Rabour Village July 29, 2009

After the visit to Kaimosi, Maureen dropped me off to meet the others at Rabour Village, another project sponsored in part by the Slum Doctor Programme. Here we spent time at the preschool that serves about 150 children, many whom have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS; the Slum Doctor Programme helps provide food for one nutritious hot meal a day. As in Kaimosi spending time with the children was so much fun! The children were eager to interact and to sing and play for us. (The little white girl in the video is an albino child, not a muzungu!) Once again I was reminded of how central music is to this culture. These children sing at the drop of a hat and are already lining out the lead line against the repeating refrain.

We stayed with Molly and her family and she fed us well, creating incredibly delicious meals in her small indoor/outdoor kitchen and our accommodations were quite comfortable, complete with a certain kind of in-door plumbing! Shearlean is modeling the required mosquito netting. Malaria is still a prevalent problem all of sub-Saharan Africa, causing about 2.7 million deaths a year, so taking these precautions is critical.

We also got a chance to tour the project and see the other development activities that the Rabour Village Project to combat poverty and the impact of disease in their communities. They are using a village by village development model, working on creating food security and sustainable employment training and opportunities for the young people at a village centered level, so they don't have to leave their villages. They are providing agricultural training, have a large truck garden and poultry project and are also making bricks from the local red clay to sell. The Rabour Village Project has been quite successful in many ways, but the major set back they face at this time is the quality of the roads. Rabour is a ways up a very rutted and challenging road, so transportation of the farm goods and the bricks is challenging. Any progress on the transportation infrastructure in Kenya will make a huge impact on the ability of the rural people to participate in the growing economy.