The New Year

Hey everyone!

Sorry it has been so long since we have updated the blog. We have been quite busy on Rusinga, and also we both caught a nasty bug for most of last week. If you can think of a clever name (ie Delhi Belly, Montezuma's Revenge) for the African bug, let us know.

As I mentioned, we've been busy. We did some quick napkin math and found that, as of around two weeks ago, we had almost exactly enough money to set aside six months' worth of food funds, and to build the toilet for the kiddos. So, what the hell - we broke ground!

If you were curious as to why a toilet costs nearly $1500, while a kitchen is only $500, well, so were we. Rusinga is rural. Very rural. There is no plumbing, and only the clinic and a handful of businesses have electricity. So, everything must be built by hand. A toilet here is basically an outhouse, and it must be dug 20-30 feet into the ground - all by hand. And on top of that, more often than not, diggers hit rock at around 15 feet. Unfortunately, our diggers hit rock - SOLID rock - at around 12 feet. So, it is a lot of work compared to a stick-and-mud kitchen (I would love to write more about the native architecture techniques, but I am a bit strapped for time. Ask me when you see me!).

On the subject of traditional architecture, we have some other big news. Ezekiel moved to a new property last week, and with him the feeding program must also move. His new property is just a few hundred yards from his old home, so it is not a terrible inconvenience; in fact, nearly all of the materials from the old structures can be easily salvaged. However, the cement floor of the feeding program must be replaced, which will cost something like $800 USD. On the upside, the new property is MUCH larger than the old place, so the kids will have a lot of room to play! Their old football (read: soccer) field is maybe five by ten meters, the new place has probably half a field of open space.

Finally, we have a few small items to add to Ezekiel's wish list. Once all the kiddos came in for lunch on the first day of school (over break only about half showed up every day), we found that there were not enough bowls and cups to go around, so we went ahead and bought ten of each for the time being, for around $12 USD. We will probably buy many more, so that they can be replaced when broken in the future. Additionally, around ten students are in need of new school uniforms, as theirs are severely worn. These cost around $10 each, so if we have $100 to spare this will get taken care of. The school year starts with the calendar year here, so now is the time to buy new uniforms.

Ian and Ravi