Today will be a hard act to follow. We were given an incredibly warm welcome at Rabuor, and an introduction to African culture that I'll never forget. Dawnson Owuor, a full-time employee of Rabuor Village Project, met us in Kisumu and escorted us to Rabuor, which is difficult to find. It took about 40 minutes: 20 minutes on an asphalt road that we would think poorly maintained, and 20 minutes on a dirt road that was difficult to drive even when dry.
Once at Rabuor, about 50 members of the Rabuor Women's Group greeted us with singing and dancing, and then they were joined by a swarm of small children from the nursery school, laughing and clapping. After a prayer, official welcome and introductions to the key players in Rabuor, we toured the school and had more singing and recitations by the children. These kids are under 7, and there are about 150 of them; 3/4 are orphans, and the rest pay a small monthly stipend (<$1) to attend. They sang several songs in English ("I'm a little teapot") and several of the more brave recited poems, most of which had a religious base. The school is a spotless, well-kept building with two classrooms, a small pharmacy (just launched), an office, storeroom, and kitchen. The kitchen includes 3 energy-efficient wood-burning stoves which were donated by Slum Doctors.
After touring the school, we took a walking tour where we saw a field of sunflowers (part of our project), and a location where members of the Rabuor Youth Group make adobe-like bricks by hand. We also saw the foundation for a storage building to hold the sunflower oil press, the oil, the seeds, and quarters for the night watchman who will watch over the building's contents. The proposal we funded included 22,000 kenyan schillings for this building, but that would only have built a 10x10 hut. Seattle-based Rabuor Village Project coughed up enough extra money to expand it significantly. We ended our walk at Loyce's parents' homestead, a compound that contains 5-6 small huts. We were served an abundant lunch inside the main house, where we sat at the table and the rest of our entourage and the family sat in the sitting area. After lunch, we toured the homestead, seeing one of the hybrid goats ("diel"), the chickens, cows, and sunflowers being dried and the seeds extracted. We saw three bags of seeds that have come from the first crop. Dawnson told us that approximately 40 acres of sunflowers are being cultivated, by the 29 women who signed up after they were told about the project. Some of the youth group (age 18-25) are helping to train the women and in some cases helping prepare and plan the fields. Now that the project is showing results, many other women who were originally skeptical are now wanting to participate. The storage building is scheduled for completion in a month, and they will start producing oil at that time. They've already done some marketing, and they have already got orders from some of the surrounding schools to supply them with oil.
They have not yet purchased the goats, but will have them by the end of the month: 2 bucks and 4 pregnant does. Rosemell (Loyce's mom) has had her example goat for about 9 months, and it has already fathered one mixed-breed goat. These goats are preferable to the local goats because they grow bigger, have more meat, and are resistant to illness.
We returned to the meeting area, where we had a ceremonial meeting. There were formal thanks from village spokespeople, then we told Pangea's story and thanked them for their welcome. We presented the gifts we brought (40 plates and 50 spoons for the nursery school, and a journal for Rosemell to keep group records in), which were graciously received. The Youth Group told us about their origin and goals, and performed a couple of HIV/AIDS awareness skits for us. These young men are amazing...they were quite and retiring when introducing themselves, but then started their act and were dynamic and charismatic. Next, Rosemell told the story of the Rabuor Women's Group, which started in 1973 and grew very slowly until HIV/AIDS started threatening the community. Next, five representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture were introduced and talked about how they collaborate with local villages and international partners. (It seemed to us that Rabuor was doing well without their help, and we weren't sure that bringing their attention to Rabuor was a good thing.) Finally, the pastor of the Rabuor Church gave a farewell prayer.
We had been supposed to have tea at Rosemell's before leaving, but all of a sudden it started to rain. And when it rains in Kenya, it really rains. Our driver came running and said we had to leave right away or we wouldn't be able to get through the worst parts of the dirt road. We said our goodbyes hastily, and jumped into the van. The ride back to the main road was harrowing...it was difficult to see and the road in some places had become a stream. At one point, we got stuck and were afraid we were high-centered on a rock, but Kennedy finally got us moving again.
All in all, today was a wonderful adventure. I can only hope the next few days will be half as good.
Love to all,
The Travelers
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