Start of Team Two: Week Three Begins

Greetings from Kenya! Team Two arrived on Saturday and at least got 15 minutes of 'download' from Team One. We met our hosts, traveled into town, enjoyed a Kenyan meal in the 'balcony' restaurant, and later a delicious dinner of Tomato and Rice soup.
Today (Sunday) was the true beginning of our adventure, we went to the town of Soy, the location of the home where Martin and Ruth and our new Kenyan family, including the 40+ children, currently live. We travelled by 'MaTaTu' (sp?)... the local form of public transportation, which is a beat up toyota minivan, painted yellow, and with new tires we understand, because of a flat last week. The roads are semi-paved, and semi-pot holed, and semi-bad for the van suspension system! They contain many a 'police check point', where we understand are sometimes the location of a safety and registration check, and sometimes a place for a couple hundred shillings to change hands.
Once we arrived in Soy, we danced and sang, part in English, part in Swahili, for a morning church service, and I was moved for one of the first times in a long time. A chorus of African children can do that, I guess. We took pictures with our digital cameras, and the children all loved to see their pictures on the little bright screens.
We made the walk over red stones and rain water streams to the main compound where Martin and the rest of the family currently live. We were treated to a wonderful traditional meal, cooked over an open flame on the floor of a kitchen that was probably as big as a Starbucks Bathroom. I think I can say for all of us that we got a real sense of why we are here. Martin and Ruth's story of how they came to be caring for these children runs through many hardships too numerous to explain, and proves the strength of the human character and the strong faith of this family.
Next we visited the new building location where Team One has left us a site 'ripe-for-the-buildin'... poured concrete footings under metal rooves are ready to receive the home-made mud brick and poured concrete floors. All material for the project has to be brought through numerous corn fields, on the same semi-paved and dirt roads to the site. There is no back hoe to dig the footings, or move the concrete well liners that have dislodged out of place... all of this will be done by hand or by simple mechanical labor. The one helpful tool on site is the brick molding machine, that makes the bricks for the interior walls.
By the end of our stay, our goal is to build the exterior walls and hopefully the interior walls, layed brick by brick, to get the skeleton of the buildings together. And hopefully to graft onto ourselves just a bit of the joy of these wonderful people.

"I have been placed by the water... I feel no thirst... I feel no need"
-Martin's daughter, at the church service...