September 20 Update and Photos!

I must thank you for all the effort you are making to place Ngeta Village on the world map. I am sorry I did not respond to your e-mail earlier. My patience has really been tried this week.

Mordoch bought few bags of cement (20) from the nearby town to start building while waiting for more that were to arrive in Kisumu from Mombasa. It took more than a week for the cement to arrive in Kisumu. 

When the cement arrived on Friday, September 18, only hardware owners were allowed to buy. There is scarcity of many items in Kenya including building materials at present. Mordoch had made arrangement to get 100 bags that we needed, and he was able to get 80 bags.

Building from the foundation that had stalled was resumed on today, Sunday September 20. Cherian came home to follow the progress for me.

I am sending you the first pictures. Mordoch informed me that the building of the foundation will be completed tomorrow then they will dig the top soil and fill the foundation with hard core. That work will take from Monday to Friday.

They hope that next Sunday they will pour the slab. The women will pour water on the slab for one week before the building can start again.

Risper

 Here are some more pictures.

 If you look at the land, you can see how dry it gets. It is very hard

 to get may things and there is real famine. Mordoch told me that the

 stones are too heavy for women who do not get enough to eat. He

 informed me that they can only pour water and they will help with

 removing the top soil from the foundation.

Therefore we should be able to see their participation soon. The women

leaders told me that they take turns pouring the water. Since the

foundation is a slow process, only four women go to the site to help

each day. There are days when all of them will be on the building

site, e.g. when they work on the slab.

I will send more pictures as I get them. 

Update from Risper

August 28^th

Greetings from Kenya!  In my last update I informed you that a representative of the Women's Group went to the land's office to present the PIN number so that she could be given a land title. Upon arrival she was told that it was still going to be a long process before the title could be issued. Yesterday, Mordoch went back to the lands office together with the same representative from the Women’s Group. The land's officer informed them that evaluators had to go to the site where the land is located to check if the correct amount of money was paid for the land, write a report that would later be taken to the land board before a title deed could be issued to the Women’s Group. Fortunately, it is always good to be a teacher because Mordoch happens to know the lands officer in our District at personal level.

Mordoch called me at 2:36 am this morning to say, "Guess who is now going to give us the land title?" Someone we know very well. The women were given the land title deed immediately. I also talked with the officer and the secretary of the Women's Group at that time while they were still in the land's office and the representative of the women now has the title in her hands.

I felt happy and sad about this at the same time because I asked myself whether it will ever reach a time when women can succeed in dealing with land issues successfully without the help of men??? Anyway, with the help of Mordoch we now have the official land title.

Purchasing of building materials will start early next week. Building will start as soon as they have enough materials on site, maybe towards the end of next week. Let us give Mordoch two months to see how far he goes with the building project. I will share with you pictures that I get from them to keep you updated on the progress.

Risper

September 1^st

When I talked to Mordoch yesterday it was 6:00AM East African time and he was already up because the group members were going to the building site where they are going to start digging the foundation for the Corn Mill Shelter!!   The work is ongoing and soon you will start getting pictures of the project.

I have arranged for our son, Cherian, to come home from Nairobi and stay for at least ten days in Ngeta Village to show us the day to day progress over the next ten days at least. The rest of the progress will be captured by Mordoch with his disposable camera. Unfortunately he is far from town and so it will take a while before we get Mordoch’s pictures.

One thing that has thrown our estimated budget off is the cost of transportation of building materials, cement and iron rods. I really do not know how we are going to fare with what we have so far. I have asked Mordoch to go for the best bids because we have to have the shelter and grain storage space.

The women are excited!!!. Expect some pictures in the next two weeks.

Risper