Christmas at Happy Life - Day 6 - Bad Roads, Soccer and PingPong
Posted by Steve Emecz on
It’s time to head over to the Happy Life location over in Juja Farm. As you can see from the map below, this is in theory a journey of less than an hour – barely 32km in distance.
However, once you reach Juja, the final 11km stretch is on the Juja Farm road which should have been tarmacked by now. When there have been rains (like now) the team don’t like to attempt the road in the small buses so today we’re traveling in the Happy Life pickup truck – which means loading up the truck with as much as possible.
In 2019 we introduced video conferencing to Happy Life through our wonderful sponsors Zoom – and its begun to transform things for the team. Firstly, pastor Peter explains that he used to have to make the three hour round trip to Juja Farm twice a week – now he has video meetings and has reduced his trips to once a week. Over the year that’s a saving of 150+ hours and thousands of dollars in fuel. The team have also begun to use Zoom for fundraising and operational calls with donors around the world – especially the USA.
It’s great fun to spend time with the older kids and the place has changed a lot in a year – not least the completion of the second school building (above) which was just a plan when we were here last December. The oldest kid here is Daniel at seventeen and he’s now outgrown Steve by a couple of inches. He leads the school both academically and as a big brother to the other kids. A few years ago we had a fundraiser to bring two table tennis tables to Juja Farm and Daniel explains that with the new school building they are adding a dedicated table tennis room and music room.
Steve spends the afternoon playing soccer with the kids. The best position for him is goalkeeper as it keeps him (mostly) out of trouble – when he can remember not to dive for the ball on the concrete surface. Sharon manages to convince Leah to dig out her skates which we brought a few years back.
The evening is nice and clear and the sound of the Kenyan wilderness, crickets and birds, is the perfect soundtrack to finish off the day.
Sharon and Steve
Co-founders MX Publishing and proud ambassadors for Happy Life
(more info on Happy Life........Five Ways You Can Help Us Change Lives This Holiday Period)