Hello everybody. So, this week has been pretty relaxing and hasn't involved too much. Thankfully it's been raining in the evenings lately, so it hasn't been too hot. I'm still waiting for my Visa and debit card in the mail, but thankfully my sister has received both and they are on their way. They should be here within the next week, which means we will be able to start working on the toilettes at Olmaroroi, and the desks for both Olmaroroi and Saikeri. I also received some really good news on the donation front from both my sister and Dustin, which means we will have more than enough money to complete the toilettes, and build the desks needed at both schools.
Between those projects we should have a pretty busy couple of months remaining. But just to make life interesting, Dustin and I are both in communication with two different Edmonton businesses and are hoping to secure funding from them for a couple of the larger projects we want to work on as well. So basically, things are looking really good, but we're just playing the waiting game in terms of actually getting money out of the bank :P So, since I don't have too much to update on the development side, I thought I'd update on the family life here.
So, as I'm sure you've read, Virginia Turasha is our host mom, and the founder of MEAC. Virginia's husband passed away about 5 years ago, but they had three children together. Beatrice (Maasai name is Sianto) is 17 and at boarding school in Narok. Purity (Nashapae) is 15 and in class 6 at a private school. Peter (Kasaine) is 12 and in the same class as Purity.
Virginia's sister Rahab (Naserian) is also living with us. Rahab is 22, and the mother of 3 year old Namunyak (Beatrice). Their brother, Jospeh who is 26 also lives with us, and shares a room with me and Dustin. Their youngest brother, Jackson (Kantet) is 16 and in class 5. The second youngest child is Grace, who is 18, and goes to secondary school in a different village. Koko (which means grandma in Kimaasai) is the oldest member living at our manyatta. Her husband, Peter Sakuda has two wives, but lives at his own manyatta a little distance away. So, Peter and Koko have 7 children. Virginia Ezekiel (lives in Narok with his family.) Mama Sointa (they refer to people often by "Mama" followed by the name of their eldest child. She lives in Nairobi) Joseph Rahab Grace (going to secondary school in a different village) Kantet
We also have some other people living with us. Merriam (Nadopoi) is a good friend of Rahab, and I'm not sure, but she might be related to the family. She is around 21. James is 16ish and an orphan. He was living with a family in Kimuka, but then in late January he could no longer live there. He was friends with Kantet, and asked Kantet if Virginia knew of a place he could live. Virginia said he could live with them (us.) He is extremely bright and motivated, and a very good kid. Dustin and his family are working on sponsoring him so he can go to private school, so he has a better chance of doing well on the national class 8 exams, and going to secondary school. There is another boy, Korus who lives us. He doesn't speak any English, and isn't very chatty with anyone other than Kantet, James, and Peter. He takes care of the goats during the day. Mama Sointa's daughter - Sointa - lives with us as well. She's in class 4 I believe, and around 10 years old. There are two other boys who live with us as well - George and Richard. Both go to the secondary school that opened earlier this month in Kimuka. George is a cousin to the family, and Richard lived in Saikeri, which is over a two hour walk to Kimuka, so Virginia said he could stay with us while he's going to school.
So that gives us a total of 14. Plus three volunteers. Plus another volunteer coming next Thursday. It's a big family.
In other news I ate part of the heart, lungs, stomach, and ribs of a sheep the other day. The heart and lungs were surprisingly good. The stomach, not so much. For a better account of why/how we ate the sheep take a look at Dustin's blog. You can view his blog by clicking on the lick to the right.
