Meeting Day

So green now. Outside my place.

Today was meeting day with Daniel, the Maasai Chairperson of the Education Committee for our preschool. The meetings are always lively but agonizingly slow. Things must be stated many times, in many different ways, in order to be understood. At this meeting, we tried to explain the reasons why the Foundation should not pay school fees for needy children this term, since we have put in place an income-generating business from which the women have been paid some good money for their bead work. The women were reminded that the reason for the activities and for the money they have been paid is for the school fees of their children. If they have been paid money for this purpose, why should the Foundation be asked to pay more? Sustainability of the projects is key here but takes a long time to convince the leadership to take over their own destinies.

Fred is still in Kajiado, purchasing goats for the Women’s Goat Cooperative. The cooperative is another activity we created to provide the women with money from the sale of milk and the sale of the new goats born. Soon the women will have around 70 goats. Goat milk is going at a good price and sales can easily pay the small school fees. Fred will come home on Thursday and we will travel to Kiserian for another purchase of beads etc. for our latest bead work order before I return home.

Benson went back to Kibera and is trying to be accepted into a Master’s program in the UK. So far the signs are positive but the funding is often an issue. He wants to get his degree in International Development and return to his homeland of Turkana to work with the refugee camps.

On Sunday, a student from St Henry High School in Kentucky, and his mother are coming to Kenya. They’ll spend some time with our programs, visiting the Masai school and St. Tim’s. Welcome!