We have lined up two new wells. One will be in Tambua at a Polytechnic school only a kilometere or so from the Rift Valley boundary. The school teaches tailoring, carpentry and masonry and has boarders as well as staff quarters. It’s in beautiful country in the Nandi Hills and the people are a mix of Nandi and Luyha. The Chief wrote to the Kakamega Rotary about a year ago asking for assistance. There is a spring about half a kilometer down a steep slope which dries out in the long dry season. The Chief told us women go out to look for water at 2 a.m. and are often attacked in the darkness. The funding for this well will come from a donation by Father Murray Ames, a retired Anglican priest in Victoria.

The second new well is in Ingidi in Maragoli, not so far from Kakamega. It will be on the grounds of a primary school and also serve the community. The have a protected spring about a kilometer away, but the children are sent for water at least twice a day. The proximity of a clean supply will keep them in class and will improve their health. This well is funded by the San Bernadino Rotary Club in California. This will be the second project they have done with us.

I spoke of the other well at Lirhanda. This is a rehabilitation of a collapsed borehole, also on the grounds of a primary school. This is funded by the Esquimalt High School Interact Club and by funds from Rotary Clean Water.org

A fourth project is to build protection for a spring in Shisilachi where we installed a well on the school grounds. This is working well, but the spring will serve more people for irrigation and watering animals.

We were at a 'goat roast' yesterday with friends from the Vihiga Rotary Club. With our visists to well sites, it is ironic that people are concerned about the heavy rains persisiting into what should be the start of the dry season. There are floods all over the country, with many deaths. Vegetables here are being washed away by the downpour, dirt roads are slick with mud (like driving on ice) and torrents cascade down the roadside.