Samputu and Itafari Benefit Concert for ERM
On Saturday evening we had a great time at a concert put on by Samputu and his dance troupe Ingeli. The three Rwandans put on several performances here in Portland. The team recently won a Kora award for "The Most Promising Male Artist" in Africa. They used lots of traditional stringed instruments and drums. You can view some of their performance in a QuickTime movie over at ERMRwanda.org

The Concert was to help give a voice to Emmanuel Sitaki and his ministry ERM - which is a partner of Lahash. You can purchase Samputu's latest album in the iTunes store. The picture on the left is the ERM board joining Jean Paul Samputu on stage after the event. Probably the best part of the evening was when the 50 or so Portland Africans joined about the same number of Americans on stage with Samputu and danced and sang - most of it was in Swahili. It was great to see the release of the crowd enjoying the moment.

I made a short video for Emmanuel for the concert and you can view that here: Emmanuel's Story

Pictures from Kenya
Nick sent me a couple of photos this morning from the team in Kenya combating AIDS. The first image below is of the Kitonga family's home infested by ants. The one room mud shack is home to HIV positive Kitonga and his 4 children - who sleep on the floor. Nick writes, "I was shocked to see those insects in the house. Imagine the children saying that they can't sleep at night. The house is just like a cell in hell. I mean the floor is wet (from the rains) and the children sleep there. I think Dan, just for God's sake, let us look for good shelter for this family."



The second picture (below) is of a car Nick and the team would like to purchase. The team has to walk long distances often in the middle of the night through the dangerous slums attending to the sick. Many times they have to hire a taxi to come all the way out to pick up a sick patient. The car below is being offered for $600 to the team - a 50% discount because the man appreciates the work SCF is doing in the community. Nick has a license, and is trained in electrical wiring, and his brother Daniel is an auto mechanic, so the car will run for a long time in the situation. If anyone wants to specifically sponsor this project - let me know.