This week is passing far to quickly, tomorrow is our last day in Olrongai. The weather has been so hot, kuna joto sana! Sweltering under the wriggly tin walls and roof of the teaching room. John and Brian got the best deal, teaching a group of young men how to make a wooden stool, working under a beautiful shade tree. It is always a treat to look at Africa afresh through the eyes of a first timer, and Brian has been bowled over…. let’s say he won’t be short of photos! The wooden stools are so good, the guys had never used any tools before, and they are very proud to be taking a prize stool home with them. We have got enough tools to give a set to each of them, and as they have also been having some Business Development Training, we pray that’s a few more businesses blooming. John and Brian feel the whole group have got an attitude for carpentry. They are all between 17 and 30, and none of them have ever had a proper job….. they are not lazy there are no jobs to be had!
Marion, Janet and I have been teaching Business Development and Healthcare. They are such a lovely bunch of students, and we have had a lot of laughs, in amongst serious, raw discussion. Today I got really upset again with their situation regarding water, or rather lack of it. There doesn’t seem to be any prospect of a borehole in Olrongai, surveys have been done and the water is at least 330 metres down. The nearest borehole is about six miles away, the track is rough, it’s bad enough for us in a vehicle, how they walk it with water I don’t know. Even when the get there the water is not great,it is clean but slightly salty! When you consider that the only asset that this folk have is their land and obviously they can’t use it to full potential because of the drought periods……. So frustrating. The only way we can help is teaching about water harvesting, and trying to raise money for water tanks, so that when the precious water will not be wasted. Unless of course anyone knows of a drilling company that would drill for the love of the people. The big water tanks and guttering are about £300.00 per household, when you consider they live on less than £1.00 per day, they are not going to be able to save for a tank any time soon!
Just sitting now having a cup of tea, chewing over the events of the day, and watching the yellow flashes of the weaver birds in a nearby tree. Bed early for us all tonight, we have promised to be early in the village tomorrow so that we can get as much teaching in as possible.
Love Linden x
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