Merry Christmas!

Hey there! Right just found a "cyber" to get access to the rest of the world! Christmas has apparently come and gone. Bit different over here! Kind of more a one day affair compared to the 2 month hype at home. This I can tell you is a much better and meaningful way!

I have spent Christmas with the Love SHACK in Nairobi. A different experence, and a bit strange when it is hot and you don't see the family. But still really cool! We still had decorations and Santa came. Magic! I don't know how he found me this time!

As part of the "on going work of Lindsay's Africa Project" I decided to give some food out to people without any for Christmas. And in Kenya, that's a lot of people!!! While still in Malindi last week I went with Eric, Kenyan business man I do the computers with, and bought loads of food from wholesale places, we threw it all in the back of a truck and headed off road to little villages that have little contact with the town, and are also a good journey away from anywhere.
We bought packets of flour and maize flour, and also cooking fat. This is the basic food here, from which everything is made. People were so greatful, and also quite confused that a crazy "musungo" was giving out free food in the middle of nowhere! What was also great from this project was that others also got envolved afterwards, and Eric did another run to other areas of need a few days later with even more stuff, that's what I love! You start something and it gets bigger!
So then coming to Nairobi I decided with Karen, director of the Love SHACK, to do something similar. So we went and sourced loads of cheap basics again and have been giving it out when the children come to visit with their parents and guardians and also on house visits to the most needy people in the area.
All of this has made this christmas, mighty different, but also really special.

The current little project I'm funding is getting school books sorted. Beginning of the school year is coming up, and the 128 kids that the Love SHACK supports are all heading back pretty soon. With this comes the huge expence of school fees. 60 of these kids are sponsord by wonderful folk from Ireland and the UK. Unfortunatly this money doesn't cover all costs, and thus things like books, calculators and maths sets put a huge hole in Sam's fundraising bucket. If kids don't have the required equipment and clothing they can be sent home until they do. GRRRRrrrrr! I said, and so I'm helping the Love SHACK with the library initiative. Sourcing and buying lots of calculators, maths sets, books and toilet paper. Equipment that then comes back at the end of the year is used again and the next year's stuff is then given out.
So hopefully this'll all help in some way!

Bryan has been and gone and Sam is here in Nairobi and we're somewhere north of Nairobi heading for the interior to visit a lovely child that Sam has helped.

Write again soon, and I'll find some photos when I get back to Malindi.


Lindsay

.......the work keeps going!

Man have I been having fun!!! Oh yea, and working too! Took a trip into the country side from the coast where I live. We visited 10 computer centers along the way, me, Eric and his lovely car.
Driving on some of these roads is something else! All I can say is, come and enjoy! There's nothing like driving up a slippery rock face in a normal car, and this is the done thing!! Bizarre! and fun!!

As I said we visited 10 places, 9 schools and an orphanage for boys. All these places over the last 4 years received computers from us PCs for Africa; and now I've set myself the task of seeing how these places have got on.


As you'll see from the photos, there is a mixed effort made. One school on top of a mountain (hence the slippery rock scaleing) in the middle of nowhere, has 20 computers and all of them running perfect!

Whereas another school, which has been encouraged a lot by us in the past with 25 computers, had only 7 running when I arrived. This place with a little attention from me have a few more going now, but the enthusism and sometimes the school budget sometimes lacks to keep things running fully. And so these are places that need another visit, when schools open again in January to see if they get to keep their computers, having made promises to fix them by then.










Last week before this trip I went and visited The Love SHACK, I'll tell you all about this place soon. For the moment check out their new web site that'll explain what they're up to, and then I'll let you in on what I got up to.

"Love SHACK"


Ciao for now!
I have a visitor arriving, so busy busy!!
Safaries etc


Lindsay