Here’s an update on some of the local and Project news items.

Wilson

Wilson, the young man who is the first person I hired here and who used to live on and manage the property and oversee the work there is now in his second semester at Moi University, and has been accepted into the School of Medicine there. His considerable fees for tuition, living expenses, books, etc. are being met through the the generosity of an RROP donor couple. He visited me a few weeks ago and we had a great reunion. He has applied the same determination and energy to his studies that he did when he was planting trees and putting up the eight acre perimeter fence (still the finest and strongest fence in the area) and chasing hyenas off the property.
Wilson on the property, Halloween last year.

Here are a couple of recent Email excerpts from him:

“At first, dissecting was so scary and I didn’t believe that actually God made us
in the same way, I would go round watching other cadavour specimens to make sure that really they were similar and I was amazed to learn that really they are, I have grown to love anatomy as I’m discovering ourself, I’m glad that I’m a vegetarian.”

Wilson and Gabe squeezing through the keyhole into cyberspace.

“…I am writing to say thank very much for your help David. You have really put me in a safe state for I have already settled school fees for this semester. I’m feeling so relieved for as some of my fellow college mates are struggling with the settling of school fees I am busy working on my objectives for this term.”

“…Thank you very much and may the almighty God bless all the works of your hands abundantly. You have really uplifted me since I met you. Be blessed!”

“…I’ll forever live to cherish your heartful help, and from you I’m learning a lot of lessons; be forever blessed.”
Yours thankfully
Wilson

And of course when Wilson is thanking me, he is thanking us, you, everyone who is helping to make the project, and so, his education, possible. So thanks, all of you.

Mary

Most of you by now know Mary from Springs of Hope, her center for rescued babies in Machakos, either from seeing her on the DVD or reading about my and Gabe’s visits there.

Mary with some of her rescued children.

Gabe at Mary’s doing one of the things he does best.

Mary has had a very difficult time the last several months, struggling financially as well as in other ways. When I returned to Kenya, just before Easter, we talked long and seriously about our respective visions for the work, which in every important way are exactly parallel. She and I, and her project and our project have been brought together in a way that is bound by common purpose and uncommon trust.

The end result of our discussion and many discussions with Greg is a commitment to work together, to become partners in our efforts. Mary’s kids have become our kids. Not just in the sense that they will eventually come and live at our children’s home when they are five years old or so, but right now, when they need our help as badly as they will later on. We will help to manage the financial burden that has often been crushing for Mary and her family, and will do our best to insure that the work will not only continue, but flourish.

Our obligation begins and ends with our word to her. We are in the process of deciding the best way to put shoe leather to our plan, and we will have something finalized in the next couple of weeks to share with you.

We don’t want him ever to have to go it alone.

Christian

I met a Dutch man here, Christian, through a mutual friend. He owns a very large farming concern here and exports vegetables and some fruits by air freight to Western Europe. We are working out the final details of an arrangement which will deliver once a week a ton or so of fresh produce to Machakos, where it will be distributed through an already established network, with Mary at the hub, to about a thousand orphans living in the area. When I get a pick up truck, hopefully very soon, we will be able to increase the deliveries to twice a week. This will go long way to giving these orphans a reliable, nutritious food source.

Monte

Monte Macias, a former student (St. Mary’s ‘92) and good friend of mine is here to work on the project for a couple of months. Like the pilgrim of the Commedia, he is thirty three and nel mezzo cammin. He is smart and serious and funny. He has come to help and to see what is there in the helping. He is very good company and by his presence has eased me out of my too often solitary ways here. I am very lucky to have him here and grateful for his presence. Most importantly…he is a fine basketball player.

Here’s Monte in Uhuru Park in Nairobi, at the beginning of the great pickup truck search.

Trip

Gilbert has built a small chicken house, reminiscent of the drift wood sculptures that used to liven up the Emoryville mud flats.

We have a dozen or so chickens and have rented the services of Joyce’s rooster for a week to perk up our egg production.

The big boy himself

This is preparatory to our raising free range chickens in quantity for sale to local restaurants. Trip, our faithful, if off kilter, dog, ate one of the chickens. Fearing the inexorable rising of blood lust in her veins, I sat her down, looked hard at her and quoted the portentous last line of Rilke’s poem “Archaic Torso of Apollo” to her…”You must change your life.” Trip returned my gaze but held her own counsel.

Trip the chicken killer and the new guy, Mohawk.

The very first eggs.

Gilbert

Gilbert, who lives on the property and manages the work crew, is getting married in May, to Mildred, his fiancee. Gilbert will go back home for about a week and a half, and have a memorial service for his mother who died last year, and then have the wedding ceremony. We are giving him as a wedding gift one of the cows he will present to Mildred’s parents as part of the marriage contract.

Gilbert, the fence builder, the groom.

Yours truly before Stanley the barber got a hold of me again, signing off for now.

I will be making shorter more frequent entries to try to keep you updated until our new website is up and operational. It has eluded capture so far, and is still running loose somewhere out there. So brace yourself.

Your pal in Kenya,

David

PS Tell my daughters to email me

PPS I sent out an email to everyone on my list a couple of weeks ago and that would have missed many of you. I’ll include it here. Same offer. If you’re in, you get a jersey and some playing time.

Hello again,

It seems to me a good idea to coordinate the efforts made by those of you who pray for the project or who would like to start. I’ll make an email list of only those who ask to be on it, and send a weekly note of specific things to pray for and will update the progress on those items in subsequent weeks. We’ve got other teams working on stuff for the project, none more important than this.

So, if you want to really help, and you pray, this is the horse to ride.

I’ll compose the list on May 14th. (Date extended now) If you email me at dwsaunders@gmail.com before then…you’re in.

Lots of love from Kenya,

David

Posted on May 28th, 2007 by david
Filed under: David's Journal