Tour day

MIRIAM's JOURNAL

Saturday, January 29th

915pm - settling in for the night after a long day of tours.

We started our day with a breakfast of peanut butter and pineapple jam sandwiches; fresh pineapple and fresh tomato slices; tea and coffee. I was intruiged by the pineapple jam and found it to be mild and delicious. If you ever have a chance to try it or buy some, give it a try!

As I mentioned, today was a long day of tours; a lot of walking; a lot of information; and, I soaked up the sunny, warm weather - it's absolutely wonderful.

MCF currently has 5 facilities / locations

-- MCF in Uganda, Africa: a food station to help children at schools who are not fed at home

-- MCF Nairobi: a food station for school children

-- MCF Aldorette: a shelter and home for those that lost homes during post-election violence in 2008 - over 300 people had been brutally killed in the clashes while 350,000 people had been displaced from their homes in various provinces across the country

-- MCF Yatta: we toured this site
- about 200 acres
-started 2 years ago as a shelter and home for "child mothers" (young girls who are pregnant or have had a child), and prostitutes from the street
- 450 women, children, some men and families live here now
- farming, greenhouses, irrigation system, 3 dams, fish farming, cowns for milking (by hand), chickens. They have 5 chicken barns and recieve and sell approx 800 chicks / hens / week) They rotate them through the barns to raise them to keep this as a continual process. Approximately 1000 eggs are collected per day. Children at Yatta and Ndalani get 2 eggs per week (unless they have HIV or are malnutritioned, then an egg a day)

-- MCF Ndalani
- about 158 acres
- school licence and classes for standard 1-12 (ie Grade 1 = Standard 1)
- farming: they grow 95% of their own fruits and vegatables
- irrigation systems in place
- the children bathe in the river (they have a schedule they follow)
- 650 orphaned children live here

I feel like there are so many facts and so much information that we were given - hopefully between my notes, Sarah's and April's, you can put it altogether!