Day 6 Kakamega May 14, 2011

Hi all

Going to try and slow it down a bit.  This morning Bishop Hezron took me to meet with the widows group here in Kakamega.  The widows have 45 members with a Chairlady, Secretary, and Treasurer that oversee their bank account and certified registration requirements with the Ministry of Culture and Social Services.  I am not sure what that means but it did sound important.  The widows meet every week on Tuesdays.  In attendance were about a dozen members of the group, six local pastors including our host John Imala of Berith Life Church here in Kakamega.  Also in attendance was Liydia Barasa who is helping the widows in the area of project management.  The widows mentor Kakamega City Councilwomen Biana Andabwa joined us about half way through the presentation as she had some prior campaign commitments to attend.  Below is a short video that Aaron shot of the widow’s group singing during our last visit with them a year ago.  The widows love to sing.  They sang 5 times today.  On the left is the City Councilor Biana.  Thanks Aaron for the great shot.

In the year and three months since I have last seen the group they have continued to make and sell soap along with cow dung/leaf charcoal door to door.  They have expanded their farming by adding other plots to grow maize and beans.  In addition to those group projects many of the women have single person operations that they operate by themselves to help with their support.  One of these singular projects is the yogurt project.  It was started by one of the men in the group.  I am not sure but I think he is the only man in the group.  I was unable to meet him since he is laid up in the hospital and will be for another week or so.

We spent most of the afternoon going over the requirements of getting the yogurt out of the kitchen selling to just a few people to adding it to their existing door to door sales.  Liydia spent some time on what will be easy to come by and what will not be so easy to come by.  Within the next couple of weeks we will be researching the costs to make this project happen.  Most of the initial cost will be the machine to make the yogurt and a power source.  I knew they had power nearby.  But what I did not realize was that it can take over a year to get power ran from the pole that is on the property to the building.  I should have taken a picture the power run is less then 30 feet.  I guess customer service is nil in Kenya.  In the states the power company is responsible to supply power and pay to the meter.  Here in Kenya the consumer is responsible for the connection from the pole to the meter as well as from the meter into the building.  Not only do you have to pay for the connection you have to pay 35,000 Ksh (80 Ksh = $1) in advance.  No wonder only 15% of Kenya is electrified.  Most Kenyan’s barely make 35,000 Ksh a year and if they did it they would not eat for a year.  There must be some sort of payment plan available?  I will be working with Liydia off and on during the next nine weeks to get this moving. 

In the morning it is off to Makanda for church services, look at a new nursery that Hezron has built in the community, and see the progress of the Freedom Ministries Headquarters.  During the last visit all that had been completed were the digging of the foundation and the digging and capping of the toilet pits.         

Take care and God bless

Dave