Another bright, sunshine day.  We were off down the hill at 6am for the breakfast distribution which today was mandazi and hard boiled eggs.  (They take the eggs to school for later in the day).  Ray popped round the corner from the office to watch the actual process of making the mandazi that the children eat.  They consist of flour, baking powder, a little sugar and even less salt.   Mixed together with oil or water and left to rise like little rolls.  Then they are rolled into flat circles, like pancakes, cut into 4 and tossed into deep fat where they are cooked until they puff up.  All this was happening in a little tin shack, with the oil being heated over an open charcoal fire.

 

The Doxa breakfast order of 60 each day is quite a good one for the lady who makes them!

 

After our own breakfast we were back down at the office by 9.30 to head off into town for the appointment with the lawyer.  As is often the way in Africa, he was “out of town” and so we didn’t have that appointment.  All was not lost as we had some other errands to run and also an appointment to meet up with one of the Trustees of the CBO.  This proved to be a most interesting meeting.

 

The lady is a nurse who runs clinics out of town for people who would otherwise be unable to get to medical care .  She and her husband drive out of town, set up a tent and she then does health checks including diabetes (particularly common over here), checks for worms, and other general welfare checks.  They were also talking about the importance of role models and mentors for the young people as they move through secondary education which is something that we now have students doing.  She would be happy to come along and speak to the teenage girls that Joyce mentors and to tell them about the possibilities of a career in nursing and what would be required.

 

Networking over here is just as important as at home, if not more so because there seem to be so many organisations that make great promises, including their own government, but don’t deliver so it is good to link up with those that we can see are really walking the talk.

 

After heading back to the office, Ray and Kim composed a communication to the lawyer with the questions we had planned on asking face to face in the hope that we may get a response that way.  Sarah was asked to speak at the weekly fellowship meeting with the ladies and so had the opportunity to share something of her faith story with them, with Joyce acting as interpreter.

 

Dinner for the team followed in order to celebrate Sarah’s birthday, it was a time of much fun, laughter and cake! Her age would represent the average life expectancy over here in Kenya – and no, she is not 81 as it is in UK!!!