Scott's 2nd post

Well - after 45 minutes of techno challenges I am logged in. The last few days have been absolutely amazing - a year of experiences in just a few days.  Yesterday we were put in charge of the students as the teacher's were taking the day off. -it was a bit of a surprise to us:) We all did our things and me being the teacher I high tailed it out of there to go shopping:) I went shopping for 100 pairs of shoes, 24 loaves of bread, peanut butter and jam - it was great assembling all these things being the only  mezungo (white person) in town and also having to go to several shops/vendors ( they are just street stalls). I loved it. The Kenyans are very warm people but you still need to negotiate with them.  At the end of the day we had purchased over 100 pairs of shoes and giving the students their first sandwich - they usually get cabbage and if lucky a bread paste called ugali. Later in the day we had a great soccer game with the kids and just hung out with them as they are quite starving for attention and affection. From a business perspective there appears to be a significant lack of accountability built into the dna of the folks we have met so far. Not only do things take much longer here very few people will actually accept responsibility. They are very tactically oriented as many are just trying to keep going - makes it very hard to become strategic in their focus. Since we have presented them with the donations and are still with them, they continue to ask for more - like a van, more money, etc - the lists are indeed endless. We have decided to withhold further funds until we have seen evidence that they have successfully executed the plans of a chicken coup and cows (for sustainability).  We are all feeling quite fatigued today as the ask/need is ever present however so many do little to help their own situations - sitting around all day watching the world go by. There are several sparks of energy and one girl in the school in grade 7 named Purity is a force to be reckoned with. We are playing with a business concept of micro finance for educational bursaries and would like her to be the first award winner. Students here have to score high in their  grade 8 exams to continue on with school and then it costs approx $400 per year. Truly enjoying this experience with Holly my daughter as she is just a bit older than the most senior students. She is taking this trip and its experiences to heart and has said after seeing so many with so little she does not want any Christmas presents for herself - as the VISA commercial used to say - Kenya trip $4500, lessons learned priceless.