Video on YouTube

One of our many projects in Kenya was to make a vegetable plot for the Twiga kids (orphaned and abandoned children). This we have now done, or rather, the kids did it under our supervision, and to find more enthusiasm would be difficult!

Many photos and some video were taken and have been compiled into a video, posted on YouTube.

Take a look here

Catch-up

I have just spent a few weeks at Kisii, with a few visits to the site that will, one day, be the site of our orphanage.

At the moment, it is just a plot on the wooded side of a hill, very pleasant, with a little hut on the site. This will serve as the start of our project to build a home for about 40 to 50 children in need. We presently have 37 children on the register, but not all need residential help.

But, as ever with children, our first priority is food. So we have prepared an area of our land for growing vegetables. I say we, the kids did most of the hard work, and I have never seen so much enthusiasm, bearing in mind that some of these children have to cultivate their own little plots to grow their food just to survive.

Over the space of one weekend, a couple of hours each day, the plot was cleared of weed, tilled, and sifted by hand. Then seeds for nine different vegetables were sowed.

The following weekend, we visited the site, hoping that the seed had sprouted and we were not disappointed. We also sowed the seed from a butternut squash on this second weekend and I have been told that they have also taken.

The kids then built a fence around the seed beds to protect their seedlings from marauding chickens, goats, etc.

Since I have returned to the UK, I have been told that the butternut squash has sprouted and the other seedlings are being transplanted to grow.

So, phase 1 of our children's home project is off the ground, or rather, in the ground.

Now we need to rasie the money to build the residential block.

Twiga Children's Centre

On my recent trip to Kisii, I visited the houses where some of our kids live.

Aloys (13) and Nyachuba (10)

These brave kids lost their mother a while ago. Their father remarried and moved out of the area, leaving them to fend for themselves.

They live in a two-room hut, living room and bedrom. Thre is a smaller hut which serves as the kitchen.

Aloys, the boy in this pair, milks his cow and sells the milk to buy food for the two of them. He cooks over an open grate in the kitchen. There are few utensils and some of those he has, he made himslf.

Both children attend school, and despite their desparately hard life, they both attain good marks.

Aloys, at 13 years old, has to act as father and mother to Nyachuba, administering medication if she needs it, etc.

I was astounded, when he was at the centre, preparing the soil for the vegetable patch. He was the hardest worker there. He stripped off his shirt and his hard life can be seen in his thin, sinewy body. He has muscles that many twice his age could only dream of.

But why should a kid have to work so hard that he has the body of a fully developed athlete?

Both kids are very cheerful, always helpful and rarely without a smile. In the case of Aloys, he also has a very cheeky disposition.

Their dream? To help build the Twiga centre so that they can move in and enjoy a little comfort.

Edwin (14) and Dennis (12)

Cousins to Aloys and Nyachuba, these brothers had a similar fate when their mother died. Luckily, they have an older sister who took them in, despite the fact that she is a teeneage single mother of two very small children.

Edwin is open, cheerful, helpful, and ready for hard work. Dennis is more withdrawn, but once he comes out of his shell, his rare smile lights up his usually serious face.

Edwin and Dennis put in more than their fair share of work to prepare the vegetable plot, working very hard to clear the weeds, prepare the soil and build the animal-proof fence.

They also want to help to build the Twiga centre so that they can move in and benefit.