I came to the city alone for the weekend to help Baba (Hezekiah, the director) with a grant proposal. There is a foundation here that helps small non-profits with projects, I think through funding from different embassies. The first time you apply you can only apply for the grants of $7.5 million shillings, or $6,000 USD. But it seems like once you prove you're a good organization through that they can help with up to 125 million shillings. So hopefully I can help them write a good proposal.
In other awesome news, I started a relationship with one of the other team members, April. I had asked her to pursue a serious courtship-type relationship before the trip, and she was part of the initial 3-week team. She called and gave her answer after returning to the US. Talk about a long-distance relationship - 9,000 miles! Haha, so that's pretty awesome, I'm excited.
I am returning to the school in the countryside for the last time on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully we'll be taking the initial batch of chickens with us, but they are proving more difficult to purchase than the staff had anticipated. So we may not see the first batch put in, but we expect to essentially finish the construction by Tuesday with the exception of the outside paint job (which isn't too essential).
It's really cool to see it all coming together. It's amazing what can happen in 9 weeks. We'll be sure to post pictures and tell you all about the end-product as soon as we can.
Oh, and this Wednesday to celebrate we are buying chickens to eat as well, as a kind of going-away present for the kids. So they'll all get to have some chicken for dinner and we'll christen the chicken farm. They don't get meat very often, so I know they're really looking forward to the "Chicken Party"