The picture above is of school children waiting for food rations to take home and share with their families. They were doing this becauue back in January 2006, there was a drought in Kenya. In Kenya when there is drought, it gets downright scary. I know this because the entire time I lived there we were experiencing varying degrees of drought. Our water levels from the bore hole we drank, washed and cleaned from were terribly low. So much so that we had to place a bucket in the tub when showering (which could last no more than 3 minutes tops) to catch any extra run off of water so that we could then pour it in the toilet to eventually flush. For us, it wasn’t so bad, we did have a bore hole after all. But for those in the valley below and the hilltop above, who relied on water from rain, times got desperate. First, none of the seedlings in the shambas (home garden) would be able to sprout and grow causing that immediate crisis - hunger. The stress is palpable. It flows through all interactions, even the animals get tense. And everyone grows hungrier and hungrier.

Thanks to some very dedicated teens at Paducah Tilghman High School and some lovely folks at St Matthews Lutheran Church (who didn’t know the need existed but gave a donation cause they just had some extra money, which by the way was the exact amount needed to feed the community for one month), PAO was able to get food and get it to the neediest as fast as we could. Donkey transport. At the time we didn’t have a car, so we used the next best thing. Deliveries were made to Nyakach and to surrounding schools to help ensure that each child was getting at least one meal a day. Thank you, Paducah, Kentucky!

Monica