Ndhiwa

OK, we're all officially tired now. The equatorial sun, bad roads, and relentless schedule, have conspired to make me very tired. I can see signs of it in the others as well. So far, still no sickness, or injury, or frayed tempers yet (praise God,) but we're not home yet.

The children at Ndhiwa are not tired, however. They met us at their orphanage with a song and dance train that wound around us for many minutes. Finally they settled down and we each went to our tasks. John with the widows, and me with my cameras and checklists and sketch pad and water test kit. John Cherry followed me around and managed to help some with bringing the firewood to the kitchen. See the links to pictures on Picassa at the right.

Ndhiwa as another well-run place. We saw posted rules and instructions, schedules and menus all over the place. The Director there, a woman named Caroline, seemed quite sharp. They have a feeding station for 100 kids in addition to the 123 orphans in the home itself. They also have a posho mill, and a very impressive water system.

Alfyo, cheerfully showed us around his new water system, which consists of a 45ft hand dug well, and an electric submirsable water pump filling a 12ft elevated 8,000 ltr tank. This tank also keeps two lower tanks filled, giving them a 32,000ltr capacity, all piped together. There are water taps fed from pipes around the compound, and even showers and flush African toilets installed. No other orphanage is so well equipped.

After Ndhiwa, we saw another feeding stations, this one at Ototo. This is Alfyo's home town and we got to meet his father there. The new dining hall is well built and now houses their local church as well. They are in the process of digging a well there also. There was a man in the bottom of it, digging even as we arrived. This site also has a cane crusher, as much sugar cane is grown in the region.

This evening, all the WBS workers who have orphanages are meeting together with us here in Kisii. We'll talk about common issues, introduce some new controls for finances, and try to encourage them as much as possible. Tomorrow, I might not post a blog entry, since meetings are kind of dull, and not much to blog about, but we'll see. Tomorrow afternoon me move our base of operations back to Kericho for one night, inching closer to our last orphanage at Londiani. Then it's Nakuru for one night, on the way back to Nairobi.