Frederick Home Visit

Its 1:30 pm on a hot Friday afternoon. Tanya is off at her 3rd meeting of 5 today. This morning she met with Rebecca at the CHES office to discuss how to go about training Frederick’s wife (Josephine) in a small business (ad cash handling and saving) while he is apprenticing as a carpenter for the next 1-2 years.

Tanya got home in time for us to meet Frederick at 10am. He told us he lived about a kilometre from here so we figured we had enough time to visit his family and home (i.e. check him out) before a lunch meeting with a Technical college and good old Nora (I’m not sure what Tanya is up to with the technical college, I think its just to learn ‘how it all works’).

Well we met Frederick; he was late, trying to find a place to store his bike while we took a matatu to his ‘area’ (Msala). Hmm, didn’t sound like a 1 km trip to me…and it wasn’t. We stood by the road waiting for an unfilled-to-the-brim matatu to pass by. No luck, so I suggested, since it’s so close, let’s just splurge on a taxi, what’s $4 round trip? We jumped in a taxi after negotiating too long only to discover the taxi was boxed in and had no gas. Then we found a mini mini van willing to act like a taxi. After a jumpstart we were on the road. Five minutes later we pulled over because cops were ahead. The plan: boda boda around the cops and then meet the mini mini van on the other side. We did and off we went (that’s the short version). About 10km up the road we stopped and got out, time for a boda boda ride along a dirt road. A few kilometres in we had to stop. New road construction (if you can call it that, basically the road was impassable). So we walked for 10 or 15 minutes along paths until we reached Frederick’s tiny little home- a mud shack with grass roof. What a commute Frederick must make but he does it all by bike.

Incidentally we may have broken a record today: 21 people in a 14 passenger van.

We had chai. His wife and Mama (all aunts are mamas too, so it took awhile to figure out who was who) served white bread with margarine and ground nuts. Thankfully no soda. We had the interview and let them know the game plan and took some pictures. Our friend gave us a 100 USD to change a life. Frederick qualifies. His Aunts said he was a very good boy, “perfect”.

Next, after Tanya gets back from the college, we meet David Enkombe, he is one of the 16 year old Rotary boys my club is helping, he asked to meet me for some reason; I’m not sure what that is about.

After that its “pizza night” at SheyWey House where we hope to meet with Maria. She doesn’t know it yet, but we are going to ask her to steward some of the money for the ongoing projects we leave behind.

KASFOOC update

Tomorrow at 10am I get to see the final final KASFOOC budget, wish list. This is my favourite project because the focus is fish farming for widows and orphans. One pond, a little training (ongoing, hands-on, not just at the beginning) and start up money can create a source of income that exceeds the rest of their lands harvest. The extra money raised goes to school fees, which of course breaks the cycle of poverty. The women work together and save money so that they can survive droughts and life’s problems, rather than lurching from one crisis to the next. They can use the money for oil, paraffin, soap and other necessities.

We are not trying to create any new relationships, but it’s hard. This is the home stretch. We have 13 projects we are supporting with friends and Rotary. There are many loose ends to tie off and people to meet.

I suppose Tanya has told you about the things we see on the back of bicycles? We have seen milk crates of soda pops stacked 4 high, car tires, 2 3 year olds, huge bundles of wood and a coffin. Today on the way here I saw guys hauling bags of cement. It rained a few days ago so near one of the construction sites they dammed the puddles and all day long there are men and children filling buckets of water and hauling over to the brick layers. I hope no ones drinking it.

Its strange now that some of these bizzare sights don't stop us in our tracks anymore. They just keep coming, one mind-boggling sign of poverty and ingenuity after another.