The Water Intern Team

This is what the Water Interns look like in the city...

Judy, Taya, Winnie & Teresa

This is us in the community...

Water Intern Profiles:

Judy: Our quiet, deep thinker diva. Our expert at doing imitations of team members quirks and trademarks. The guru at teaching in our community participation meetings.

Winnie: Our spunky advocate. Passionate at challenging the people, compassionate heart for the watoto (children). Likes change: has had 5 different hairstyles since we met in September.

Taya: Our hardworker who keeps us motivated and on time. Great at connecting with the community.

Teresa: I try to keep things fun.

A reminder of things before the grocery store...

Please be aware that this material may be sensitive for some…

You would think that as a farm girl I would be more brave when “knowing where the food comes from.” I know that chocolate milk does not come from brown cows and nicely packaged boneless, skinless meat does not grow in the garden. But how often do you really think about the process that needs to happen in order to have your food in that form.

So our team was given the gift of 2 chickens on our way back from work on Friday. There is a very warm and welcoming woman that invited us to her house for chai and chapatis. And we left with our bellies full and two tied up chickens. One tried to make a run for it, out of the truck just as we were leaving so I had to chase it down and tackle it. On our next stop it again took off and Winnie (other intern) and I chased it through the compound and I trapped it under my leso (wrap skirt). We again confirmed the beliefs of the people in our housing area since we were screaming and running in between houses trying to get the chicken- man, they can run fast, even with their legs half tied.


It turns out that isn’t really a good thing for me to have a 3 hour drive back home to Mombasa- that is enough time to get emotionally attached. And once you have named them they aren't just some chickens but become more like pets...So here is Cha & Kula. (chakula= food) I was trying to prepare myself and be brave and make light of the situation...


So… in the end I wasn’t able to help the chickens go “missing.” (despite my threats of this and advocacy by hiding the box) They then met their end this evening and me trying to be brave... it was like watching a scary movie when you are interested but don't really want to see what is going to happen so you watch through the spaces between your fingers or the holes in the blanket. But, I have to remind myself that this is necessary in order for us to have food.

I guess I have been living in the city too long…

Well, I better sign off- Cha-Kula is now ready- literally. Off to go eat!

(by the way, I couldn’t bring myself to eat the chicken.)


I will spare you from the "other" pictures that I took around this incident.

Happy 3rd Birthday Emma!!!

I wish you a very happy birthday as you celebrate your 3rd birthday.

I hope you have a fun day. I send my love and hugs to you.

Here are some of my friends that I met in the community I am working in.

You would have fun playing with them.

A Window into My World

A visual tour of my job...

This is my Monday to Friday House.

It is a great house with great neighbour children that play with us when we are home from work. It has running water and we use lantern at night (aka no electricity). But hey we have built in National Geographic channel.

(we share our house with some fun wildlife- rats, bats, ants, a pet spider that "mysteriously" disappeared, snake, hedgehog?, & super jumping frogs and brightly coloured frogs. They have free reign while we are gone for the weekend...)

While I used to be stuck in traffic because of car accidents or bad weather... I have a different kind of traffic jam...

Our work site in Kazamoyo. The people in the community have been so graciously welcoming to us.

Stay tuned for the unveiling of our final product- the BioSand water filter! A simple design that makes a huge difference in the lives of these beautiful people.