Day 1 - Saturday 7th April 2012

(Ropley to) Shanzu, Kikambala and Vipingo

Having arrived at Heathrow early, there were no queues anywhere! Time to relax, then board for the night l=flight to Nairobi (which arrived early). Then a short change onto the 08:00 flight to Mombasa.

Fr Joe was waiting at the airport, so we jumped into the truck and headed for his house at Shanzu, meeting some cattle when we turned onto the rough road down to his plot.

A chance for a shower and to sit in the shade with Joe's dad, then Eddie (Joe's nephew) and Hendrik (a Swedish guy who's working on the project with Eddie) arrived by boda boda.

It's a relaced spot, with chickens mooching about...

...and a few dogs.

After lunch we headed on to Kikambala Church, Joe's new parish, where construction of a new priest's house is underway, so there are blocks everywhere!.

The old dispensary.

Daniel, who works as receptionist at the dispensary, showed me around, inlcuding the drugs store.

The dispensary.

Daniel and I walked past the Primary School, run by the church, which has 2,680 students. There is an aspiration to build a secondary next door.

Pawpaws grow with greens around the trees. Both are delicious to eat!

Just look at the size of the pawpaws!

The manager of the shamba.

Work on the foundations of the priest's house.

Several trees had to be felled to make space for the house: this will be used to make charcoal, and new trees will be planted.

I went with Fr Hendry to Vipingo outstation for the first Easter Vigil mass.

The Easter Candle, lit from the new fire.

"Christ Our Light"

Candles are lit as we process into the church.

The early part of the service is by candlelight.

Inside the church, once the lights are on.

And then, 3 hours later, back to Kikambala to join the Vigil Mass there, after which we decided we deserved an Easter Beer and headed to Kenda's in Mtwapa.

Maps of today's activities.