Day 2 - Kawangware

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Day 2- Went to Kawangware- The poverty there is staggering and very sobering and yet despite everything, there is still a positivity in many of the people; a little secret to life that we in the West might learn some day.
The School – We entered the school and found many of the parents (of the single orphans) waiting for us. They stayed the day and were given lunch. One of the mothers, who was HIV positive and has five children, sold us some beautiful beadwork which we will bring back for the next fundraiser.
There was a very positive vibe from the teachers, parents and children. Pius and John have done a wonderful job of managing the school on this end and were commended (as well as all of the teachers) with certificates from One Child’s Village for excellence in teaching. The certificates went over very well.
The children were very happy and eager to play and talk to us. We heard of lot of “how are you?- fine”.
We distributed the finger puppets that Clara provided and that many volunteers spent hours on. These also went over well.
The life straw units were handed over and 4 of the units were distributed to parents and the rest kept for the school and dormitories.
We handed out new soccer jerseys, a few supplies, t-shirts a puppet theatre stage, and of course, 5 laptops.
Each grade level did a performance of singing and dancing for us and the teachers all said a few words.
During our visit a gentleman came by and told us about a strip of land that was for sale in the area. Land in Kawangware is fairly expensive and hard to get. We went to check it out. The price seemed very reasonable.
Pius and John took us to the dormitories where 24 orphans stay. They were the proud recipients of a few of “Mr Todd’s mum’s” handmade blankets.
Back to the hotel for a few Tusker malt lagers with our friends Rahul and Gita. These two know a lot about “what’s what” in Kenya and also “who to talk to when doing our kind of work”.

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