Training Institute

The Kenyan power company teased us last night with the power coming on and off.  This resulted in a cold shower and blogging by flashlight; very African.  This morning the power was on and we were on our way to the Training Institute.

 

In case you are behind, let me update you.  Last year we decided to do something about the orphans who were graduating from secondary school and leaving our orphanages.  We built the training institute across from our first orphanage at Dirubi to teach our kids life skills and trades to help them find employment and break the cycle of poverty in their families.

 

Now the center is open and we are using the location to host a medical clinic next week and training for all of our orphanage nurses from the American doctors who are coming.  We will have 14 mzungu (white people) here next week so I wanted to make sure that everything was ready to receive them.  I'm happy to report that everything is in hand and will be ready for our visitors next week.

 

Susie, Mauryn, and I are staying here tonight, though our generator hookup is not quite ready, hence the flashlights.  The guest houses will be fine for all of us.  The water is flowing, the toilets are flushing, and we may even have hot water in the showers. 

 

To make sure we had what was needed, we made a quick afternoon trip to Kisumu to the Nakumat City Mega store.  If you have read this blog before, you may remember my love for our Wal-Mart wannabe, Nakumat.  This store has a little bit of everything, like Wal-Mart, but not as big a selection.  There are dozens of Nakumat across Kenya, but the granddaddy of them all is the one in Kisumu.  You could put the Midland Wal-Mart and Sam's inside it!  We were just able to stay for a short time however, to buy a generator and some household items for the guest house. 

 

We took Thomas and his wife Sharon with us shopping.  It was fun to watch Sharon open up and flex her shopping muscles with Mauryn and Susie.  Thomas dropped a bomb on us by revealing that Sharon is pregnant again.  She's due in August, and they are hoping for a girl.  Great news!

 

Driving back, we just made it back to Dirubi before dark, after a brief rain shower.  This is the tail end of the rainy season here, so everything is gloriously green and slightly muddy.  The rain didn't cause us any problems today, though.  We were back in time to share evening devotional with the orphanage kids at Dirubi.  This has become my favorite time in Kenya.  The medical team will be blessed to share it with us next week.

 

Tomorrow we are on to Londiani, staying the night at the Kunste Hotel in Nakuru.  Then Thursday we are back to Nairobi to reunite Maureen with her traveling husband Francis Mbuvi, who has been in the US for the last six weeks.