Hello everybody! I hope you are all doing well. I am doing fairly well here - still just waiting for the bank to send my sister my debit card so I can purchase materials for the toilette. I don't know if we'll be able to purchase all the materials for the toilette yet, as we're still waiting for a few cheques to be mailed and deposited. Dustin did, however pay for the first lorry of stones to be taken to the school. They have to work on the stones to smooth them over, so they stack properly, which will take them two or three days. So at least some work is being done on the toilette. I got some really good news on the donation front, and it looks like we will have enough money to complete the toilette. I don't think we'll have enough to build desks anytime soon, but hopefully by the time we leave in May, we'll have built the toilette and the desks.
I have sent e-mails to numerous groups, and organizations trying to get funding, but so far, no big organizations have responded. I did contact The Wildrose Foundation, and they said that since we're not an NGO, they can give us any grants, but if we can get associated with a Rotary Club, or something similar, they would be able to match all donations given. I'm going to be contacting some more organizations and groups today in the hopes of securing more funding.
One of the main reasons I want to secure more funding, is that yesterday Virginia took Dustin and myself to the primary school at Saikeri, where we met with the deputy headmaster. We talked to her, and as I mentioned in the previous post, the school is extremely low on water. Last year they had to shut the school down for 2 weeks because there was no water. Virginia paid for a truck to bring water in this week, so they are doing alright now. However, the reason they have been lacking water is that the pump that normally pumps water for the whole community, including the school, and the health clinic, is not working, and they need to purchase a replacement part.
Last year the parents looked into buying a replacement part for it, and splitting the cost, but the price for the part is around $200,000 schillings - which is about $3500 CAD. I'm hoping to find an organization or group that would be willing to pay for the new part, so we can get the pump working as soon as possible.
I asked the deputy what she felt the most important thing the school needed was, and she said it was to get the pump working. Secondly they are looking to build a few more classrooms because their class sizes are up to 60 for some of the lower grades, and they want to split the classes up. Dustin really wants to build some desks for the school, so we will probably try to use some of the donated money for that, but in my mind, desks are no good if there's no water for the children, so I'm going to try to find some group that will pay for all or at least part of the costs for the replacement costs.
Luckily it rained last night - for the first time in almost a month - so I think the school should be okay for water for a few months - as long as it keeps raining. That means that even if I can't find someone to sponsor the project before we leave, I can still work on it when I head back home. The effect on life that rain has here is tremendous. The deputy was telling us that for most of the families in the area, the men have had to take the cows in search of better grazing, because the cows were starving and dying. This meant the women are left at home to take care of the household, with barely any income coming in (the Maasai get almost all of their income from selling cows and goats - which they can't do if the cows and goats are starving).
Anyways, long story short - there's still a lot of work to do here, not enough money, and not enough time :P I will try to see what I can do in the next couple of weeks and hopefully securing some long-term funding for the larger projects.
Thank you all again so very much for all of your support. Take care, and I shall talk to you soon!
