June 22, 2008--Susan's blog

We have finally adjusted to the time change. We went for a long walk
yesterday on the edge of the Mt. Kenya forest. There is a long electric
fence there to keep the elephants out of the village. We didn't see
elephants, but we did see two monkeys in the trees. Along the way we met
two men herding cattle. One really wanted his photo taken with his cows so
we will get the photo back to him as he is a parent of one of the children
that IPI is sponsoring to go to school. We saw lots of children with dirty
torn clothes, and a group that were playing with a ball made out of grocery
plastic bags tied together. We bought a ball today and hope to find them
again on the trail We also visited a school along the way that had no
electricity and looked like something from the 1920s and saw the outside of
the International Peace Initiatives Office. That night we played several
long games of UNO with Karambu, her sister |Karamanna and her friend
Purity. They laughed a lot.
Tonight Paul assembles the loom and spinning wheel. Tomorrow the women
come to inspect it and we hope to wash wool with them. We also read about
and bought supplies to wash the rough wool that Karambu bought. Karambu
talked to her sister's friend who is a weaver in Nairobi. We hope she will
come here to teach the women.
On other news...Paul gets lots of points for buying and attaching a new
toilet seat to the toilet in Karambu's home a few days ago! Kenyans are
used to not using them, but well for us it makes all the difference. We
have also been experiencing frequent water and electricity outages,so our
gift to Karambu from the US-- a battery powered Coleman lamp-- has been a
great addition to her house.