Day Four
So, today is Thursday 18thFebruary, the birthday of Ray who is leading our team. It has been celebrated in true Kenyan style with a little bit of English thrown in.
Today we split into 4 teams and had a really productive day.
We made an early start, walking down from our hotel to the office on a glorious sunny morning. As we looked over towards the town of Nakuru, we saw the blanket of smog that settles there sometimes, due to the terrible emissions that come from the vehicles – no such thing as catalytic converters over here.
Once down at the office, we printed off the documents that one of our teams need before all heading off in different directions. One team headed out into the slum to visit some of the homes of children that we sponsor in school. The purpose of these visits was to spend some quality time with them, encouraging them to understand that we as Doxa UK do care about them, and to also find if there are other areas with which we can help them. The members of the team from the U.K. came away at the end of the day feeling that they had been made very welcome and that this had really reinforced just why we do what we do. Our Kenyan team members worked as translators and guides for them.
Dewy was transported up to the plot and spent a day of hard labour working with Victor erecting a gazebo to provide some shelter for him. They worked really hard out in the sunshine, after cycling to the timber merchants to fetch the wood on the bicycle!!
Two other team members went to spend time in one of the schools that includes some of our children. It was good to see the standards of teaching and how the children respond to it. The class sizes were high but we were made very welcome by staff and pupils. It was also good for one of the team to reconnect with a child who she had sponsored several years ago.
Ray and Kim spent some time together going through management info and looking at ongoing plans for projects before we all reconvened back at the office and headed back to the hotel. This evening we had been invited to visit our dear friend Esther who runs a women’s refuge in another slum area. She and her adopted family made us hugely welcome with a Kenyan feast and a traditional birthday “dunking” for Ray. All our Kenyan friends thoroughly enjoyed the celebration which included a blue wig, hat, big cake, and a game of pass the parcel and some fantastic dancing which will never be forgotten!
All in all, it has been a wonderful day, tiring but so rewarding and, dare I say it, thoroughly good fun.
For those who pray, the latest update on the missing case is that it has left Nairobi, and should be at the hotel early in the morning. Please pray that this actually happens!