Dear Friends,
Today I travelled by taxi to Juliet Wambani's home in Naulu village, which is about 45 minutes drive (but only 20 km) north of Kakamega, Kenya. You can find Kakamega on Google maps, and you can even find Chebuyusi Primary School, one of the Chesina schools, on Google maps! Her house is just up the road from Chebuyusi Primary School. The last 2 km of the drive was on something that I would describe as a washed out hiking path, but my taxi driver, Nelson, did an amazing job. He did agree that tomorrow, when we return with Amelia, Geoffrey, and Zachary in tow, we should use a 4 wheel drive vehicle.

Juliet is a wonderfully warm, calm, funny woman. Her home is similar to one you'd see in the Caribbean, with wooden interior, cement & brick walls, and breezy, curtained windows. We had lunch together with her daughter, Sheillah, who is home from college, and with 3 other teachers (Mary, Joyce, and Isaac) who are also part of the Chesina program.

Juliet, Mary, me, Joyce, Isaac, in Juliet's living room

We talked about ways to make the program even stronger for next year, and also about some of the struggles they have had with getting the dairy cows and chickens that we had bought for them in June 2011. It seems that the money next year's 6th graders raised for cows and chickens when they were in 4th grade wasn't all used the way it was supposed to. In Kenya there is sometimes corruption, we hear... So, the third cow was never delivered, and the director of the organization who was supposed to bring it to Juliet's school stopped answering her phone calls. She asked me to call him using my Kenyan cell phone number, and when he picked up, I explained that Moses Brown School had paid a lot of money and expected them to fulfill their promise. Juliet directed me to ask him to meet me and the other Chesina teachers on Friday morning at Chebuyusi School, where he would be expected to return the portion of the money that was supposed to be for the third cow. Sitting in his office here in Kenya, he seemed very surprised to hear that I had come all the way from Rhode Island to check up on the cows we had paid for!

I am not convinced that my request will be met on Friday, but Juliet and the other teachers are very hopeful that he will take it seriously. Maybe I should tell him that if he doesn't give them the money, he will have to sit in the Take-A-Break chair, or go talk to Abby!  (:

One of my favorite moments of the day was when I taught Juliet, Mary, Joyce, and Isaac to play some of the math games we play at Moses Brown. Here is a picture of me playing Multiplication Tic Tac Toe with Juliet. I have just won, and Mary is in the background laughing, because she kept trying to tell Juliet what moves to make, and Juliet kept ignoring her!

It was a close game, but in the end I won. Good thing I've been practicing my math facts!

They are very excited to teach their students Addition Tic-Tac-Toe, Multiplication Tic-Tac-Toe, and some fun new games with playing cards.

Here is a picture of me with Juliet and her daughter, Sheillah, in their front yard.

Tomorrow I will return to Juliet's house with Amelia, Geoffrey, and Zachary. We will meet all of the Chesina students there, give them their packages from our 4th graders, and give them the school supplies and recess equipment that the 4th graders collected. I will try to take lots of pictures. Maybe we can even get a soccer game going with one of the new soccer balls!

On my drive home today, there was a big thunderstorm with lots of hail. There was so much hail that the side of the road looked like it had snowed!

I hope you are all well. More news tomorrow.
Take care,
Elizabeth