Wed. 13/10/10
The Ugali Magnet
The days are beginning to form a pattern.  My first job in the morning is to relight the wood fire in the outside kitchen which is partly sheltered so it might just have a few embers still glowing from the night before.  If not I have to do a “Ray Mears” and rub a stick with a solid phosphorus blob on the end on a rough surface and hey presto - fire!  Apart from that little chore today I spent most of my time helping out with the proposal for the grant.  Thankfully we have a bit of an advantage because the local official who we have to submit it to already knows Christine and has lent us another application that we can use to help put our justification together.  The trouble is he has asked for it back so Christine and Cyrus drive into Runyenjes to return it.  They are away a long time but whilst waiting to see the man they work out a budget for our submission on a scrap of paper.  But when he is able to talk to them he gives them some useful tips on filling in the forms and best of all, another day to complete it.

Once again Patrick the Ugali magnet arrives just before lunch time.  On the menu today is red kidney beans and rice which is delicious.  Pudding is small bananas and avocados the size of coconuts.  After lunch Brenda and Patrick spend a long time together talking about the upcoming meetings and the Peacemakers vision.  Just as he leaves, Patrick’s mother turns up just as it’s getting dark.  She appears to be in her mid-80’s and has recently been widowed.  We met her a few years ago but she doesn’t seem to have changed much.  The evening meal is fish bone mash; well I thought so because I seemed to get most of the bones.  We work on until nearly midnight and our budget doesn’t total up properly, but I’m too tired to continue.  This is worse than being at work!
 

Thurs 14 October
Branded!
When we awoke at 8.00am Christine was already working on the submission.  Sandy thinks she was up until the early hours at the computer.  The fire had gone out overnight, so this time no “Ray Mears” tricks; a piece of cardboard lighted from one of the calor gas rings in the kitchen does the job.  The boys arrive from Plainsview where they are staying, the other builders appear from the locality and we all stand outside and pray for a short time asking the Lord to bless the work.  There is a little more typing to do and then we go off to Runyenjes to get it all photocopied and bound.  There is a private College which teaches IT skills who will do the work for us.  We need 5 copies which have to be signed by Sammy who is our Chairman of the Trustees.  We all cram into the small office in the College whilst the documents are prepared.  It’s thankfully cool because the temperature is over 30°c outside.  Finally it is finished, the bill for nearly 2 hours work?  Just under £5.00!  Then we deliver them to the local Council Office and do a bit of shopping on the way back to the site.

There's a meeting of local ministers at the Prayer House which should have started at 2pm but we don’t get back until nearly 3 o’clock.  There is only one pastor who has arrived which is pretty typical timing for rural Kenya and we are beginning to fall into the same habits!  We leave them to it and have a very late lunch under the trees.  The other attendees arrive in dribs and drabs and they all join in with a ladies’ prayer meeting which was to have started at 4pm.  Afterwards Sandy and I help to prepare the evening meal; the boys are eating with us tonight, it’s beef stew with sweet potatoes and chapatti.  There is an incident in the kitchen whilst we are all working, Christine brands me with a hot frying pan on the forearm, but I take it like a man and only complain every ten minutes.  Despite that setback it turns out to be another scrumptious meal.  After the men left we chatted for a while before going to bed early for a change.

Fri. 15 October
The Flying Sofa.
The boys were late in arriving from Plainsview.  The truck wouldn’t start, so they had to get here by motorcycle taxi, which is a new development since we were last in Kenya.  When we were on the way back from Chuka the other day we saw a small motorbike coming towards us which had a three seater sofa tied on the back.  It’s a good job it wasn’t windy!

Christine goes off to get Martin, our mechanic in Kathageri, to take a look at the vehicle.  I was on fire making duties again which took me three goes before it caught.  When Christine got back we decided to go and get some cement from Runyenjes and some other building supplies.  We picked up Cyrus at the crossroads then headed back stopping on the way at St Barnabus Primary School, Kathari where we met the Head Teacher, his Deputy and the Chairman of the School Committee.  We gave them a large bag of pens, pencils and rulers for which they were very grateful.


St Barnabus Primary School, Kathari.

Back at the site Patrick had arrived, and it wasn’t lunch time!  He had left his sister-in-law’s car overnight after the pastors’ meeting because he thought it had run out of petrol.  We left a ”For Sale”  notice on it but there were no offers.  After lunch we went to visit one of the Peacemakers Trustees who runs a clinic nearby.  Unfortunately she was not around; she was in Nairobi on a course.  Next we went to Mukuria Primary School were we gave away another bag of stationery.  It was just as the school was closing for the weekend, nevertheless the Head was very glad to receive them.  We then had to go and visit a secondary school which one of our sponsored children, Purity, attends to pay her school fees.  She was still at the school so we gave her a lift home where she lives with her two year old son, Sanchez.  Purity is 18 years old and is living with a friend who took her in when her family threw her out.  We just got back to the site in time to load a hundred chairs on to the truck for a function tomorrow; we hire them out for 5 ksh each.

It was our turn to cook tonight, tuna pasta with onions, tomatoes,  garlic and peppers.  We also had a glass of red wine which was very pleasant.  Tomorrow there is a Peacemakers Kenya Trustees meeting and Christine is at it again slaving over the lap-top typing the minutes.  I managed to wash my hair and get a shave down by the water tank tonight just as the Askari, Michael was passing by. He muttered something about me being too hot; I suppose it was because I had taken my shirt off!  Later we talked about the upcoming meeting until 10.30pm.
                                           ------------------------