Monday, March 21, 2011

Monday morning I looked at the roof and thought I knew where the leak was coming from. Jotham went on the roof and cleaned a lot of leaves out of the roof valleys and spillway. I removed the portion of the celing that wasleaking and was sure I knew where the leak was but Mon. afternoon we had a fairly heavy rain and no leakes. Maybe it was just the leaves. The leak was in the unoccupied bedroom so I’ll watch it for a few days.

Wed., 16 Mar.
This morning I was talking to a young man named Robert. He invited me into his home, a thatch roofed adobe bldg. for tea. His wife brought in a pot of hot, sweet tea with milk and a bowl of pcs. casava. It was dirt floored and the room we were in took up over ½ the bldg. Of about 15 ft sq. Later I saw the kitchen, about 4 x 6 ft and farther on was a bedroom. Cooking was done on the ‘traditional’ 3 stones where 3 stones are arranged on the floor in a triangle and the fire built in the middle. The pot is placed on the stones The He has an acre of land and 2 young cows. One comment he made was that they have a good education system in Kenya but far too few jobs. Farming is difficult on such small pieces of property and with the limited water available, although they have more in this part of Kenya than some others. I had a good visit.

The other day one of the day guards had a malaria attack and had to go to the hospical for medication. Today it was the turn of the other one.

Sun., 20 Mar.
I went into Bungoma with Jotham on Friday to buy maize, (corn), seed and fertelizer to plant in a field across from the home that a neighbour lets them use. It was to be plowed on Sat. While there we bought some rabies vacine for the dogs and made arangements for a vet to come and show Jotham how to do it. (We had to buy a bottle containing 10 doses so we will keep it in our refrigerator until next year.) I also bought a lot of groceries, too much to carry back on a bike. We planned on a taxi back so the vet came with us then rode back to town in the taxi. They only charged 50 shillings for waiting while Leah learned how to vaccinate the dogs, not Jotham.

Sat. Morning it was raining too heavily to plow.


Tues., 15 Mar.
Sunday morning they arrived and did most of the plowing but still have a little to finish Monday. In the afternoon we had a visit from the Chief of the district. He asked if Robin’s Nest could consider helping a 15 yr old girl finish her high school. Her father has died and they have very little money to pay tuition. We will pass the request on.

About 5 o’clock we had more visitors. One of the men, an engineer I believe, who had worked on the const. of the home came by with some people who are interested in setting up another orphanage. He was explaining the construction and how the interlocking bricks used were made on site, up to 1500 day.
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By using these bricks they don’t have to use morter to hold them together and construction is faster. I thought it would be cheaper but a neighbour costed a job he was doing and found the ‘extra’ costs on a small job made it more expensive. One of the visitors, Dr. Wauyany, owns a hotel near town and told me to be sure to visit.
End Post 5

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