Rusinga: First Impressions.

We are finally on Rusinga, after a very, very long journey from Cyprus - layovers in Cairo and Addis Ababa, the latter of which was an 18 hour stay; a few hours in Nairobi, scraping together some last minute items (soccer balls for the kiddos, cheap cell phones for ourselves, and cameras, as we both managed to break ours on the way to Africa); then a 12 hour country bus, a two hour matatu, and a half hour motorbike ride to Ezekiel's place.

Unfortunately we don't have any photos for you all yet, nor do we have time to write anything particularly substantial, but we just wanted to post something letting everyone know we have safely arrived, and to tell you about our first impressions.

Nairobi was a particularly stressful city, a condition that was amplified by our severe sleep deprivation. We hired a cab driver to guide us around for the day, which was not only affordable but a veritable lifesaver. He knew where to go to purchase the things we needed, showed us some local food joints, and even managed to squeeze in a trip to Nairobi National Park's animal orphanage.

Our journey to Rusinga was stressful as well, but Rusinga is a wonderfully peaceful place, and we have managed to settle in quite easily and quickly. We arrived at Ezekiel's home at around 8am yesterday, and he has provided more comfort than we could have imagined. Throughout the day we were fed generously, and through our conversations with Ezekiel we have learned much more about the current state of Friends of Rusinga. To recap, Ezekiel feeds lunch to around 30 orphans that attend a nearby school. He has also managed to find funding to send a handful of students to boarding schools for their secondary education. The orphans are fed in part with food grown on Ezekiel's property, but he must purchase other food to complement his yield. Now, especially, his costs are especially high, as it has been a particularly dry fall on Rusinga. He says they have not had substantial rainfall since August. Even so, it costs just 20,000 Kenyan Shillings to feed the children for a month. This is about $250 USD, or less than $10 per child.

Beyond this, Ezekiel has a number of projects that he hopes to complete in the near future. The children take their meals in a large structure on Ezekiel's property, but the structure has no seating, so the children must eat on the floor. Additionally, the structure's doors are in disrepair. The meals are cooked under a sheet of corrugated metal held up by four posts - this is fine for the dry season, but when it is rainy it is far preferable to have a closed structure with a chimney as a kitchen. Finally, the children currently use Ezekiel's family's toilet. Construction was begun recently on a toilet for the children exclusively, but it stopped because of a lack of funds. As the next few weeks pass, I am sure that Ezekiel and ourselves will discover other projects that could be completed, but Ezekiel says that these four are his priorities.

We have yet to go over the costs of these projects in detail, but it sounds like at least two of them could be funded with the money you have all donated to this cause. For instance, it took only $3000 to construct the structure in which the children take their meals, which is around 200 square feet, and another toilet down the road.

Our tentative plan is to set aside a good portion of the funds raised, perhaps half, for a few months' food security, and put whatever is left toward these construction projects. We will have more details of these plans as time passes, as well as photos, so keep an eye on the blog! And of course, we would love to be able to provide more aid for these children, so if you have any last minute Christmas gifts left, please consider donating to Friends of Rusinga!

Ian and Ravi