I just left Punjani Electrical where I purchased 100 meters of cable with the necessary plug and receptacle so we should now be able to extend electricity to the building we are using for the training. That will make it possible to use the projector we brought so students will not need to crowd around a single computer.
I am presently at Kenshop in Kisumu (an Internet Cafe) as we had a major lighting storm on Saturday and the Internet access has been down at ICRAF ever since. We have had several electrical outages and a couple of water outages while I have been here the past 10 days. On so many levels, it is obvious that I am no longer in the US.
You may notice in the pictures, in addition to their excitement, people are remarkably well dressed and clean--after 1 day in the village my clothes and skin were covered in the ever-present red dirt. I am not sure how everyone remains so clean. One thing is for sure, these folks are able to maintain an amazing level of dignity considering the poverty they face.
ps., I am now posting larger versions of the pictures that can be accessed by clicking the small versions shown below. Enjoy.
1 comment:
Thank you for the comments and questions. The electrical outages seem to be pretty common, but it is a relatively simple annoyance; I'm sure those of us from the US and Europe are the only ones who fret about it.
The fact of the matter is that we have so much that we take for granted in the US. Electricity, indeed, is a luxury compared to having clean water, avoiding life threatening disease, not losing your year's worth of food to draught. You add political turmoil or war on top of that, and I wonder how people maintain their will to keep trying. Africans may have little compared to those in the developed world, but their preserverance and dignity is inspirational.
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