Progress Report

“All things are made possible with hard work, perseverance, patience and cold Guinness” Proverbs B:B

We are happy to report that the school building project is going great. Two new permanent classrooms are built. Tables, desks and chairs are filling the empty rooms as well as color posters and learning tools. The dining hall/community center and kitchen are still under construction.
Two new latrines are finished and help improve some of the health and sanitation problems that exist in the village. School has resumed with a lunch program that now feeds 50-60 malnourished children and the student enrollment is climbing each week. The school compound sings out children’s laughter, song, dance and continuous play. In the afternoon, the classes fill with adults who are learning to hold a pencil, read & write, take care of their family and practice commerce. A positive air is blowing through the village.

Upon arrival we had assessed the village and its troubles, seeing a huge dysfunctional crisis with unemployed adults, political tensions with conflicting tribes and un-stimulated children living and schooling in dirty and unsanitary conditions.
We vowed to start anew with providing a safe, clean and stable learning environment for the children. Positive motion has now paved the way for unexpected progress. The adult education classes have expanded to 5 days a week including literacy, a small soap making business and English classes that I am teaching. They are all learning to work together through experience, despite their differences in religion, tribe, age, sex and educational background.


We are also excited that our friends Ami and Arden from the US, have just arrived bringing supplies, to offer art classes. For the next 6 weeks, the Amani School Children will have art/crafts incorporated into their curriculum and Art Workshops will be available to the village on Saturdays.


Some of our best news included a visit from the Bouter family in Holland. They have pledged to finance the building supplies to double the construction project and pay for one year of lunch food for the school children. We are now drawing up plans to add more classrooms, and started digging a well on site. We also contacted a local doctor who has agreed to provide free medical treatment to stabilize the school children’s health. It is all fantastic news for the village of Maweni!

However this expensive, demanding, volunteer workload has just doubled for us. (Personally we had visions of starting the New Year on a beach in Thailand, swinging from a hammock trying to remember an easy, stress free, life.) Instead, we have cancelled those plans and decided to extend our stay in Kenya for two more months.
To see…‘The winds of change’ circle through this little piece of the world.

It was not a difficult decision to make, as it has become impossible to deny these people an opportunity to have a hand in brining their country out of poverty. We can not deny people who want and deserve a better life and are willing to work for it. We can not deny people who want and need change. Our sacrifice is minimal to the overall gain in, raising a village.