In and around Kimilili

This morning Carolyn and I toured the "hardware" stores hunting down some larger bolts and nuts for equipment. I brought a sample of each fastener I needed, dimensions of the fasteners don't mean much to most hardware clerks.  At each store the clerk would take our samples and then spend about 10 minutes of rummaging through different boxes of assorted fasteners before they could come up with a few of the ones I needed.  After visiting about five hardware stores I finally had all I needed to continue the disc plough repairs.

                          Kimilili's version of UPS Parcel delivery

This afternoon we went with James and Mary to the farmland that Omwabini purchased a few years ago and use to grow food for the Orphans. The recently planted banana trees are doing very well and are already producing fruit. The resident guard and farmer is doing a great job of starting up plants from seeds and trees from sapplings, preparing them for transplant into the fields. The transplant will happen sometime in February after the land is dry enough and  prepared.

The bean harvest in storage at the farm

 

Unannounced, James and Mary often check in on families they have helped in the past to see if they are holding up their end of the agreement for assistance. Along with building a house with them, Omwabini helps set the families on a path of sustainability by providing a goat or discing up a plot of land for them.

While we were out we made a return visit to a few of the very poor families we visited earlier to give them some clothes that Carolyn purchased at the local street market last week. Behind them is a house Omwabini built with them.

 The grandfather (pictured above) spent his day working for the half sack of maize you see below. (He'd better keep an eye on the goat). As we were leaving we met his widowed daughter, the mother of the children, returning from a day of selling fish at a roadside stand.