Transformations

We have just said our goodbyes to a wonderful group from Ackworth Boys Brigade and their safari bus, bursting with bags, smiling faces and waving arms has just headed off on the dusty road outside St Anna’s Guest House on the long drive to Narok, just north of the Masai Mara. Over the next day or so they will see more of this beautiful country and hopefully enjoy some of its world famous wildlife.

The short safari is a well deserved end to their trip to Kisumu, where they came to help the work of the Trust in a very practical way.

Our small parcel of land in Kibos, on the outskirts of Kisumu, has been transformed over the past week, by the addition of two 5,000 litre water tanks sited next to our pump, a large greenhouse, a tin house that will serve as sleeping quarters for some of the older boys we look after and the foundations of a banana plantation.

They will leave Kenya with plenty of photographs of its rich wildlife, but they will leave behind something of great value, that will allow our land to prosper, where vegetable can grow all year, not just in the rainy season, irrigated by drip pipes fed from the large water tanks and banana’s that will provide shade, food and income for the Trust.

In ten years time their pictures will be distant memories, but the legacy of the work will continue.

It never ceases to amaze me what determined people can help to achieve. This isn’t a country that lacks ideas, but one that lacks the capital to make a difference.

Over the last few days the group have had emotional highs and lows, challenging their perceptions of what some practical aid can do amongst some of the poorest people they have met. 

Everywhere they have gone they have been warmly welcomed, whether it was our house at Kibos or the church by the rubbish dump in Kachok.

The thing that always comes through strongest for me in the most challenging places is the faith of the people who live there. They have so very little, that their faith cannot just be reserved for Sundays. It is something they live out every moment of every day.

Even more than the legacy that has been left on our land, the group have each formed friendships with the boys at our house and with the people of Kachok.

Accompanying groups of open minded people to the work of the Trust is a great pleasure and this trip has seen great investment and transformation of our land. I think it might also have transformed the hearts and minds of those who have come.

I hope they come again.