Power ... or the Lack of

It is difficult to blog when the power keeps cutting off, or the Internet connection fails ... or both.

This visit seems to have been blighted with more than the usual number of power cuts and in the last two days, we have had no power at all during  the day.

On both days, the power came on at about 6pm, but yesterday, it went off again within 30 minutes and it took an age for the standby generator to kick in.

This evening, we have been lucky. The power came on and, apart from a slight glitch, has stayed on, meaning that I have been able to receive the 100 or so junk emails that have been waiting to fill my in box.

We at Twiga have been told that one of our children has to attend court in Kajiado tomorrow. This town is about 450 km from Kisii and there is no direct bus route, so we have been forced to hire a car, which means that both Vincent and I have to go as Vincent does not drive. Vincent has spent most of the afternoon haggling for the best price for a car and I think he has got a good deal, especially as I have had to send an email to the UK for funds to be sent out and with the lack of power (and therefore emails), this has been difficult. We should receive the funds tomorrow while we are en route.

Surprisingly, my Garmin satnav found Kajiado with no problem and even plotted a route although I know it is not the quickest or shortest. Still, it is quite something for a bottom-of-the-range satnav with no added maps to be able to plot anything in Kenya. I am impressed. We shall see just how good it is tomorrow!

It will be an early start tomorrow - 6am - and of course, the younger kids here are playing up and refusing to go to sleep tonight, which is keeping yours truly up.

Oh well, that's life.

Meet Simon ...

At the Twiga Children's Centre

Home Alone ...

of some of the kids in Kisii.

Malaria and the Senses

This blog is categorised as "Curiosity in a field I know nothing about"

As my regular readers will know, we have a deaf child at the Twiga Centre, Simon, who is around 8 years old. As a baby of about 5 months, he contracted malaria and as a result [?] became deaf. Consequently, he has never learned to talk.

While I am wasting away in the UK, I am looking for ways that we may be able to help Simon; top of the list is to see if he responds to hearing aids, and I have received several from well-wishers.

But, my curiosity is asking me questions that I cannot answer. Why does malaria affect hearing (or sight, come to that)? Does it attack the mechanical bits in the ear itself, does it damage the nerves between the ear and the brain, or dies it damage the brain itself? Or, is there no one cause of deafness after malaria?

Having no knowledge of medical matters, tropical diseases and their effects, or the workings of the brain, I set about trying to work this out logically.

I only know of two people who have had adverse effects to their senses after contracting malaria, Simon, who has lost his hearing, and a Twitter friend, whose sight was severely affected after contracting the disease.

As far as I know, sight and hearing are not connected, so it would seem logical that it is a part of the brain that is affected by the illness rather than the primary organs themselves.

If this is the case, will a hearing aid help Simon? Is there any treatment, however intrusive, that could restore his hearing? I need to know.

So, I put out a plea to the doctors and hearing specialists who read blogs, who Tweet, or who stumble over this blog by other means Please can you satisfy my curiosity and possibly help this boy to regain some form of hearing, and eventually the ability to talk.

I've got a GPS!

I acquired a satnav or GPS at Christmas. I wanted a particular make, apparently the only make that is compatible with a South African digital map organisation, T4A, which is steadily mapping the whole of Africa, but this make is more expensive than the others, so I was forced to get the base model – no matter.

So I happily played around with it, pressing the various touch-screen buttons, and then eventually read some of the user manual. This is my usual practice, reading the manual after playing with a gadget. That is, if I ever read the manual at all.

Anyway, this satnav has a facility to enter a place by its longitude and latitude coordinates.

‘Oh what fun,’ I thought, being a bit of a nerd when it comes to playing with gadgets.

I opened up GoogleEarth on my computer and found the coordinates for the main junction in Kisii, called, funnily enough, the Junction.

I pumped the coordinates into the satnav. It thought for a while and then invited me to either look at the map or start my journey. I was a little surprised.

I elected to look at the map and, to my astonishment, it showed the confluence of the A1 and B3 roads in Kisii.

‘OK,’ I thought, if you are so clever, plan me the route!

The savnav thought for quite a long time before announcing that the route was 6,392 miles and would take 127 hours and 44 minutes. It displayed a map comprising Europe and most of Africa with a magenta line wiggling across it. I was astounded. I checked the system set-up which confirmed that the only maps loaded were for UK and Northern Ireland.

The next thing for a nerd to do would be to check the route. It took me through Europe to Istanbul, Turkey, on to Ankara, then Damascus. This is where it got a bit fuzzy, through Jordan and into Israel.

From there it took me down the west bank of the Red Sea, traversing Egypt north-south, into Sudan, Ethiopia, and then Kenya, where I started to recognise town names, Marsabit, Isiolo, Nanyuki, Nakuru, Kericho and finally, Kisii.

To me, this was impressive. I saved the coordinates for Kisii Junction and wondered what other places I should put in.

I eventually decided to enter the salient points of the route from Nairobi to Kisii, there are a couple of junctions I always nearly miss when I am driving, particularly onto the B3 from the A104, and a little later where the B3 hangs a left off the Old Naivasha Road at Mai Mahiu. From there on, it is plain sailing all the way to the junction with the C23, near Sotik.

I put in Keroka, as I have a friend who lives there. I entered the coordinates for Kisumu, Kakamega and Bungoma, all places I have driven through or to, and probably will again.

Now all I have to do is to find out if it actually works in Kenya. There is not reason why it shouldn’t. The satellites are up there, just looking for my little satnav to talk to.

I will have a chance next month, when I go to Kenya to continue working on my anaerobic digester, drum up some more business and “network” with organisations in the field.

My original intention, when choosing this particular make of satnav was to also buy the CD of East African maps from Tracks4Africa and load it. But will I need to?

OK, I don’t have all the off-road tracks and minor roads on my gadget, but do I really need them? I am not going on safari. If I do hire a car to go somewhere, I will want to get there quickly and safely – and not get lost like I did on my last trip.

I expect that I will eventually get the CD and all the software that comes with it. After all, I am a bit of a nerd, but I will take my satnav with me to Kenya and see just what it has to offer me in the meantime.

And I also hope that GoogleEarth will reinstate the Tracks4Africa overlay that used to be available.

Freecycle & Freegle

What a wonderful scheme Freecycle is!

For those who have not seen it, it is a way of getting rid of stuff you no longer want, but which still has life left in it, so someone else might like to use it - anything from furniture to odds & sods.

I use it regularly to get things for the kids at the Twiga Children's Centre in Kisii, Kenya.

The last time I was  there, all the kids wanted to listen to the two or three music tracks on my cell phone, so the battery was often discharged by the time I wanted to use it. So I asked the Freecyclers if they had any walkmans they no longer wanted.

I have so far received a walkman, and two portable CDs, loads of music CDs and some tapes.

Having a deaf child on the Twiga register, I also asked for people's old hearing aids, and have received six! Obviously, I don't know if they will be any good for Simon, but if we don't try, we will never know.

In the past, we have received toys and clothes from Freecyclers, all of which have given a lot of joy to the children.

So, I give A** 10/10 to the Freecycle scheme (I include Newbury Freegle in this - it started out in the Freecycle scheme, but broke away, but is still going strong).

Thank you to all who have donated stuff for the kids.

Kisii, What Is There For The Tourist?

As my regular reader will know, my second home is in Kisii, in the Western Highlands of Kenya. It is a provincial town of some 70,000 souls, bustling, vibrant, perhaps a little chaotic, busy, colourful.

I know what I think of the place - I love it, and I feel that it should be brought to the attention of other visitors to Kenya, but why? What is in and around Kisii to attract tourists?

Obviously, there are the soapstone quarries at Tabaka, with the artisan stone carvers making trinkets and ornaments from the stone, but what else?

To my mind, it is a good staging point, a R&R between safaris, placed as it is between the Maasai Mara and Kisumu - far better to go to Kisii than return to Nairobi, only to double back to go to Lake Victoria and the points beyond, surely. There are good hotels in Kisii, so accommodation is not a problem.

But is there anything else? There are hills all around. Are there any trekking trails?

So, if you know the area, if you are Gusii, please let me know. What do you think there is in Kisii that could attract a few tourists and get them to spend some money in and around the town?

The Sound Of Silence

Simon is about eight years old. He is a stocky, healthy-looking child with an open face and ready smile, but he is deaf. I don’t know quite how deaf he is. If I clap my hands loudly enough, he will sometimes hear it (or sense the air pressure?), and if I make a loud, high-pitched sound with a reed, he will hear that. In fact, he gets quite excited when he hears it, which leads me to believe that he doesn’t hear much else.

When Simon was a baby, about five months old, he contracted malaria. As far as I know, he was taken to hospital and treated, but then lost his hearing. I don’t know if this loss was as a result of the malaria, the treatment or coincidence – I am not a doctor.

So, Simon is deaf. As he lost his hearing at such an early age, he has never learned to talk. He makes sounds, but I don’t know if he can hear them. He knows that when he makes a sound, people will look at him and he can then sign to them, or use facial expressions to convey something.

As is common in Africa, Simon appears to be left to his own devices by his family. Children with “disabilities” are not useful. In fact, some can be considered a burden on the family, something that depletes already scarce resources such as food. I am not saying that Simon is treated as a burden, but he is often seen wandering around when other children are at school.

We believe that Simon is bright. He shows an aptitude for photography. For a child of his age, he takes well-framed, in-focus photos. He is fascinated with photography and understands how to use the different functions of the camera when shown.

We would love to help Simon, but we do not have medical people on our staff, and we don’t have the financial resources to have his hearing (or lack of) tested.

• Would Simon benefit from a hearing aid? 
• Is his condition reversible? 
• If I take an old, discarded hearing aid to Kenya, will it do any good? 

We don’t know. I don’t suppose any doctor would like to hazard a guess without examining the child, but that is what I want you to do, hazard a guess as to why Simon is deaf and whether there is anything that can be done for him.

It is a shame; Kisii has an excellent school for the deaf, run by the deaf. But we cannot afford to send Simon there, and his family certainly can’t, so we will try to glean some authoritative guesses from the medical profession and work from there.

Abused Kisii Girl Needs Urgent Sponsorship

Originally posted on KCIS blog

The Twiga Children's Centre has  today been informed that if Esther (13), a Gusii girl who is lodged at an orphanage in Kajiado is not taken in by Twiga Children's Centre very soon, she will be taken back to her parents.

This is not good news. Esther's parents sent her out to work as a house girl, where she suffered beatings and other cruelty in the hands of her employer. This will happen again if we do not offer Esther accommodation.

We need a sponsor who can help this girl to lead a normal life, attend school and regain the right to be a child.

3,000 Kenyan shillings (about UK£26.00 or US$40.00) a month will ensure that Esther is placed with a caring family, is fed, clothed and attends school.

Please, is there someone who will help us to rescue this girl from a life of abuse by donating 3,000/- a month?

You can donate through PayPal, or you can contact Vincent at the Twiga Centre in Kisii.

Previous Post:

Twiga Children's Centre has been contacted by an orphanage in Kajiado, asking if we can take one of their children, a girl called Esther.

Esther (13) was transferred to the Kajiado Children's Home from another orphanage, but she is of the Gusii tribe and there is no one in Kajiado who speaks the Abagusii language, and she does not speak the Maasai language. Naturally, Esther is very unhappy and wants to return to her traditional homeland of Kisii.

We would be happy to help and to make this child happy, but we really are stretched financially.

If anyone reading this can help by sponsoring Esther so that she can return to her people, please do not hesitate to contact us at Twiga Children's Centre through our website.

Change the Name!

A friend of mine in Kisii would like to buy up a recently closed business close to her home. But she needs to borrow the money to get started.

I think that a change of name would be the first step - but that's just me. What do you think?

Does Shabby have a different meaning in Kenya?

Kenyan Birds of a Feather

A selection of photos of birds I saw in Kisii in November/December 2009

More thoughts on ... A Gentle Drive to Kenya

A gentle drive from home in the UK, through Europe, Asia, and some of Africa to home in Kenya, a total of about 6,500 miles.

I slept on this and I am still enthusiastic, although I can see a myriad of problems. Still, it would be no fun without problems.

First off, I need to choose a vehicle. I have decided that I should not spend more than £3,000 (not that I have £3,000 at the moment), which limits the newness.
It needs to be 4WD with hi-lo and probably diff.lock
It needs to be diesel, as I would like to use bio-diesel which I would make on the way.
So what are the options?

• Toyota HiLux - very difficult to find a good one. they are too popular
• Toyota Surf - ditto for models with the 2.8 litre engine
• Toyota Landcruiser - too heavy, fuel consumption too high
• Isuzu Trooper - fuel consumption is high, but this is one strong vehicle
• Land Rover 110 - I am told they break easily and the diesels are underpowered
• Discovery - Hmmm, nice, but a good one is expensive
• Range Rover - thirsty
• Mitsubishi Pajero/Shogun - with the right engine, this could be the one.

The route

I reckon the first leg across Europe (Calais to Ankara) should take about 5 days, allowing 8 hours driving a day. Of course, with an enthusiastic co-pilot/navigator, this time could be halved and that knocks almost 3,000 miles off the total.

From there on, I do not know the state of roads etc. through Syria, Jordan or Israel to Egypt, across the Suez canal and down the west bank of the Red Sea, then to Aswan, Khartoum, Addis Ababa. But I am fairly sure that south of Addis, into Kenya, down to Marsabit the road is pretty awful, and I am not sure about the road to Nyeri and Nakuru either, but from there to Kericho and eventually Kisii, it is not too bad. Any advice on this would be appreciated.

Would it be better to go further west and into Uganda?

Duration? Well, if it takes 5 days to get to Ankara, which is less than half-way, and the roads deteriorate from there on, the second leg could take 10 to 15 days, assuming we hit no snags. Then there are the border crossing delays. I have read that these can take anything from 10 hours to 36 hours. Oh boy!

So, 25 days would be the target, from Highclere to Kisii. That's a long time to be in a vehicle.

We will need sponsorship, so NGOs and charities with ongoing projects on the route would need to be contacted. I will be doing a lot of filming on the journey, and could highlight work done.

We could do with a high-profile patron as well. Within a couple of miles of where I am sitting, I have Lord and Lady Carnarvon (Highclere Castle would be a fantastic starting point!), Andrew Lloyd Webber, Keith Chegwin, and there must be others. In the past Mick Jagger lived not far away and Rod Stewart nearly moved here, too.

There is a lot to think about, but I reckon it is feasible for an old(ish) mildly disabled, grumpy old man can do it.

Raising a Profile ... and Funds

I have just seen on Twitter that one of the people I follow promoted a fund to rehouse a couple of Vietnamese families, and within a few hours, quite a lot of money was raised.

Which got me thinking ...

What is the most pressing need at KCIS?

There are many, but I suppose that we need to build the planned dormitories so that we can offer a secure and adult-supervised home environment for a few of the Twiga Children who live alone with no adult.

Although these children are coping, more or less with help from us and other members of the community, they are not children - they are not leading the lives of children, even Kenyan children. they have no time to play or relax. Life is one relentless grind of cooking, washing, cleaning, growing food, as well as the more traditional child activities of school, homework and study.

When we build our home, these adult activities will be taken over by the resident staff (one paid "matron" and several volunteers).

In the diagram, the part in red exists already. It is made from traditional materials, which we intend to continue in building the two dormitories, to keep the cost down - we only need to buy cement, poles, steel sheet, windows and doors.

I am trying to get an estimate for quantities and costing for the materials and furniture, then I will have to start a big promotion. (if you want to pre-empt the promotion, [click here])

We have PayPal and MPesa accounts, so we can receive donations from anywhere.

All we need now is people to donate - a few bob each will soon add up to enough to build our home, won't it?

Finger Trick Still Puzzles ... So Does Eric Morcombe!

On my trip to Kenya in May 2009, I showed a simple finger trick to the neighbourhodd children, the Twiga children and anyone else who wanted to see it.

Simple, yes?

Apparently not! On my visit in November, there they all were, still trying to do it, most of them without success. So I was asked  time and again to do it again ... and again ... and ...

Funnily, girls seems to pick it up quicker than boys, regardless of age.

But children would come running up to me just so that I would show them how to do it again.

Another amusing "trick" I picked up from the Morcombe & Wise show was with a paper bag. the illusion is to throw an invisible ball into the air and catch it in a paper bag. As the "ball" hits the bag, it makes a sound ... naturally, but when the kids look in the bag, there is nothing there.

Of course, fans of Eric Morecambe must have seen this trick thousands of times. The illusionist clicks the fingers of the hand holding the bag to make the sound of something landing inside, but if done correctly (and I have had a lot of practice), it can keep children puzzled for a very long time.

It works well on aircraft if you find yourself sitting next to a fractious, impatient child - and the airline even provides the paper bag (the sick bag), but make sure it hasn't been used!

Communication in Kenya

I am not going to go on about the difference between UK English and Kenglish - I have already covered this.

No, this is a much greater problem for me. In the UK, I have rarely had  to communicate with anyone who is profoundly deaf. Most people have some sort of hearing aid here.

But in Kisii, we are regularly visited by Simon, a profoundly deaf 8 year-old. He is a smashing kid, with a ready, broad smile, but he cannot hear or talk, other then by using sign language. He has his own language, which is a mixture of Kenyan Sign language and a few signs of his own.

But the biggest problem for me is to remember that Simon expresses his feelings with facial exaggerated expressions. So, sometimes, he can look very angry, or very sad, which alarms me until I realise that he is using his face to communicate.

On the up-side, when he is happy (which is most of the time), he smiles broadly and makes "happy" sounds.

I found out on my last trip that simon contracted malaria when he was a baby. He was treated at hospital but became deaf as a result either of the disease or the treatment - I don't know which.

He does attend school occasionally, but can often be seen wandering along the river bank. If he then sees someone at home, he rushes up to see us, usually around meal times!

He will eat anything offered to him and will not stop until all plates are thoroughly empty.

Simon is usually very grubby and wears clothes which are bordering on rags. But one Sunday, he invited himself to lunch and he was ... clean! Not only was he clean but he was wearing clean clothes with hardly a tear or hole in them. He looked like a totally different person to the point that I did not immediately recognise him!

As far as we can make out, Simon has a full complement of parents, so, strictly speaking, does not fall into a category to be put on the Twiga register. maybe we should change our criteria to include children who are neglected due to a disability. This is not to say that Simon is neglected, but I am sure that he could be better looked after.

Unfortunately, kids with a disability can be ignored by their parents, who do not know what to do with them.

Just Look At That! ... What?

I have suffered from it, becoming blasé about my surroundings.

When I lived in Paris, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sacré Coeur, became everyday sights and soon, they became invisible.

And so it was for my associate in Kisii. We walked into the reception of Kisii Hotel and the first thing that struck me was the garden. It was just a canvas of colour, vibrant, eye-watering colour, lilacs, reds, crimsons, oranges and yellows. It was magnificent.

"Just look at that," I said to Vincent, pointing out of the window to this vista of bright colours.

"What?" he said. "What are you looking at?"

Then it dawned on me. He sees colours like this every day in Kisii. In fact, many places in Kenya are this colourful. I thought back to my train journey from Nairobi to Mombasa, with trees covered in flowers of all shades. Yes, Kenya is a colourful country.

But, getting back to the hotel, they have several gazebos set out on the lawns, many covered with colourful flowers, and I could imagine a British family, Mum and Dad sitting under the gazebo, sipping ice-cold Tuskers, watching their 2.4 children running around on the grass under the mature trees - paradise.

As we toured the hotel, I glanced out into the gardens once again. The gardeners were at work, raking the lawns, and I saw little piles of rubbish, all lilac, pink and crimson, and I thought of when i rake our lawn in the UK, with piles of moss and pine needles.

Kenya is a wonderful country ... but when will the colours become invisible to me? Never, I hope.

Kisii Town, What Is It Really Like?

I can really only look at my second home from a European perspective. But, first impressions for most people, Kenyan and non-Kenyan,  on visiting Kisii for the first time must be that Kisii is vibrant, bustling, busy, chaotic.

They would not be wrong. Kisii is all of these things. But it is more. It is big enough to boast two national supermarkets, Tusky and Nakumatt, as well as the many independent shops and stores.

It has a large open market which is open on Mondays and Wednesdays. It has the illegal street hawkers and fruit sellers that, for the tourist, offer a chance to buy anything from safety pins to local craftwork, kangas, as well as the freshest fruit you will eat anywhere.

It is blessed with several hotels. I have visited many of them and I would not hesitate to stay in any of those I have visited. They do range from the very basic (with very basic prices) to 5-star quality, but even the cheap hotels offer clean accommodation, good food and good service, although it can be a little slow - this is Kenya!

All-in-all, Kisii is what most Europeans would expect in an African town, cows and goats mingling with the people on the street, matatus, motorbike taxis, and quite a few private and commercial vehicles. But traffic jams are largely a thing of the past as the council has built a large bus park and matatus are banned from the town centre.

Kisii is situated in the highlands in the south-west corner of Kenya, not far from the Maasai Mara, Lake Victoria, Kisumu, Homa Bay, Kericho, Nakuru and the borders with Tanzania and Uganda. But it is not on the traditional tourist route, the A 104 Nairobi to Kisumu Road. Instead it is tucked on a quieter but well maintained road from Nairobi that runs through Narok and Bomet. Then close to Sotik, you take a left, pass through several typical Kenyan villages, such as  Nyansiongo and Keroka until you arrive in Kisii. This road, B3, runs through the hills and valleys and is most picturesque.

Talking to some tourists who have found Kisii almost by accident say that they left Nairobi to go to the Maasai Mara, then wanted to go on to Kisumu and the north. Rather than go back to Nairobi, they took a bus to Narok and then on to Kisii, which they found very suitable as somewhere to recuperate for a day or two before carrying on with their tour of Kenya.

Kisii is the centre for soapstone carving. The quarry at Tabaka is the only source of soapstone in Kenya and any Kenyan soapstone carvings for sale anywhere come from this quarry. There are several outlets in Kisii town where soapstone can be bought. You can also find Maasai bead and leather work for sale in Kisii, as well as more general souvenirs such as kangas.

When a white person (mzungu) walks through the town, he or she will be greeted with the call, "Mzungu! How are you?" Kids in particular will be attracted to a pale skin, there are so few in Kisii that white people are still a bit of a curiosity. Some braver kids will want to touch you, particularly your hair. They find it fascinating as, to them, it is soft compared to their tight, "wooly" hair.

So, what is Kisii really like?

It is typically African, dusty, chaotic, but also vibrant and busy. It is friendly. Europeans (wazungu) are always welcome in Kisii.

New Year's Resolutions

About this time last year, I made, and recorded on this blog, a couple of New Year's resolutions.

So how did I do? Did I keep them?

The first was that my glass should always be half-full rather than half-empty. Well, I have to say I think I have  been far more positive this year, and although I have had a couple of fits of depression, they have been less severe and much shorter than in the past.

As to the KCIS (and other) projects in Kenya, we have made good progress with the methane production and although it is not perfect, I am happy with what we have achieved.

And I have promoted a commercial project which will bring in a small but regular income in Kenya.

So, all in all, I haven't done so badly, two of last year's resolutions bore fruit!

I am not going to make any new ones for 2010, but will strive to keep those that I made a year ago.

Looking Back on 2009

On the whole, it has been a good year. I have been to Kenya twice, and I feel that we (that is, Kenyan Community Initiative Support or KCIS) have actually achieved something tangible.

On the first trip, in May, we cleared a small vegetable plot at the Twiga Centre, sowed some vegetable seed, with a view to supplying the most needy children with fresh vegetables all year round. OK, it didn't quite go according to plan - there is no one at the plot during the week, so if there is no rain, even for a couple of days, the plot dries out. This happened in June and we lost some of the seedlings. But we still had a fair few survivors, which as still growing and providing food.

What else did we achieve in May? Not a lot. We updated the register and put it on computer, which makes managing the files on the kids a bit easier - and we treated a couple of kids who had a ringworm infestation.

I also ended my relationship with my erstwhile girlfriend on the Coast. I got the impression that it was a give and take relationship. I did the giving and she ... well, you can guess the rest.

I am still fond of her and her kids. Children belonging to one party in a relationship can be considered excess baggage or a blessing. My two have long since flown the nest, so do not enter the equation. But my girlfriend had two and as far as I was concerned, they were a blessing. I am not saying that either was perfect, far from it, but they have really good characters - I miss them. Who knows? Maybe we'll get back together again. I sort of hope we will.

During the months between my first and second visits to Kisii, I worked on a final design for a methane generator. But it didn't matter how much work I put down on paper, I needed to build one and prove to myself that it would work.

So in November, that is exactly what we did. I didn't follow my latest design - that is for another day - but a simple anaerobic digester fed with cow slurry, and it worked. So I bought a table-top gas stove and that worked too. This is our most impressive achievement to date as it paves the way to providing free cooking fuel to the Twiga Centre as well as many rural Kenyans.

We built a swing at the Twiga Centre. This has been, by far, the most popular play equipment ever. In fact, if we had fitted it with headlights, the kids would be using it through the night.

But the swing was not all good news. It is the first time I have seen serious squabbles break out amongst the children. We are going to have to build some more play equipment on my next visit.

We planted more seed, all of which sprang up and looks very healthy. We also distributed seed to those children who wanted it and who had somewhere to plant it.

It is never good news when we have to take in more children, as it means that their families are no longer able to care for them. But, it is good to know that we are helping  them in a small way.

We took in three girls in November. This will help to balance up the boy to girl ratio. We were also able to strike off three children, two boys and a girl, as their widowed mother has finally received the legacy left to her by her deceased husband.

We also formalised the registration of all the children on the Twiga register. Each child had to get a form filled in by their closest relative or guardian, with enough detail for us to be able to help each child as an individual.

One of our new intake was born HIV+. This child is our only infected child. We had one last year, who was only three years old when she succumbed to her illness. I hope and pray that we will be able to hold on to our new little one for a lot longer.

While in Kisii, I thought it would be a good idea to revive the ailing business that I had started over a year ago. We did a whirlwind tour of some businesses and got some business, business that will bring in a regular income for a fair while. It is still in its infancy, but promises to be reasonably successful, by Kenyan standards, anyway.

Since my return to the UK, we have had a tentative offer of funding to start building the orphanage, good news indeed. We will not be housing every child on our register, only those who have no one to look after them. Eventually, we will take in more, those who are living with elderly relatives, for example. But we will still strive to keep family units together with other forms of support, if at all possible.

So that was 2009. What will happen in 2010? I can only guess, but we do have plans. We want to improve the anaerobic digester, and build more. We want to tie up with an organisation in Bungoma to look at ways that water hyacinth can be used. As I mentioned earlier, we want to build more play equipment, maybe a see-saw. And we want to start rainwater harvesting at the Twiga centre.

Not too challenging - I hope!