A story from Daylight partner Brett Emmons on his trip to Daylight in January 2018.
As we traveled to Kenya and the Daylight school, we had our many ideas and plans of how we wanted help the school in our brief time there. We quickly learned to listen to our Kenyan counterparts and to be flexible.
We started with our many plans of bookshelves, solar panels, corn grinders, and more. But as soon as we arrived, waiting for the class rooms to be empty, left us with downtime. No sooner than we started to wonder what is next, one of the women on the staff let us know that new clothes lines would really be a big help for the students that live there at the boarding school.
The children do their own laundry and hang them on the barbed wire fences which are set around the campus for the Daylight cows.
The barbed wire inevitably leaves holes and tears as the children retrieve their cloths. With the help of the property manager, we found some posts and scrap lumber.
On a trip into town for supplies, we purchased some sturdy rope to sample a well, with the intent that it could later be uses for the clothes line. The property manager had hand-dug holes in the ground in no time. With various people in our group, who were between projects, pitching in to help, the posts were up and lines strung.
With a quick inspection from our local drivers, we realized that some “design improvements” were in order, and additional braces were soon added.
It was a simple project, but an extremely satisfying feeling to see clothes hanging from the lines less than a day after the lines were put up.
– Brett H. Emmons (in the plaid shirt holding the 8)
From his trip to Daylight in January 2018
