Kenyan Women:

Regina, a widow with two children, was homeless before Flora (a social worker for Maua Methodist Hospital's AIDS Orphan's Project) designated them as recipients of the house our team is building.  Her old home had collapsed after her husband died and she did not have resources to provide shelter for her children.  Her neighbors have been so happy for her family to finally have their own home that these women have carried on their backs much of the needed building materials for the house.  Now you have to understand that the location for this particular home is most stunningly nestled into a high terrace of a tea-covered mountainside.  Regina, though shorter than five feet and probably weighing less than 80 lbs, was observed carrying a 110 lb bag of concrete mix up the steep path to her new home site.  Then shortly afterward she returned to the valley stream below to fill two 5 gallon containers with water and carry them back up the mountain to provide water for the construction workers and her family.  We see women carrying great loads everywhere we look and this reminds us that women also must carry just about all the societal burdens of this land.  Yet they are not broken, at least not in our encounters with them.  They are beautiful, bright-eyed, joyful, curious, lean, surefooted, resilient, and happy and their children are the same way.   Pictures to follow!