From Moshi to Ketumbeine And Back Again!

It is always an inspiration to viait the Freiburgs in the Maasai village of Ketumbeine.  Steve is the doctor for the whole area and is involved in so many aspects of the people's lives.  His wife, Bethany is the coordinator of the NAAPOK bead project, among other things.  They are missionaries sponsored by the ELCA and have been in Tanaania for several years.  For a review and bit of background on both the Maasai and the bead projects, see the previous posts from my last visit here : Maasai (2/6/2011)' Maasai Primer and Ketumbeine Secondary School (same date, I think),

The road from Moshi to Longido, which was under construction and renovation 2 years ago is great!  It is all completed and nice and smooth (all the way to Nairobi, actually).  And the long gravel road out to Ketumbeine has also recently been graded and isn't too bad either.  Once we arrived and washed up and had lunch at Bethany's house, we set out to visit 4 of the new homes in various stages of construction.  Some of the homes we visited last time have been completed and several new ones have been started, all thanks to the sales of the beadwork that the women produce.

It is really quite wonderful to see the progress the women have made in their homes and in their lives. We met up with the mother of one of the students we sponsored for additional schooling, and he currently has a job in the village with World Vision, helping them collect and coile data on preschool children in the region.  He is blossoming and his mother is so very proud of him. She is self confident, happy and into the new house she built a couple of years ago, with the money she earned through her work with the Project.  She is one of the more accomplished headers in the project, and her home is one we visited on our last trip.

We also returned to the secondary school, where Asante provided funds for a new boys latrine.  It is nearly finished, and everyone at the school is delighted with a clean, new, sanitary latrine facility. Pit latrines really are a much more sensible option in an area with limited water, especially when most of the kids don't have any prior experience with toilets requiring water to work properly.

Much progress and improvements have been made at the school since it was new in 2007 and I visited it on my first trip to Ketumbeine.  Unfortunately, not so much progress has been made by yours truly in iPad operation.  I seriously am requesting assistance in creating a Picasa web album on my iPad.  I created the album, but when I copy the link into the blog, it opens to my own personal google+ account.  How is that for a public confession of tech-illiteracy?  I have great photos,but need help sharing them.  Sigh . . .

More later.  Thanks for reading.