We arrived at a small lakeshore resort just outside of the village and Sam and Terry had a nice supper at a cabana on the beach before heading for bed after a long day of many hours on interesting roads. Fred and Juma stayed at Fred's cousin Calvin's home overnight in Sindo.
The rest of the Team caught their Friday flight to Kilimanjaro without incident. They met a Tanzanian businessman very involved with textiles and he took a real interest in Days For Girls kits. He promised to try and source the special PUL and flanalette materials crucial to the kits which could open the door to having the DFG kits sewn locally! The Team then boarded a KLM flight which took them to Dar es Salaam for a short layover, and then a 7 plus hour flight to Amsterdam.
Leaving Amsterdam after what was to be 3 hour layover became problematic with technical problems on the plane significant enough to cause the airline to change planes. Since the replacement plane was a smaller unit than the original, for a time it looked like Jane and Tammy would not be able to board their scheduled flight. After several minutes of consternation, they were allowed to board and ended up sitting in the same row as Tammy's son Jack! What was to be a 3 hour layover turned into a 7 hour layover but they arrived back in Toronto, and then home, safe and sound, and very tired!
Saturday morning Fred and Juma picked up Sam and Terry and drove over to see where Fred grew up. There we met his uncle, aunt, 11 year old niece Marcie (Inno's sister!) and 91 year old grandma who had just walked back from a swim in Lake Victoria, 3/4 of a kilometre down the hill from the house! She is an amazing woman, and she is basically Fred's parent since his parents both died soon after Fred was born. Inno is the son of Fred's sister who passed away several years ago and has been adopted by Fred and Leisha. Fred's uncle and aunt are raising Marcie and it was nice to meet them as well. After a nice visit, along with a cup of chai tea and some bread, we continued on our way toward Kisumu, which was to be our destination at the end of the day. A one hour ferry ride across a bay in Lake Victoria chopped several hours of bumpy driving off of our schedule and we arrived in Kisumu in time for supper.
Sunday morning Fred and Juma dropped Sam and Terry off at the airport for the one hour flight to Nairobi where Calvin and his friend picked them up to guide them around Nairobi for the day. After touching base with Sonny about visiting him later, the guys stopped for breakfast and then headed to the slum area where Sonny lives and he has opened his cyber cafe.
Sonny and his wife Olga have been working in the East Leigh slum area of Nairobi for many years. Olga has worked with the Nairobi Mennonite Church up until sometime before the Amani Cyber Cafe opened last spring and Sonny has been running street basketball programs and a small guitar factory to give vulnerable youth, both boys and girls, something to positive to do. Shantz Mennonite Church has been supporting Sonny with some financial aid for a number of years, especially with a lump sum recently to help get the Cyber Cafe up and running.
The Cyber Cafe was packed with all the computers and gaming stations busy. He charges a fee for every minute of use and there is always a line waiting. Mostly the users were children and youth, but he does have a couple of computers reserved for use by adults immediately when they come in. The cafe also provides office services like government forms, emailing, permits, etc. Sonny's plan is to add some more computer and gaming stations even though there isn't a lot of room in his rented space. He needs cash to buy the additional hardware, but the plan makes sense since his cost won't change significantly but his income would improve. He is also considering adding an M Pesa (money transfer) station since it would also add to his bottom line and bring more customers to the door.
After a short walking tour of the neighbourhood, the guys left to drive around Nairobi, grab a late lunch, and then head to the airport for the late night flight to Amsterdam, with Sam then off to London and then home to Portland and Terry catching his flight to Toronto.
Thank you to everyone for their support and prayers. All in all, the Project was very successful, not only in terms of the work accomplishments, but also the way the team interacted with each other, the resilience in the face of some adversity, and continued strengthening of relationships with our existing friends.