Tuesday, December 25, 2007


Hey! Merry Christmas!
Teresa and I were at the beach today and thought it would be nice to take a Christmas picture so everyone at home knows we're still alive and well. We even built a "sandman" for ya. This is what we look like when we're on holidays.

Things are good here in Kenya. The project is going well: we've built 81 water filters so far, installed about 20, have held a number of community mobilization meetings, and have been training two technicians and two educators from the community we're working in, who will carry on the project once we leave. Living in the village (Vigurungani) has been really great too; we have good neighbours and the people are so gracious and welcoming that it's been easy to make friends.
Here's a picture of some of the kids who hang around outside our house. I was having a bit of trouble remembering their names, so one day I decided to label them...
I know they don't look too excited in this picture, but they're a fun group of kids.

Here's a picture of our house. I know you've been curious...We live on the left side; you can see our open door. The big black thing is our water tank, which holds our precious supply of rain water that we use to drink and cook and bathe with. I took this picture standing right in front of our latrine, so that gives you an idea of about how far away our toilet is from our door. Oh yah... and there are some of my rafikis (friends), hanging out in our backyard.

We've held a few community mobilization meetings this month so we can better understand the needs of the community. The goal of these meetings was to bring people together to discuss their community, identify their strenghts and weaknesses, and brainstorm about ways that they can address problems that their community faces. This is a picture of our first meeting, held in the church in Vigurungani. It was a super interesting day.



That's me, squatting under the window.



We've also been taking every opportunity we can to just hang out with the community. We've gotten to know some really cool people and have been blessed with the chance to live and work, eat and play right alongside them.

That's all for now. Sorry this is brief.

Hope everyone is doing well and that you have a great Christmas! God bless!

Posted by Taya @ 8:12 AM :: (1) comments

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Tea with Friends

After finishing up a community mobilization meeting in the village of Kariaka, we were invited to a Maasai household (actually, we were invited to many households) for tea, ugali, and chicken. The picture above is of Teresa, Judy and Winnie (all water interns) talking with our new friend, Depress. I've already developed a strong liking for this Maasai community, and am super excited to start working with the people there.

We sipped tea, swatted flies, and watched the cows come home. The Maasai love their cattle.

Nathan, here's a spear for ya...

Posted by Taya @ 11:49 AM :: (0) comments