Our New Teammate ...and Three Goats Go to Malya

With all that has been going on in recent months, we have missed communicating some fairly significant things! One such wonderful significant event was the long-awaited arrival of our new EI team member, Laura! After a long wait for her working and residency permits, Laura Kelly joined us from New Brunswick, Canada in November and already is much at home and a part of our team!

With our new teammate, Laura on Lake Victoria

We are enjoying having Laura live with us for now until she finds her own place. As well as getting acquainted with the numerous goats, rabbits, chickens and dogs (maybe less so the bees) around here, she has had to learn rather a lot of unexpected British English being with us! Now she knows what faffing is, what a jiffy is and if something is pear-shaped or skew-whiff!  But far more importantly, she is also now settled into three months of Swahili classes, building relationships and looking forward to what is next … her hope is to be working alongside women and young women. 

We threw Laura straight in the deep end when she first arrived! A few days after arriving, she and I went with John to Malya to work with the women's group and beekeeper group (and then on to Ngudu the following day to meet with the new beekeeper group there). It was a fairly good initiation to life here, with the hot sun, different food and new language, add in the bumpy treks out in the landcrusier to beehives in the dark and losing the beaten track, throw in some angry bees, and of course the added palaver of getting three goats all the way there for the Mamas' group… and then figuring out how to get them, along with all the village people wanting a lift, and all the beekeeping gear, to their final destination! She also saw first hand how challenging and tough a project can be, and all in all, coped admirably!  

How many people, babies and goats can one actually fit in a landcruiser?

(I lost count!)

The women enjoyed meeting Laura and we made batches of beeswax lip and body balms for the upcoming Craft Fair in Mwanza. They had saved their profits to buy a goat, and now with the male and a female are hoping to grow that project! Their income-generating garden was off to a good start and it was encouraging to see how they were getting on! The Beekeepers' group was more challenging, but that is whole other story!

Laura meets the latest arrival in the Mamas' group!

Making beeswax balms

Love these mamas!