Kenyan Adventure: The sad and the good

Greetings friends and family.

Today Tuesday July 24 had a terrible start to the day. As we were waiting for our breakfast, which was late, we had a suspicion that something was wrong. We finally went to inquire what was happening only to find out the terrible news and affirm our suspicions. Only a few hours earlier the home of Victor, Mary’s son started on fire and this home is located right in the compound of Omwabini. No one died or was seriously injured, just some minor cuts from glass and metal. We do not know all the details right now but by the grace of God someone just happened to get up for some reason and realized there was a fire. Living in the house were Victor, his wife, their son and two orphans. The older orphans and teachers had to remove windows and security bars in order to rescue some of them. They also managed to save some of the contents. Some of the house may be able to be reused, however most of it is too badly damaged to reuse.

Eventually we were able to get away and make it to the Kimilili gym. We pumped some iron and spent a few hours on the stair climber. Oh wait – never mind-what we really did was go to the site of the protected spring construction. They already had dug a huge trench to start the diversion and new feed for the water. We made a gazillion trips up and down the hill bringing heavy bricks to the bottom where the spring is. It was probably harder than going to the gym. Ken also constructed a set of stairs in the mud/dirt of the hillside immediately before the spring – which made it a lot easier to get down there! Concrete and sand and rocks were mixed to begin the foundation of the well. We should be going back there tomorrow. We also have three houses on the go and at different stages; however we can not work on any of them due to rain, or drying stage of the first layer of mud and or a death in the community where they are preparing for the funeral.