Back home

After the usual trip back to Kosele from Kisumu, (good road, slightly worse road, good road, road from hell), we are back home in Kosele and ready to get going again. We picked up another visitor in Kisumu this morning; an old friend called Winnie who lived with us for the year that my family and I spent in Kenya when we first started the work ten years ago. Winnie and my daughter Ellie were close friends during that year and it is nice to have her with us again now. Ellie and her boyfriend Andy are still recovering from a long and frustrating flight to Kenya from the UK but should be better rested by the morning.

Our football team enjoyed another rewarding outing this afternoon, winning on penalties against a team from Kaditonge, (a nearby community). That makes it played three, lost none, won three to date. The penalty shoot out was, as on the previous occasion, a real nail biter. Our victory was sealed by another fantastic save from our goalkeeper Calvince. I think we are developing a reputation as the wrong team to go up against when it comes to penalties. Our supporters got right behind the team today and had a good time cheering the lads on. In true TIA, (this is Africa), fashion we arrived at the stadium a bit late. Play was stopped briefly by rain which created interesting conditions for the two teams once play resumed. About half of the lads on the pitch played in bare feet and we had some impressive slides and tumbles in the second half. I really don’t know how the lads manage to play at all with the minimal amount of proper soccer kit that they have. They fearlessly enter into crunching tackles and sprint the length of the pitch in pursuit of a long pass. I think the soles of their feet are made of a different kind of skin to mine.

Our head teacher Madam Nyangwe set off for a head teachers’ conference in Mombasa this afternoon. The conference programme looks very interesting and I am hoping that she comes back with some inspiring ideas to help us move our school forward. I am really pleased that she has been selected to attend this event. It should give her a real boost at a time when most teachers need it, about half way through the school year.

We will be continuing with one to one tuition for our older students this week, with Ellie and Andy augmenting Dan’s input. I know that Dan has really enjoyed the work that he has done with the students and I am hoping that we will be able to continue with this approach to reinforcing the children’s learning in the future. Having the luxury of extra hands on deck to work with the children on a more personal level gives us a very powerful tool for helping them to improve. More teaching volunteers would be most welcome.

I’m not sure how well the ‘day of rest’ project will go tomorrow. There’s always so much to do. However it goes I am, as our church members would say, “Grateful to God for bringing us this far”.