Too Hot for Monkeys, Too Sad for Words

In view of the wintry weather that has recently swept across the U.S., we cannot complain about our 90-degree heat in Kenya. But when the water is short, the day is long... We still have no maji/water on the hospital compound, a frustrating situation that we hope will be remedied when the Engineers without Borders return in July. Meanwhile, water is trucked in jerry cans (1o ksh each, a bargain compared to Nairobi's 70 ksh each) from the river, then boiled and filtered.

Last evening, three new visitors went out with cameras to cool off and capture some pix of our marauding monkeys -- who were nowhere to be found. "It's too hot for monkeys," a neighbor explained.

About the same time, Robert, 25, was discharged from the hospital after eight days of treatment for PCP, TB and generalized wasting. It was nothing short of a miracle that he had survived. We carefully tucked Robert into the Christ's Hope van that was to take him to his family in Bondo for further recovery. Sadly, I received a text message this morning from Desmond, the director of Christ's Hope: "Robert was turned away by his father. He told him to go somewhere else to die." Desmond said that seven wooden crosses in the family's front yard mark the graves of Robert's seven brothers.

Please pray with us for water, for Robert and his father, and for all the people in the world who have no place to live or die.