Everything happens eventually

Today there has been very little rain so we have had a chance to dry out a little. Our school field looks a bit less like a mud bath now. The bank came though with the money, (see last night's post), so we were able to pay the man from the borehole company to arrange a visit to service our control panel. Quite when he will turn up is open to speculation but we are hoping that it will be tomorrow. As This Is Africa, (TIA), I'm trying to develop an approach to timing that is kinder to my blood pressure so am working hard at not fretting too much over the situation. We do have lots of water so it's not the end of the world if the borehole is not serviced until the beginning of next week.

A new team of visitors arrived today, (eventually). They had an early introduction to “African Time” as their flight from Nairobi to Kisumu, (the nearest airport to our place), was delayed for two hours. They finally arrived in Kosele at about five thirty pm to a rousing welcome from our children. It's the first time I've seen them do a conga style handshake as part of the welcoming visitors song. It was very funny.

The next four weeks look like being very busy. Our visitors are all up for helping in whatever way they can. Two of the guys, Alex and Peter, have brought touch rugby equipment with them and will be coaching the children. This will be a completely new activity for all of them and I can't wait to see what they make of it. It probably won't do any harm to tell them a bit about the Kenyan 7s rugby team, who are competitors on the world stage. It would be great to sow the seeds of a new generation of players in our school. We are also looking forward to some intensive coaching, especially in maths, for some of our older pupils and students in the agriculture college as well as art and crafts sessions for the younger children.

My daughter Ellie and her boyfriend Andy will be joining us half way through July and will add to the mix of activities for the children. Ellie is keen to do some basic self-defence sessions with the girls. We are really keen to do our bit towards improving the life chances of young women. Girls and women have a very tough time in a community like ours. The daily grind of keeping a home, feeding a family and simply staying safe in the community present challenges that would make most of us in Western countries despair. A few self defence skills and a good education won't guarantee our girls a brighter future but should give them a decent head start.