Are You Tired Yet?

Oliver, almost 4

Was greeted this morning by Oliver, the son of our hosts at the Wildebeest, Lanita and Alan. They also have a new baby this year, Joel. It is so delightful to hear Ollie's ever-deepening Australian accent (his parents and grandparents are from there and the family just returned from several months "at home".) Last year he was just a little more than a toddler; this year, he is a BOY!!!




Then it was off to the pre-school 

Julius in the Sewing Center

to await the arrival of some
people from the Kenya Ministry of Gender, Children & Social Development. While we were
waiting, we took some photos of
the new sewing center located
in a building behind the pre-school
building, a place where people from the community can come and, for a very nominal fee, rent
the use of a machine for 3 hours
a day for the week. When it is running at full capacity, it will be a most welcome additional income source to help the pre-school to become a self-sustaining venture.
In talking with people from other non-profits, having projects become able to sustain themselves financially is a critical piece- and one of the most difficult. We ALL seem to spend inordinate amounts of time and energy fund-raising, unless, of course, a source with very deep pockets becomes an organization's "angel".

 Dear Beatrice, one of the original "Nyanyas"

Mary Martin & Beatrice at the Sewing Center, named for Mary's brother

The trash-fueled stove & oven

And then it was off to see the project of yet another group,
located deep in Kibera. This unique structure is a stove/oven
which uses trash as fuel. At the rear is the place where the trash is gathered and sorted (no glass or batteries are burned and plastic is saved for recycling). The rubbish is shoveled into the chute, where it comes down and is then pushed into the oven, where it
burns at about 800 degrees. There is about 99% combustion, so there is very little ash remaining, which has to be cleaned out only about every 3-4 days. There is a very large cooking surface and 2 generously-sized ovens and food is being cooked each day to feed lots of people very cheaply. The heat produced also heats water which peopl can get for 5 shillings for several gallons (about 7 cents U.S.) to use for bathing, a real gift in the slums.

The company building these ovens is known as PLANNING. When a oven is ordered, they send people to build it on-site, as well as to train the people who will be running the oven in operational and saafety skills and management. Of course, the cost is daunting to Kenyans- 690,000 Ksh- but that translates into $8117 American and with the great money-making potential and the employment opportunities it would generate, it seems to me a really worthwhile investment if that initial amount could be generated. Doesn't presently hold a lot of potential for us in the Nyanya Project, but for a couple of the non-profits with which we've established connections here it holds a lot of possibiities.

Walking through the slums is always an eye-opener. We were assaulted by the smells of rotting vegetables and meat and human waste, by the sight of all this running down the open gutters on either side of the paths (can't be called streets...only wide enough for human traffic), by the on-going sounds of a continual mass of humanity. Snapshots: a ribs-showing dog rooting through the garbage in one sewer and finding something to eat; a tiny girl sitting beneath a table of vegetables, playing right next to an open sewer; a small boy, his lower face virtually covered by...okay, I'll say it...snot; the path on which we walked absolutely covered by trampled-down garbage, discarded shoes, and plastic bags. All in all, a day filled with information and sensory input...and I am very tired.