We took the afternoon off and went to the Rondo Retreat in the heart of the Kakamega Forest.  It is about an hour from Kaimosi.  We had a nice lunch with Kennedy and Dorothy Shiverenje at the retreat and then hiked to the top of this hill in the forest, which you can see behind us.



The forest itself is very dense.  They said they have identified 36 varieties of snakes, 22 of which are poisonous.  Things like cobras, mambas, boom slang, puff adders, horned vipers, pit vipers, etc.  We did not see any snakes on our hike, but we did see lots of butterflies and monkeys.

We are leaving Kaimosi tomorrow morning so this is probably our last blog until we get to Iowa on July 3.

The computer lab is finished now and software has been loaded.  There are 15 computers for student use and 3 for staff.  FTC recently installed a satellite dish for internet, but the wireless in the library has not been installed yet.



We had a local welder make 200 bookends for the library.  We glued inner tube on the bottom and spray painted them.  This picture is only part of them.



The finished battery/inverter house.



A full size finger banana.

       Since we are done with the solar project, there are no new pictures to show, but I wanted to update you on how it is performing.  The grid has been down for a day and a half but we have had constant electricity.  It is wonderful!  Since the school is on break, there are no students and many of the faculty and administration are gone as well.  Our electric load is very low, so our batteries are fully charged before lunch.  So far, the system has worked  very well.



Donna got permission to keep 3 of her best library helpers for 2 weeks after all the other students left.  Donna was able to spend a lot of time teaching them circulation and cataloging computer skills.



Miriam has also been spending a lot of time in the library.  She and Simon put together a display of different book repair processes for the guests that attended our dedication ceremony.

You know it is time to go home when your dish rag looks like this.



We broke the spatula in the guesthouse kitchen so we wanted to replace it.  We were in Kisumu today and were able to buy this one.  It was labeled as a "hamburger shovel".

We have heard rats above our ceiling, and Jim finally decided to try to get rid of them.  This is the first one we have caught.

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Rosina, one of Mom's student workers at the library, has been teaching Miriam how to make beaded bracelets in the evenings.  It uses very small beads and is a lot of fun!  I learned tonight that the Swahili word for beads is "shanga".

Today we were honored to have been invited for lunch at the Kisumu Yacht Club by Mukesh and Neelam Lakhani, the owners of the hardware store we have been using for the solar project.  It is right on the shore of Lake Victoria.



One of their friends (right) joined us.  Mukesh did Karoga for us where they bring a charcoal cooker and you do the cooking yourselves.  It was excellent Indian food.

We don't have any new pictures today, but wanted to update you on where the solar project is at.  The contractor came Tuesday June 1 and installed everything except the one small piece he forgot, so the system did not work.  He came back June 7 with the missing piece but after installing it, the system still did not work.  He continued to troubleshoot the system on June 8 and they think they have found the problem in a faulty circuit board.  They are supposed to come back Monday June 13 with a new circuit board.

Miriam arrived late Sunday night.  At the new Nairobi airport, you are not allowed inside the building when waiting for your passengers to arrive.  We have been looking forward to her joining us for a long time.  She will be here for 4 weeks.



FTC had an appreciation "tea party" for us Tuesday night.  It actually was a meal followed by a meeting followed by tea.  It was very nice of them to do this for us.  They even gave us gifts of a dress for Donna, 2 shirts for Jim, and a necklace for Miriam.



Wednesday was the dedication for the solar project and the changes in the library.  They used the solar panel structure as a shade for the speakers and set up tents for everyone else.



As part of the ceremony they gave us another gift of a very realistic painting of Jim and Donna with the solar structure and battery house in the background.



The final surprise was the unveiling of a plaque that designates the solar structure as the Hoeksema Pavillion.  We were very honored.  Following the service everyone went to the dining hall for a meal of chicken and rice with cabbage and chapatis.

Even though we call it the battery house, it is also where the inverters and other electronics are mounted.  The contractor forgot to bring one small piece of equipment otherwise the system would be functional now.  They will return Monday to finish the job.



Installing the final panel.



The finished panel structure.  We are only a few miles from the equator, so we have panels facing both north and south.