nonstop : )

 hello from kisii!! all is very well here. the weather here and back home a repretty much identical from what i hear. my farmsitter erikah is doing a great job and loving my animals, so that makes me happy happy : )

i was too pooped last night to write. slow download times make things a little challenging. but alas, a great night's sleep and waking up to a beautiful spread of fresh mango juice, kenya tea, coffee, and lots of food does wonders to revive a girl!

if i could really capture the providence and depth of some critical meetings we have had, it would be a longgg post. hitting highlights for nostalgia. on wednesday afternoon, we had our first required C.B.O. meeting for the in his hands rescue center. let's just say, there is red tape and bureaucracy everywhere you go. bylaws, procedures, legal process, constitution, and yada yada yada. there needs to be five kenyans and five americans on the CBO. we met with the Kenyan representatives. daniel, martha, peter, and steven are intelligent and successful kenyan business folks, and what they brought to the meeting was critical. it was a three-hour meeting and truly enjoyable. 

we came back to itibo and rested. yay for a little time to chill : )

big storm came and power was lost for the night, so it was a sweaty night : )

on to thursday! it brought another very very full day. all the things we are doing on this trip are needed to move the construction and organization itself forward. being here for over two weeks last year gave me a decent enough background to the people and their culture, that this has felt satisfyingly normal. it is funny how a place can become so comfortable in such a short amount of time. 

the morning started with meeting the surveyor and the advocate of the high court (attorney) onsite to review boundaries and mark for the perimeter walls. the individuals that michelle has aligned with here haver been trustworthy from the architect to the foreman to the government officials. there is ALOT of corruption here. everyone expects something. michelle holds the moral line. those meetings accomplished all that was needed.

before i forget something funny.... steven is the owner of construction firm. he is 37 years old and brilliant. he amazes me with his knowledge on such a wide array of subjects. this has nothing to do with that, but he said it is not atypical to find over 20 people in a five-passenget car. he said, "like all the time." as he was telling us this, a large van flew by with a man splayed out on the back of the van. he said, "yeah, you see people hitching a ride like that sometimes too!"

okay, back to other. while surveyor and attorney were there, three women arrived from the office of social development. we need their approval. at first, it felt a little contentious. just a little tense. we did a full tour and then found steven and sat down for a meeting. a meeting that turned out to be providential. it was powerful and gave us insight we didn't know we needed. i don't have liberty to detail here, but a shift is going to happen that will result in far more impact. we thanked God for bringing these women to us. the larger lady was definitely the leader. she kept fluffing my hair and talked me into giving her my lip gloss that was tucked in my bra. only in kenya.

that was only the morning! from there, we headed into town and picked out paint samples for the exterior of all the buildings. i was able to talk the paint store owner into loaning us his precious book of color samples. committed steven's life if not returned saturday lol! from there, we went a shopped for countertops, backsplashes, refrigerators, and stoves. we were in decision making mode because we are at crunch time for these things. wanting to do it in country, so steven can keep things moving forward.

then we got foot massages. it was late and steven thought we were joking. oh contraire! we had earned that baby. got home about 8:00, and michelle and i camped on beds and put together color swatch possibilities to send to architect who will transpose onto building drawings so we can decide which one is THE one!

it is friday morning here, and we are off for another packed day. no rest for the weary : ) love and miss my people back home......