Library Project Update

In spite of Paul and I leaving Kenya rather unexpectedly (OK! We were thrown out!), the library project was a success thanks to all of your generous donations. We hoped to collect $1500 but with your help, we raised more than twice that amount. That means that the Kenyan staff will be able to fill the library with all new, culturally relevant books, maps and other materials. They may even have enough to start a smaller version at the orphanage, the Ongoro Children’s Home.

The Lalmba Matoso Library is the only library in the entire region and an important source of educational materials for the local students. Education doesn’t guarantee a Kenyan a successful future but it does give them a big boost. Perhaps more importantly, the library will open up a whole new world to those children in the surrounding villages whose families are unable to afford school fees. In addition to books written in their mother tongue of Luo and by African authors from across the continent, they’ll be exposed to works that will bring the whole world to their village. In the coming months, the Director of Education, John Chacha will go to Kisumu to order books and when they arrive we’ll ask our successor to take photos of the new and improved library for all to see.

The past year has been an amazing, challenging, frustrating, eye opening and joyful experience. We were privileged to spend 9 months working with our Kenyan colleagues and caring for their Luo patients. We not only learned so much about health care needs in Africa but also saw first hand the interconnectedness of our lives. Looking back at our country from that distance also gave us new appreciation for the freedoms that we enjoy but often take for granted. We appreciate our free and fair election process and our society’s ability to continually evolve to meet the challenges of our world. We appreciate our country’s history of embracing people from diverse cultures who have the freedom to create new lives for themselves and their families.

We thank you all for your interest in our journey and your love and support throughout the year. We are so grateful for all the packages and emails filled with treats and news and love. We give special thanks to my siblings Francesca, Karen and Jim and their families for welcoming us into their homes during the past 7 weeks while we were waiting to move back into our Denver bungalow. The vagabond life of living out of a suitcase could have been unsettling and frustrating but you made it feel like a prolonged vacation. It is indeed good to be home.

Peace and love

Darcie and Paul