As those of you who logged in while I was in Kenya know I did 3 live and very long updates! This is a summary of what I found and what we did and tried to do, and as you can imagine what needs doing. Be under no illusion if we do not receive any donations or find a genuine sponsor then it will be a challenge just to maintain our current status yet alone further our projects. So please dig deep and ask yourself is there anything I can do, can I give just a £ or $ etc can I help raise funds via a pub quiz, sponsored walk, or whip round in the office. When I arrived in Kenya I was greeted by two of the helpers and Laura the first child I met over 5 years ago. She was jumping up and down with excitement totally un fussed by the airport it seemed, however later she had dozens of questions and wants to know when she can fly! A lot of change has happened some good some not so good. Food prices were up some 30%, rents etc are rising at a huge speed and owing to an influx of ”Wealthy Somalis” along the Mombasa coastline land prices are rising to European levels. It is implied by locals that they are all pirates using ransom money to buy these tracts of land but I cannot comment on this! I spent a lot of time with the twins and had several visits to the hospital for chest infections (multiple) malaria checks and other checks. I eventually found one doctor who was competent, badly under funded, and has an acute shortage of medications but still try’s to charge a fair price unlike his money grabbing colleagues. ONE CHARGED £70 JUST TO LOOK AT THE CHILD I stayed in a predominately Muslim area and despite all the warnings found I was amongst tolerant friendly people who only asked I respect their religious beliefs. These are true Muslims following the Qur'an as it is meant to be not the minority of fanatics bent on jihad. All children of all faiths played without any incident which is heartening and gives hope for the future, tribal mistrust is still a major concern amongst the adults. We travelled to Meru to look at land. A gruelling 700km drive of some 20+ hours despite the new highway from Mombasa to Nairobi being tarmac the last 100k was very rough and our hire car was not a 4x4 so some very careful driving The kids in Meru are luckier as food is not a problem it grows by the load mango, maize, avocado, pawpaw, tomatoes, cabbage etc tea and coffee. Water is never really short as mount Kenya provides (for now) But few have electricity the water is not piped but from a well, television is as rare as ever, even radios are not so common. But they have little or no income in that respect they are in abject poverty as there is no road good enough to get the produce out fast enough before it spoils. |