Sun. 27 Feb. (Evening)
This afternoon we went to see Shaban Wanjala, vice chairman of the home’s ‘Local Advisory Committee’. He wasn’t home but we had a pleasant visit with his son, Mohamed who was studying law until money ran out. Mohamed took us on a tour of the neighbourhood which included a visit to a local fish farm and the community spring which supplies drinking water for most of the community. Part of the way we were joined by Eric, so both Eva and I had ‘personal guides’ telling us about the area. Mohammed has offered to escort us to Lake Victoria before we go back to Canada. We’re only about an hour and half away from it.

Mon. 28 Feb.
We headed into the bank this morning to transfer funds into the Kenyan Shillings Acct. so that we could pay salaries and a number of bills coming due at the end of the month. Monday on the last day of the month is not a good time to go banking. It took about two hours.

The phone is missing and has been for a few days. We have searched everywhere we can think of and if it doesn’t show up shortly, will have to buy a new one.

Wed. 2 Mar.
Dick did a few odd jobs around the home and went to inspect the adobe home that is being built for a local blind woman. Robin Byrnes had agreed to pay up to $300 to cover the cost of putting a roof on the building, windows and doors. He then asked Jotham to request a quote on the cost.

The Blind lady and Jothan at the construction site


In the afternoon the Local Advisory Committee met to discuss the business and plans for the home. Many things have been put on hold until a pending land dispute claim is heard in court in April, so the discussions ranged mainly around future plans. The goal is get the Home as self-sustaining as possible. Members started to arrive at 2pm and the meeting finally got under way at 3:30pm.

Thurs., 3 Mar.
Back into the bank again today. Since Monday several bills have come in which we wern’t expecting. We had covered them with our own funds as most bills are paid in cash since cheques are a real problem for several people. Now we needed cash ourselves.

We decided that we had better do something about the phone. We have our phone from Honduras/Canada and thought we could postpone things by just buying a new SIM Card. Unfortunately the SIM Card won’t work in our phone so we had to buy a new one. Much cheaper than in Canada, only 2500 Ksh, about $33 Cdn. for the Nokia phone and SIM Card. This took a while to find the right place as we wanted to stay with the same air time supplier. We were also looking for a concrete drill. None of the hardware stores had them but we finally found one in the hardware section of a Supermarket.


Eva 'rests' while waiting for lunch

It 11:50am and we decided to get something to eat before grocery shopping so we went to the bar/restaurant in a hotel across from the grocery store. They only start cooking when they get a order so we has a long time to relas on the 2'nd floor veranda. We ordered chicken and chips.
Oily fries and overcooked chicken. Next time we eat out, I think we’ll try someplace else.

Sat., 5 Mar.
The estimate on the house came in about 9000 shillings above budget. I went to a local building supplier myself on Fri. and got some prices which were comparable but learned about ways to cut costs. We are having them use the traditional ‘poles’ rather than milled lumber saving some 5700 shillings. We can also have the door made much cheaper than ready made and by using a lighter grade of corrugated steel roofing we can save another 1700 shillings. I will take the nails to the job site and monitor to ensure any that aren’t used come back to Robin’s Nest.