I can't believe it's two weeks to Christmas Day - I love being away from all the Christmas consumerism! We've had no boring and greedy conversations about wanting millions of presents, no worrying about buying hundreds of gifts, and the few cards we sent were posted ages ago. It would be great to be able to pop home for one crisp, cold day and an Xmas party, but other than that I don't think anyone will miss it all that much. Here, Christmas apparently has some kind of religious significance (other than the worship of the Market) ... that'll be interesting!
The Emehayu local group of the disabled was started in 1993 by Naomy and others. When Naomy left the country, she thought it might fold, but it's grown slowly in strength and numbers, and now has 42 members, rent-free use of some rooms, and a knitting and sewing employment project using equipment donated from the UK. Survival (or poverty) seems to be very much the key disability issue here, and Emehayu's main focus is on finding ways for disabled people to earn a living. Today they held their first Harambee (fund-raising party), and Naomy was Guest of Honour, with us as her entourage.
There was much waiting around, and many speeches - and we had been placed in front row seats, so couldn't even nip to the loo easily! After we'd all spoken (as "guests from England"), the invited politicians arrived, with seven or eight others in tow, and all of them made a speech. It was, I would judge, a good political event for the group - and a good re-entry for Naomy, who made a great speech - but they were disappointed to have raised only KSh 11,600 (plus a politician's pledge to press for a further KSh 5000). They'd hoped for KSh 50,000 (335 quid) which was probably over-ambitious. (If anyone wants to make their Christmas season with a donation, email us now!) Lani's existence and disability active-ness was a source of some excitement, and we've promised to return with her when she visits in January.
It's worth mentioning the skill (and dogged persistence) with which the group's chair and patron took it in turns to translate all the speeches between Kinyore and English, largely in our honour. Kinyore is the language of the Bunyore (see next post down) and is the mothertongue of most people we meet day-to-day.
Saturday ended with another foray into neighbouring Luo territory (this time to to raid the Kisumu supermarket for food. Back home, in the glow of a hurricane lamp, Rosa and I played guitar and sang and laughed for a while - then dinner, then bed.
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