A few years ago one of our colleagues introduced the idea of cow dung fuel. Some people tried it and liked it but the use did not spread widely. It’s very simple: you take fresh cow dung, mix it with dry leaves or other combustible material, shape it into a thick pancake and leave it to dry in the sun. You then break it up into small pieces and use it like charcoal. It burns relatively smoke free, lasts long and saves the few precious trees. Not only do women no longer have to hunt for wood or buy expensive charcoal, they avoid the dangerous practice of wandering in the woods early in the morning or late in the day when many are attacked. This fuel is commonly used in India where the cakes are sold in the market.
A couple of days ago we were chatting with an energetic woman named Bibiana who is a town councillor. She was asking us to look at some water sources that need protection. As she spoke of the women’s groups she has organized, we mentioned the cow dung fuel. She immediately enthused about the idea and said she would arrange to spread the information.
We underestimated her.
I was doing Virtues Facilitator training on Saturday, so Rod agreed to go with Bibiana to look at water sources. To his amazement she had organized five seminars on cow dung fuel. Hastily he went to fetch Magdalene who has been teaching the women in our micro finance groups. Bibiana had a container of dung and another of dry leaves. The women wrapped a kanga (cloth) around Magdalene to protect her clothes and away they went.
Today we heard from Richard, Bibiana’s husband, that he had met a woman who was present yesterday. She had dried her patties and used them to cook. They don’t smoke! They last long! It’s free! Rod is mightily relieved. Although we know people who have used it successfully, there’s always the little nagging doubt that it will go wrong and be a disappointment.
Here are some pictures of the water sources Rod saw. One is very needy in that houses on a hill above send all their effluent down into the small river where people draw their water. As I said, it takes about $500 to protect a spring for a community

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I want to add the email I just received from the head teacher of one of my schools.
"I have been the headteacher of Ekwanda Primary School for the last 8 years and I have recently moved to Ebumbayi Primary School which is about three kilometers from Ekwanda. Ebumbayi Primary School is one of the schools in the Maseno North Diocese of Anglican Church.I am interested to share with you the situation at Ebumbayi Primary School and invite you for a visit any time that you may have the chance to do so.The school is right on the boundary of Western Province and Nyanza Province. We have an enrolment of 237 pupils from STD 1-8. Unfortunately this is a school that is facing very many crises that it is in deed crying for support. The drop out rate is very high in this school. Maybe because most people who were students in this school through the time have not been going to secondary school. Most children do not see the need to complete even their primary school education alone.Girls becoming pregnant seems to be a norm. the STD 8 class of last year had 24 pupils in total. By the time of KCPE exam in November 4 girls had already given birth and two others were very pregnant. I am told that the joke was that they were bringing forth several "Obamas." The STD 8 of this year has two girls who carried out abortions last year. One small girl in STD 7 dropped out last week because she was pregnant.In last year's KCPE examination virtually all the pupils failed the exam. In ranking of the schools in Emuhaya District we are among the last six schools in the same exam. Out of the 24 pupils only three have gone to secondary school. The community seem to be contented with the fate of the rest.As for the boys the trend is that once they are registered for the KCPE exam they mostly drop out or start coming to school when they want and keep off when they do not want to be in school.The facilities in the school are so dillapidated and my findings indicate that the poverty index in this community is extremely high. Mostly because not investing their future in education. We have only 9 classrooms. Fortunately the CDF gave us a grant of KSH 200,000 which we are using to renovate 4 classrooms. The rest have cracking walls or are falling apart. We have 3 pit latrines for all the girls and another 3 for all the boys. The latrines are equally in deplorable state.We are all new teachers in this school and our main target at the moment is to restore hope in everyone. The response seems to be very good as there is a very strong goodwill from the community.It is at this point that I wish to invite you to help us in the process of restoring the hope and the future of the community. My feeling would be that even by you meeting the pupils or the parents or by mounting workshops in this school can open it up and make the people here know that they belong to the larger community where people are responsible of each other.Thank you so much for your patience in reading this mail and we hope to read from you soon.

I have responded to say I will visit the school to encourage them and present the Virtues programme that will help them. If they wish I’ll arrange to offer a ful training session with our newly accredited facilitators. This will help with relationships and school performance. I can also help them implement the HIV/AIDS awareness programme we made that has a section on assertiveness for girls and staying in school. Pretty well all my funding is finished as we move into the last month here, but I will try to set some priorities with them for when I come back. Anyone feel like coming to dig latrines and repair classrooms?