A DAY TRIP TO EWUASO NAJILE GIRLS SECONDARY SCHOOL

Esther, MWEEP's Moi University graduate, is teaching at this school, hired by the board until she receives her diploma in Feb 2011. Then she can be a government hire. We headed north in the Rift Valley. Once we got to a spot along a large escarpment, we stopped for a "picnic"--chapati, peanut butter, liquid yogurt, bananas and sodas. This was an unusual experience for our Maasai friends.

Esther was pointing toward Ewuaso and Mt. Susua. We still had to drive down the rest of the escarpment and then along the valley to Ewuaso and further to the school. Esther is in her classroom, schedule for a day, and Esther Sein one of our scool fee recipients.

Esther was a Form 4 student so she has now completed secondary school. She will receive her marks in Feb. She wants to go to university to be a nurse. She was proud to share with us that she was the head of her dorm. This school has 4 dorms with 50 girls in each dorm. This is a fairly new school. Esther is the younger sister of Grace, the first girl Jon & I helped with school fees in 2004.

It was an amazing day for all of us. Even our driver told me later that it was one of the better driving days for him.

A VISIT TO HANNAH'S BOMA

While we were staying at Josephine's place in Ilngarooj, we took a day to visit at Hannah's home. It was about a 30 minute walk through the bush toward the Ngong Hills.

(Ngong Hills in background)

Hannah had prepared a meal for us in her hut. She was proud to show us the home she was building that was nearly complete.

walking back to Josephine's home with their Lululemon bags

Arriving at Josephine K. home in Ilngarooj was thrilling. Some of the MWEEP sponsored girls and mothers were there to greet us as well as others from the community. This is the home of Esther our MWEEP student who finised university.

We spent several days here getting to know this family (josephine has a large shamba --garden and she is in charge of the bore hole pump. If you bring diesel she will send water to your home. if you can't afford the diesel she'll let you come to get water from her tank.

Food was delicious, my favorite sakuma wiki (sauted kale), Jon's favorite chapati (like a large tortilla), beans, rice, etc,

ARRIVAL TO OUR 1ST HOME IN ILNGAROOJ

It was very exciting to finally be heading to our first home, Josephine K had invited us to stay in the village of Ilngarooj.
This also the home of Esther our student graduating from Moi University.

Three Weeks in Maasailand

Jon and I have now spent three weeks with our Maasai friends. We have had many wonderful experiences and feel that much has been accomplished. We hope to start entering some blogs that will recount the days spent in Ngong and in the valley. We've stayed in some different homes and had chances to have "tea" with different families. The highlight this year was going to the first MWEEP graduates graduation. You'll hear more about that soon. We also had a trip further into the

bush to see the school where Esther was teaching. We had 90 people at the girls' and parent's meeting -- it was quite the day.

GREETED BY OUR MAASAI FRIENDS

Rosemary, MWEEP chairlady and Josephine S., MWEEP Financial Officer came to our guest house to pick us up to go to the village. It is always so exciting to see them. We had an interesting ride: first we stopped to see Rosemary's daughter and son-in-law, they had been married since we were last there. Jeanne was expecting her baby in 2 days, a little boy. She gave us a lunch. Then we stopped in Ngong to leave some of our big bags at Koi's parents.
Then it was a late lunch at the Bonapet (small restaurant in Ngong -- a place where you can run into friends. We saw a woman from Poulsbo, WA who has a project here and then some of our friends. More MWEEP women joined us there and eventually we all loaded up and headed into the Rift Valley.

First MWEEP University Graduate

Esther Namunyak Otoma will be going through graduation ceremonies at Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya on December 12, 2010. Jon and Loanna Day, MWEEP Founder/President will be attending the graduation with some of the MWEEP Kenya officials.

Esther has gone through many hardships and with a tremendous amount of perseverence, she has reached this milestone. Esther is the first girl from her village Ilngarooji to attend and complete university. She has a major of English and Religion. She has already started to teach at a secondary school since her coursework was finished mid-year.

Esther has goals to obtain her Master's Degree and be a Headmistress for a Secondary School.

MWEEP USA is so proud of Esther and her accomplishments. CONGRATULATIONS

return for photos of her graduation after December 20th.