TBW2011Kenya

Well...overall the food has been good but we are starting to see a very familiar pattern. Breakfast (at guest house we are staying at) = omelets, sausage (of what variety we are still not quite sure), toast, fruit and the occasional mashed potatoes. Lunch (on the build site cooked by the family we are building for) = rice, potatoes, pasta (in same meal often times), kale, cabbage, beef or chicken (fresh off the homeowners farm), and very often this really great fry bread called chipati (like a tortilla but way better). Dinner (back at guest house) = more rice, potatoes, cabbage, kale, carrots, beef or chicken and more chipati when I'm lucky! Every once in a while we get dessert (breaded and deep fried bananas or pineapple). They spoiled us the first two nights with these ... read more

We began our build in Bomet on Tuesday the 26th. With 19 of us in the group we are working on 2 different projects. One is to construct a 3 room home for a widow in the community. The other is to add a room to an existing home about 20 minutes away. Both are brick construction so we have spent lots of time learning to mix cement by hand as well as laying brick and mortar. We build through Monday with a day off on Sunday. Everyone is well and in good spirits. We will post photos at a later date as we have been far too technology challenged between the blackouts and general internet failures. ... read more

Just a couple days before we leave There are only a couple more days before the majority of our team heads out for Kenya. I talked with a couple team members last night and they were busy packing and getting last minute details nailed down. I'm personally heading to REI tonight to pick up a few last minute items. Two of our team should have arrived in Nairobi last night. They wanted to go over early and spend a few days in Nairobi before the rest of us arrive. ... read more

We are waiting for our bus to take us to Tanzania to begin our safari, but the bus is running a little late. So we'll use this time to recap some events from last week. Last Thursday, we got a chance to visit a local school. They put on a spontaneous program for us which mainly consisted of the kids singing for us. We presented them with some gifts: soccer balls, a football, and a baseball and bat. WE also gave them some pencils and other school supplies. After that, some of the group mixed in with the older students to play a quick soccer game. It was a great time. Then we got to tour the school and some of the classrooms. On Sunday, we attended Celestine's church, which was mainly a roof and benches, ... read more