A message from Emily

Hi everyone,

Emily has asked us to publish a short message from her.  She is a truly remarkable lady who has been so generous and kind, not just to the children, but to us during our stay. We miss Ket Wangi already and hope all is well there.

 This is a message for al of you as without you none of our work would have been possible. Enjoy…

Ket Wangi is over the moon.

Hosannah Hosannah! Dreams come true. Today Ketwangi is shining, the donors arrived and as per their words (actions speak louder than words) these are the shining stars of Europe. I hope you want to know who they are. Ben, Toby, Nick, Paul, Christian, Doret and David. Guess; why is it Europe? Ketwangi is no longer relying on kerosene lamps, the solar panels have been installed and today we have power which means the children are now studying in the evening with lights on.

The impossible have been made possible to date; no longer walking to get medicine from nearby clinic every week. Ket Wangi has a fridge for medicine and now we will be attending routine check ups at the provincial hospital once every month.

The shining star is on! Ket Wangi Mini farm is in progress. The chicken pen is almost done; and soon you will hear the chicks singing. Those in the expedition 2011 hall of fame rejoice, very soon the chicks will be named after you. I wish you are here to see how busy the donors are. Nobody is relaxing, children are transported to the hosptial and back home. Repairs are done to the home and Jane, the girl with the burns, is dressed on a daily basis. The children are happy and playing with them; what a lovely month at Ket Wangi! Ket Wangi is still flying over the moon, yesterday the donors organised a big party for both the children and staff. I wish you were here to join us at the dinner party; what is amazing is that the donors used our open kitchen to prepare spaghetti; congratulate then for going through the smoking fire wood.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is fulfilled in these celebrities! The money which they had collected was spent on setting the hospital bills for Jane and Ivon’s treatment, it was a shock to them but they saw the need and thought very fast and came to a resolution. Thank you so much for donating to Ket Wangi orphanage.

Best wishes from the children, staff and community.

Emily.

Chickens, coops and cock ups

 

Ket Wangi has chickens! Yes, as we speak “Susan”, “Joy”, “Ugly Steve” and Toby (the Cock) are, along with 17 other birds happily wandering around their nice new chicken run. We can’t quite believe it. Two months ago we generally weren’t sure Emily (the car) would make it to Africa. Last night she was transporting 21, rather surprised (really surprised judging by the mess they left in the back of our car) chickens to their new home. Hopefully soon they will be happily laying away and providing plenty of eggs for the children.

 

We’ve had a lot of fun here. We can’t quite believe how quickly the time has gone. We have spent the last two weeks here at the Ket Wangi Orphanage and it has been truly fantastic. The children here are funny, cheeky and most importantly, happy. Emily (the person) has created an incredible family for these children and we have been welcomed with open arms. They are always singing, dancing and keen to help. Whether its sawing, holding nails or “washing” the car (inside and out) with muddy water their cheeky smiles have made a hard two weeks much easier… and the car now smells great!

 

Of course things haven’t always gone quite to plan. On Thursday an agricultural expert came and informed us our chicken coop was “excellent”…now all that was left to do was “build another one” as it wasn’t quite big enough. Brilliant. So it has been an intense few days. Christian, Nick and Paul have been frantically building a new coop. David (unenviably) has been repairing the orphanage’s latrine doors. Toby and Ben have been busy… shopping, getting lost and generally trying to stay out of the way. Ben did manage to carry out some “really important maintainance” on the back diff. To be fair, it only took Nick, Paul and Christian three hours to put things right again.

 

Indeed, despite our best efforts we (by we, I mean Christian) have successfully constructed two lovely green chicken houses. One nest house for broody birds, and one lounge room for everyone else to chill out in. Both complete with windows, perches and, of course, plenty of “ventilation” holes. It has been hectic. Indeed even now some last-minute “improvements” are being carried out. The fence is being tweaked, some holes are being filled and a cover is being placed over the whole chicken enclosure to prevent “Biggles” from scaling the six foot fence… again.

 

We cannot thank you all enough for all of your help and support. It’s impossible to express just how far your kind donations have gone. In reality the chicken coop is the tip of the iceberg. As you know, your initial donations were spent giving Jane and Ivonne emergency medical treatment. Rest assured the “second wave” of donations have been equally well spent. The toilet doors now close and lock, allowing the growing children some privacy. For the first time in a long time the orphanage has electric lights and a fridge. All powered by solar panels meaning no on-going electricity bills. Today we purchased forty five blankets so the children can keep warm at night while they sleep under their new mosquito nets. Indeed, after four month’s of lugging it around, we’ve managed to jettison Paul’s climbing rope. It’s a great washing line.

 

So soon we are heading off again, back towards Mount Kenya. We really can’t thank you all enough. The money you guys donated has made a real difference. Our projects have so far been a great success. If these children’s lives have been improved just a little it will be more than worth the splinters, cuts and frustration that comes with bodging a chicken coop. I would love to say our work here is done. There is still though so much more that can be done. Our project may be coming to an end but these kids will still be here when we leave. They will still sleep four to a matress on the floor, still need to eat, still need medicine and A.R.V’s, still need to be rushed to hospital. Jane’s burns will still need treatment. In the short time we have been here we have seen how the children’s medical condition can flip in a matter of minutes. For the last three days, on little girl, who led the dancing and singing when we arrived, has had to be carried around everywhere. She has been bed-ridden by sickle cell anemia. Donations here are few and far between, which makes everyone’s generosity all the more significant. We are sad to be leaving this place. Everyone has been so welcoming here. We have every intention of coming back. We will always remember Ket Wangi. We hope that you will too.

 

 

 

To donate to the Ket Wangi orphanage visit http://www.ketwangi.wordpress.com or contact us on nhouston.expedition2011@gmail.com and we’ll help sort everything out for you.

Thank You!

Thank you! 

Hi everyone. We just thought we would drop you a quick message to say a huge thank you to all of you. The response to our last blog has been truly incredible. We have been simply overwhelmed by everyone’s (continued) generosity. Rest assured the donations have not been in vain. In just two days we have managed to re-raise enough to continue with our proposed projects.

 Yesterday for the first time (in a long time) the children of Ket Wangi had electric lights in the evening. A fridge has also been delivered (after a terrifying 30 minute drive with said fridge wobbling all over Emily’s roof rack) and installed. This is really great news as now crucial medicines such as A.R.Vs can be stored on site. Everything is powered by solar panels, a sustainable, low maintenance energy source that can, with other projects, be added to in the future.

So that’s fantastic news. Also those bits of scrap wood and dodgy tongue and groove planks are beginning to come together. We now have something that at least resembles a chicken coop (or at the very least a small wendy house). By the time we leave we hope to have around twenty feathered friends here laying eggs all over the place. We can’t thank you enough. Without your help none of this would have been possible.

 Mosquito nets are being bought today, so all the kids (and teachers) will be protected from malaria and other mosquito borne diseases. This will make a huge difference especially as those with HIV are more susceptible to malaria. Even yesterday we had to rush six of the HIV positive children to hospital with suspected malaria. Things change so quickly here. One evening the children are running around and playing then, all of a sudden they simply cannot get up in the morning.

 And the girl in the photo? That’s Jane, and you all saved her life. With the help of some antibiotics and creams, her burn is no longer septic and is starting to heal. We have provided enough equipment to the orphanage to keep treating after we have gone and hopefully until it is properly healed. The only trouble is we cannot be here forever. For now Christian, with our help, has been redressing Jane’s wound everyday. The staff here have been shown what to do. But if there are any overlanders/ doctors/ tourists with medical experience in the Kisumu area over the next month please contact us. Just half an hour a day to change a bandage will help spare this little girl from a lot of pain.

 We have been staggered by everyone’s generosity but please do not stop there with the donations! There is still so much to do at Ket Wangi. Talking to Emily, her family and the staff, we have realised that Ket Wangi is so much more than an orphanage. It’s a place where old women walk miles to every day to be given a meal they otherwise would not get. It’s a place where children that have been abused by their family or forced into labour can seek refuge. It’s a place that counsels child wives and where the children are properly educated. In an area where 80% of deaths are attributed to HIV/AIDS and it is seen as witchcraft/ a curse, it educates the future generation about the virus and how to prevent it from spreading. In short, Ket Wangi is absolutely essential to this whole area.

 Oh and the Hall of Fame is updated!

An Urgent Plea.

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Hello everyone. We are sorry it’s been so long since our last update. We are safe and well and in Kenya. Hurray! Very soon we will update you with stories of horrendous highways, hungry hippos and huge herons. Good stuff.

For now, however, we have important, serious, news to bring to you. If you only read one of our blogs to the end throughout our whole trip, please make sure it is this one.

As you probably already know we are doing work at the ket wangi orphanage (www.ketwangi.wordpress.com) in Kisumu, Kenya. We arrived 3 days ago and have been overwhelmed by the place. It is a haven for orphaned kids who literally have nothing and no one else. The kids are awesome but their stories are horrifying. Some of their families were killed in post election violence. Others are victims of aids. Yesterday we met a six year old girl who is not only orphaned, but HIV positive. There is no real welfare system here. Ket wangi is all they have. It is horrible to think what these kids (many of whom are HIV positive), aged between 4 and 12, would do if Emily (the founder) hadn’t given up her home to look after them.

As you also probably know we have come here with the intention of building a small, sustainable mini farm to help provide the orphanage with a way of making some money and to cut down on their food bills.

While we have been overwhelmed by the good this place is doing, the facilities are poor. There is no electricity, the one ‘classroom’ is also a dining and bed room. The children sleep on the floor, some without blankets or mosquito nets. The kitchen is a smokey mud hut.

So we are endeavoring to help. Before we left Poole General Hospital’s Medical Staff Committee very kindly donated money for a fridge to keep essential anti-retrovirals and other medicines in, and mosquito nets as malaria is a big problem here, especially for the kids with HIV. The lack of electricity has made things difficult for us, but with Christian’s help (he’s an electrician) we are planning to install solar panels to provide enough power to run the fridge and for lights in the house after dark. We also hope to go on with the chicken farm, which will provide food and money. The money you guys have generously given was intended for these projects.

We have however hit a major crisis. Since the time our initial donation was made the orphanage has had two serious medical emergencies. One little girl, was bitten a venomous snake while playing and spent 18 days in hospital recovering. Another little girl, Jane, was brought in after receiving serious burns on her legs while collecting firewood for her family. She spent 57 days (longer than we were stuck in Jordan) in hospital. We helped clean and redress her wounds today and they are truly horrific for such a small child. There is no NHS here; the orphanage simply could not afford to cover the costs, so the decision was taken to use your money to provide treatment.

So on the on hand we are delighted. Your money has undoubtedly saved the lives of two children. This is not an exaggeration. Without your donations the treatment of these children wouldn’t have been possible. These injuries could have been fatal; instead they are now happily playing with the other kids. We can’t thank you enough!

We do, however, now have a serious problem. We only found out this information today. Simply put, as it stands, we do not have enough money to complete both our solar and chicken projects at the moment. The money has been used, albeit for the right reasons. We really really need more money. We are sorry to ask you again but if you can find anything extra to give please contact us. We are only here for two weeks so this is urgent. We want to begin working as soon as possible.

Rest assured this isn’t beer money you’re giving us. Everything you give and have given is for the orphanage only. If you can donate please email us as soon as possible at nhouston.expedition2011@gmail.com and we will give you the account details of our project fund pot (separate from the orphange’s pay pal account). Thanks guys. We really don’t want to preach and beg, but the situation here has properly messed us up and we really need your help…again!

Toby, Ben, Nick, Paul