What we've been up to in Kenya

The last four weeks have been a whirlwind of Kenyan chaos & adventure!

When we left Wales 4 weeks ago we thought it was going to be manic knowing that we would be helping out with opening wells & setting up a goat bank on the West side of Kenya (see my last blog to read all about it); preparing everything for a UK Young Life team to come & help us build on the East side of Kenya near the coast & trying to catch up with friends in Nairobi in between-it definitely met our expectations!! But it was so worth it!

So, here's how things went...

Friends from around Kenya & a team from Uganda were awesome enough to come & help out with building as well as Maria & Lionece who came to Kenya with us a couple of weeks before we started. We all made our way to the school that was accommodating us & started to get to know one another. Meanwhile the UK team took 2 days to travel from Pembrokeshire all the way to our piece of land. After getting their arrival times confused they missed the (clean & efficient) train & had to take the (crazy) night bus to the coast. Knowing they'd be stinky, tired & hungry I arranged breakfast to be ready for them & let everyone know they could rest at the school for the morning & we'd all go to the plot in the afternoon. However after breakfast & a bucket 'shower' everyone just wanted to get to the land & start digging-what champs! And so the work began...here's a few pics of what we started with.

By day 3 we had done lots of digging but the land still wasn't even. But we had bigger problems than that: the 2 shipping containers which were going to be a major part of the building weren't close enough to where they needed to be & they were the wrong way around: on their sides. The lorry that had delivered them a week earlier didn't have a crane so they'd tried a rope to a tree, attached it to the container & then driven until it came off! We couldn't get a crane either so to turn the containers around & move them we had to use a bulldozer-it was crazy to watch!

Now that we had the containers in the right places people got to work on different things & over the last week the containers have been de-rusted, primed & welded. Others got to work on the wall that is between the containers to make a hall. In the last couple of days we managed to get most of the rust off, build the walls up to window height & get the ground relatively level. On the last day we planted fruit trees which the community will benefit from & had a celebration with all the locals invited too.

Amidst the chaos we had opportunities to get to know some of the people who live in the surrounding area, especially the women and children.  This was great seeing as their the ones we're going to be working with once everything's ready.

After all the fun & hard work it was time to say goodbye to the UK team and most of the Kenyans.  Bill (the guy in charge of the building bit), the guys from Uganda and a couple of Kenyans decided to be amazing and stayed to finish off what they could & some of them are still there now putting on the roof.  These are some of the latest pics of how far they've got.

THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!

A massive massive THANK YOU to all of you who helped in one way or another to help us get this far!  We're amazed at how much we've been able to do in such a short space of time and it's thanks to God's grace through you that's made it possible.

We'll keep on putting up updates of the progress so keep your eye out on our Facebook page (Love your Neighbour) or message me your e-mail address if you want to receive our newsletters.  And if you want to get involved in our next trip don't hesitate to get in touch