And The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth... We are up early again today and have an early breakfast again (7:30 am). Our driver arrives at about 8:00am, and Charles arrives to meet us at 8:30am. We settle a few details and head off to the Kawangware slum today. The road is a little rough as we enter the slum, but our driver Simon is very skilled. He manouvers through the people and animals that crowd the narrow one-laned streets. The girls are silent and stare transfixed through the car windows at the sights which behold them. Open sewers run along both [View Full Entry]

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Today We Meet Moraa We are up REALLY early today and ready for the drive by 6:00 am. We are out on the Serengetti plains long before the sun rises and we see the balloons in the distant warming up for their sunrise launch. Noella is there and we wish her a successful game drive from afar. We watch them slowly rise into the crisp morning air as the first rays of sun strike against the colourfully patterned material. It looks like something out of National Geographic…. We are back for breakfast by 9:00am and have a quick breakfast. Then [View Full Entry]

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A Day of "Relative" Rest I am writing less today, and trying to simply get some rest from work. It has been an exhausting but fulfilling trip so far, but I am concerned that I will play out before it is done if I don’t take one day of rest. I still have a week of projects and business ahead of me. We are up early, at 5:30 am, and down to the front launching area by 6:00am. By 6:30am the sun is just rising and we are already on the trail for our early morning game drive. It is [View Full Entry]

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The Big "5" It is Autumn Equinox today, and a new leg of our journey has begun. We store most of our bags at the hotel and pack light. A quick breakfast and we are off to the airport to catch a flight for the Serengetti. Our driver arrives on time and we make it to the airport with much time to spare. It is the end of Ramadan today, and a national holiday, so the streets are almost bare and traffic minimal. We get our boarding passes and wait anxiously for the flight. We finally board the 4 engine Dash [View Full Entry]

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We Return to Nairobi After Nine Days of Intense Work in Bumala We are up early and had breakfast at 6:00 am. We checked out and received a number of goodbyes from the friendly staff at the Western Ambience Hotel. It was like leaving family. We were out front of our hotel by 20 minutes to 7:00am and waited for Nicolas. I realized that we had way too many bags for him to carry (6 in total, and some were very heavy), so I went and got a second porter and loaded up three bags for him. We waited, and waited…..and [View Full Entry]

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Mercy Children Centre Officially Becomes the Pride of Bumala Today is the BIG DAY!! It is hard to describe how important this day is, but it has many “political” implications in both the community and with the local government. It is critical that we make a good presentation, and an insult in any form could sink our ship. Charles and I slipped into Bumala to rent a PA system for today’s event. I saw Nicolas, aged 11, there (he and his younger brother Eric were responsible for maintaining the income for their two mentally ill parents, and Nicolas earns the money [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Today We Set Up The Health Clinic Breakfast was early, at 6:30 am. There were no hitches and that allowed us to get on our way to the school early today. We made arrangements for a doctor to come today, so it was the perfect motivator to set up the health clinic this morning before their arrival. It was a lot of work but we were able to assemble everything in a bout 2-3 hours. The single beds were assembled with mattresses, a table was brought in, and the medical supplies were spread out for his review. As it turned out, [View Full Entry]

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Another Day In Kisumu Shopping Today was another tough day. We have been making miles of progress each day, and our projects are so ambitious that it is everything we can do each day to accomplish them. Nevertheless, we seem to continue to make massive strides every day and today is no exception. We are up for breakfast at 6:00 am today, and at the school by 8:00 am. Heather sets up her first art project with the Nursery class. It is a roaring success and we are all moved by the incredible work and art done by the little kids. [View Full Entry]

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Fulton Finds a Friend I was up early this morning and ready to go. I slipped down for a quick breakfast and made my way to the school by 7am. Heather and Jennifer took some time to sleep in this morning, partly as a hangover from the previous day’s long trek in the hot equatorial sun, and partly as a chance to just decompress a bit on their own. The experiences here are constant and impactful. The first visit to Africa is best done in stages, and the moment-to-moment engagement with the reality principle here leaves one panting for psychological breath, [View Full Entry]

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