Two more wells

Two more locations that need a clean water supply. In both cases we required an easement agreement from a local landowner which would be lodged with the Chief's office in case of future disputes about use of the water.

This was Mungulu:

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago and since then the situation has worsened. people are walking nearly two hours to find water to carry home.

We explained the contract and signed the agreements.

Explaining

signing

the owner of the land turned the sol

We then went to Emakanya and repeated the process:

we all tried to find some shade

we signed

everyone wanted to say a word of thanks

the owner of the land


We promised to put in a climbing frame at each location for the children. This obviously adds to the costs, so any small extra donations would be gratefully received . It costs about $200 US to put up a sturdy frame as at Emakuche. 

Emakuche well

We handed over the water project today to the Emakuche community.
This was the original water supply:

The video of the handover is on Tembo- Kenya Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TemboinKenya/

the new well

handing over the contract for upkeep

the assistant chief was very impressed

ready to open the well

the assistant chief pulled up water easily

as did the oldest lady there

For the first time we built a climbing frame and play area for the chiildren, the first one these people had ever seen.

Job training

There is a huge cohort of young people who either never finished school or, once they had their HS diploma, had no fees to continue with any kind of training. Today we awarded scholarships to five young people ready to work hard for a new start in life. In the two year technical program Rose will take Textiles and Clothing, Julius mechanical engineering, Bonface chose Automotive eng. Two who never went to secondary school will take the training for all classes of vehicles and get their driver's licence.

Our friends' wedding

we were again honoured to be invited to the wedding of our long-time contractor, Nixon and his wife Roselyn the last day of 2016
Nicky and Rosie as they are obviously called by their friends , have been together for several years in a 'come we stay' relationship. They have four children.

The time is ripe

The Virtues conference on Integrity scheduled for February is coming at the right time. There is shock as people realize that the results of the secondary school leaving exam (just released) show to what extent cheating was rampant in previous years. Only 141 students in the country scored an overall 'A' as compared to 2685 last year. Fifty percent fewer candidates scored the minimum required for university entry.
 An editorial in today's Daily Nation says: "We must establish and nurture a culture of honesty, integrity and hard work. Children must learn values in their formative years or the nation risks extinguishing a whole generation ..."

Integrity through Virtues: Masinde Muliro University in February. Check www.virtuesinkenya.blogspot. com for details

a new idea. Could you help?

When we visited Emakuche to make the contract for a well, we were all the time surrounded by children. They sprang to help to carry chairs for us into the shade, they listened fascinated as we went through the guidelines with their parents.

One thing we emphasized was that children should be told not to play on the well structure and use it as a climbing frame. Suddenly a light bulb flashed: What a great opportunity to make a simple climbing frame for the little ones next to the well. Playground equipment for children is rarely seen, even in schools, so anything we could build would be unique.
We would like to put up a simple design, probably with metal piping (because termites would eat wood), and it should not cost too much.We would gratefully receive any small donations towards the project

Water projects

We went to visit three communities today that desperately need clean water. The water for one site provided a reasonable stream, enough to fill one jerrycan at a time (Emakuche),one other was just a muddy hole where the carriers patiently scooped out the dirty water (Mungulu), the third was a beautiful site but highly contaminated from run off from cattle, latrines and crops (Emakanya).Many people, especially the very young and elderly, suffer from water-borne diseases.

We signed one contract  with Emakuche to build a well and the people should have their clean water by New Year transforming this:

to this:

It costs about $1000 to make this transformation. We feel that the other two sites must be assisted in the New Year. We are gratefully receiving donations to help us do this.

This is Mungulu

Emakanya