I should probably talk about the mud in Kimilili. The mud is incredible. It is very red and sticky and it covers everything. It is used in construction to build houses, to make bricks and to make roads. If used properly it can do all these things brilliantly. If it is not properly used for example the road is badly constructed then huge potholes from and the road becomes impassable in the wet. The mud is also incredibly fertile. You could plant a stick h...

Francis invited Mike, Claire and I to his house for a meal. We arrived early at 5pm so that we would not finish too late. Being outside of the compound after dark is strongly discouraged. Francis lives in a small rented house near where we are staying with his wife Sally and their daughter. We spent an hour or so talking about the need for a strong Christian presence in schools as well as discussing weddings and the local customs. When the food came it was c...

We have completed the final puppet. Michael and Francis are very pleased with it. It is far more complex than the first one we made but it is far more lifelike. For both these puppets we are making a booklet that contains the instructions, photos of each stage and the patterns. This will mean other children's workers can make them and IcFEM can sell these to other people to help finance the work that the children's workers do.

You may have noticed that a lot of these blogs talk about food. That is because there is nothing to do in the evenings except eat. We can't go out without an escort and even if we did go out there is not anywhere to go to. I won't complain as we are eating well in a place where others are not and we have a lot of time to talk and relax together.

We spent a very lazy weekend around the house. On Saturday we had a lie-in. Simon was cooking so we had scotch pancakes, cake and in the evening chickpea curry and home-made ice cream. Our big adventure was to walk to town to buy a loaf of bread and phone credit. Amos has gone home for two weeks. His home is 20 miles away so we probably won't see him again. He is now feeling better from the malaria and has been noticeably happier for the last few days. On ...