A Day in the Bush by Marge Cole
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We began our day with an early pick-up call and headed to a rendez-vous point with the Rotary Club of Mombasa members. We proceeded to the village of Takangu led by the ladies of the village who led us in with singing and dancing. After words of appreciation for the donation of a beautiful new well with a hand pump, we all walked together to have DG Philippe do the first ceremonial pumping of water and then tasting the sweet water that flowed from the pipe. One of the men in the village donated the land the well is on and another man in the village donated all the labor to dig the well which is about 80 feet deep through coral and rock. The villagers will each donate 10 Schillings (about 70 cents) each month for the maintenance of the well. We also watered a nearby tree that was planted by La Mesa RC member & GSE Team Leader Bill Ashman when he brought his GSE Team to Takangu in 2004. The work in Takangu village area has been spearheaded by Rotarian Dr. Nandu Acharya, who led a GSE Team to District 5340 in 2003.
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From Takangu village we proceeded to the local school where 25 new desks were accepted as part of a District Simplified Grant from District 5340. We had a lovely serenade from the children of the school and concluded the grant by presenting about 200 dictionaries to children in grade 8 and grade 7. About 1000 children attend this public (government) school which has 10 classrooms.
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From the school we caravanned to Dr. Nandu's bush farm where over 100 members of the Rotary Club of Mombasa and their families joined us in a day of fellowship and enjoying a delicious meal which was hosted by Dr. Nandu and his wife Antonette and Club President Kurban Karmbhai. Many guests were able to swim in the inlet of the Indian Ocean which is near the Acharya farm and we had group singing led by Rtn. Kish Shanghavi of the RC of Mombasa. DG Philippe planted a tree on the Acharya farm to symbolize the growing friendship between our two districts and to observe the Kenyan commitment to plant trees worldwide. Everyone agreed this had been an outstanding day of fellowship between District 5340 and District 9200—a day we would all remember. We returned to our lovely hotel on the Indian Ocean—tired but very happy to have seen such a productive day with our local projects under the good stewardship of District 9200.
Your Roving Rotary Reporter in Mombasa.
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