Gethin farm was originally built pre 1600. I always dreamt of having one of these what is known as a black and white house, we originally bought the farmhouse with the garden and 9ft to the front of the property, we bought a large static caravan to live in while the work on the building was being carried out. this was our thirteenth home and it was intended to be our last, then we bought the farm buildings and 13 acres,
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| Gethin Farm when we bought the property in 1986. |
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| The front view after renovation |
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Rear view of the property
the whole of this end had to be jacked up 7inches. |
In 1986 we bought a place called Gethin farm in Aberhafesp Newtown Powys, this was going to be our last rebuild project as we had found the place that we had worked hard for over the last 20 years even though it needed a lot of work done to it, the old house was a pre 1600 made of oak beams known to most people as a black & white house, it was unoccupied and uninhabitable when we bought it and had to buy a used static caravan to live in while working on the house, besides the purchase of the farm house that stood in 1,4 of an acre, there was 13 acres of land and all the buildings of a normal farm that was purchased on negotiation from the next door farmer, then we had a smallholding 13 acres and all the farm buildings,
One end of the building was clad with tin sheets, and there was an L shape part with the roof valley corroded and the water was running down the main gable end upright beam that caused the wood to rot, so this end had to be jacked up 7” which was done with 6 accrow props mm by mm, (half a turn in rotation ) while taking the cladding sheets off we came across a lot of bats, and as there is a conservation order on the habitat of bats we were not allowed to take the slates off the roof, we could only repair it so this caused a lot more work and time in jacking up the building, and this was only the start of the hard work that had to be done, on closer inspection of the main frame of the building most of the main wood needed replacing so we called in an expert on timber frame houses at a cost of two thousand pounds drew up what was needed to be done. and the cost one hundred thousand pounds, so I decided that I would take on the job myself I bought some books on timber framed houses and learnt the names of different beams and the way it was constructed, only to realize I was dealing with a completely different job in it was already built and we could not touch the roof.
A lot of 1ft by 1ft oak timbers had been cut but not paid for by the previous owner , these beams where 16 ft long,
All the stone base was removed and a concrete footing made then rebuilt in the existing stone 5 yards at a time, the frame was propped up and the wood sole plate was renewed as was any rotten part of the frame in that 16 ft length and when finished the frame rested back on the new footing
and during the building or refurbishing of what was going to be our last house, I also built two houses next door to each other in the village of Aberhafesp one a seven bedroom split level For Mike & Joyce Hughes and a four bedroom house for mr & mrs Pennington, all the main work on mikes home was done on my own from cutting the first sod to the roof ridge, they where both timber framed houses with rustic brick externally , and took 6 months to complete and I was building my own place in the evenings and weekends working well into the night, we also had rare breeds the main being Oxford & sandy pigs...
Back to 1989 when we had the farm and Rare breed pigs these were Oxford and Sandy at one time there was only 17 breeding pairs,
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Our first O andS Sow she loved having a good scrub and was a more like a pet dog , |
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Dollies first piglet peggy,she had her first litter of 14 in mid winter . all the rest were sold as in guilt the boars went for meat, |
all our animals were free range had complete run of the 13 acres we owned, they even furrowed in what we called the shelter this was a home made hut corrugated sheets on a v shaped wall with the a log in the front to keep the straw bedding in place,open front was open facing all they surveyed
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this was 2/3 of dollies first litter the light coloured one in the centre is Peggy. as you can see we never castrated our boars they were kept for 18 weeks before being culled. |
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we also had lots of Aylesbury ducks these are the layers and one drake, all eggs were hatched and chicks sold as week olds, We had a lot of different breeds of hens , geese and ducks , we also had a lot of problems with badgers and foxes killing the stock, we lost 12 rare breed barnvelders in one night after a badger dug its way into our hen hut, it killed just for the fun of it, never ate one only the hears and livers, then we get the do gooders saying badgers do not kill. |
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This is Miss Mole she went half blind and totally deaf as is a trait in border collies, she died of old age at 18,
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all our hens where rare breeds as where our geese and ducks and we British sannen goat and a Anglo Nubian , I had 12 texel lambs for my friend Miss Mole, she was a 16 year old border collie who in her last years had gone completely deaf and had worked with sheep while she was young in north Wales. But now she could not hear my commands so would round the sheep up into the far corner of the field then look back as if to say “ ok what do you want me to do with them now,” and it was just after I had finished the two houses when I was diagnosed with slipped discs, our house was almost complete and we had moved into it from the caravan, during the first months after finding out I had slipped discs I was unable to do any work at all the only thing I managed to do was a bit of feeding the animals, and I could not claim any benefit, my money was running out fast, now we had a 3 bed roomed house, and Pam said we would take in a lodger or rent the rooms out Bed & Breakfast, we advertised in the local paper for weeks and had no replies, then my sister in law came to visit and stayed a few days, Andy is Pam’s sister. And had moved from Llanbedr, Near Harlech to New mills near Manchester, and we saw each other on occasional visits and always threatened her with “we will come as long as you do not give us that Jesus rubbish” but as usual she always got her bit of say in, while she was on her visit she got Pam to pray with her that God would do something about the situation we found ourselves in, that included the lodger problem. After she had gone I came back from the pub one night after winning the labbats beer pool trophy, the local pub also won the local darts trophy that same week, and I had two trophies when I walked in the house at 12.30. And was a bit steamed up, while in bed Pam started on about God being , the great I am, Pam was as cynical as me on religion and would even tell her sister not to go on about religion all the time, and my thoughts on religion had left my head as soon as I left those bible pushing hypocrites in Bodfari, and that is the way I wanted it to stay, We sat on the bed for ages talking about the “great I am” the next morning Pam was up as usual feeding the animals etc, when she came in I was sitting in the kitchen, and she said maybe we should find out for ourselves if there is a God, and I sarcastically said yes “ok”
While Andy was on her visit she went to Newtown and asked around if there was a good church in the area for her sister and husband and went to find a Christian bookshop , and found one in the local Market where she got 2 books “Every day with Jesus”, and left them for Pam to read, after she told us of this good church in town, so I said to Pam if there is a God ask him to send someone from this church to lodge with us,
The next day we where having dinner and the phone went , she called herself Lynne and asked if we still had a room available, as her sons girlfriend wanted a room for 3 months, and wanted to see the room to make sure it suited her needs, before they came Pam put one of the books 9Every day with Jesus)that Andy left on the coffee table in the living room, and one on the bedroom dressing table,
The next day they came to have a look at the room , problem for me was she was coloured and I walked out of the house with an excuse I had work to do, after they left Pam came out to my workshop, and said they love the room and are willing to pay £15 per night for 3 months, I said I did not want a coloured in my house, She said that she was not coloured, and we had a huge argument about it, in the end I told her to do what she wanted, as we did need the money,
Lynne was a member of the Pentecostal church on Dolfor road Newtown , when she saw the books in the house, she asked Pam if she was a Christian and said no Her sister left them.
And this was my first encounter with God answering prayers but I was very sceptical about this prayer lark. After my first encounter with Christians and God never answered any of my many prayers as a child, So why should God do it now, A few days after the girl moved in we had another man call asking if we had a room, and he came to see the room our other room was quite small, but he took the room, After negotiation with him being able to store some of his belongings in one of our sheds in the deal.
Our first time going to Church was for the candlelit carol service, that we had arranged to go to a month before, the evening that we went I really did not feel like going as my back was playing up,
At this time I was doing a bit around the farm and that day I had to clean the pig shed as one of the pigs was about to furrow, but strangely enough I was looking forward to this Carols by candle light evening, we never talked about it just like it was never talked about a restaurant if we had booked,
I knew what carol singing was about as a small boy I had learnt most carols off by heart,(IN WELSH) and would watch the carol services on TV it was all part and parcel of Christmas day,
We really enjoyed the service but I did not understand all these people really enjoying what they where singing about, then The pastor gave a very short sermon, about why Christ came into the world as a man only to die on a cross for our sins, and it seemed he was looking right at me,
After the last carol everybody started clapping and dancing as it was a time of Christmas joy??
We went home and discussed this “sermon” of why would God send his son to earth only to put him on a cross for our sins, Pam went out and bought a Bible to read about it for herself,
Next time we went to church was by invite from the book shop owner, he said that he saw us in the carol service thinking we where just visiting Christians in the area, we explained who we where
And he remembered Andy’s visit , saying if you are looking for a church you are always welcome to come to mine, I am a Pentecostal he said, on the way back home I said to Pam he was like Andy one of those happy clappy people, on the Sunday we where on our way somewhere, and passed the Church and saw the people going in, so we decided we also would go, don’t know why but we did,
The whole service was nothing like what I had remembered of the Bodfari Chapel, there was 2 pastors in this Church just normal people dressed as a normal person would, and a youth pastor, and during the sermon the kids went to Sunday school in another part of the building, The sermon was took by Pastor John Smith and it was about the woman who dried Christ’s feet with her hair. With no notes, like the vicars of old always had notes some used to disguise them in their Bible even try to turn the next page so we would not notice, I knew this, as a young boy I had to learn the Sunday passage off by heart to say out aloud in the pulpit. And would see the notes,
The Pentecostal church was a very busy place at the time I started attending, as they were collecting things for the orphanages in Rumania and where praying for someone to drive the lorry to take the things over to the orphanages and I volunteered , while in Rumania this changed my thoughts on what Christianity is about , one of the orphanages was a few kilometers outside of the town of Arrad, housing some of the children that had been sane enough to leave those awful government run hospitals, on our visit to the hospital we had to wait 1 hour while the soldiers cleaned the place, this hospital housed the kids that could not leave, they where know as the rocking children, some of these kids I saw on TV 12 months previous on a program that was hosted by Anika Rice,
And thought how could people do this to their own children, but actually going there and seeing for oneself is something that nobody can prepare themselves for, I was brought up not to be a sissy and crying is not the done thing for us boys, If you have read my story on my young life being brought up in an orphanage and foster parents, you will understand why I say “wasn’t I a lucky boy”
After coming back from Rumania, I started attending every Sunday sometimes Sunday evenings one of the evening meetings a lady who ran an orphanage in the Philippines was talking on how newborn babies where being dumped on the orphanages steps I believe at the time they had 40 such children at the home. And it was at this meeting I gave my life to Jesus , and I started praying that he would use me in this kind of work, and as usual he does not do things right away in October of the same year my brother in law, was getting married and we had been invited to the wedding we all had to be in best dress so I had to buy a suite, the first suite I ever bought and could ill afford, they got married in a registry office and the reception was held at the Ritz, all very nice but not my kind of thing and I felt very much out of place, but it was their day not mine, all the family was invited and the groom had made sure his Mum and Dad had rooms booked at a hotel, I and Pam would be staying at my sons home in East Barnet , the morning of wedding
Mr T in the Ritz
Clwyd Pam's brother phoned to Say his Dad was ill and if Pam could stay with Mum in the Hotel, all went to plan with the rest of the day and I travelled back to East Barnet by underground train,
and on the way back to my sons home I took a wrong turning and passed a Baptist Church with a sign saying that they were having a harvest festival service, this was at 2.00 o’clock in the morning, and I thought it would be nice to go to as I would be missing the service back home, but 10.00 o’clock was a bit early, at 8.00.o;clock Pam rang to say mum was worried about Dad being at home on his own and would be catching an earlier train back home, and not to come to the hotel to pick her up until 4.00 (a good job really as I do not remember her asking me to pick her up at 2.00??)
And seeing I was awake I got dressed and went down to get breakfast as I was going to go to the Baptist Church for Harvest thanksgiving service, in the Church for that service was about 6 people the table consisted of six tins of assorted food and a sliced wrapped loaf of bread, nothing like what I remembered of the thanksgiving services in the Methodist chapel where I attended as a boy.
All the way through the service I wondered “ if you did call me here to this place lord why” the minister who took the service about not creating our wealth on earth was Sinalee and most of what he said I did not understand even though he was apparently the director of the Baptist Churches in the uk , and just towards the end of the service a guy walked in and the service was stopped . He went up and introduced himself , his name was Bob Sansom and thanked the people of East Barnet for there support in sending much needed children’s clothing and blankets to the home that they had donated there money to in Kenya, and even though the offers of physical help that they said they would give did not materialize the orphanage in Kenya was very much nearly completed. But was in need of an engineer to design a holding tank for the much needed water that during the rainy season came off the roofs of the Church and the newly furbished children’s home that went to waste, after the sermon and all 8 of us was offered tea and biscuits
I went over to speak to Bob as to why I thought the lord had guided me to this church, and I offered my services saying that I worked for the water board for a few years on complicated engineering projects, and I could show him how to do this project even though I was unable to do any of the hard work myself due to my recent medical report of having slipped discs, and he said you will never know how many people have offered to help but have never done so and if I did stick to my word the project would have to be finished by the end of march before the rains come , that is if the rains did come, I gave him my e-address and telephone number, and what was that, the next day we where going back home on the train I told Pam I was going to Africa to help a man build an orphanage,
She asked where I told her Kenya, next question was , with what, so on the rest of the Journey back we discussed how nice it was being in London with no worries about the animals ( a friend had taken on these chores as long as she could have the goats milk)
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| Photo taken on a wet winters day 23.1.2012 |
And so we decided that we would sell the farm to raise the money I would need to go to Kenya, This was in the worst months of selling property we ever had, and we found that buying the place we needed was another big problem, as I was still running my building contract work and needed at least enough space to put my workshop and tools , a small tipper lorry and a mini digger that at the time had been out on hire for the past 3 months, and paid for our London trip, we went to see Bodhyfryd (our now home) and it was Ideal for what we needed a few minutes from the town centre right near our church, but it was way over our price and offered them a much lower offer, and was told by the property office no way as she had refused a higher offer already, even though the house had been on the market for the past 2 years, we had an offer on our house that too was much lower than the asking price, and I did not really want to sell my home, then Allan Hewitt our pastor gave a sermon and one of the things he said was “ we are only the keepers of gods earth and all that is in and on the earth is his, I went from that service thinking how selfish my life had been always as I promised myself on leaving Bodfari I would from now on look after number one, when I got back home I told Pam I was going to accept the Williams’s offer on the Monday our Telephone had a problem we also had a snowfall during the night and the lane to the farm would have been impassable by vehicle so I decided to walk to town, miss mole was getting quite unsteady on her legs but as usual wanted to come with me , when we got to the end of the lane a Mike a neighbour who had a landrover was passing and gave us a lift to town , my first stop was in the estate agent saying I was not happy with the price offered but as needs must I will sell,
And then I met Mr Evans who I knew as the owner of the fish and chip shop on Gas street that had just been sold to the Indians
And we went in to the snack bar ( another Evans ) and conversation came to my dilemma on selling and buying and how the house of the lady (Mrs Torterela) who used to work for him in the chippy, was exactly what I needed , he then said offer another two thousand, I told him all the work that needed doing on the house and what the engineers report will say, and said I just did not think the house was worth that much, and left it at that, and said that I may have to go and live at my in-laws in Colwyn bay, on the way home after a two mile walk through snow miss mole decided that she could not go any further, and I had to carry her home the day after I was unable to move at least this time I knew what the cause was, two days latter I had a phone call from Keith Williams the man who had put the offer on our house saying he heard that we where pulling the house off the market and he would give us the asking price, then at 11.0 mr Morris rang to say that Mrs Tortereli had accepted our offer as long as the contracts where complete in five weeks, as I was leaving the house to do some work to one of the gates the post man came with the mail and it was from Bob in Kenya, asking when I would be able to come over ,
I had tried to contact him for a month by the e-mail address he had given trying to let him know of the situation , but had no reply and at least in his letter he gave me a phone contact number, so I phoned him up 2 weeks later .
By this time we had got dates for contract exchange and all the necessities had been done with the lawyers, and told him as soon as I had the money I would buy my ticket, at this time I had a lot on as I was selling all my stock and some of my tools the mini digger was in the paper for sale and had been for the past month, I was also selling some of the old oak timbers I had left over from rebuilding, and they were in the paper that day late in the evening I had a call from a potential buyer who asked if I could hold on to them for a week I told him if I had another buyer in the meantime I would sell. The next day he came with a lorry and bought them , the mini digger was by the wood and he asked if that was the digger I had in the paper a few weeks ago
Then asked if I would take a thousand pound less. I ended up losing two hundred and fifty, but made it up on the wood,
The timber I sold where from the old barn that I had pulled down, so in a way cost me nothing,
So there I was with my airfare and went and bought my tickets the only date I could get for the time I needed was two days after the contract date January 2nd and for 6 weeks,
One problem was during this time of waiting I thought that God would change his mind, for one thing I did not like hot weather, and the other I was a racist and Here I was going to a country that would be full of coloured people and I really did not want to go I was looking on the internet on a few things about Kenya , the 2nd most corrupt country in the world, in the category of the country for most kidnappings, and a country where it was unsafe to travel alone and the crime rate was one of the highest
80% of its people had aids, need I go on to the reasons I was hoping god would change his mind.
When I went to pick my air tickets up I went to the indoor market and I met John Cavanah ( Mr Evans as we people of Newtown knew him) and he was with Mrs Tortereli , I said Hello to them saying fancy the three of us meeting at the same time , and they told me they where living together that is why the house was for sale, we had a coffee together and I told them why I sold my place and that as soon as we moved in I was off to Kenya to build a water tank for an orphanage, and she asked if I needed the key to do any repairs, by this time she had the report from my engineer and it was not what she expected ,
And said she would take the first offer we made and the saving will help with the work. By the time we moved I had done some of the repairs and decorated the main bedroom , We exchanged contracts for the houses and literally threw my things in our new home and went off to Kenya,
On my 7 hours flight my head was all full of questions, how will I recognize Bob as I had only met him for a few minutes and could not picture him, and all the things that I read about Kenya , on the flight from De Gaulle airport I was seated in the first class upper part of the jumbo jet sitting next to an Indian couple on there way back from the Birmingham trade fair,
On arriving at Nairobi airport it was 75 c and this was 11.30 in the evening, and there was no Bob in side the airport and was going out when I saw him, Could not miss him really as he was the only white person in a sea of black people all wanting me to use their taxi, as we where walking to the airport car parking area, he told me that he had been in Nairobi all day with the man from the Canadian bible collage who had killed two birds with one stone and done the monthly shopping before they picked me up. On moving off the guy in the drivers seat said I hope we do not get stopped by the police as I have spent all the money I had bob also said he was spent up until he got back, and all I had on me was sterling, so it was agreed that nobody had any money if we where stopped. I was nervous enough as it was, and as the ride went on and we left the main Mombassa highway we where on a dirt road and stuck behind a large lorry that was belching out smoke had no lights and I could not see anything from dust from the road, I did not like to tell the driver to stay back so I sat there with my head in my hands asking God why was I hear.
After a 2 hour drive we arrived at the Orphanage, it was then about 65 c and 1.00 in the morning, and was greeted by a very excited Kenyan fellow who introduced himself as Eddy
And explained he had Christian name, as Mr Bob could not say his Kenyan name Matuway, and what startled me was he had an army trench coat on, wellies and a balaclava
And a torch that was almost out of battery, and all I saw of him was his eyes,
Eddy made a cup of tea while Bob showed me to our room that had a bunk bed in and I was to have the bottom bunk because of my bad back , this was also the office until the place was finished and the Guest rooms finished, and explained that the electric was off and had been all day and it was a regular occurrence out here, but we do not worry about that because we are up at first light and usually in bed when it gets dark.
That night I was so tired from my travel that as soon as my body hit the bed I was asleep even before Bob got in his bunk, the next thing I was woken with a clattering on the roof
The roof was made of corrugated tin sheets, and as the place was open to the roof the noise was echoed as I got out of my bunk the window was facing the mumbuni tree that was in full orange colour blossom, the trees lower down had giraffes nibbling at the new growth on the top, what an awesome view, and the noise was forgot about, when I did go out to see what was making the noise on the roof, from the noise after seeing the giraffes I thought they maybe elephants, but there was two herons trying to mate on the ridge, the noise did not even wake Bob up when he did get up I asked how come that the noise did not wake him up and he said he puts plugs in his ears as they did the same thing every day, and he had no other way to stop them, so I showed him how too by putting a wire abut 6”off the ridge, and it worked.
Then I was put to task of doing what I came to Kenya for,I drew a plan for the tank and told him that in order for it to work properly it would have to go in the ground so the sun would not evaporate the contents, I explained what was needed and the amount of concrete would be necessary to complete the job but first the hole would have to be dug to a depth of 6ft
And 8ft square and would have to go between the two buildings, but there was a problem with that if we put the tank outside the orphanage area any body from the village could help themselves to the water supply so it was decided that it would be built in the corner of the building . then I asked Bob if he could get a mechanical digger to do the work , he laughed and said this is Kenya, everything out here in the wild is done by hand and not to worry the labourer was already on his way here as was the materials, that afternoon the sand & gravel came and the cement buy one donkey power and trailer, the next morning I was woken up to a tapping noise I went out to see what it was and the hole was about half dug, Eddy and his cousin who lived not far from the orphanage had worked most of the night digging the hole and by dinnertime it was finished, then I told them the trenches had to be dug out to the church with as little fall as possible as the pipe entering the tank would be at the top. But I was told not now in the night, they took it as I was wanting them to do it now, and went to complain to Bob, All I was explaining is what needed doing, and had to explain this to them or they would of taken me for a slave driver,
The next day it was my turn to do some work as the base had to be put in and we were by now working with the sun right above us, and it was hot, it was ok for Bob & Eddy they were mixing the concrete inside the building, after The base was in , this included the steel and the water bar that I had to make out of inner tubes from lorry tyres, the tank was made in three sections first the base then the walls and the lorry tyre tubes was to seal the joint of the two and the lid that had to have a covered hole to get the water out just like the old wells with a bucket, and a hole to intake the water, when the tank was built and the concrete was dry it was painted with a coat of bitumen to seal it, then the next task was to put guttering on the Building so it would take the rain water into the tank,
Muchakos was the nearest town about 4 miles from the orphanage in Mumbuni.
In the town was a local food market a few shops and places for hardware cement and the usual stuff that the locals used, but no plastic pipes or anything like the materials I needed modern materials had not reached this part of Kenya, at the time we where building the orphanage our meals where brought to us sometimes by local members of the adjacent church, most times by the pastor David whose house was in the church grounds, and twice a week we where invited to the bible collage principals house, that was in the next ground to the Church, for evening dinners, this was Robert the guy that Bob used if he was going to Nairobi for his shopping or whatever, the guy that picked me up 3 days previously, and on telling him of our problem getting materials, he said he was having to go to Nairobi to a meeting in two days time but usually on these occasions he used the local transport system, these were Peugeot 505 8 seaters. But crammed as many people in as possible, and was only 20 shilling for the 140 miles to Nairobi centre, so he said if we pay his gas he would take the Toyota safari that had a roof rack so we could carry what we needed, ( at this time 60 shilling = £1) when the time came to go to Nairobi the safari would not start so we decided to go and hire one of the local vehicles the depot was in the town on arrival we were told we were as whites not allowed to hire a vehicle but we could catch the bus at 12.30 as we had just missed the first bus that went from Mombassa to Nairobi, and this was only 5 shilling each, it was only 6.30 in the morning so we went back to the collage to see if we could start the safari wagon, on the road (Track) back Mr Daniel past on his way to work in his car,
In Kenya every one is Mr something, Daniel as I was informed was the mayor of Machakos and a patron of the orphanage, on hearing our calamity he drove us back to the bus depot and ordered that the vehicle was to take us to where we wanted to go, and wrote the driver a note, in case we got stopped on our journey.
And said he would come to the orphanage in a couple of days,
On the way I was hoping to see some of Kenya’s noted animals, but saw nothing not even a zebra even though our drive took us through some very flat land and bordering some of the best known safari park area , on arrival at the centre of Nairobi Robert was dropped off he was going to meet the bishop about getting a mission vehicle through customs. And we where taken to meet a man I met on the plane who was on his way home from a trade fair in Birmingham, who gave me his business card , and I had phoned the day before to ask if he could help by giving me a list of places to get the materials I needed, and to make a list of things we needed so he could tell us where to go. His place was easy enough to find in the shopping mall, not only was his business making picture frames as but he had a vehicle windscreen repair and a bathroom & tile centre, in different areas of Nairobi.
When we met him he was in the middle of giving his staff the days work and said he will be with us soon and could take us to the places we wanted to go as soon as the lorry gets here.
As we where getting in the vehicle he had a phone call, that he was needed back home, and if we wanted we could go with him rather than wait in the shop. When we got to the villa where he lived his wife had to take his son to the hospital as he had fallen and cut his knees quite badly, we had a long talk with him on what we where doing and had a chance to witness to him , he was what they call a third generation Kenyan, born in what is now Rhodesia and of Indian decent, and as I found out most businesses in Kenya are run and owned by those who where thrown out of Rhodesia after the Smith regime ended. I never asked of what faith they were.
After lunch we went with the vehicle, to what we thought to pick up the guttering and pipes we needed,
First stop was to the wood yard, where 7 doors and frames, where loaded on the lorry along with 400 yds of tongue & groove boarding and wood to make 30 beds ? Bob pulled me to one side and asked what was going on
And looking quite worried & said he only had the money to get the most urgent materials i.e. pipes etc,
I told him its ok seeing we had travelled a long way and were here we may as well get what we can carry I had the £500 with me if we need to use it, and he could pay me when we got back, next stop was the electric place and then the plumbers ( this was his shop ) and we had to choose the pans and sinks we needed plus all the fittings and what we originally came for, by this time I was getting worried and asked him how much he had paid so far, he said nothing, if you can come here and build an orphanage for the poor kids it our place to give you what we can , our we as the Indian community of saying thank you, and all of my friends say if you need anything else you will get it at cost, after loading up we had to go past the centre mall to get back on the road home,
While waiting outside the mall, like everything else in Africa nobody says anything, 5 minutes latter Magdy came back with a new driver, he was a Christian of sorts & must of learnt his English from ?? his f word was every other word, but he was a driver with a licence so we could go outside of Nairobi district and knew his way to Machakos. On the way back Bob and I had to sit on the back of the lorry, as soon as we got onto the road into Machakos the driver had to stop at the police checkpoint and Magdy was quizzed as too why he had 2 as we where know Muswngws( whites) on the back of his lorry and they got quite agitated, as stroke of good fortune Bob had the sense to get the note from other driver who brought us in, on reading the note the police stopped their interrogation and with a burst of salutes and sorry’s , gave us a police escort to the orphanage
And even ordered to unload the lorry to see the driver & Magdy got a safe passage back to the checkpoint,
When we got back Eddy was quite taken aback with something that was unheard of before, police actually working, that day Eddy had made a meal ready for our return, and as is the custom he had to invite all that helped to eat, as it was he had made cakes, so there was enough for all and everyone gave a big smile and said their thanks, when I asked eddy about the meal he was supposed to of cooked,” eggs mr Tony for cakes and I know how to make good cakes and before you tell me only chai cakes or biscuits for supper ” there was no arguing about that, so I thanked him for his wisdom in foreseeing that we would of brought people back with us and his cakes were jameel (very good )
After I thought if Eddy was to be looking after the new arrivals he had to learn to cook when I brought this up he said I know how to cook I watch my wife and I will show the children how to do the same,
On our discussions and evenings together Bob had brought up the way on how he intended to teach the children to look after themselves, as he said we are in Kenya teaching kids our western way of life will not help them in there native land, and that is why we have no cooker or fridge in the orphanage, food will be cooked on an open fire fresh every day, He had a point and it was not my place to argue as I would not be here, Eddy also agreed with this policy, that the children be taught how to look after themselves, So I just got on with what I came to do.
All the pipes had been put in the ground and all the work to the tank was finished, as I was putting the last piece of down pipe into the tank it started raining, just as we finished the heavens opened up I had never seen rain like this before, within an hour the 3000 gallon tank was overflowing, and we had to make a culvert to take the over flowing water away from the building, one of the problems in this land was lack of water, and nobody tries to save it, when it rains the water comes down so heavy it just runs off the land into the nearest river bed,
another problem in the area we lived, mostly tribal village houses were built of reeds and plastered with mud and the roofs are made of palm, coconut or banana tree branches, and built round about 3 yards in diameter
The termites love these places, most huts last about 3 years and they have to build a new one,
The area around Mumbuni is mainly coffee bean plantations as it is on the base of a mountain with footpaths zigzagging to the top and most of the land is coffee banana and mango crops to the base of the trees they dig a round hole or crater where the tree sits in the centre, the crater gets full of water to feed the tree so no rain no fruit,
The land around the villages is usually for growing maze and squamaweeky a cabbage like plant where the new leaves are taken off the stem , tomatoes and chilly peppers, these are the staple diet of the Kenyan tribes, and this is what the orphanage garden was going to grow. Plus mango, papaya , and banana trees were coming from a place called Ngong a village 200 miles away on the edge of the rift valley, donated by the German mission “WORD OF LIFE”
We had finished the water project in two weeks, two days after the rains stopped we were stuck to working inside as the land and the track to the village where covered in very slippery mud, and we got working on making the bunk beds and the benches for the home, while doing this there was a constant knocking sound coming from behind the church toilet block that was situated down the bottom end of the garden, I asked Eddy what was going on and he said they where cutting one of the big eucalyptus trees down, because it was dying so they could make charcoal from it. And it should come down tomorrow, I asked why was it taking so long to bring down and asked if they where cutting it down with a panga, as a joke and Eddy said “ sure” , the panga is widely used for cutting crops or anything that needs cutting, the grass of the church was cut with one with a bend on the end and used with a swinging action and had a long handle, the next day we went to see and sure enough they were almost ready to drop the tree one guy with a panga, soon it came crashing down there was no thought put into where this huge tree was going to land if it went one way it was going to demolish the toilets either side of that it would of come down on open land but it came down across the track this was the only track within 5 miles to the villages up on the top of the mountain and the river, and once the tree was down that was the mans work done, and for a week until it was dry enough that’s where it stayed until the women came to cut it up small enough to carry up the hill to the place that made the charcoal,
It’s is not allowed to cut trees down in Kenya without permission once a tree is dying whoever owns the land its growing on has to inform the police who in turn send an inspector to make sure the tree is dying or in the case of building, it’s a question of do you really have to build here? And it’s a three month jail sentence if caught a tree down without a stamped paper almost as much paperwork to pull a tree down as putting up a building,
Most of the trees that where growing around the home were eucalyptus these trees need a great deal of water, and are not native of Kenya I believe they were brought in by the 19th century missionaries, for what reason in this dry land is not known and there are no koalas, a full grown tree can take 120 gallons a day, as its tap root drives deep down as I found out one year later when we dug the well,
The first Sunday we were introduced to the Christian community at the Sunday morning service, where it was it was custom for the missionaries (as we where known as) to take part of the service, unprepared I was called to the front and asked to take part of the service, that would be interpreted for me, there where a few local white people in the service mainly from the bible collage, I thought what would my pastor do “ pray “
its not my scene I am a worker not a preacher and this is what came to mind and prayed as I was standing in front of all these unknown people and that is what I talked about Gods calling and that is when I realized that is what it was all about, why am I here ? And how I was called to do this work, after Church I met Daniel who was my translator, and was introduced to the Church elders it seemed they only came for the free Coca-Cola and to sit and discuss the past weeks events, and one commented on my singing of the hymns and I told them I knew most of the from when I was a child but had forgot most of the words, and of course I could sing them in English as I had an English hymn book given to me before the service. And I asked about the one hymn that was only sung in Swahili they told me this song was about not hiding the witch dolls under your dress while in gods house, it seems that the Kikamba tribe ( local tribe) were well into voodoo, and I was asked to pray about this evil practise
And was told how one of the elders wives had been a victim and was in hospital unable to walk and was asked if I would go to her home and pray for her when she returned in a few days, then a slight hint of it was too expensive to keep people in hospital, unless they went to die, I found out later this was said hoping I would foot the bill for her stay, the day she came home Bob & I were asked if we could go and visit at 5 o’clock after she has had a rest, the village where she lived was about 3 miles away along a track just wide enough for a donkey and cart to get through when we got there it was my first time in a native village just mud huts inside was very sparse, and foot stools were brought for us to sit on, these people had nothing but they had killed one of there hens so we could eat, I did not want to take there food, and I was told by Eddy who was our guide that they would be most offended if we did not eat with them, after the meal we were taken to another hut to meet Sara, she showed us her leg that was bruised and swollen, and was told it had gone worse from the walk she had made that day from the hospital
