Dear All,
More news from Riziki
But first, here is an advertisement, again!
This year we are unable to hold our usual fund-raising garden party in aid of Children’s Homes in Kenya. However, our garden has continued to produce good crops of fruit, much of which has been converted into delicious jam of several varieties. If any of you, living within a reasonable distance of Holmfirth, would like to purchase jam we are happy to supply it. We have Raspberry, Strawberry, Harlequin, Gooseberry, Rhubard, Red Currant and Black Currant & Bramble Jelly and various Marmalades. All proceeds will go to Kenya.
When we left Kenya at the end of March, we never imagined that our lives would be restricted for so long. We learn today that restrictions here are being increased again. It is fortunate that we can be in regular contact, by WhatsApp, with Liz who has sent us another excellent report.
She wrote:
Hi Ian and Diana,
I can't believe it's been a month already since I last wrote. We have been well, thank God.
First of all, thank you so, so much, for supporting us with the afternoon program. We now have a good variety; I sent you pictures of hats that girls have been knitting, we are now actively doing make up classes. We bought very basic makeup and makeup equipment; we feel this is a life-long skill and can earn them some money if they take it seriously. We also got knitting and crocheting needles and wool. We have been downloading YouTube tutorials, for dance and make up - we are hoping to use tutorials for crocheting, knitting and basic drawing. These tutorials are very helpful. Finding the right one is particularly difficult, but when you do, some learning takes place.
They have been really helpful as we cannot have physical teachers for all these different things.
The boys got a new football. I have been extremely impressed at how organized they have all been by erecting the goal posts, assigning teams, and including the young ones - one of our ‘babies’ (Felix) is a respected goalkeeper - and enjoying the game. We have been attracting some attention from local boys, some expressing their wish to join the afternoon football game. We are still trying to figure out the best way to do that. I would really like to see us give these boys that chance. Any thoughts are welcome. (We feel this would be a wonderful way to add something to the community if it can be done safely and legally!)
Farm
The last time we wrote, we had just harvested beans. We managed, again with Hellen's leadership, to plant maize. As you know maize is our highest consumption, as we use it in both githeri (maize and beans meal) and ugali (ground maize). We are safe, supply wise, till around the middle of next year, but it was best to put more down now. We pray for a good harvest as we are experiencing good rain.
We have finished harvesting and are currently drying sorghum and millet, which are very useful in our morning porridge.
We are still enjoying loads of butternut 😁.
We welcomed a new calf last week, male😪. Hahaha😂😂😂. We like females better, (milk supply) but we'll keep him.
Children
All are well, except for Tabitha who had H.pylori. Our water filter failed and it seems like we might need to invest in a new one. We have resorted to other means as we source another. It is interesting how everyone being at home at the same time is affecting lots of small things, one of them being our consumption of drinking water, actually just water in general. We are very, very blessed to have good rain at the moment and our good water harvesting system, otherwise it would have been a serious challenge.
Staff - As promised, I now feature our male staff.
Henry is the oldest of our male staff. He has been very dedicated in making sure we have our own charcoal. We use firewood for most cooking but we have certain meals that require charcoal for cooking. Henry has the skill to burn charcoal, and he has provided us with a sufficient amount to take us to the end of the year. Our Max has taken interest in charcoal and you will find him there helping out, without being asked to.
Emmanuel is taking care of the animals and getting us eggs and milk, we have new chicks and a new calf. He has been particularly keen with ensuring the dam area is decent, and even more vigilant in maintaining and producing cow feed. It is really one less strain when we have consistent cow food, and Emmanuel is very keen on this.
Evans comes from Bungoma county, which is very far from Nakuru, I have been particularly impressed by his patience to wait out Covid before traveling despite being away from his family. Evans, Emmanuel and Hellen, have demonstrated such patience and understanding on this matter, we feel very blessed. Evans has been able to get us on a good rotation for vegetables. For the last three months we have had good variety and consistency with vegetables. This is appreciated, especially with everybody at home with three meals a day; low supply of vegetables would have been terrible.
What can I say? We feel very blessed to have self-motivated staff, happy to bring their different strengths, and together we are going through this period gracefully. As you pray for Riziki do not forget to mention them.
Thank you so much Ian and Diana for all you do. Your ready support in everything is highly appreciated. Asante, Liz
From one of our older girls
Hello,
I hope you are all fine. I’m also fine here at Riziki. I have been doing fine from when Covid-19 started. Life has been kind of difficult but I had to adjust because I was used to school life. After the closure of school, I was forced to start learning on-line. I finished my first semester on-line. It was kind of hard as I was used to face to face learning but now there’s not even a chance to question when you are not understanding, so you are forced to do a lot of research. But I adjusted and now am good with the system. We have been engaging in some other activities such as playing and doing some dancing. This has been very beneficial because it breaks the boredom and also it makes us have a new view of life such that apart from academics there are other things one can do. It has also improved my life skills. I have realised that life is all about keeping yourself busy with the opportunities that you have because I never expected that anything like the closure of the schools will ever happen until it did and I was like, “how will life be without school?” because that was the main thing I could do. Anyway, the greatest of all is keeping distance but we are grateful as we are not coming into contact with other people from outside as we also conduct our service here at home and it is usually led by one of us. This also improves our communication skills as well as building us spiritually. The protective measures we are taking to cope with the diseases washing our hands and measuring our temperatures twice a day. We thank God because He has protected us all through and we are all fine. Thank you.
From one of our older boys
To Diana, Ian and the others.
My life has been interesting during this period of Covid-19. Waking up at six o’clock in the morning, doing my studies until seven, doing my duties and having my breakfast. Going back to my studies until twelve thirty in the afternoon. Resting and having my lunch, playing football, art and craft work, doing devotion, bathing, watching TV and going to bed.
My studies have been playing the biggest role in my life. Having my personal studies has been developing me a lot. I’ve been trying to complete my syllabus of the year of all the subjects using my big brothers and sisters. They’ve been a great help to me, particularly during this time. Having my studies through zoom (on-line) has been the best way of studying.
Sports has been making my life seem fun and interesting since they’ve been keeping me cheered up all the time. Football has been great. Having a football field and a good ball has been making it great. Truly, football is great.
Devotions have been helping me a great deal to deal with life, situations, and challenges. I love devotions more than anything else at this time.
Shamba works and other works have been helping me a lot to deal with boredom and other stuff. Surely work is good. In general, I’ve been having a great time with my dear brothers and sisters in this place. Even though I have missed school I’ve seen this period to be fantastic.
For your prayers.
Thanks for the dedication and faithfulness of all our staff at Riziki and the devotion of Julius and Liz, without whom Riziki could not exist.
Pray that we find a satisfactory way of getting good internet at Riziki, so the children can do their distance learning.
Thank you for reading this newsletter.
Many Blessings, Ian & Diana
Reminder: The Aenon Trust has a new email address. [email protected].