Update on Travels and Experiences

Hello everyone back in Canada.  Wishing you all a Happy Belated Canada Day!  Hope all is well.
Here are some more pics from our journey.  Living here is an experience that sadly and happily will soon be coming to an end.  Alex and I will be returning to Canada towards the end of August beginning of September with Lori following in roughly two months.

 I thought I would send some pics of Alex's last school we tried in Eldoret.  This one is called the Lions School and promises that it too does not hit the kids.  Wrong!

 So I started home schooling Alex and things have gone fairly well.  I am the teacher, Alex is the student and Mommy is the Boss.  We try to follow the Canadian curriculum as best as possible.

I wish there was an International School in Eldoret as it would most likely help with attracting more "mature" staff to AMPATH and most likely aid in retaining staff within their structure for longer periods of time.

 This is raw sewage heaving out from overflow after heavy rains.  It follows along Alex's training route for his Tia Kwan Doe

 This is also part of Alex's training route.  I was very proud of my boy as he has obtained his 7th level yellow belt.  We plan to continue on with his training when we return to Canada.

 Dad with his new dog "Sophie" who Lori found somewhere out in some farmland.  The animal was starving so we adopted it.

 The dog has grown well and some locals say that the animal has hit the "Mazungu Jackpot" as she will accompany us back to Canada.

 Mom loves her new daughter too....

Kitale is a small town about two hours from Eldoret.  It has a kind of Disney Land combination conservation park, combination research center, combination religious experience.  It's kind of hard to explain but it was certainly something to see!

Please follow along!!!

 This was pretty good to take a crap in!

 Again, one of the better wee pee places!

 Gorgeous wife.

 Husband bribing Police Officer.  (A standard practice)

 Our tour guide for the nature walk.

 Baby Baboon.  Mother most likely killed.

 OK this is where it got most interesting.  We rounded the corner with our guide and there were all these sculptures from the early times of Christ.

 Ascending...

 Flood is coming...

 A gilded Jesus...and much, much more.

 Then we escaped the Wrath of God and finally got on with our nature walk.  Albeit, it was kind of neat.

 Alex and our driver Andrew's son Ronnie.

Pretty flowers.

 Now we got into the deformed animal area where the conservatory/shelter takes in animals that have defects due to pesticides and the like.

 A three legged goat.

 A hot chick.

 A carpenter.

 Much adored in Kenya as this is where the mans father is from.

 More pretty flowers.

 Cow with genetic problems.

 Back legs did not form.  The animal appears to be coping well.

 Action Shot.  Our driver Andres tried to pet this full grown but midget bull.  The bull did not like Andrew and tried to horn him.  Near miss!  God did we laugh.

 Kind of a cyst.  The tribes in the area will bring the animals here because they themselves believe that evil spirits have infected the deformed ones.

 This one had an ear growing on its back.

 No, the ear does not work!

 Sheep with no back legs.  I did not like this one and felt this animal should be put down.

 Sheep with many limbs.

 Cow with three eyes, four horns and a deformed mouth but was doing ok.

 Short trip to our driver Andrew's Mom to meet her.

 Andrews Mom was 72 and cares for one of Andrew's brothers kids.

I liked this old woman.  She had lines on her face that shows her worth and when she smiled it was as if they seemed to melt away.

We are safe for today.  Traveling to the Savannah tomorrow to see the Big Five....then to Rwanda via Uganda.

 Back alley off the market in Eldoret.

 This is what really pisses me off about the corruption and exploitation by the government.  Two very young boys eating thrown away fruit by the market area.

 These are some of the cabinet units I am building for the Moi Hospital.

 These units are being installed in a children's play/activity area we are working on.  When mommies come for surgery they are in almost all cases required to bring their children.  The children have no place else to go as the men will usually not care for them and/or are absent.

 The room once complete gives the children a place to come while the Moms are recovering.  The play room will be staffed by a "Baba" and will have books and toys!


Total cost is about $5,000.00 Canadian donated by Back to Basics Carpentry and the Siddall family.

 Every once in awhile the Creator puts some good people in front of you.  My wife works with this fellow Jacob and we met his family last week.
The family lives way outside Eldoret where there are no schools to speak of that teach to young ones.
We stopped by Jacob's land on the way out to his parents land where a private school is operated by Jacob's mother, who is in her 70's.  Jacob's mother had ten children who all completed University and two of them are now pursuing their Masters!

After some talk and viewing the current school Lori and I have agreed to help in fund raising and building a new school (Jacob's father has donated 3 acres of his land for the school)
Half of the children in the area have no parents because they have died from AIDS.  The remaining half are very poor and can not afford regular tuition fees and certainly can not afford to travel to the Eldoret area to attend school.

 This is the current school rooms run by Mother Jacob and partially funded by tuition fees and Papa Jacob.

 Now I am not a hugely outward emotional man but I had a really hard time not crying when I saw this class room and meeting a few orphaned children hanging around the area...

 Currently Mother Jacob and a few other teachers struggle to teach about 100 children in the area...

 This is the school from the outside

 This is the bathroom for the children. 

 We were invited into Jacobs' parents home for food and the initial meeting.

 The local chief and some elders were present along with some of Jacobs' family.

 Ales with the local Chief (rt) and Jacob's father on the left.  Jacob's father who is in his mid 80's recently lost his left leg due to complications with diabetes.  He is an impressive man who is struggling to help his wife keep the school going to help local kids get an education.  There is no government aid for these people.

 An honor to be given a gift by Mama Jacob.

 Same with my beautiful wife!  Smiles all around and a lot of hope!

 Even Alex was given a gift although I am not quite sure what he thought of it.  It's not candy you know!!!

 Now I have to hand it to my wife as she has an uncanny affinity to bond with other strong women who care and who have that unquestionable inner strength.

 These are the last group photos (after a lot of speeches as this is the way here) as we left Mama and Papa's farm land.
We now work on funding proposal to include capital and operational expenses.

 If it all works out well I have agreed to come back in about one year to help build the new school.  Lori would come back once I completed my work and implement budgets, balances and controls....this was special.