1. a fundee (tradesperson) building a stone house around a mud hut. It's a neat idea as he uses the old roof. Keeps the mud walls in tact until the new walls are up. Then they remove the mud walls. Another thing that's neat is he's using rocks from the surrounding area and breaking them to fit.
2. Some pics of the training of the Oxens that we got for our Oxens and Plow Project. These oxens aren't super big like I imagine as they bought younger ones so they would last longer. So having decided on this there is a little more training to do. You can't just hook up the oxens and expect them to work. They have to get each other and be friends (humans get to know each other and then work together so why shouldn't oxens). I helped keeping the oxens in a line and it was a bit of a gas. It was like being in a rodeo when I got to whip them to get their attention. Then they tried to shed their yokes so they'd get all twisted around. So I grabbed hold of either the oxen or yoke and pulled or twisted to get them back in line. The Kenyan guys would pull their tails at times but I gave that a pass as I knew how lethal it can be hanging around that end as I'd rather take my chances with their head. So you can say training them is Like a Crap Shoot!
3. Pic of the Obambo Market place before the ladies brought their goods to sell. By the way a lot of the men here in Kenya are about as well trained as the oxens and work even less (like some back home too). The women do most of the work. While the men go to town to look for jobs (or so they say) carrouse with some lady folks and bring home whatever back to their wives.
4. Pic of a lady at the Obambo Market cooking some Nile Perch on a Jiko and another of Tilapia being cooked at our house on a Jiko. The Talapia fish is so delicious to eat as I find it one of my favorite food here. The Nile Perch is also good eating but having ate as much of it. The Jiko is the main means people use to cook both outside and moved in their hut if it rains. It kind of reminds me of the old habachi's that people used to bbq on back home years ago. These Jiko's are made of cast iron with some type of baked mud coating on the inside to keep the heat in and keep the cast iron from breaking down from the heat.
5. Pic of a huge papa ea which are grown here, as you can see from my hand they are huge but delicious.
6. Pic of the Obambo Secondary school where I've setup the Computer Resource Center. This Secondary School has a good reputation in the surrounding area. They also have boys and girls domitories as they expect the kids to concentrate on their studies. Where if they go home at nights their parents will have them do farm work or get water. It's very expensive for the students to go to Secondary School as the parents have to pay with no support from the government which makes me mad! This is while the MP's in Kenya are the highest paid MP"s in the world according to what was stated on TV. Katy and Jessica are going to start interviewing widows and other parents to maybe set up a Bursary program back home to support some of these kids so they can complete their high school. The sad thing is the kids complete their high school and go to college if they can afford it. Then there aren't enough jobs for people that graduate. Maybe not much different than back home for some graduates. However a big difference is that people have to pay to get a job here. It can be up to 70.000 KS ($1000) for police or military jobs which is a kings ransom here or back home for a new graduate. This corruption has to stop or this country is not going anywhere. We were told that things are getting to the point now where young people (without jobs) hold up buses and steal everything from the passengers. It's not safe to walk down some street of Nairobi or you'll get robbed.
Also there are sort of like the Kenyan mafia operating in certain areas. They extort businesses for protection money they are so getting desperate! They don't let the Mutatu's leave as they want to get a cut of the money as they say they load passengers on the mutatu's (minibuses). They don't understand that people don't need to put them on the bus as they know which bus to catch but the Touts as they're called want a cut or there's a big argument. This stuff goes on everytime I catch a matatu so it's a real pain and takes 20 mins extra to get going some times from town to back to the village. While it's still strange that there are still a lot of locals in the bar (down stairs from this internet cafe) drinking and watching the English football (soccer) match. Don't know how they can afford it. But there are a lot of English people there too watching the game. There's alos a bar at the Obambo Market where I see a few men drinking. Yesterday I was walking by the Obambo Secondary and there was this older guy laying in the dirt in the hot sun. I thought he had a heartattack or something but he was just drunk! Drunkness is not a real big issue here but I guess Grass among the young is pretty high! Haven't had the luck of running into any yet! Actually I wouldn't participate as I have to set an example here I suppose!
7. A pic of Angus's Special Ed class at the Obambo Primary School. Some of these kids are actually in need of Special Ed type class. But no one wanted to teach so Angus offerred to give it a try. A sad thing he told us is that some parents feel that some sicknesses are contagious. He told me the parents think that Ellipesy is contagious. The parents must tell this to the kids because none of them want to help them out! It's sad and unfortunate that these kids are put in the Special Needs class which has no real teacher.
8. Had to take this pic of a young village girl hauling wood for her parents. Most of these kids work hard to help their parents. Even at the school the prinicipal tells the kids to haul the desks outside under the tree so we can have a meeting. The kids do it without saying a thing. Need some Kenyan obedience at some schools back home. Heck I could have used a lot of it when I was in school.
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