Just back from Kenya

It's been over a year since the Mount Kenya challenge, so I was really pleased to be able to get back to Kenya again this month to catch up on what's been happening. As well as being a bit of time to relax and enjoy a few days off, I was able to get to see some of the Vision Africa projects.

However, the main reason for going was to be at the wedding of Deborah Ross and Moses Mathenge. Deborah is one of our field team in Kenya and is in charge of our Seed of Hope vocational training program for orphaned and destitute teenage girls. Moses is quite a celebrity in Kenya as a very well known and popular Christian disc jockey, so the media were there to report the whole thing on TV and in the newspapers.

What a great day it was. The sun shone all day (just as well since it was all outdoors) and it got pretty hot. The highlight was Moses and his entourage all doing their bit to honour Deb's Scottish heritage and all wearing the full garb including tartan kilts and all the regalia. Debs of course looked stunning in her traditional bridal dress.

We had a bit of a side trip down to the Masai Mara after the wedding to take ourselves out of the way while John and Vera and the rest of the VA team recovered from an intensive week leading up to the wedding. Perhaps more on that later, but it was fanastic. If you're interested in some of the photo's I took you can see them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kenyabob

Our project visits were very encouraging. We'll get some updates posted on our news pages shortly, but it was good to see both Kambiti Special Needs (the Percy Davies School) and the Kandara Baby Unit up and running this time round. Both of these special units offer the best care for some of the most vulnerable children in Kenya. Of course it was also great to see our other projects, especially the children's homes, doing so well. Unfortunately I didn't have time to get round all the projects, especial in the Western part of Kenya so that will have to wait for another time. The main thing is I want to be able to assure our supporters that your money is still being used wisely and benefiting many, many children.

The final highlight of this trip was the opportunity of meeting up with the new British High Commissioner, Rob Macaire, and accompany him on his first visit to the Kibera Slum. He was particularly encouraged by our support for the Kibera football and was quite surprised by just how many children this encompasses. My sincere thanks go to our staff members Vincent and Kirsty that did a great job of hosting the commissioner and the head of the Kenya branch of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) on their first trip into the slums. There was a lot of press interest in this which will help to further raise the profile of Vision Africa in Kenya. The picture shows Vision Africa's Vincent with the High Commissioner (centre) and Mike from DFID.

That's it for now. Please check out our news pages for occasional updates as we provide more detailed reports of some of this brief summary.