizen even if he marries another wife or wives.

However, after undergoing the African customary law marriage rites, as many Kenyans today do, if he then celebrates the first marriage in church or in the office of a registrar-general of marriages, in which he gets a marriage certificate, he will automatically convert the customary law union into a monogamous one.

Then if he marries another wife or wives, he becomes a criminal, a bigamist, liable to be jailed for five years.

On the other hand, if he marries in church or registry office, he cannot convert this type of marriage into a customary law one by performing customary law rites.

The written laws regard marriage contracted under the African customary law as inferior, which is why such unions can be 'upgraded' but not the other way round.

(Taken in part from the Daily Nation : article by Peter Mwaura)

In a classroom for student pastors last week I saw a list on the board of seven types of marriage including substitute marriages. For more information go to http://www.patriciacrossley.com and scroll down to the link for marriage customs.

Protected springs in Bukhatse, Mwitua and Mvilingi

We have visited and selected a few sites for water projects
One lot of funding will be from San Bernadino Rotary Club in California, one from the Rotaract Club of the University of Victoria, BC, and one from a friend at Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria. We hope to be able to protect three springs and build two simple wells. (For more information about wells, go to http://www.patriciacrossley.com/water.htm)

BUKHATSE is a village where the water is highly contaminated by run-off. It has a few pools, several of which are difficult to access. One seems suitable for protection, which means improving access, building up and cementing the surround to prevent pollution and installing a pipe. Because of the ground fomation and steep access we expect this one to cost just over $700


MWITUA is the home village of Johnstone, who is studying to be a Clinical Officer. He is pictured here with the water source for the community. This one will be simpler estimated at about $600

The last spring is at MVILINGI.

Fetching water as you can see is a slow and laborious process. This one will be the easiest, coming in at just under $600

In all cases, as for the wells, we ask the community to feed and house the diggers as their contribution. We also ask them to improve the steep and slippery acces to most of these springs by digging out steps.

adopt a village

Here are pictures of two little ones at Maseno College where we stayed the night and a group of children from Emmaloba Primary.

Victoria Rotary Club 'adopted' the village of Emmaloba last year and provided books and feeding as well as other community assistance. We visited the school on Friday. I met with the Head Teacher who is now a Rotarian and proudly wears his pin. He has done an excellent job of maintaining feeding supplies and I gave him $100 for his last bag of beans. He has enough food now (including the school's own harvest and small contributions from parents) to carry the school until closing at the end of November.
He says that the community is supportive--to the extent that no one has tried to break into the building to steal the maize and beans stored there. This would be very possible in other places and shows the extent of the poverty and hunger.
He was delighted to report that his school (grade 6 students) placed first in the whole district in Science. First time ever to be top of the list in anything! He attributes this to the books we gave and the feeding programme.
He also tells us that use of the Virtues positive discipline programme has enhanced his school. They no longer use the cane and their relationships with children and colleagues are very good. He is rightly proud of the atmosphere in his school and says it now pains him when he sees physical punishment in other places.

I gave out some of the pins for 'Virtues for Kenya' to trained teachers.

I went through the two projects that we definitely want to do whether or not we receive the full grant:
Read for the Top: the head teacher will provide a list of titles in English and Swahili. We decided to do the project with next year's grade 6, beginning in January, with book purchase before Christmas. He has 34 children in that group.
Adult Literacy: to provide skills for the microfinance group and others. A Rotarian is running a programme in the neighbouring community, so the Head Teacher will ask for curriculum and supplies needed. We hope to start this in December or January. I plan to use the eye glass kit donated to us before we begin, since many of the women have vision problems.

Rod has some plans for making a small machine to shell ground nuts. Most of the women grow them and spend many hours shelling a few kilos by hand.

After Emmaloba we visited Ebusyubi and saw the set up for using the donated computers. The school now has all its important documents on file and students from grade 4 are taught the Learning Games in groups of 8. Not bad for two desk tops and a laptop. One of these days we hope we will be able to provide more. I had hoped to include this school in the Read for the Top, but we'll have to wait to see how funds become available.

micro finance

On Thursday and Friday we visited the three microfinance schemes at Emuhaya, Emmaloba and Ebusyubi. All the women are doing well and always have an amount to pay back on their loans. All have completed at least two loans and are impatiently waiting for me to finalize the budget to receive more money!

Their businesses range from braiding ropes, making mandazi (delicious large donuts) and selling vegetables to gathering and bundling firewood. Some have bought goats and cows. One very enterprising lady at Ebusyubi has started making jicos with her son (see picture) She is an excellent role model for the others. After paying off loans of $15 and $30 they spent the next one of $80 on materials for the cooking stoves. They bend and weld the metal and bake the clay liner to make the stove which will take wood, charcoal or cow dung fuel. She offered me the one you see, but at the risk of flouting African good manners I insisted she should sell it for her own benefit.

The Emmaloba group is the largest and is part of the "Adopt a Village" project supported by Victoria Rotary Club. We plan to start adult literacy for them and for others in December or January. This will include basic bookkeeping and accounts.

We shall use the donated eyeglass kit I mentioned in an earlier post before we begin the classes so as to eliminate some visions problems.

A total of $250 is enough for a woman to progress through the loans, learning to plan her stock, reserve loan repayments, sent her children to school and generally provide better for her family. We have a number of women who would like to join the groups, but at the moment we are keeping only those who began with us.

All the 'mamas' send their warm greeting and thanks to all who have made this possible

Virtues and water

We have met with Nixon, our well contractor, who is proudly wearing his Tembo Kenya cap (try for a picture next time) We think we can put in three wells (from a list of about eight) and protect at least two springs with the funds we have. Some of the proposed sites are requested by officials and it would be politically advantageous to help them, but we will first deal with the water that is polluted and causing sickness. Rod and Nixon will visit the sites on Saturday and take pictures. At that time we'll have a better idea of feasability and costs. Nixon would very much like to start to manufacture the rope and washer pumps himself. We could make the same arrangement as we did for the mould we financed for him and which is providing him with a steady income. We have an agreement to use the mould without charge for our projects and we could probably work out a similar arrangement for the pumps. He has proved reliable and diligent over the past few years and is a very hard worker.

We shall meet with the Virtues team on Thursday in Emuhaya (about an hour away) and from there go to Maseno Rotary Club to discuss the grant we are hoping for. We already have requests for Virtues training which is encouraging. We shall stay overnight at Maseno and then visit Emmaloba, the village 'adopted' by Victoria Rotary Club. We will be able to have preliminary discussions about the project. During these two days I shall also meet the mamas who are part of the micro finance schemes.

One exciting development is the possibility of Virtues based programmes for the police and the prison. Virtues facilitators around the world are helping me with ideas and experience on prison programmes and ahve offered help for police work. More later as that develops!

accidents and funerals

Although we have been busy over the past week, we haven't always been able to move forward in some areas. Funerals are all too common and time consuming for relatives and friends. Our Virtues meeting was put off for a week because Daniel, the leader, lost his mother. This was sad, but not surprising. Nixon, our well contractor, had to postpone our meeting because his cousin died in a motorcycle accident. The ubiquitous Chinese motorbikes have flooded the roads and are ridden largely by unlicensed young men who have only driven push bikes until now. They tend to be overloaded, sometimes carrying a whole family of adults and children. And of course, harldly anyone wears a helmet.

Johnstone, our medical student, says the accident ward at the general hospital is full to overflowing.

The mayhem on the main roads continues. A truck lost its brakes downhill on the Kisimu-Kericho road and took out a matatu (public service vehicle) carrying twelve people and two children herding cattle by the side of the road. No one survived. No matter how careful a driver you are, the maintenance of the other vehicles on the road is always an unknown