Habari Quiet Way friends! Jina langu ni Wausi!

This is Holly Sue writing you from Kenya. Ron Hatfield and I arrived here at the beginning of this week, and I will be remaining until the 22nd of August (Ron goes home August 9). I can honestly say I’ve never been so “successfully busy” in my life; meaning, I’ve never eeked so much out of a day.

Before arriving in Kenya we visited the United Kingdom for a day, in hopes of meeting with other charities that have a focus of ending water poverty in Kenya. We met with two VERY impressive organizations: Excellent Development (www.excellentdevelopment.com) and the Kajiado District Development Trust (www.kajiado-district-dev-trust.org.uk). We had SO MUCH FUN meeting with these groups and learning from them about their dam-building initiatives. We also presented to them our strategy for the Give a Dam program: to get all charities with a water focus in Kenya working in collaboration with one another, with the Kenyan public services departments, the Kenyan Government, and bilateral/mutlilateral organizations (like the World Bank). I’ll be visiting the worksites of both of these organizations over the next few weeks and sincerely look forward to a long, successful friendship with them.

Ron and I have spent the past 3 days in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, making as many appointments as possible, with a variety of people. We have met with Minister of Parliament (similar to our Senators) Phillip Kaloki, who spent a whole afternoon with Ron arranging for our two shipping containers to pass duty-free through Kenyan customs. I met with the Mamanadada charity (www.mamanadada.org). We met with an engineering organization to discuss our dam projects (Nyana Hills engineering), with the East Africa Association of Grantmakers (www.eaag.org), the Vice President of Kenya’s charity – the Kalonzo Musyoka Foundation, two scholarship recipients, and many more friends of our organization …

Today we took a day off to visit the Nakuru Lake park, famous for the thousands of flamingos that feed on the lake’s shore. It rained on us

All-in-all, we’re beginning to move forward with the necessary contacts, alliances and necessary documentation to end water poverty in Kenya forever. It’s a very exciting thing. This country is teeming with progress. (On August 4 they vote for a referendum to their constitution that will further the level of democratic process). It’s an amazing time to be here. Napenda waKenya sana. WaKenya ni watu wa kupendeza!!!

I’ll keep you posted. I’m a little nervous about being away for a whole month, but feel relieved at the ubiquitous availability of wi-fi, and at the amount of progress we’ve made in such little time already.

Thanks for supporting us, and if you haven’t done so yet, check out www.triandgiveadam.com – there are lots of ways to help, and James is setting a wonderful example of making his passion pay out for the greater good.

Asante sana!
Holly Sue Hatfield
Executive Director
In Our Own Quiet Way