The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good -  Orphans at Omwabini come from both near and far. Today a church from about 300 kilometers away rented a school bus and toured through their countryside to gathered up the distant orphans from the homes of relatives or temporary guardians and brought them to Omwabini. For the driver it was a 16 hour day. The orphans who stayed here during the break were sure glad to see their friends again. The orphans are like family to each other and to the Omwabini staff.

Most who left the orphanage over the break were asked to try to come back with a short list of basic  supplies including flip flops that they would wear after school . Before they arrived Magdalene a volunteer who just arrived from England made it her mission to buy all who stayed, flip flops from a local merchant. Carolyn also took a group flip flop shopping and together they were able to equip the forty or so who stayed here during the break and the ones who had to come back early. 

         Unloading the rented bus

The bad -- Another trip to Bungoma to exchange an inner tie rod end that I purchased yesterday. Hopefully, someday the auto parts merchants will use a parts manual. I've yet to see one used. The preferred method here is bring in the old part. The merchant will then root around in their inventory come up with three nearly fits and, if all goes well, an exact fit - about 15 minutes later.

The Ugly - While they were in the village one of the orphans accused another of stealing his cell phone. Just before a growing mob was about to dish out some vigilante justice,  (which around here is often deadly) someone wisely came to his rescue and took him to the police where he was charged and thrown into a cell. (Not surprisingly, the culprit went very willingly). This left James and Mama Mary to negotiate his release into their care. Both then had to endure the wrath of Mary.

Keep in mind, this is an isolated incident here at Omwabini and considering many of the orphans have had a very difficult start in life nearly all the orphans are very polite and hard working and very appreciative of the rescue and love provided by Mama Mary and the folks here at Omwabini.