The Busia Experience

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A Lot of Work Accomplished Today!

Breakfast was at 6:30am today. Charles met us at 8:15 am and we rented a taxi to Busia. We were going to take a Matatu for 100 Shillings each (sitting four squished in across the seat in a van) but the cabbie offered to take us for 80 Shillings each, each way. The choice was obvious. He put in about 100 Shillings ($1.50) worth of gas before we departed.

In Busia, which is only about 15-20 kilometres up the road and sits right on the Ugandan border, we purchased tons of videos for the children and some last minute stationary items for the school decorations. We also got our bus tickets back to Nairobi for Sunday morning and asked them to pick us up in Bumala. We find out that the pick up point is at the local police station which is about 200-300 yards up the road from the hotyel we are staying in.

As get in and out of the cab to the 2-4 places that we had to stop, the cab driver started to get snarley at us about wasting his time, and that he wanted more money before driving us back to Bumala. Few things here bother me too much here, especially once you get yourself adjusted to “Africa Time” (everything runs 15-30 minutes late), but poor communication seems to be a popular pastime and this guy was really excelling at it. Taking me half way on a journey then extorting me for more money in order to get me home boils my blood and it reminded me of the trip that Cristelle and I took two years when we had the children on a school trip, four hours from home, and the bus driver pulled the same stunt on us. I immediately went nose to nose with this fellow and we had “words” which quickly advanced to a settlement on his part without further pushing. I told him I would pay the same as a Matatu (100 Shillings each) but would very quickly get out and take an actual Matatu if he wanted to press the point, and he can drive back to Bumala empty without any passengers or fare. He quickly started on our way back to Bumala and he tried to smooth it over as if nothing had happened. About 2/3 of the way back he started to run out of gas (Kenyan taxi drivers are famous for keeping only the bottom inch filled in their gas tanks, rather than the top inch) and it turns out he had miscalculated his fuel load (he should have put an inch and a quarter in the tank). For the last 5 kilometres he would get the car up to the regular speed limit of 80 kph and shift into neutral and coast for a kilometre. Finally, we rolled into Bumala as the last vapours ignited.

The bull we had purchased came in to the school and preparations began for the big celebration on Saturday. Janet, our new nurse, started her first day and got her first two malaria cases today, along with a cut finger, a cut toe, and a small (but insignificant) injury to heather’s hand. We had Janet attend to it just to keep her busy on her first day.

We had 33 pairs of shoes out of the 250 that Heather bought and started fitting the class 4 students with them. The rest will come in on Monday after we have left. The students have been working furiously the last few days in the sewing room on the material that we bought and they went around the school hanging the curtains they had built. They also brought about 15 uniforms which we distributed to some of the most needy children. Jennifer worked part of the day setting up the last of the 8 new computers in the computer room. Charles is already working on setting up a program so that the public can come in after school hours and use the Internet for a small fee.

Charles and I had some very detailed conversations today about the education program, which went well. We also discussed the volunteer program and the difficulties that we may encounter between the clash of different cultures. This also went well and I think we were able to work out some preliminary rules. Finally, we had discussion on developing a breakfast program for the kids to ensure that they got porridge in the morning. This is now far beyond what most other organisations are able, or willing, to provide. Our kids already receive tea in the morning and a full meal at the middle of the day. This is mountains beyond what they were receiving before we started our work there. But kids need some food to start their morning off as well and the support form our donors and volunteers has allowed us to step forward and introduce this much needed additional to the nutritional package.

Last week electricity was installed in the school. What an enormous change for the students and teachers. The electrician came in to inspect some problems that have arisen with his wiring and he promised to be in Saturday morning early to repair a few items.

The carpenter also came with 5 shelves that we had him build for the classrooms so that the children can store their pencils and scribblers there as protection. We received 5 very sturdy hand made 4-shelf hardwood shelves, for 4000 Shillings ($62), which converts to about $12 per shelf unit. It is real wood, too. Better than IKEA!

It turns out that the power has been out all day today due to the drought (almost all the electrical generation in Kenya is hydro, so they have to have power conservations days to allow the reservoirs to refill). Unfortunately, this means that we have to cancel the movie for the children. 

The boys and girls teams (Class 4) had the soccer game against the nearby Bumala Primary school. We lost both games (1-0) but they played a very good game considering that they were both playing the next grade higher in their opponents.

Heather still tried to make popcorn for the children but a storm blew in about 5pm and cancelled those plans as well. The storm came in fast and everything was shut down at 6:00pm. We made it back to the hotel just before it rained.

We had pictures taken with Raphael, our main server at the restaurant in the hotel, but we had to turn down his offer to visit his family today. However, we invited him to the celebrations tomorrow, which he said he will try to make.

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