Day 4.

First things first - the donkey culprit was John! I've been instructed by the ladies to get the story straight in the blog, and absolve any guilt that may have been cast!

I was up early this morning, around 6am. I wanted to be up and about, take some photo's; Tony's an amazing photographer, and I was keen to get some of his expert tuition - and one thing he did say is that the light is so much better early or late in the day, so I was keen to start early. Cup of tea in hand, and we were off to take pictures of the "hotel" about 200 meters down the road - it's actually a shack - remember what I said in Day 1 about what they call hotels?

When we were back Tony showed me some of the pictures he'd taken yesterday; while we were here enjoying the assembly, Tony was out taking pictures for his project - the positive impact that Hope and Kindness has on the community, leading to jobs and work that wasn't here previously. Over the course of the week Tony's subjects are a farmer, a seamster, a carpenter, a string maker, a local businessman, a seamstress, a gravel maker, workers at a maize grinding factory, a man of the church and "True Love" (Bernard and Suzannah from next door, who have have lost all of their 7 sons to aids - they split up, but have now got back together, he's 71, she's 65. When asked what they'd like for having their photos taken, all they wanted was washing powder :) His pictures of the farmer and seamster from yesterday are amazing!! Once back in the UK he's planning to exhibit his pictures and sell some limited editions to raise money for Hope and Kindness - you'll hear more about the details as soon as they're ready!

News splash - Rachel just came in laughing at Polly heaving whilst trying to wash her crusty clothes from her sick incident on the flight :)

Breakfast was boiled eggs & pineapple. More than I've had for breakfast all week! Sitting here in the teachers office (our chill-out zone) trying to break my hot egg shell (with the help from Tania as I blog), I notice a big file called "Pending Applications to School" :( Walking around the community you realise there are so so many kids who have no access to education - what are their chances? Yesterday John went with Mary to look at some land the school is looking to buy so they can expand the school - with the amount of money we've raised the school can now realistically look at expanding!! :-)

This morning we went to Oyugis market to buy items for the Sand Filter we'll be constructing tomorrow, plus food & provisions for the food parcels we'd be delivering later in the day. The market was CRAZY!! You could buy anything & everything! Over the next 2 hours it was like something out of "The Apprentice" as we went around buying in bulk, which we'd later divide up into parcels. At the Hardware store Polly, Rachel & I had the job of buying the items for the Sand Filter; the owner had all the bits & pieces we needed within arms length - just when we challenged him to a new intricate piece, he'd put his hand bellow the counter and bring out just what we were looking for! :) For the elder Brits reading this Blog it was like the scene out of the Two Ronnies - 'fork candles' ;) We were also buying items for the sports day we'll be running on Thursday, sacks for the 'sack' race, elastic for the '3 legged race', 'medals' for the winning team … to be continued ;) We finished our purchases in the 'supermarket' so we had all our essentials.

Tania & I also put together our own food parcel for Stephen and his family and bought Stephen and his 2 brothers a new pair of shoes each, as we noticed yesterday they hadn't any. We also bought a pair for his mum. Cost, about a pound each!

We were just boarding the fun-bus, when I saw a bloke selling the "Daily Nation". I thought it'd be good catch up on the local news. Paper in hand, I crossed the road back to the van. All of a sudden I heard a screech of brakes and a thud! I turned round to see the newspaper salesman lying on the floor - he'd been run over by a motorbike - who didn't even stop! the newspaper salesman was a little shaken, and was trying to keep his dignity while his mates just stood there laughing at him. Actually, he seemed ok.

On the way back we were really feeling pleased with our purchases, and were looking forward to lunch - yep, more plain noodles with tabasco. All of a sudden smoke started pouring from the front of the Land Rover! Then thick smoke! PANIC! Elkana, aka "Tiny" brought the van to a sudden stop and we all literally ran out the back; we'd also bought some gasoline for the generator, which was in bottles in the footwell - justified panic then! So there we were, stranded 5km from home, with all the shopping and groceries we'd bought! John and Tiny soon had their heads under the bonnet trying to diagnose the problem. After a very short time John has deduced that the brake cable had 'shorted out' the ignition. I could've told them that, not ;) We needed some cable, or actually any piece of thin wire to conduct for the ignition. We were just about to dissect one of the girls underwire bra's when a truck stopped to see if we needed help - couldn't he have arrived in just another 10 minutes? ;) The truck was no other than from the company sent to mend the solar power! They had all the gear, and all the idea! What a stroke of luck! Whilst all this was going on Tony had spotted half-a-dozen children walking down the side of the road, with 1 balancing a bowl on her head with around a dozen mango's inside - she must have no older than 5. Tony agreed a price of 500 shillings for the lot (they were probably worth 100!). You should have seen them - they jumped and skipped all the way back up the road, screaming and singing. It was a fantastic sight! His mother came back and thanked us - no thanks were required, it was us who were grateful.

Fifteen minutes later, van fixed, we were on our way back to our home :)

As soon as we came back home, the children asked if they could borrow my copy of the "Daily Nation" newspaper I'd bought at the market - no sooner than I'd given it to them they were all huddled over the paper reading! They were aged between 7-9yrs - amazing can you imagine our kids doing that! :)

After one more check of the van, Meghan & Helen left with Tony who was off to capture more portraits for his collection. The girls then got assistance from some of the children to make the food parcels. They took to the task with huge enthusiasm, and it was soon complete. Their payment - harlbro sweets :)

Just as I started to relax and write the blog, the girls decided it was football time. My son Connor had given us his prized football to donate to the children, and we'd been waiting for the right time to give it to them - I guess this then was the right time! The children loved the sight of the ball :) I divided them into 2 teams - their were about 18 children, and we played in about 32c! The children played in bare feet - that's what they would naturally do. They were fantastic - why hasn't Kenya won the World Cup yet? Apparently the life expectancy of a football is only 1-3 days! The problem is the bushes which surround the play area have the spikiest of spiky thorns - and they kick the ball blinking hard! Anyway, the good news is, as I write this blog at 9pm, the ball is still perfect spherical :-) Connor, you gave a fantastic ball! ;)

Later this afternoon we divided into 2 groups - some went out to distribute the food parcels we'd made, whilst some stayed to work on the management training course work for the teachers tomorrow. Tania, Helen, John & I were on food parcel delivery service - Meghan, Rachel, Polly, Emma & Tony worked through the training. We went out in the Land Rover, which I drove, and which was an experience in itself - 40+ years old, and 250,000 on the clock! Tania reminded me I wasn't on the Gumball, and needed to drive slowly! Easy tiger - I hadn't been able to get out of 2nd gear! I thought the Campervan was a challenge to drive, it seemed like a Bentley compared to the rattle & bounce of the Land Rover. We were also joined by Peter (daytime security)and Joseph (the carpenter) to help with the directions, and security - just in case. First stop was Martha (you remember, has TB, 2 children, no husband, no house, and no money to pay rent). Her children were out playing on the road, and once they saw the car coming they started screaming! They were so happy. Helen and Tania led the way with food parcels in hand. Martha's face was a picture to behold :) She had the biggest smile. Next stop was Anna-Mourice who lived a couple of "houses" round the corner. Again we were greeted by huge smiles, and so grateful. We also gave her a months rent - $6. She asked for a private word with me - after giving her a months rent I didn't know what she would ask for - she wanted chairs, chairs so that when friends come to visit they have somewhere to sit - she said she feels embarrassed. I said I would talk to the church to see what they could do. We wanted to drop more off but we didn't know where they lived, so we made our way back to H&K and hoped John would be there, so we could pick him up and carry on delivering.

On the way back Helen & I thought it only fitting to call into the local small village and pick up a few cheeky Tuskar's - 8 cold beers were soon making their way back to H&K :) We'd only been back for 10 minutes when John came back, and we agreed we'd shoot off and carry-on delivering :) I'd managed a couple of swigs of Tuskar (the others said i necked it), and I hoped it would still be cold when we got back.

Out first stop would be Stephen and his brothers (Stephen is the young boy Tania & I are sponsoring - paying for his school fees/food). Tania & I knew this would be difficult. Stephen was on the side of the street when we pulled up. He had the biggest smile you could imagine. It's actually difficult to write in words how we felt based on what we saw. Stephen was there with his 2 brothers - all alone. No mother. Stephen said his mother was on her way to see them - she lived 10km away where her job is - his elder brother had gone to fetch her. He showed us where they slept. It was a mud block which was divided into 4 dwellings - theirs was one of them. Inside there was nothing - I mean nothing. A mud floor. That's it. There were some adults outside - a man and 2 women who lived in the other dwellings with their children. Firstly we gave him the food parcel - he was so happy, though seemed embarrassed - it that makes sense? We took it and hid it in the corner of the bedroom. Next we gave him the shoes - he particularly liked the shoes we'd bought for his mother. We said we'd call back on the way home to see his mum - hopefully she would be there. As we walked back to the van Tania & I were shell-shocked, very emotional. It was getting dark - we only had time for one more drop. Next it was to see Helena, grandmother to 7 children, no mother or father - both had died of aids. No she had the biggest smile yet! She started singing in joy when she saw us - her whole face beamed with joy. The children were happy as they knew we'd have sweets, and we'd take some photo's (remember they love to look at themselves on the LCD display). It was now dark so we couldn't stay - mozzies were out in force, and the roads aren't safe at night; one the way back there's alll sorts of traffic - lorries driving erratically, donkey & kart (obviously with no lights!), kids playing on the side of the road, and thick dust making it very difficult to see. We made it back in one piece - all very emotionally drained. Over the last few days we've all got ideas on how we can make H&K more sustainable - and we have 3 more days to fill in the detail before we leave.

We arrived back to see the girls had started work on a pasta feast; the plan had been hatched at the supermarket earlier in the day. Tomatoes were being chopped, garlic crushed, avocado sliced - OMG this was going to be good! Helen & I immediately went back to where we'd stopped - our Tuskar's! Helen put hers in a coffee mug just in case Mary came in (H&K manager). Next minute, Mary came in. "Nice cappuccino" I said to Helen :)

Just before we ate Mary wanted us to take some time to talk to the children - talking about respect, how they need to look after each other, set the right examples to the younger children etc.. We decided to split the children into 4 groups, older boys/girls, young boys/girls. We agreed to just set the scene tonight - give them some things to think about, for them them to sleep on it, and we'd be back tomorrow to spend more time with them, and look forward to their questions. Tony & I took the elder boys. 10 minutes later we were done. Mano-to-mano. The woman who'd taken the other 3 groups were another 15 minutes. Blinkin 'eke don't women rabbit on?! :)

Dinner was served. The meal was fantastic! The proof point was I didn't need tabasco! Now that is a compliment. We're now chillin, reflecting back on the day. What a day! We're excited about the problems we know we're in the midst of providing solutions - and equally emotionally drained by our day's events. It's 21:45 and we're going to bed. Well almost, Polly is now trying to give us guys a run for our money with the Executioner, yep there is flying malaria in the room and she is determined to get them. Ok you know we are blooming exhausted, we have had no booze (well apart from a tuskar beer) and lost the plot when our excitement and conversation is all around how many blooming bugs we can fry!

BIG GOODNIGHT FROM ALL !

Ps.. if you've enjoyed reading this, and are moved by what you've read and would like to help, please donate to Hope and Kindness at www.justgiving.com/ciscohopeandkindness/