MWEEP USA Non-Profit Status

The MWEEP board in the US has now finally completed the non-profit paperwork and it is mailed off. We have our EIN# so we are ready to receive donations.

They can be made to: MWEEP
PO Box 1958
Silverdale, WA 98380

EIN# 87-0809872

We have finalized our MISSION and GOALS, they are:

MISSION: Providing educational opportunities to empower Maasai girls and women

Goals:

1) provide funding for cost-share educational opportunitites for girls and women through:
*secondary school
*college and vocational opportunities in health care, leadership, agriculture,
teaching community development, social work, finance and environment
*life and entrepreneurial skills at the village level
2) educate Americans about the life of Maasailand women and organize fund
raising for support of Maasailand women's education

We are pleased to be adding the education at the village level with the coursework that will be taught by Project Baobab. The photo is from December, 2007 when the MWEEP Kenya women and Loanna Day met with the Project Baobab in country director, Jane Kunyiha.

Our immediate funding needs are for this coursework and the $100.00 grants that will go to the top 1/3 of the women when they present their business plans upon graduation.

New Secondary Girls School in the Rift Valley

I was pleased to be able to view the new secondary girl's school in the Rift Valley. It is in the village of Kimuka right next to the Primary school there where Joshua Santiamo is the headmaster.

I did meet Joshua but school had already ended for the year so didn't have an opportunity to view his school.

The new school is ready to open this January. It will be a day school until there are funds to build the dormatories. It is my understanding that they will begin with Form 1 (9th grade to us) and add a Form each each year through Form Four.

A church in Ireland matched the money the greater community raised. The Maasai "taxed" each man a certain amount and each woman a lesser amount. Once they met their commitment, the group came with the rest of the money and built the school.

This group is called Asterias. You can see their webpage at www.asterias.org and then go to Team 2007.

MWEEP Kenya continuing to support SCHOOL FEES

I have been receiving emails from MWEEP in Ngong. They are continuing to meet. Last week the officials met and today, January 19th the whole MWEEP Kenya group met.

Inspite of unrest in their country, they are moving ahead with the goal to support girls and women to attend school this new school year and issuing scholarships for the first term starting in January.

I am hoping to receive a report from this meeting this coming week and will post information at that time. At this time I am not sure if all the schools are opening.

Life in Kenya for our Maasai friends post election

It is a very difficult time in Kenya while the country is sorting out it's response to the election and to the final outcome. Other countries have now gotten involved in working through this and to promote peacekeeping.

We have had emails from some of our friends. There was some unrest in Ngong Town; however those living in the Rift Valley around Olosho oibor have been safe. There are hardships related to the infrastructure: food getting to the stores, costs have gone up, available petrol and it's cost and restricted travel (ex. what is it safe to go to Nairobi, or where in Nairobi can we go?).

We have heard from Kasey Cox with Network of Change. He left Kenya for the US soon after the conflicts began. He told us that as he flew out of Nairobi, he could see many fires. He is not sure when he'll return. He had just built a house on Rosemary Sakuda's property and started a sustainable garden. He also had a memorial garden underway on the school property for sustainable food.

We've also heard from Project Baobab leaders in Nairobi, we are hoping to network with them in the future. They are back in the office and their staff and families are safe. Things are moving slowly.

There are various points of view regarding the politics and who should do what. Who has been corrupt/illegal, etc. Both parties and many people say there are problems from both groups. We pray that there will be negotiations to bring all peoples together in some form of cooperation so the country and it's people can move ahead.

Many Kenyans voted (some statistics we heard were 70%), democracy and it's privileges like voting mean a lot to these people. We have much to learn regarding our voting, etc. They want their votes to count and their voices to be heard.

If you wish to read more look at:
www.BBC.com
www.nationmedia.com/dailynation
www.eaststandard.net/news

I will post another blog story regarding our MWEEP women.

Off Topic -- English Football

I'm off on another topic today, my apologies. This is for those of you who would be interested in knowing what it's like in a professional footballers house on game day.
Yesterday was game day at the Hahnemann house.
This means the only day Marcus can get up late. He has some down time with Halo and then he has his routine pre-game meal which includes a grilled tuna and cheese sandwich. After he's cleaned up and has his head shaved, he dons his dress shirt, tie and suit. Of course the final touch is his cowboy boots made of snake skin. They look good with his dark suit.

Then there's the traditional good-bye -- everyone heads to the door to say goodbye, Amanda has the truck going and Marcus is off.

Then the rest of us get ready, have our sandwiches and we're off. Yesterday two neighborhood kids went with us. Amanda has the radio set to hear the pre-game show and any traffic snarls. We arrive at the stadium, luckily Amanda has a car park pass and we can park close to the stadium. We enter through the Family and Guests door and we're off to the player's lounge to wait until it's time to go out for the game. There's a bar, coffee, tea, snacks. Then it's time to head out for kick-off.

It is such a thrill to step out into the stadium. The stands are full, it's noisy and you can just feel the excitement in the air. The teams are announced, big roar whan hey mention Marcus. He's at the opposite end in goal. Marcus had some good saves, strikers had some chances but no goals the first half. We spend half time in the player's lounge talking with other families. It's fun for us since we've been going for some time. This is the 6th season for Marcus at Reading. There are families we haven't talked to for some time.

The second half is more exciting and Marcus is down at our end. Reading makes a goal, Marcus has a penalty kick that he doesn't stop so now it is 1-1. The excitement builds as time passes. Marcus makes an awesome save by tipping the ball over the bar. Then Reading gets a GOAL in stoppage time. WHEW, a win is good.
It's exciting with 42,000 + people cheering.
An added bonus is that Marus is featured in the program.

Back to the lounge to await the players especially Marcus. He is usually the last player up. He got kicked in the head during an early save so that will need to be iced. We hang around for about an hour. Yes, the last ones out. There are still fans waiting at the car park for Marcus to sign things. Amanda, Jon, neighbor kids and I head out for home. On the way tradition has it to call the fish and chip shop, the Indian restaurant and the Chinese restaurant for take away. This way everyone gets what they want, no cooking, just cleanup.

We stay up until Sky Sports has their Match of the Day program with highlights from games. It's now late and we're all off to bed.

We'll do this all over again on Boxing Day the 26th with an away game, then again on the 29th and New Years Day. WOW it's a very full schedule.

Our Dear Friend Rosemary, MWEEP Chairlady

Rosemary is the chairlady of MWEEP. She also holds many leadership roles in the community and church. She hosted us during our stay and was very gracious to us. It was great to meet some of her children and some of her extended family. Rosemary has been hosting many volunteers this year. We were privileged to meet Kasey Cox who was also staying at Rosemary's home while he builds his own house on a back piece of here land. He is the field director for Network of Change Organization.
He is working on sustainable gardening both at his place and in the school yard.

Rosemary teaches at the Oloshoi bor Primary school. We arrived the second to the last day of school for the year. The new school year starts in January.

No sooner was she done with marking children's reports and closing up her classroom, then she started working with me and the MWEEP women. We had a meeting with some of the scholarship receipients, also with the MWEEP officials, then the whole MWEEP group. Another day she and Lucy went with me to meet the executive in country director of Project Baobab in Nairobi -- that turned out to be a whole day event, but very productive. I'll do a separate blog entry on our progress with Project Baobab. We met again with a Maasai women who is one of their trainers and has a DEEP heart for women and especially Maasai women.

Rosemary and I discussed using local transportation to get around rather than renting a car and driver. WOW! those experiences gave me many memories. More on the matatu rides in another blog.

More later, loanna

Lucy's Progress

Many of you have heard me speak about Lucy. She is the women with three daughters whose husband divorced her and left her destitute. Jon and I helped her attend teacher's college and now she teaches in a remote Maasai village.

A Maasai girl is traditionally married at a young age to a man of her father's choosing. She is then a part of her husand's family. If she is divorced she really has no place to go. Fortunately for Lucy and her daughters, her father allowed her to live in the family manyatta. Since she earns a salary, Lucy has been a big help to her family.

This past year Lucy's father took a major step and deeded her some land, very unusual for a daughter to receive land. She now has a home with a dirt floor, wood frame and corrigated metal on the roof and sides. She has a separate cooking house so the smoke stays there. A group offered a cost-share solar panel with wiring for a light, so Lucy participated in this. She has a large shamba (garden)which is now dry due to the drought. She has to watch out for the monkeys that come around when the produce becomes ready.

I should also mention that Lucy named her youngest daughter after me so there is now a little Loanna.