July 6, 2007 - - - We are in Meru! Yesterday we looked at a house to rent for an orphanage, but we haven't made any decision on that yet. Today we had a "gathering" of the street boys, pastors classes, womens classes, sewing class and staff....we fed them all! We fed 87 street boys yesterday. Today they had some guest speakers. Monday they want me to teach on health issues and show them how to make soap.

July 10, 2007 - - We are having a very successful trip. We need a nurse to look at the street boys aches and pains. Yesterday we sent two boys to the dentist to have extractions, today there was a boy with eye problems...don't know what kind. Shadrack is going to take him to the doctor soon. They eat much much food. The cooks at the compound do lots of cooking.

July 14, 2007 - - It is cold here on the Equator at 5500 feet elevation. July and August are their cold months and it has been in the 70's every since we came. There is no heat in the homes or hotels. The only heat is near the "jiko's" where they cook the food. We visited Sweetwaters Animal Park on Thursday and got some good shots of a herd of giraffes. We saw many other animals including getting my picture made with a Black Rhino. This park is on the equator.

Friday we taught in the women's class in the morning and met with the staff in the afternoon. We are very pleased with the progress of the staff in less that a year at the school compound. However there is still much to be done. We talked a lot about budgeting and getting out of debt. They all want us rich Americans to loan them the money for things from furniture to farms (Shamba's). I explained that we are also working a plan to get out of debt.

Today is Saturday and we hired a taxi and driver to take us to several places in town to determine the prices of things such as school uniforms, iron sheets(we call it sheet iron) for building, cement, tools, and stuff. It amazes me how the native people here don't know how to do simple tasks like building a small guard house or a fence. The pastors and the street boys all want to learn some trades or ways to earn money. The people don't tithe so the pastors do not receive a salary. They want to get a goat or some chuicken to earn maney. I have really been working with the staff that we must change the way everyone thinks so that as the students go back home they can effect some changes in their own church and community. We are going to get some chickens and a couple of goats for the school so they see and learn and will have milk for their tea.

July 20, 2007 - - We have really been busy and the internet is so slow and far away. It is 5:30 p.m. on Friday right now and we have to hurry. Each and every day here is 12 hours long, there is no variation. We will have to walk about a half mile back to the hotel so we will have to leave here before it starts getting dark. There are no street lights and thugs are prevalent especially after dark.

We have really had a blessed trip and everwhere we have gone and with everything we are trying to do God has gone before us and prepared the way. Today we went to Maua Hospital, which is about an hour and a half away, to meet with a man we only had his name and we found out it was mispelled. Shortly after we got there he walked in and helped us a lot. It is awesome.

Last Sunday we created a real stir in the church where we went. They asked us to greet the people and I held Nanny's arm as we went up to the platform and put my arm around her waist as we talked and later put my arm around her shoulders in the pew. That stirred up the people since the men usually don't sit with their wives and never show any affection in public and little in the bedroom. This caused two meetings to discuss marriage issues. Now looks like we will have to teach marriage relations here.

We also met with George the goat man and John from the Bio-intensive farm. They are my buddies and we took a picture together. Monday and Tuesday at the Bridges School Compound the men helped me and we put in 250 feet of water line. It was hard work but they did most of the manual labor. I also had a local plumber helping but I was looking over his shoulder supervising all the way. The men are proud of their effort as none of them have ever done any plumbing before.

There is a group of people here on a mission trip at our hotel and we have enjoyed their company. We have also developed many contacts from their leader. Things are going so much better than we could have dreamed.

July 21, 2007 - - Last night we bought soap and we will give it to the street boys tomorrow, each one will receive one bar. It is so hard for us to realize that there are people who don't even have soap or a place to sleep. They can go to the river and bathe and wash their clothes. However some may trade it for drugs that they sniff.

We have helped some boys by having some teeth pulled and eyes examined and one was treated for snake bite. They live a very hard life since they have no parents or their parent or parents cannot afford to feed them. I think 3 of the street girls actually live with a blind grandmother.