Creature Comforts

Things have certainly changed in Taru, Kenya for interns.  The first time I went in 2012 this was the toilet.  Yep a squatter! We saved the water from our showers to flush. 

And this was the shower.  You stood in the big bowl, lathered up and tried to rinse off with the water from the bucket.  Not exactly a relaxing proposition! 

This year in the new guest quarters our Kenyan director Joseph built, we had a REAL SHOWER - with hot water!  

And what the Kenyan's call a 'tall toilet'!  Ah the luxury! I didn't know about these improvements until I arrived.  
So what would make me go back for my 3rd trip?

The trip is hard, even with the new creature comforts, but the memories and joys are worth every hour on the airplane, every rice and bean meal, every bone jarring bump on the dangerous roads!  I wouldn't trade my time in Kenya for anything!

Experiences like seeing 3 little girls sitting in one desk reading a book that had been donated by Kenya Keys!
That's why I come back!

And being able to give a big box of books to the new library at Egu Primary.
An interesting note about Egu Primary - there are days when they can't have school because the elephants that have come out of Tsavo National Game Park in search of food are too close. We have 'snow days' they have 'elephant days'!
That's why I come back!

These two young men remember me from my trip in 2012.  They were in the 6th grade then and are now headed to university thanks to their Kenya Keys sponsors. 
That's why I come back!

I was able to meet June Sada Kadenge who is being sponsored by our friend, Michael Wilcox. I told him all about Kenya Keys when we were in the Galapagos Islands and now he sponsors two students, including June. 
Meeting new students is another reason to come back!

And I spent an afternoon at the home of another of our sponsored students and met her grandmother.  We think we are about the same age although she doesn't really know as back in the 1950s no one had birth certificates.  They know they were born 'the year of the big flood' or 'the year of the drought'.  Two proud grandmas enjoying an afternoon together.