The countryside in this part of Kenya is beautiful, but also somehow desolate. Magdaline lives a ten or so minute walk from Lavenda school, and life here is hard. Small farms, no irrigation, not enough water, no services that we might expect from our government - no telephone wires, no electricity, no running water, no paved roads off of the main tarmac road, no garbage pick-up, few schools . . . People here work hard, but maintain strong community ties and mostly help each other out.
These are threee of Magdaline and Joseph's grandchildren: Patience, whom I've known since 2004, Ryan, whom I met for the first time today, and Happiness, Patience's younger sister.
A wonderful early dinner that I didn't manage good photos of. The insulated serving bowls are very common here. In the white one is mokimo, basically a mix of potatoes and peas mashed together. To the left might be sukuma wiki, which is like collard greens, and out of the frame is rabbit stew.
Lovely fresh fruit for dessert. The green bananas are actually ripe.
Talking to Magdaline's son Paul. He has a terrific community water project that Bob and I have been involved with in a small way since about 2008. By the way, it desperately needs money. Anyone interested??
Behind the house is an above-ground water tank, supplied by gutters and downspouts. Central Province is semi-arid, and water management is imperative, though many families can't afford the investment in gutters and downspouts. They really suffer in the dry season and times of drought.
The grandkids with their grandfather, Magdaline's husband Joseph. He is a retired primary school English teacher, whose pupils consistently took first place in their district English exams.
This is Obama, a donkey that the family got in 2008. He's a real boon carrying water in barrels up from the river.
Here we are in the courtyard in front of the house - a cousin in the back with her baby, Magdaline, me, Joseph, Paul, and in the front Paul and Eunice's daughters Patience and Happiness, and Katherine's (she's working in Nairobi) son Ryan.
Eunice, on the left, took the photo with me, and I took this one.
We ran into Eunice's mom on our way home.
Eunice. She's primary school teacher, and just a wonderful, kind person.
Above is the top of a sisal tree, super goofy looking - they always remind me of Dr. Seuss foliage. Below is the base of the tree, looking like a small palm or the top of the world's most gigantic pineapple. Sisal is used in rope-making and basket weaving. One of the first blog photos was of Magdaline showing me how to turn the fibers in the sisal leaves into material to weave.
Live is hard! Above and below are women carrying firewood home in the late afternoon. The woman below is another of Magdaline's cousins. This work is terrible on so many levels. It's time-consuming; almost literally back-breaking (so many women from the area that I know have bad, stooped backs); can be dangerous because of the threat of rape (though that's low in this area); always falls to the woman, who also has to fetch water and do all of the cooking, laundry and child-care or her husband would be shamed; and has pretty thoroughly deforested most of the area.
Simon isn't here, but this is Magdlaine's son's football team. He and a couple of other young men started a football club for local unemplyed young men, to try to keep them off drugs and alcohol, and give them something to do.
Another good day!
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