Fri., 15 April, 2011
My how the time flies. Some men started to dig a trench for a foundation for the wall that is being completed across the front of the property. We already had the brick and sand but had to order stone for the concrete foundation. The truck bringing the stone kept on breaking down so the men finally used some of the stone on the driveway. Just before 6pm it arrived, and quit about 50 feet from the gate. They got it going long enough to get inside the gate where it quit again. The men with the truck unloaded it off the tailgate, blocking it’s exit, and left it for a mechanic Sat.


Sat. morning we went into Eldoret with Jan Suffock with Henry driving. We droped Jan off at a lawyers then went to a large hardware store to try and get parts to hang the swings properly using the chain we recently found had been bought. I was able to find some parts but will have to keep looking. We have also been having trouble finding the boots for the guards uniforms. The store in town that had the ones we wanted only had 2 pair in the correct sizes. Don’t know when they will get more.

I am beginning to suspect that there will be no one coming in to replace us when we leave on 10 May. We can’t stay longer even if we could get our visas extended. All of our medications including the anti-malarial drug will run out and changing our flights would be really difficult.

Sat. morning we set out with two of the children that have a parent to try and find them. The drive was long over very bad gravel roads. We finally arrived at the correct village and some of the people recognized the boy, (about 5 yrs). They were able to direct us to his mother’s home. It wasn’t until we got very near that the boy recognized it. The mother wasn’t home but someone phoned her and she hurried home. She was then able to provide the information we needed. We got the usual comment from a couple of people in the area, ‘my boy is disabled, do you think you could help him?’ The only thing we can do is explain that the government considers we currently have the maximum number of children for our current facility.

We then went on an even longer drive to find the girl’s mother. We found her and got the needed information, and also got a request that we take another of her daughters. So many children are not really wanted.

There was time before supper to pop into town and buy a wheelbarrow for use on the wall construction. (The contractor doesn’t provide such things.) We also made arrangements for a welder to come out tomorrow and assess the metal work required.

The mechanic came to repair the truck and wound up taking the engine away leaving the truck in the driveway. (To give you an idea of the layout of the property, you can see the back of the truck in the above photo of the wall.)


Sun. 17 April
Nothing special today. The truck is still in the driveway without an engine. The men returned to work on the wall, and a welder came by to look at what was needed to make grills for openings in the wall.