Oriti, Kenya!

"Nothing happens unless you make it happen"

- One of the many signs

Good news! 

This morning we were notified that the police station had retrieved some documents they wanted us to take a look at. We dropped by, and the lead investigator of our case had in fact found most of our belongings! Although they still were not able to recover our phones and money, we are glad to have our ID's, credit cards, and wallets back.

We also met with Jared, the engineer once again. We read over his contract, and after being satisfied with the content Natalya signed it and we were ready to head over to the construction site one last time. 

Upon arrival at the site, it was time for Jared to meet the community leaders, Elvis, and Wycliffe and show him around the site, so he could assess the progress of our project. While we were showing him around, it became clear that Jared was not afraid to voice his opinions on Elvis' methods of construction, or anything for that matter. He did not hold back on telling Elvis that his choice in waterproof cement was completely wrong, that he should have secured the tank bases better with wire before pouring cement for the slab, and that he needed to add a support beam to one of the roofs instead of cutting corners and cutting off part of the roofing. He also had no qualms telling the school officials that one of their primary school buildings ought to be condemned and demolished to be replaced with a new one. When the school officials proudly told him of their top student's score from the past year, he immediately responded by saying it was not impressive at all and that the school severely needs more staff. Principal Gregory agreed with the fact that they lacked good teachers, and Jared began explaining to him and Simon how if they need something at the school they need to speak up and make a big deal about it to the local government and that there are resources available for these types of problems. I believe the analogy he used was, "If you fall into a pit, and you never yell for help, you will never get out of the pit. Those at the bottom of the pit need to make noise." His speeches were full of knowledge and inspiration. We have a lot of faith resting in Jared and hope that he can help our team finish the project. The school officials even jokingly said he would be an honorary Engineers Without Borders member.

Saying goodbye to the school and everyone involved was very hard to do. However, everyone still had optimistic spirits and organized a fitting farewell for us. The school, the Water and Sanitation Committee, and ECODS all brought us beautiful presents including:

After leaving the community, we headed back to the hotel to prepare for our departure. We decided that even though we bought plane tickets from Kisumu to Nairobi, from which we were going to take our main flight back home, that we wanted to drive there instead to enjoy the scenery in the country for one last time and buy some African tea. We will also visit a beautiful lake and try to see some hippos. Right now we should be packing up all of our bags and going to sleep, since we are getting up at 5 AM tomorrow morning to set out on one last adventure here. Even though we are leaving Kenya, we will continue to monitor the project. We'll let you know how everything goes once we're back in the US! 

See you soon.