Hello My Lovelies,

Well, I’m back where I seem to belong: with my feet in African soil and my fingers on this ivory (don’t I wish) keyboard.  My four month stay in the US was a whirlwind: road trips to the crusty north (MA, CT) and deep south (GA, AL, TN, NC), schools visits, church presentations, conventions, a couple weddings, and not nearly enough time with family and friends.  And while anything but restful, the last few months have capped a truly incredible year.  The Elewana Project grew from 30 odd scholarships to over 100, we installed 3 solar electrical systems and four computer labs in local Kenyan schools, and fostered relationships between 8 Kenyan and US schools.  More significantly, the Land Rover, though completely reliant on invasive, experimental, and costly end-of-life care, has lived to see another day.

I flew out last Thursday, my only real concern being my tenuous liaison with Grace Hornsby.  A recent college grad, Grace is coming to spend a year with us in Amagoro.  She’ll be teaching (and learning), and, as quickly as I can spirit her away from Bishop Zak, working for the Elewana Education Project.  Never having met, we were to catch up with each other at the gate prior to boarding.  Fortunately, Grace had found my shamelessly self-promotive photo on the Elewana webpage, and thus knew who she was looking for.  Having no such foresight, I simply wandered around the gate area until she picked me out.  Just to be sure she possessed the necessary survival skills for Africa (a good sense of humor and the ability to roll with punches when plans go awry) I quickly put her to the test, i.e.  I did not offer her my seat when I was inexplicably bumped to first class on the London/Nairobi flight.  She handled it well, and on the one occasion my guilt forced me to put down my Champaign, take off my noise reducing headphones, and lurch out of my fully reclining seat to check on her, she was sound asleep.

Between movies, I pondered whether the upgrade was an auspicious sign for the New Year or the wasteful use of accumulated karma.  My question was answered within minutes of checking into my hotel in Nairobi where I promptly locked myself in the bathroom.  The handle was broken, and I was stuck.  After a few minutes of some panicked head-scratching, I called out of the bathroom window to some passersby below, who kindly informed the front desk, who sent an embarrassed security guard to let me out.  At least I was still in my underwear.

The next morning (after I was very careful not to close the bathroom door), we hopped onto our flight to the small city of Eldoret, where we caught a ride to Amagoro.  At the end of the day, it felt great to be back in Amagoro, back in a familiar bed, under the familiar whine of mosquitoes dive-bombing my net.  And… so…we are off!  Another year begins.  Stay tuned for more e-mails (soon, we will be sending out my email as a list-serve from news@elewana.org, so alert your spam protector) and a revamped webpage.  And don’t forget to check out Grace as our most recent addition to the Usual Suspects on the Elewana webpage.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for (no, not the Land Rover Update):

The once yearly, you knew it was coming sooner or later, get out your checkbooks, you can hide but you can’t run, e-mail/blog solicitation.

Over the course of the last few months, I was able to fleece a Godly number of you for cash to support our work here in Kenya.  If you were not so fortunate, now is an excellent time to hop on the band wagon and pony up a portion of what it takes to make the world go round.   This year looks to be a good one, as we are expanding on nearly every front: our scholarships have grown to over 100, we will again be installing electricity, computer labs, or both into a local schools, and we will be hosting, for the first time, various groups of US students as they come for 2-3 week visits with their partner school.  What better use for your hard earned income?  Sponsoring a youth is $500 annually and is perhaps the most dramatic way of impacting a young Kenyan’s life.  Within a couple months, you’ll receive a letter and a photo from your sponsoree and then be encouraged to stay in touch.  By the way, if you currently sponsor a child, now is an excellent time to re-up;-)

We are actively seeking funding to expand our program of providing power (through solar technology) and computers to local schools.  Consider donating the DC –AC inverter ($1000), an 80 Watt solar panel ($500), and/or a deep cycle 200Ah battery ($350) and give the gift of light to a school (often the only source of power in an entire village).  We continue to need low-cost, sturdy and web-ready computers.  We often buy them locally, but still encourage our supporters to come up with creative ways to donate and transport their used laptops, particularly those in excellent condition and (hopefully) with a webcam.  Feel free to contact me with questions or ideas.  Otherwise, about $450 buys what I need here.  And if anyone knows a low-cost way of getting high-speed internet into the African bush, call me immediately.  I’m desperate.

If the plain truth is that Christmas left you destitute, no worries: the Elewana Project thrives on those $25, $50, and $100 dollar donations, which basically make the world go ‘round: they buy the diesel for the Land Rover (and the tow truck often pulling it), pay the power bill at the Mission House, and keep Peter (our invaluable project manager) healthy and happy, and they cover the million micro-emergencies that comprise a day of missionary work in a developing country.  Make so bones about it, we run a tight ship and lean operation; I have the only key to the vault, and there is little opportunity for the graft, corruption, and gross inefficacies that typically plague such operations.

You can either send a big fat check to:

The Elewana Education Project
168 Meadow Ridge Dr.
Shepherdstown, WV 25443

Or you can hop on the Elewana.org webpage and do the PayPal thing.  Either way, please let us know how you would like the money designated.  All donations are tax deductible.  You can also just come visit;-)

And finally, a Land Rover update:

While it is true that we have been raising money for a new vehicle, and while our hopes remain high for such an eventuality, we are, for the moment, still reliant on our old, not-so-trusty Land Rover.  Perhaps feeling a little neglected in my absence, she struck a delicate pose for my arrival, perching resolutely on three wheels while the forth and the spare were nowhere to be found.  Kenyan’s are, by-in-large, an understated people, and it was with great solemnity that Nelson, the Bishop’s oldest son, upon being asked how the Land Rover was running, just slowly shook his head.  As we speak, Peter is off in Bungoma haggling for spare-parts and our local mechanic has been alerted to an impending house call.  Hope to have the old girl on the road tomorrow.  At least we’ve found the tires.

Mad Love, Zach