Visiting Homes #3- Saturday

Saturday morning I went to my friend Juliet's house (I know her from the agroforestry project)- her husband is a lecturer at Moi university in Eldoret. I chatted with him about agriculture stuff (he is a crop physiologist) and also about ex-pats working for NGO's. He seemed to think that it would be very easy for me to get work here with my background if I just tried. Interesting. It's not as tempting now as it once was though, don't worry… J Juliet and her husband have one son (she said they are acting like mzungus by having only one child) and a really nice new ‘big’ house. They also have a brickyard for a backyard- they are trying to build an underground cellar in the pit that was created in their yard when all the bricks were made for their house.

After Juliet's I went to the house of a man named Kefa and met his wife and four kids as well as a neighbour boy who is 17 but they seem to care for. The definition of ‘my child’ here seems to be much more loose. Three of the kids were born to them and the eldest, a girl, was adopted last year from an AIDS orphanage. Both Kefa and his wife are HIV positive. They got pregnant with the last born son because they were told at that time only pregnant woman could get the ARV drugs. They have been on the drugs for two years and look completely healthy to me. They have a renewed vision on life and are working a lot with AIDS/HIV prevention and care in the community. They are also trying to build a home for AIDS orphans. Their backyard is full of bricks… I don’t know how many more they need to build, but soon they will fire them and start assembling them into a house for 8-10 children- and perhaps mothers too. They have a huge vision- and I think it will work. They will be looking for donors- first in their community- then overseas as well. They have said that if anyone from overseas would like to come and help they would be very welcome :) This family does not have much money- we ate very simply food- but their hearts are so warm. They have a cow for milk, but they don’t have water at their place at all. I was shocked to see how far the mama had to walk to get water… and what the terrain was like. She has to walk at least a kilometer, and then go down a VERY steep, long hill to get to the community source- a running stream- and then return, with a 10-litre plastic tub on her head full of water up that very steep hill again. When it is rainy season it must be treacherous!