3/10 - 4/7 -- Catch-up

Hi All,

Sorry for another extended radio silence...Internet access here is really unreliable, even worse than in Homa Bay. We are at this moment in the town of Mbita, but we stay about 4 km away in a village called Kisui. I can't say this with any authority, but Kisui might be one of the poorest, most disease-stricken places in Kenya. The Suba District (in which Kisui and Mbita are) has the highest HIV rate in Kenya-- one in three adults is HIV positive. There is no electricity in our village, and power comes only from big 12 V (a la car battery) units that people keep charged for some electric lighting at night.

We are working at the Mina Academy, the two-year-old project of a German woman named Mina who visited Kisui doing some volunteer work. Moved by the poverty and need here, she decided to do some fundraising in Europe to build this school and try to begin a community development project. The school provides pre-schoolers with pre-education, breakfast, lunch, health checks, twice-weekly baths, and perhaps most importantly something do to five days a week. Like many community-based projects, Mina struggles to get the community to invest as much as she has, but there are some very dedicated members of the school's executive committee. We have spent the last week and a half turning unused land into a more verdant and hospitable place: we've dug a garden and are building a fence for it, we've cleaned up the yard substantially and built swings for the children, and just yesterday we built the mud walls of a (mostly) natural-construction house for future visitors.

Like we've said, Internet access here is a bit of a chore, so I hope you'll be satisfied with this brief post. FYI, our plans are as follows: leave Kenya 4/19, fly to Istanbul, spend a couple of days before taking a train to visit our beloved friend Maria in Bulgaria, then head to Prague for a couple of days before heading to Boston on May 1. Then to San Fran sometime the week of the 4th, at the end of which will be the Welcome Back Audrey and Kyle BBQ Bash and B'nai Mitvah, a celebration of our triumphal return to the US. This is slated for the 9th of May, to take place in Livermore. Aud will send out a suitably enthusiastic and ludicrous e-vite ASAP. All our blog readers are invited, except for Willow. And Will...but he probably can't read anyway.

OK, lots of hugs, love, and probable intestinal worms,

Kyle and Aud

The whole crew enjoying dinner:


Mina, giving M'zee and Mike an impromptu yoga lesson:


A strikingly colorful day at the house: