The school bus rolled down the rutted dirt road and finally pulled into a long driveway with a white gate. The guard opened the gate and, dusty and tired, we got out into the courtyard in front of Chairman Phillip Okundi's home in the Kochia area. Chairman Okundi and his daughter Maureen opened the Ombogo Girl's Academy in 1996 to serve young women in the region, many who have been orphaned by the AIDS pandemic. The Slum Doctor Programme in Bellingham has been working in partnership with Ombogo to raise scholarship funds to sponsor those girls who do not have family or whose families cannot afford the fees for secondary education.
Chairman Okundi was raised in this village, and his father is buried on the compound and his father's wives lived in the homes surrounding the big house. Okundi was a minister representing this area in the Kenyan government at one time, and is now the equivalent of the head of the FCC for Kenya. We are fortunate to be able to stay in his home, which for this region is quite luxurious with running water and in-door plumbing. The power supply is erratic, as it is for all of Western Kenya. The severe drought means that the water powered electric system is turned off frequently (and for long periods of time).
Okundi's household is large, including his daughter Maureen and her two children, Elan and Etaniel and various servants and their children. People move in and out of the house all day and the feeling is very welcoming and warm. When Chairman Okundi is in residence he has a line of supplicants outside his gate all day, and he brings them in in small groups to hear their problems and work with them to try to solve the problems of this very poor region.
Shearlean, Kristi and I shared a bedroom upstairs which was quite comfortable.
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