Analysis of the Koins/SRA Projects in Mnyenzeni

Analysis of the Koins for Kenya
and Self Reliant Agriculture Projects in Mnyenzeni


By Lonny J. Ward, M.S., M.B.A.
Endowed Prosperity International

Eddison, Patrick and Lonny

From October 28th to November 10th I had the opportunity to work in the village of Mnyenzeni with Koins for Kenya (Koins) and The Institute for Self Reliant Agriculture (SRA). My purpose in going there was to evaluate the program and to assist in designing and implementing a goat milking project. The following is a report of my visit and an evaluation of the SRA program and the Koins project in general.

Overview
The Koins for Kenya project is very impressive. The key to the success of the project lies with Bret Van Leeuwen and his love for the Kenyan people. Bret has surrounded himself with some good people to help carry the work forward but the project still rests heavily on his shoulders. There are great synergies between the local Kenyan people and the American staff. This cooperation has led to a very efficient use of the funds raised by the Koins staff.

Bret inspiring the school children

The focus of Koins for Kenya is to improve the education of children by building and furnishing schools. There have been 5000 to 6000 children taught in these new and improved school facilities. Thousands of other people have been positively influenced by Koins’ presence in the Mnyenzeni area as the Koins’ projects have gone forward.

By combining Koins’ efforts with SRA it is hoped that their influence will reach broader and deeper into the lives of the Kenyan people. Families will be educated and assisted in developing their own gardens and small farms that will greatly improve their diets and eventually provide them a significant source of income. The focus of this project is to improve their diets so that the people will be healthier and the children will grow and learn better. There have been instances where improvements in the student’s diets have already had dramatic positive effects on their ability to learn. SRA and Koins together make a good team.

The Institute for Self Reliant Agriculture (SRA)
The focus and goals of the SRA are to help the villagers become self reliant by growing their own food. This goal is reached through a program where the SRA staff teach and train the local population how to raise their own food. Most of these villagers have access to land where they can plant gardens and raise animals but the land is not used efficiently. The SRA model is very appropriate for this situation where the resources are available but not well used. The program’s success depends a great deal on the ability of the staff to inspire and teach the villagers and the willingness of the villages to make the plan work.

Koins provides a fertile location for the SRA to implement its program. The structure is such that the SRA staff can set up their demonstration plots on the Koins’ land. The trust that the Koins staff has earned among the villages is critical to their acceptance of the program. This trust and respect can be leveraged by SRA as they start to teach the people. As the SRA program succeeds, the people can better feed themselves. As a result the students will do better in school. There will be more money produced and retained in the village. The combined Koins and SRA projects give the people the tools to lift themselves out of poverty and starvation.

SRA Staff
Tom Rasmussen is the vice president of The Institute for Self Reliant Agriculture (SRA) and has been the face of the SRA in Kenya. He has limited experience with agriculture but has a passion about the program that is key to its success. Tom hired two well qualified Kenyans, Patrick and Eddison, as the animal and garden experts. They are both well qualified for those positions and are aggressively pushing the project forward. SRA is able to leverage the Koins’ Kenyan staff so they can run very efficiently. As the project expands it will be necessary to hire additional staff to coordinate the project.

Tom, Patrick and a worker at the Rotational Garden and Hen House

Rotational Garden
The rotational garden is set up to produce all year round. Each garden is divided into four sections that are planted several weeks apart in a rotational system. At least one of the garden sections is producing and ready to harvest at all times. Each of the four garden sections contains similar crops which are customized to the nutritional needs of the family and the availability of water.

Eddison has four plots set up and two of them planted. These gardens are well on their way to producing food. In addition to the traditional gardens they have a nursery for starting the plants. The seeds start out planted closely together, then once they have grown a couple of inches tall they are transplanted to the regular gardens. This is a way of jump starting the program for those who are planting their first garden.

Another innovative idea that they are working on is the “feed sack” garden. The feed sack is filled with soil and has seeds planted both on the top and in small holes on the side of the sack. Because of its compactness and vertical positioning it is very efficient in its use of water. Villagers can wash their hands and face above the sack and the water that falls onto the sack can provide enough water for the plants to grow.

The principle purpose of the rotational gardens is to provide a balanced diet to the family first. Once the needs of the family are met, surplus produce could be sold providing some income to the family. The family would be better off because they have a balanced diet and some additional income. The community would be better off because there would be more food for consumption. This would result in a net increase in the economic prosperity of the village. Less money would be going out of the village for food, and more money would come into the village as food was sold to the surrounding areas. For example, the tomatoes sold in the Mnyenzeni store and purchased in Mombasa but are grown near Nairobi. Mnyenzeni could easily grow their own tomatoes and sell their surplus to markets in Mombasa.

Animal Projects

Chickens
The chicken project was created to teach families how to raise chickens in a small enclosure near their home. The eggs are collected and stored by the family in a cooling chamber. This is done so that the laying hens will continue laying eggs instead of just nesting. One or more hens will be selected to nest on a dozen eggs at a time for the 21 day incubation period.

As chicks hatch out of the eggs, they are separated into a nursery and new eggs are introduced to be incubated. Using this method, Mwayele, a neighboring farmer, has raised close to 2000 chickens from an original flock of 12 hens in only two years. The sale of these chickens paid his children’s school tuition and gave him seed money to start a goat project.

Eddison and Patrick with a trainee in front of the hen house

Patrick has set up a hen house next to the garden area on the Koins compound. The structure has layer hen boxes on one side, a roosting area in the middle and a nesting area on the other side. The structure is built up off the ground so that the manure and urine will fall through the floor onto the ground below. This model keeps the pen clean, breaks the cycle of internal parasites and makes it easy to gather the manure to use as fertilizer on garden plots.

The hen house was made from locally available materials by a local builder and will be used as a model to build smaller hen houses for village families. It will also be used in the training program for the villagers. Families will be given training and a few chickens with the expectation that they will return the chickens once they have offspring.

An important part of this project is to require the villagers to purchase or earn everything that they receive so that they will feel ownership of their project. Patrick’s goal is for each family to be able to eat one chicken weekly as part of their diet. They will also have enough eggs that each person in the family can eat one egg weekly. The rest of the eggs will be used for growing the flock. Even though this may seem like a small amount, the nutritional benefits will be enormous compared to the low-protein diet that the majority of villagers normally eat.

With proper training and ongoing support from the SRA, each family could be successful at raising chickens. These chickens would provide food for the family, a source of income and fertilizer for their rotational gardens. It would be an achievable step for them and make a significant positive impact for the community.

Goats
The purpose of the goat project is to raise goats that will provide both milk and meat for the local schools and eventually for families. SRA and Koins will develop a goat herd that will be used for training. This herd will also produce goats for sale to the schools and families that have been trained. The schools will use the goats to provide milk for their lunch program. The villagers and the school children will learn firsthand how to care for the goats properly.

The milk from the Koins herd will also be made available to the local dispensary to be used for babies that cannot receive milk from their mothers due to AIDS, other illnesses or death. Goats that are not used for milking or breeding will be slaughtered for meat.

The greatest immediate effect of this project will be the milk for babies and young children. In some cases this milk will be life-saving, either immediately or in the long run. The milk will provide critical nutrients that will help with their general health and their physical and mental development. There will likely be an increase in the test scores of the children who receive milk at school.

Mwayele is a nearby farmer that has participated in Patrick and Eddison’s animal program and currently has 90 goats. Among his herd are Gala goats that are faster growing and produce more milk than the local breeds. They are doing well on his farm and would be a good choice for the Mnyenzeni area.

Mwayele showing his goats and chickens to the Koins and SRA group

In two years, Mwayele has gone from a poor farmer with 12 chickens to a successful farmer with 300 chickens and 90 goats. He has been able to feed and care for his wife, four children and his two nephews after their parents died. He has now opened a small store and has purchased a solar panel that provides electricity to the store and home.

Mwayele purchased his goats at Eicheha Farm in Taveta so Patrick and Lonny went there to identify the best goats to use for the training herd. They selected 3 males and 21 females from among the best goats on the farm. The goats had been recently vaccinated and were ready for transport to Mnyenzeni at the end of November.

Using local materials and laborers, a goat house was built to be used for the Gala goat herd. Bret and the Koins staff worked out an agreement with the neighboring school to harvest their grass. The grass will be dried and stored to be fed during the dry season.

Lonny, Patrick, Tom and Eddison with school children taking a short break from the construction of the new goat house

The goat project will be more complicated than the other projects and require more training and follow up by the SRA staff. However, if managed correctly, this project has the most potential for dramatically changing the community. This is because the goats will provide enough income for a father to provide for his family without having to procure outside work. Currently many of the men leave home and travel to Mombasa to work a week at a time, leaving their families without a father for long periods of time. This social situation causes many problems which can be resolved if the fathers are able to work in their own village and be with their families. Overall, the goat project can and will have a major positive effect on the community.

Water
A critical component in the lives of these people and a major focus for Koins and the SRA is providing them with clean water. There are two rainy seasons where water is plentiful, but these seasons are separated by months of very dry conditions where water becomes scarce. There is one small water line that runs past the village and provides a little water to some of the people. However, most of the people obtain their water from puddles in the roads, the river bottoms or man-made storage ponds.

The water storage tank that collects the water from the KCC roof

Koins has implemented several water storage projects and is currently implementing several other new ideas. Large water tanks have been constructed to collect rain water from the tin roofs of the community center, the church, the hospital and the dispensary. This water is much cleaner than what is collected from the rivers and puddles. A significant amount of water is collected this way but is not enough for the needs of the compound and new ideas for obtaining, cleaning and storing water are needed. As the garden and animal projects expand, it will be critical to have more water available for these projects.

Koins partnered with engineers Kevin Nielsen and Shad Roundy from CH2MHill to build a retention dam in a river bed that is near the village. This dam will provide a significant amount of water to be used for the garden and animal projects. It will also serve as a model for building additional dams in the future on this river and on others in the surrounding area.

Kevin and Shad surveying damage after a sudden downpour

Kevin, Buffalo and Lonny as dam construction continues

In order to provide more clean drinking water for the village, Koins is also working with WHOlives.org which has a hand-operated well drilling machine called the “village drill”. It is hoped that the Ben Taylor Workshop on the Koins compound can serve as a manufacturing site for these village drills. It is hoped that they will be able to drill wells in all of the surrounding villages at very reasonable rates. Because of their simplicity and their manual component they can be used with a limited amount of training and skill. The villagers drill their own wells which gives them pride and ownership of the wells.

Obtaining, cleaning and storing water is critical to improving the lives of the Kenyan people and is central to the success of any projects. Koins has developed successful ways of retaining the water and is continuing to look for and develop additional water resources. The lives of these villagers will be forever improved as they learn to better use the resources that are available to them.

Summary and Analysis
Overall I am very impressed and excited about the cooperative project between Koins for Kenya and The Institute for Self Reliant Agriculture in the Mnyenzeni area. The land has incredible resources that will provide food and income for the people as they learn how to develop and utilize them. Koins has the confidence of the villagers and provides a location for training. The SRA provides the model for success and the staff to implement the training.

The SRA model of teaching basic self reliance to alleviate poverty and death has been well researched and proven successful in other areas. Because it takes time to gain the respect and confidence of the villagers in a new area, partnering with an existing organization that has already developed this confidence means that more lives are saved faster.

This same type of cooperative effort should be used in many other villages to hasten the work of teaching people how to lift themselves out of poverty and into a successful, flourishing condition. Positively changing the lives of these wonderful people is exciting and fulfilling.

Patrick, Lonny, Eddison and Jones in front of completed goat house

Fighting Hunger in Kenya

This article came from the BYU campus newspaper, published 11/20/11.  Dr. Paul Johnston, a professor at BYU and affiliated with the organization Self Reliant Agriculture, has been working with Koins for several months now, and the results are developing into an education based program to help villagers learn to grow year-round, nutritious gardens that can feed their families.
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The daily ration for a 10-year-old child in Kenya might include getting a fist-sized portion of ugali, ground-up corn with water; a tortilla-sized piece of mandazi, a kind of fried bread; and a serving of dried fish, equivalent to five guppy fish. That’s only 30 percent of the total daily calories a child that age should eat.

Professor of nutritional science Paul Johnston is working with BYU students to help fix this problem affecting children across Kenya.

SRA Garden at the Koins Community Center in Mnyenzeni, Kenya

Photo by Paul Johnston

Johnston was invited to collaborate with Koins for Kenya, an Alpine-based nonprofit organization, to fight child hunger and starvation in Kenya by planting gardens which will provide the locals with food year-round.


Currently, locals and Koins for Kenya are working together to plant 100 gardens for families, which will begin producing food in January. The gardens are planted with a variety of foods indigenous to Africa as well as others Americans might consume. Locals will harvest the vegetables every two weeks to provide a variety of fresh food throughout the year.

“Our idea is to take the [food] we are raising and use it as a way to teach the children about nutrition,” Johnston said.

Children will be able to pick a sweet potato from the garden and know its nutritional qualities, Johnston said.  Ideally, the children will be able to teach their parents about nutrition to prevent future nutrient deficiencies.

Koins for Kenya founder Bret Van Leeuwen said the program is also meant to help people be self-sufficient.

“We don’t want to create dependency,” Van Leeuwen said. “So we focused on education because that’s the way out.”

In order to get a garden, the locals volunteer to participate and learn farming techniques and practices from agricultural specialists. The gardens will work similar to a co-op, where they give up 10 percent of their crops to sell at the market. The money will go toward buying more seeds and farming equipment for future harvests.

In preparation for the gardens, Todd Gardner, a nutritional science major, analyzed the diets of the children. Koins for Kenya collected the heights, weights and diets of more than 300 children from villages across Kenya.

He compared their diets to world health standards and found the childrens’ nutrient intake was extremely deficient. Compared to world health standards, they get only 13 percent of the normal calcium intake, 8 percent of the normal vitamin C intake and 1.8 percent of the standard B12 intake.
“I took their diets to see what they were eating to see how we can implement nutrients to catch them up, in a sense, with other people,” Gardner said.

According to Johnston, Vitamin A and C deficiencies are major problems in the region. A lack of vitamin A is the leading cause of blindness in children in Sub-Saharan Africa, and other deficiencies lead to health problems like stunted growth, which about 50 percent of the children suffer from. Johnston said their heights are significantly below the norm, indicating severe malnutrition.

Luiz Belo Neto, a senior nutritional science major, is working on a booklet to be distributed to the people; it will include charts outlining the daily nutrient requirements for people of different ages, weights and genders.

Gardner said working on the project has helped him understand hunger.

“As a nutritional major … you hear about nutrition and fats and carbs,” he said. “The only experience I’ve had is with my own diet, an American diet. Their diets are so unbalanced compared to ours. We take so many things for granted. … There is food all around us.”

The gardens will ideally be a successful, lasting system.
“There is a greater chance that people are going to accept it and use it over time,” he said. “The goal is that this will be adopted as part of the society.”

Johnston hopes the idea will spread, reaching to help more people.

“Over the period of the next few years,” Johnston said, “we’d like to see as many as 1,000 gardens being planted within individual families’ homes.”

They’re off to a good start with spreading the program; Johnston also worked on a similar project that provided the same opportunity to orphans in Ecuador.
“They’d never eaten broccoli before,” Johnston said. “They’d never even heard of it.”
But working in any country with limited infrastructure and trying to implement lifestyle changes isn’t easy.

Van Leeuwen said the limited water supply is the main issue threatening the success of the gardens. There is enough water available during the rainy season, but they need a way to capture it so they have a supply for the gardens when the rainy season ends.
They have found one solution, however.


Koins for Kenya just finished a dam that will be the water supply for the gardens. Van Leeuwen helped engineer the project that will now bring water a mile closer to the people.
“It started raining literally the day that it was finished,” he said. “In a matter of a couple of hours we filled our dam to the brim … and captured millions of gallons of water that, up until that day, would run into the next river. … All the water we captured would have been wasted.”
Johnston has confidence the people will succeed in their endeavors with the gardens.
“They are ingenious … and they’ll figure out better ways to do it than we will,” he said.
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Watch for a blog post with follow-up photos and descriptions of the dam project.

Asante!

IVL

Baby Blankets and Dams

One of the expeditioners currently in Kenya is Kevin Nielsen.  Kevin was a missionary in Italy with Bret 30+ years ago, and is an expert in earthen dams in third world countries.  He and Bret connected a while back, and got talking about the work we do in Kenya, and Kevin's expertise just happened to be something we could utilize.  Land has been purchased and a Koins farm is being established.  It will be both an example of what can be done with a small plot of land, and a hands on experience for local farmers who will be allowed to farm a piece of the Koins farm.  With help from Self Reliant Agriculture, we will be training local farmers to farm better, to use the land to raise better and healthier crops, as well as fish and animals.  Part of the requirement of such a farm is having available water.  There is a riverbed adjacent to the Koins farm, but it only has running water for a few weeks of the year, during the rainy season.  With the help of Kevin Nielsen, a dam is being built in this riverbed that will allow that seasonal water to be contained, and it will provide year round access to water for crops on the Koins farm.  Once we can prove that this dam project is feasible and affordable, we can consider building additional dams within the Koins service area.  The rivers flow hard and fast during the few weeks of the rainy season, but the water ends up in the Indian Ocean, then the rivers dry up.  By providing a source for irrigation water, we could make a huge difference to the lives of local farmers.

Kevin called a few weeks before the trip and asked what his local church community could do for Koins.  I suggested they make baby blankets that could be brought and distributed to the clinics within the Koins service area.  The response was great, and this was Kevin's communication with Bret prior to departing for Kenya:

Kevin Nielsen with baby blankets for Kenya

Just a heads up, as you know, I asked for blankets to fill my suitcases.  Well, the Relief Society sisters in our stake put out the attached notice and we got more than a suitcase full.  A portion of them are shown in the attached picture.  There were many expressions of this being the most rewarding humanitarian project they had ever done. They are anxious to have me return with pictures and report about the end result.   As I mentioned to Jami, I actually cannot get them all in mine and Shad’s suitcases so I’ll be storing some at my house until my “next” trip to Mnyenzeni!

 I am looking forward to seeing the results of the dam building in Kenya, and to hear of Kevin's experiences, both in dam building and in distributing baby blankets.  Within the last 2 days, there have been 5 new babies born in the Koins service area.  Each new baby will return home from the clinic wrapped in a new, clean, warm blanket donated by caring Americans.

Asante sana!

IVL

Bret's Kenya Journal, October 2011, Part 1

Bret is in Kenya with a small expedition.  This is potentially the most important, life changing expedition ever, as far as the Kenya people we serve.  The focus for this expedition is on agriculture and dam building.  Bret has written a summary of his first few days, in the way only Bret can.  His many trips to Kenya have given him an understanding of life in Kenya that few Americans can fathom.  The nuances of his perspective are touching and worth sharing.  I hope you enjoy.
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The preparation for this expedition has been many years in the making....and I'm convinced it wasn't my plan.  With each passing day I become more convinced that the hand of my Heavenly Father has guided me and Koins to this point, placing opportunities in our path, bringing talented individuals to our doorstep, and lighting our way.  The divine hand that continues to manifest itself in our work has coordinated this work, and especially this trip, from the very beginning. The week in Italy prior to my departure for Kenya made the transition a lot easier.  I'm sure I can convince others to join me for a similar trip in the future if it includes a week in Europe just to get "acclimated." Walking off the plane in Nairobi feels as natural as deplaning at SLC International.  I know the fast way to the passport counters, I am familiar with the luggage handling, and tonight said hello to one of the customs people that actually recognized me from previous trips.  We have probably had a run-in at some point since to the Kenyans all white people look the same. The flight to Mombasa was less than an hour.  Anthony greeted me as he has done so many times before.  This time he was alone, having driven a car by himself to pick me up.  He handed me the keys as we loaded the car and I gladly snatched them up and took my place on the opposite side of the car from where we normally drive. The rains have devastated the roadways here.  I haven't seen the main artery from Mombasa to Nairobi this bad in almost a decade.  It's truly sad to see the commerce of this country choked by the inability to get the small things right.  In just a few hundreds yards I felt comfortable driving on the left hand side of the road.  The pot holes kept me busy and awake, and within an hour (due to it being one o'clock in the morning) we were pulling into the KCC.  Emily and Esther both arose from their beds to greet me and I had to stop them from preparing water for a shower and a hot meal.  It's grand to be home. I don't mind the crow of a rooster early in the morning, but this dude has got to die.  I don't think that 4:50 is when any chicken, on any day, should begin making their racket.  A great thing about Kenya is that if I identify that rooster, I simply buy him, give him to Emily in the kitchen, and his fleshy parts will help flavor my pilau rice dish tomorrow. Yama and I met and got the day organized.  After a few brief meetings of the mind with some of our staff, we got together with the SRA boys.  These two men are extremely gifted and highly trained in crops and animals, and have the ability to train others on better methodologies that will ultimately assist themselves feed their families better.  We walked for over an hour under a scorching sun, exploring the Koins plots between Mnyenzeni and Vikolani.  They never knew the boundary until today, and had never discussed my visions for it in depth.  With everything we discussed those two grown men were actually giddy with excitement. Galla goats being traded for the traditional African goats, chicken give-a-way, and the tilapia starter kit, the rotational garden partnership program, and others were all discussed to their delight.  It is only possible with them overseeing the entire project, so I am ecstatic with our SRA Partnership at this point. Stones continue to be collected for the dams, citrus trees, banana trees, papaya and mango trees are all being ordered.  They will be planted throughout the "garden" area of the demonstration plot so everyone can see how easy it is to raise these valuable and nutritious trees.  So much is in store, so much to do, so much to plan....... Our trip to Mombasa had us visiting with the President of Steelmakers, Inc. the largest steel products manufacturer in Eastern Africa.  He had not been responsive to Yama over the last month, so I dropped in on him.  He was nervous at first, but with a lot of reason and excitement about the drills being constructed locally.......and dozens to be completed monthly (hopefully with his steel), he saw the light and began helping us. Once in town we visited the bank, then a hardware specialty company for some items we need to make gabbion wire stone boxes for the dam, along with some "geotextile" product that is VERY difficult to locate.  These pieces need to be in place before my engineer shows up and wants to build a dam, so we're busy as beavers......yes, a pun. Went to the Blue Room for some internet connection and dropped some emails.  Although separated from Ingrid for only 36 hours, it was fun to hook up with her through a video conference and see her early morning smile and eyes.  No matter what time of day or how flighty her hair might be, those eyes are like looking at a pair of blue-green sapphires with spotlights behind them.  Her peepers are second to none and they were good to look into, even if it was just a few minutes. Shopping for the expedition ended our stay in town.  Although we made fast decisions and walked quickly, the process still took over 90 minutes.  Where are Jami and Sue when you need them? The outdoor showers are a marvelous end to a sweaty, dusty, tacky day.  With the fan on full throttle and an ambient down my gullet, I hit the sack and dream of big Galla goats filling our pastures and milk containers throughout the area.  So excited!! The rooster has to go!  At 4:10 this morning that early-rising cock-a-doodle-doer decided I needed to get up.  He's going in the pot as soon as I can identify which of the three rooster he is.  The unfortunate part is at that hour it's still too dark to see, and by the time I can see, all of them are crowing and they all sound similarl. Anthony, Patrick, Emerson and I all departed for Kilifi after breakfast.  Due to road conditions we didn't want to go through Mombasa, so we decided to take back roads for the 50 mile ride.  The SRA boys were raised in the area where we would make our shortcut, and as it turned out, it was shorter, quicker, and a lot easier on the eyes.  There were beautiful sites all along the way, some wonderful little villages, and a dirt road much better than the main road. We visited with the staff at Pwani University for a couple of hours.  They were glad to show us their goat and dairy operation, fish farm, chicken ranch, and mushroom-raising activities.  Although they provide a lot of academia with their projects, our application in the real world will end of benefitting them more than what they'll provide us.  However, both spectrums together will make us all a lot better in our agricultural endeavors. Upon our return Yama headed back to Mazeras for a funeral.  I opted to remain here, spending time with the SRA boys going over what we had seen at Pwani and going more into depth.  We spent more time at the "shamba" going over details of our plans for this beautiful piece of ground, and our ideas are really coming together.  Once we have Kevin here to make a final decision on the dam placement, we can swing everything else into action.  We had our usual entourage of village children following us the entire time, calling out to me and asking for  magic rather than candy.  A couple of cheesy tricks later they had all been satisfied and filled with laughter, checking each other's ears for additional coins that might be hidden. Buffalo came by and we went to discuss the block making for the dam.  We came together quickly making strides in our goals that should allow us to meet our timelines.  Moses and a teacher friend of his also came to visit and ended up eating dinner with us.  While sitting together Kendy called from America and I surprised her by answering his phone.  I could hear the confusion in her voice when I answered, and when she figured out it was me, her tone went to shear jealousy, knowing that I was with her beau. Early evening, showered, hit the sack. The sun was extremely heavy today, crashing down hard all morning, causing everyone to walk a little slower.  The shade only made it bearable, but in direct sunlight the temperature was 20 degrees more.  Simply put, it was oppressively humid and uncomfortably hot. Thick, billowy clouds formed to the south in the afternoon........ I met with Emily this morning about the arrival of our other guests, shopping lists, how many meals per day she needed to prepare, etc.  Since my scheming session with the SRA Boys late yesterday, they prepared an outline for moving forward.  These guys are on fire with excellence, and with each passing day we make great steps in our agricultural agenda. I visited the dispensary and was greeted by dozens of baby-toting mothers patiently awaiting their turn.  I don't know how Naomi does it, but she is a super star when it comes to this area's health care.  We went over the agenda for our small expedition, focused mostly on the coordinated activities of Grace Quesenberry.  It appears as though Grace will spend several days next week walking around the villages administering polio drops into the children's mouths.  That, along with delivering dozens of baby blankets to area dispensaries as gifts when mothers have their children in our facilities instead of at home. Somehow I brought up the issue of HIV/AIDS and mothers.  We delved into this heavy topic because I saw several babies in the waiting line that appeared to be woefully sick.  Since I don't fully understand the "how's and what's" to this deadly disease, I have to ask a lot of questions.  I wasn't aware that babies born to an HIV positive mother wasn't necessarily infected with the disease.  However, I learned that the baby has a very high potential of getting the disease if it nurses from the positive mother.  I was floored to hear that many mothers are faced with starving their babies, or passing along their deadly disease......and therefore the disease continues. Our goat milk program just got a new curve in it with this enlightening discussion.  Our plan is to provide the schools with milk through a small herd at each facility.  They will care for the animals and milk them daily, placing the milk into the children's porridge.  It won't provide much to each child, but when they receive nothing now, each drop counts.  With my conversation with Naomi, we will implement a similar program at the dispensaries, providing clean milk to the babies where their mothers are HIV positive. We had the Fitzgerald's arrive today from Watamu where they have spent the last three weeks.  Their experience of "Humanitarian Work" so far has not been stellar, so coming to our village area will surely light them up.  The Koins Center is a change from the posh, seaside hotel in which they were staying before.  To their credit, it is a welcome change, and one that has them both excited, as they really are interested in lending a helping hand. I met the Fitzgerald's in Mombasa and they helped me do some shopping for our group that will be arriving tomorrow.  We had a couple of errands to run on the way to meeting them, the first being in Mazeras.  I was standing in front of the butcher shop on the main road waiting for Anthony when a gentleman came up to me and began shaking my hand profusely.  He was rambling in Duruma and I could only catch a small percentage of what he was saying.  Thankfully, Yama came out of the shop and explained what I was missing. It was a few years ago while I was walking through a local village when I found a pair of twins, barely alive and looking more like small birds than children.  Their mother was extremely sick and could not nurse or care for the baby girls.  Koins rarely takes a position of helping one person or family, especially with medical issues, because everyone has genuine needs.  But in this instance I could not ignore the ugly situation, and I ended up taking the babies and their mother to the hospital where they stayed for a couple of weeks. I was saddened at the news that one of the babies didn't make it, but happy that the other had, along with her mother.  Two years passed when a lady that I did not recognize approached me at the Koins Center.  She had walked from Mazeras, some 12 miles away, because she heard that I was in town.  She was bouncing a chunky little girl in her arms when she told me, through a translator, that she was the mother of the twins.  I couldn't believe me eyes and then barely held back my tears.  When I asked to hold the toddler, she gladly handed her to me.  As I stood hugging the baby, the mother swung the kanga that was wrapped around her to her front where I could now see her twin sister.  She had not passed on, and, if fact, was fatter than her sister.  It was a happy moment. The man who saw me from across the street today and ran to greet me was the father of the twins.  His eyes were still filled with gratitude after almost fours years since that fateful moment.  Why did I stick my head into a strangers house to see why a baby was crying?  Why did I decide to take steps, when normally I probably wouldn't?  I may never know, but I'm willing to guess that why it happened will reveal itself at some point. On the way from Mazeras to Mombasa there was a huge traffic jam on this two lane road.  It is treacherous in normal conditions, but due to the traffic and aggressive drivers, it is near insanity to go out there.  I was behind the wheel trying to make progress in a way that can only be explained if you experience it.  But, in almost a moment where nothing was going on around us, a large 18-wheeler smacked the back corner of the car.  We pulled over to check out the minor damage, but the truck driver had no inclination to stop, and kept on going.  I looked at Anthony and asked, "what do we do now?"  He stated simply "T.I.A." - This Is Africa.  This small catch-phrase can really sum up a situation like this, basically stating that there's nothing you can do about it, so roll with it.  The estimate on the car repairs in the U.S. - $2,500.  Actual costs in Kenya - $60.  Hey, T.I.A. I think I've identified the rooster who has consistently caused me to open my eyes at zero dark thirty since I arrived.  He crowed one too many times when I was near the side of the building and I saw which one he is.  On one hand I want to eat the flesh from his skinny bones, but on the other hand he's the only African that is timely every day.....so, I'm conflicted. The morning was overcast with rain falling in the distance.  The Fitzgerald's were up, and Chakaya needed passage to Bofu, so I loaded everyone into the van and we went for a little ride.  Once we dropped Chakaya in Bofu, he continued to Dzendereni on a piki-piki (motorcycle taxi).  We backtracked a mile and went to Gona, checking on our final projects from July.  The Tingey School is the best looking classroom we've constructed to date.  Surprisingly, because it is Saturday, it was filled with students when we arrived.  Their teacher was there and the instruction was serious.  When I entered, the students, in their usual fashion, stood all at once and stated in complete unison, "Good morning, Sir!"  I returned the greeting and asked them to be seated.  The teacher was happy to have visitors and asked if I would take a moment and address his students.  I took the opportunity to make them laugh, make them ponder, and hopefully try a little harder.  It was a great interaction. We took some back roads through the real African bush so the Fitzgerald's could see what living in Kenya is all about.  The clouds were breaking up and the heat would soon be oppressive, but village life was unfolding in front of us, and for a novice, it is striking.  Riley stated that he had been present in-country for over a month, but this was his first real day of being in Kenya. We passed by the Sean Michels School to say hello to the special needs kids.  As we pulled up, those that are mobile ran to greet us.  We hurried down to the other children and all greeted each other.  We have a couple of new faces, but the ones I have known for a few years were all there in ear-to-ear smiles.  I threw Beja around, making him squeel to the laughter of everyone.  One of the wheelchair kids got a zippy ride around the compound in her carriage, chasing the other children in circles.  The SMS is a special place. Lonny Ward is arriving on a 12:45 flight from Ethiopia.....well, that's the scheduled time anyway.  As I was about to leave to pick him up I received his text about a mechanical breakdown and probable two hour delay.  As I had a meeting planned for the afternoon with a possible replacement for Anthony Yama when he begins his politicial career next year.  Our faithful driver, Johnson, picked Lonny up, and without further delay was here at the KCC. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking shop with the SRA Boys, Lonny, and I.  Lonny pulled out some photos from his dairy album and showed photos of his 80 liters a day cow.  Those are big numbers for me to digest, but to the Africans they were borderline fairy-tale.  Their cows generate an average of 6-8 liters per day around here when things are good, so numbers like Lonny produces has them all shaking their heads in amazed disbelief. Rachel prepared a nice dinner, and several plans were made for tomorrow, including several contingencies based upon whether or not the delayed flights for our next group of arrivals causes problems in Nairobi.  I'm going to bed and wait for the news from Johnson, who has departed once again for the airport. _____________ I am looking forward to more updates from Bret.  This will be a full and busy expedition, with much happening and opportunities to help the Kenyans in our service area see real change in their lives. Watch for updates. Asante sana, IVL