May 2007

I can hardly believe it has been about three weeks since I was in the United States hugging and cuddling my grandbaby and visiting with my family. And, yes I ate ice cream everyday and had lots of green salads and fresh brewed coffee and pizza and double chocolate brownies that Darah made (yummy). As with most vacations, the glow wears off pretty quickly when the realities of work and every day life catch us up in a whirlwind and spins us back into our “normal” lives. My trip home was definitely a gift from God and my family was like the energizer bunny, keeping me powered for the work at hand in Kenya.

And that is good, because the work is mounting each day as preparations unfold for our opening next week. The U.S. Ambassador to Kenya will be the guest speaker at the dedication ceremony. It will be a huge event with about 545 people in attendance made up of community and District leadership, and governmental representatives, including, the Kenyan Minister of Tourism. It is a lot of important people for one small factory.

While all the last minute “fluffing” up of the factory is taking place, I am still trying to finish setting up the books, establishing some processes and a personnel policy handbook. We have not hired a managing director yet, so right now I have the unenviable position of being every office position we have in the budget, including receptionist. If any of you believe corporate America has a wide, long roll of red tape, try getting decisions made when you are dealing with a very large non-government agency, coupled with the enormous paper trail required by US AID. I am still learning how to unravel the roll without getting the sticky all over my hands…….on the upside, the website did roll out and you can visit it at www.lifeworkspartnership.org

My weighbridge grocery store is also almost ready to go. The local lumberyard donated materials to build the racks and bins, a friend in the US has underwritten the start up equipment and the women have almost all their share of the cost for the inventory. Space is probably going to be donated until the group can afford to build or rent a duka in a high traffic area. The donated space is perfect to capture buyers from the weighbridge and the surrounding villages on both sides of the road. The women are feeling very proud of themselves.

The rainy season has begun. It turns out they are called the long rains because it can rain off and on all day for 3 months– torrents of rains. Rain hard enough to knock you down if you are standing out in it. Rain hard enough to wash away what little walk paths and byways we have in Mariakani. Rain hard enough to awaken long hibernating frogs and weird insects. Unfortunately, the rain is not hard enough to drive away the mosquitoes. The rain, of course, has produced more mosquitoes because of the standing water in ditches; which brings me to my love affair with my mosquito net.

My mosquito net is my protector. Some evenings I go to bed very early and curl up with a book and my trusty flashlight (a very good gift from my coworkers – no batteries required) just to escape the little bitsy biters. They are so small; they can come through the screens and do. My mosquito net also protects me from any other creepy, crawly thing that might pass through at night. Most people just let the net hang over the sides of the bed. Not me. I tuck it in all around my bed earnestly believing this process will keep any and all things off me. How surprised I am when something bites me or lands on me in the night. Usually ants are the culprit.

Those pesky ants continue to invade. Now, with the rains, there are 4 or 5 more varieties to deal with on a daily basis. The most annoying ones right now are the almost microscopic ones that bite. Some of them have taken residence up inside my laptop. Do you think spraying DOOM on my keyboard will have long term harmful effects?

The rains have made a lovely mess of our garbage, although it is hard to mess up garbage……. Garbage collection in rural Kenya is almost nonexistent. So, we pile it in heaps in the street, on grassy areas, next to homes or any where else someone wants to build a personal dump. The goats, chickens and cows eat some of it. Someone will occasionally burn a pile off, but mostly it just sits. That is until the rains come. Now it gets beat down and soggy. Even so, the high winds are still able to pick it up and blow it around. The rivers of water flowing through the town also carry it around and leave it where it may.

It seems the Kenya Posta flows slower than our teeming streets of water. A friend sent a Christmas package in November and I just got it at the end of April. It was a very nice surprise. She even sent along a hand crafted Ohio State Buckeye cowbell and some Junior Mints (or at least that is what the box said…..the mints were not in good shape….anyone remember the movie The Blob?). She also included giant size containers of hand sanitizer.

I do love the stuff, but with all your generous contributions, my house runneth over with hand sanitizer. I have enough for me for the next 18 months and have even helped out another PCV who is not as fortunate as I. So, do keep sending packages, just omit the hand sanitizer. And, keep praying for me. My son, John told me when he took me to the airport for my return flight, if I did not think this was all worth it; I should just come home for good. I have thought about that many times in the last few weeks. Worth is a relative term. It may not be worth it to me, or to him or to my grandbaby (I am missing all the “firsts” - she is sitting up now), yet I can see it is worth it to the people I am serving. And, it is a blessing to me that so many of you have chosen to be a part of this work through your prayers, support, encouragement and even those slow to arrive packages. Thank you.