There is Life.
Location: Eldoret Kenya
Time: 6:36 PM

The strange picture below is from a funeral we went to yesterday. I've never been to a funeral where everyone took pictures with the casket (almost like a wedding). Nick and Dr. Oronje had a patient that died last week, and we were invited to the funeral.

We drove south for about an hour, one of the cars in the convoy broke down on the way, but ended up in a small Kikuyu community where the friends and relatives had gathered to say goodbye to thier loved one. Another AIDS victim was placed in the earth. But she wasn't just a faceless person, she was a mother and a daughter and a sister. We've experienced the whole cyle of AIDS here, and this is the final moment for all with the virus.

But there is life. Life continues on. Today we found out that Dr. Oronje's wife just delivered - a little baby girl named after Laura! And we visited Peter who I had met earlier in the week. His picture is in the last blog entry. Peter is doing much better. He was sitting up, eating, and was able to talk with us. The donation of anti retrovirals provided by the government and Indiana University brought the frail engineer back from the edge of death. He was grateful for our visit.

We've also been visiting some of the local sex workers here in Eldoret. We met one lady the other night who met us to discuss her hopes of leaving the sex work. She earns about 3 to 9 dollars per night. She has one son that needs food and school supplies. It was a bit surreal speaking with her and asking her what was holding her in the prostitution lifestyle, and we discussed ideas of how to break the bonds of the dangerous life that she lives. We hope to create a program that will provide loans or donations for school for some of these ladies. If the sex workers are cut from the equation, the spread of the virus is cut dramatically.

The man pictured above is Kitonga and his daughter Margret. Kitonga's wife died from AIDS, and both he and his daughter pictured above have HIV. As we approached the home to visit him, Kitonga's daughter Wanjiro jumped into Laura's arms. Wanjiro recieved a school uniform from donations earlier this year. It was sad to see the home and the poverty that this family was living in, but encouraging to see the little difference a donation could make.

We have a couple more days left here with the friends in Eldoret, and then its on to Tanzania. We've booked our trip. Nick will be joining us for the next leg of the journey to TZ. (Jo, if we don't get in touch with you in then next couple of days we are coming by Akamba bus on Monday afternoon.)

Thanks everyone for your prayers and interest. Please pray for us as we head out from here. And please pray for all the faces and families we've met the past week. There is life. And there is hope.

- Dan