rusinga island

Hello everybody, hope you are all well and enjoying the summer, the sun, the sea or the mountains...Since I came to rusinga I only had once access to Internet but I have more often access to a laptop (without connexion) so I write various stories and when I find Internet access I will blog them all together...I have decided to write most in English first of all for economy of time, then because I believe most of you understand English but Spanish no and also cause for the last 15 days I speak English so it comes out more naturally...

I would like to explain you what I have been doing till now and what are the projects here that with your support also, we are trying to carry out. I'm being hosted by a local family named Odula family. The head of the family is Mr. Michael (a retired since 9 years now but no tired teacher and ex principal of the secondary school of the area). Many years ago, he had the idea to bring European students to practice during their summer holidays and so Scandinavian students started to arrive on rusinga island to give classes. He was offering accommodation and a opportunity to get integrated and interact with the local community. He also owned various hectares of land so they had also some plantations to work with. He developed a very nice relationship with them year by year more people were coming. He visited them and through some people he managed to get a sponsorship from the Finnish government so they can built a water mill by the lake. This cost 3000 euros 20 years ago and in that way the hospital that is near the mill has free access to fresh water and the people also get various advantages from this mill. He also was amongst the pioneers in the area that started planting many trees and having an environmental conscience. He attended a 3 months course in Israel about perm culture development and he was several times invited to environmental conventions in various countries.
The visitors continue coming and one of them suggested a Michael to put his farm in the woofing list so more people know about this opportunity so for the last 15 years they host Europeans, Americans, Australians...

After his retirement he continued being active and he used some of his land to built a school for the young children of the area (the ones that don't go yet to the public primary school, aged 3 to 6 years. He hired to teachers and with a minimum of a fee offers them their first education. Learning to read and write before the go to the primary school. The name of the school is milimany academy that means the school up in the hill. There are 35 children going there (2 of them his grandchildren) till 12:00h and after they are free to go to their families. Many of the children are orphans and they stay with the rest of their families. Its very common here that the orphans stay with their grandparents, uncles etc...Every day after the break they have a cup of porridge offered by the Odula family and I can assure you they enjoy it a lot.
The pension of a retired teacher in Kenya is 10.000 sheilings and the wage something more than 22.000, so you can imagine that he doesn't support this project alone but he depends a lot on the donations that people who know him, gives him. For example the other day I handed to his wife 5000 sheilings from the money we have gathered and we went to the village and we bought flour and the rest necessary things for the porridge that will last at least 45 days..theirs where the visitors sleep and in general terms they try to make us feel as comfortable as it gets.




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Since last year, milimani academy has a sister called Badilisha project and thEy have been involved many people since its beginnings. Some volunteers from Holland and Germany managed to get some grants from organizations and ministries and they help a lot in the starting of this project which aim is to help and educate the community, mostly the most vulnerable members (orphans, women, HIV patients, young mothers). For start they fenced a piece of land that some local person donate them. They built the office, they put a solar panel so they can have energy supply, the use a 5 tonnes tank to gather water during the rain season and they planted corns, beans, bananas, tomatoes and other vegetables that can be consumed. The main idea is that slowly slowly they help the local people to overcome some of the difficulties they come across daily. For example, with some of the money they pay exam fees for some of the students of the primary and secondary school, children are allowed to come and borrow books from the library that slowly slowly is being created by donations of books and have water also to drink after school. (I have to say here that the area that we are talking about is the area of the island that electricity and water companies have abandoned. Energy from the sun, water from the lake and the rains). They also offer condoms to sexual active people and various types of medicine that have managed to gather and sometimes during the year they offer workshops about ecological farming and non violent communication.

As I have told you in the e mail that I sent to the most of you they wanted to start a feeding project in order the most vulnerable children of the area to be able to have lunch during the school break from 12:30 to 14:00 hoping that every time the number of children being helped increases. To happen all this first we need a kitchen where the food will e cooked and a storage room where to put the supplies so after calculations and having on mind the amount of money available we went and buy the materials and already started on building it and we hope that very soon it will be completed. From the photos you will understand that we are talking about simple things and constructions but believe me it will be a lot appreciated and well used...



Anyway, I know that we are all in times of thin cows but 3 beers in a night out in Barcelona or in Athens, here can serve for a family to pass the week. I gave the other day 200 sheilings to a widow relative of Michael and you cannot imagine the happiness on her face and how many times she told me thanks. I know that this is not a solution but hopefully with a better approach of the situation (thing that I believe is happening slowly slowly) it's possible that more children get well educated and with their turn be participants and active members of the change that we all dream and want...


For that reason I would like to thank you again for all your participation and willingness that you showed when I asked you about donations and spreading the word and as you can understand I would appreciate a lot if you continue spreading the word and whoever wants and is able to continue contributing...