Going to Town!

Daylight is on a hill just a stones throw from the main road into town. A trip into town is treasured by our students. Like many small towns, what it lacks in inventory, it makes up for in people! Daylight students and staff can hardly go ten feet without running into someone they know. And Kenyan’s are not willing to stop at “How are you?” “I’m good!”. They want to the WHOLE story. So you can imagine a quick trip to town can turn into a quite a social affair!

Well we wanted to give you a little taste of what you would see if you were at Daylight and told the driver “Take me to town!”

The driver will take you to down the main road to Makotano.

The town is called Makotano (Ma-Ko-ta-no) and like so many towns in Kenya it is a city in transition.  When we started Daylight seven years ago the downtown was lined with cement shops. Inside these shops you will find a few local staples like cooking oil, gravy, and bottled water. 

These family owned shops are still the life-blood of the community. In front of these shops you will often find people sitting down selling their vegetables or small goods in an informal market. Many of these family shops are made of wood and tin.

Like most small towns you can’t miss the gas station on the way into town. But when we stopped, unfortunately Total was out of gas! This is actually quite common for a gas station in a rural town to run out of gas after a caravan of semi-trucks make their way through town.

 So we went down the road to fill up at the gas station on other end of town. Daylight Outreach Assistant Peter helped get the car and an extra gas can filled up!

Recently a more formal “Farmer’s Market” established in town. Local farmers rent out stalls to sell their fruits and vegetables.

This is a big step towards more sanitary foods! But the biggest change in the last two years is the opening of the local Supermarket.

From Coca-Cola to Corn Flakes you can find many of the international foods (or Kenyan versions of them).

We hope you come to Daylight so you can have your own day in town!