FERTILE MYRTLE

This lovely pink grapefruit was very prolific in the seed department! We love grapefruit, but sometimes it isn't worth the effort. This one grapefruit had 49 seeds in it, and that wasn't counting the skinny, underdeveloped ones. It did have great flavor, and we enjoyed it in spite of the inconvenience.

Home Sweet Home

These adorable children are orphans and their "Home Sweet Home" is in an orphanage.

They come in all sizes, from babies up to college students and they all have the same home.

As one of our responsiblilities, we were involved in a humanitarian project where we went to this orphanage and took a shell of a building and did all of the finishing works including toilets, sinks and showers and made a nice boys' dormitory to help with the overcrowded conditions in the other boys' dormitory.

With the completed dormitory, we had a handover ceremony on the 29th of May. Here we are in the final preparations for the event


It was attended by a member of Parliament, and other local officials. (Who arrived about 1 1/2 hours late). We did wait for them, and even longer for the press team to arrive, and then enjoyed
a nice program. (If you understand Swahili!)

The ribbon has been cut, the doors are open, now the Yatima Trust Fund can officially start using this nice home for the younger boys. All done as a humanitarian project through LDS Charities.

LDS Charities does wonderful things to help the people in Africa. Clean water is number one, with health care probably number two. We have been involved in a measles campaign in Tanzania and later this year there will be a neo-natal resuscitation training for up to 250 health care providers, mostly midwives.

KAZURI BEADS (small and beautiful)

At the end of April we flew to Nairobi for a Couples Conference and an Area Coordinating Council. While we were there, one of the fun attractions that we were able to visit was the Kazuri Bead Factory. Kazuri means small and beautiful in Swahili. A tiny workshop began in 1975 making hand made beads in an effort to give single mothers regular employment. It has grown to a large workforce (mostly single mothers) skilled in the manufacture of hand made jewellery. The beads are made of clay found at the foot of Mt. Kenya. They are all hand made and hand painted. They have a beautiful collection of all shapes and sizes. It is all done in a small town called Karen found on the outskirts of Nairobi. These beautiful beads are being sold around the world, and are easily found on the internet.


These ladies have the fun job! They get to play with clay all day, as they mold different shapes and sizes.


Her job is to put the hole in the bead with a long weaving needle.

Plates of round, flat, large and small beads are left to dry in the sun.

The ladies paint the beads according to the assignment they receive that day, then put them on the racks to dry.

She enjoys her job as she paints an additional color, or pattern on the beads after the first firing.
It is amazing to watch them hand paint intricate designs and patterns on the small beads.

Working in the hot kilns, making sure the beads are situated and ready for firing.

She is assembling the beads into the finished products of necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

It was an amazing process, and mind boggling to go into their outlet store and try to select what you wanted from the many different choices......and I mean many, beautiful bead creations.

Did I buy some......You bet I did! Wish I could take my girls there, cause they would love the jewelry. Check it out online! www.kazuri.com