Prose

Narrative writings: essays, reviews, polemics, short stories, etc

December 21. Ilja’s birthday. Beginning of the orphanage.
And so we wake up and look around. We are in a house made of mud, the traditional Luo way of building, and we are surrounded by cattle, chicken, children, long grass and aloe vera plants. This is it. They show us the plot of land where we are going to build the orphanage and ...
December 20. Lake Victoria!
We have a safe but exhausting Matatu journey to Kisumu, Kenya's third largest city, where we install ourselves for the first time in the cybercafé in the Megaplaza, which will become our main communication channel for the next weeks. We meet Philip, the future managing director of the orphanage, and like him at first sight. ...
December 13-19. Chameleon.
Picking up Yeon from the airport early in the morning. Her flight is delayed so we wait and introduce ourselves to a British lady who is on her way to Tanzania. There she is - she has made it, and we are happy. I brief her about what Charity Travel has been doing in Kenya ...
December 13. Nonsensical.
Now let me write something nonsensical. This story takes the form of a travel account where it should be an account of the hopeful truth behind a playing face. You know how much I treasure the simple receipts I get from the pharmacies, hospitals, and groceries where I am buying my aid? I cherish it ...
December 12. And let there be darkness. Projection in a church.
We travel back to Nairobi in the morning, arriving at 4pm but still in time to do our session in the church. There are 200 children singing and clapping when we arrive and introduce ourselves. First we offer all of them a simple healthy meal of rice and beans, and they like it. We call ...
December 11. Nakuru.
We travel to Nakuru, about halfway between Eldoret and Nairobi, in the afternoon, where we visit a small orphanage and schedule another event for next week, when Yeon will be here. Pauline kindly invites us over and offers us a great meal and a comfortable night. Thanks!



December 8-10 Eldoret. A first-class graduation.
Today we travel to Eldoret for Willys' graduation. We are delayed a bit but we still make it. I take my chloroquine phosphate tablet to be on the safe side in case the mosquitos bite. The ride to Eldoret is long but comfortable since the east-west highway has been reconstructed recently. Upon arrival Willys has ...
december 7. Online
I work in a fastfood restaurant and get most things done. After eight hours of typing and clicking the websites are almost up-to-date and email-correspondence has been dealt with. It was nice not to complain about the massively delayed order and the white coffee they mistakenly brought me.


I am excited about next ...
Rainbow Community Excellence Center
In a small village near Kisumu, we have built an orphanage together with our Kenyan friends. Charity Travel provided building materials and wages for the workers. Many local and international volunteers helped out. Thanks! More than the foundation had been done after 2 weeks A small community can have a great vision. When we traveled ...