Colorado

Note: The internet service to Kikuyu Hospital and University was not working from Monday afternoon until Wednesday evening.

Sarah writes about Monday, Aug. 30 -
Red dirt is found throughout the world: in Colorado, the very name of which means "red earth"; in parts of India, as I discovered last year; and as I knew academically, but now know as a concrete fact, in Kenya.

Kimuri School.

Laterite, the name of that iron-rich dirt that covers the Great Rift Valley and everything around it, is prized for the richness it provides the soil, helping to make Kenya an exporter of flowers, and it gives fish tanks the nutrients needed to keep natural plants, as opposed to those of the plastic variety, thriving.
After a weekend that lived up to the "voluntourism" catch-phrase of this vacation, with shopping for more shoes for the students at Kimuri School, souvenir shopping at an outdoor bazaar, and community building with the church secretary and her family, today the team experienced that red earth in many ways in and around the school.
In the morning, the group split up, with Eleanor, Kathy, Joyce, Gretchen, and Rich working indoors with groups of children for drawing, coloring, a story, singing games such as "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and "Hokey Pokey," and a dental hygiene lesson.

Children drawing their pictures.

Kendra, Mary, and I played active games outdoors, including soccer, wonderball, relay and running games, and Fruit Basket Upset, plus a hand-washing lesson.

Each pane had to be individually measured and cut.

The 38 broken windows were being replaced by Brad, Chuck, Dick, and Tina, with help from some of the local men. In the afternoon, Rich and I started cleaning one of the classrooms.

Getting ready to play fruit basket upset.

We sat in red dirt for some of the games. Red dirt covered the soccer ball. Rich and I swept up piles of red dirt from the classrooms. The buildings are frequently built of bricks made from the red dirt. Even the window repairers had to clean the red dirt out before re-glazing the windows.

By day's end, the color tinged my shoes and pants and the children's new shoes. After sweeping the walls and floors of the class room, Rich and I had dirt streaks making tracks on our faces. Tracks of Kenya.

After just one work day, I was tired, but already deeply invested in this trip. When I leave in two weeks, the laterite may wash off, but I hope to carry red earth of Kenya with me forever.

You can see more pictures from Monday by clicking here.