Mwingi

Monday morning we took a drive from Machakos to Mwingi.  It was supposed to be five or six hours long but thankfully some recent road improvements cut it down to two hours.  This was especially a blessing for me as I awoke feeling as if 'Ralph' was knocking on the door and soon I'd have to answer.  I downed a couple Gravol and settled into the back seat for what I hoped would be a long and uneventful sleep.  Apparently it worked well as by the time I came to we were half an hour outside Mwingi.

Mwingi is a truck stop and it happens to be busy enough that there's now a town there too.  Generally it's full of transients, people looking for a score of some sort and Somali's.  This is a very different experience for us and immediately upon our arrival we could tell it was a different place and quite frankly I think it half shocked and scared some of us.  However, having been here for a little while now I think it's safe to say we feel safe where we are and during our walk for dinner tonight we enjoyed relating to the kids on the street.

After setting up the accommodations we headed to the work site (about 30 minutes away).  We spent time meeting and talking to the people we'll be with for the next week.  As always that was a huge pleasure.  After a quick meal most of us pitched in to help get things started.  It was good to finally 'get to work'.

I on the other hand took the time to sit down with Carlos Mutinda.  We talked for about 45 minutes and both of us learned a lot.  I'll try and tell you more about that later.

This week will be exhausting for most of us and we've all decided that we'll work towards getting to know at least one person who's story we can bring home to tell you.  Start looking forward to them now, these are amazing people.


lisa