Kenya

We traveled into Kenya yesterday. Our driver Godfrey has been delightful. I was a bit nervous when our old buddy Yassin couldn’t find his government ID so had to find someone else to get us here. Godfrey is a love, though, so all is well.

 Crossing over into Kenya. I started noticing the puffy, white clouds that look like Africa’s Big Five. The mountains in the background are misty purple; the perfect back drop for brown and white sheep, mangy goats and fat, slow cows which are plentiful. There is always a Shepard even if the herd is only three animals in size. This made me laugh. I guess it provides work for lots of people. I love the sheep especially. They are part brown and part white. You can knit a whole stripped sweater from just one animal. That seems pretty efficient to me.

We found Jacky, our Kenyan partner, waiting for us on the street. She took us to her little sewing room down a busy, narrow alley where tiny stores sold, chapati, plastic containers, services, and lots of prepared foods. There’s a gutter going down the center of the alley with all sorts of waste thrown into it. I even found two big cows having their dinner right across from Jacky’s shop. There is constant noise and people are greeting each other all day long.

Jacky, Ellie and Phoebe

After meeting the two new tailors that work with Jacky we headed to her house. Jacky just had a baby two months ago and I was dying to hold her. Baby Ellie is adorable and such fun to be around. We passed her from arms to arms and got our fill of baby worship.

Ellie and Ellie.

Today we taught in two schools. It’s the rainy season so wherever you go you find thick slippery mud to make your way through. Our shoes sucked at the goo and it felt like we were wearing several pairs by the time we got to the classrooms. Hundreds of younger children hung out classroom windows screaming “how are you” in careful English and laughed when I responded. We talked to 109 girls this morning and gave out as many kits. This afternoon we were in a room with a dozen special needs girls in a small building made of corrugated metal. I’m impressed that Jacky found this school and made sure we went to it. The girls were so happy to receive our kits.

We worked with the tailors to fine tune their skills and Phoebe spent some time making sure Jacky’s new phone was all set up. I’m plenty tired tonight. Tomorrow we head back to Uganda.