general update

So, I'm here and everything. In Kenya, I mean. I've been trying to blog more, but a) the power keeps going out and b) the internet has been really slow and c) I can't think of anything interesting to say.

My friends Jon and Chad arrive in Kenya this evening. They will spend the next 13 days shooting video of just about everything, so that they can make a promotional video for Visible Grace. I'm pretty excited about it; they are donating their time and this video should be really valuable to our fundraising. I'm also excited to spend time showing them around Nairobi. (Side note, they have only raised about half the funds for their plane tickets to get here. If you're interested in donating even a small amount, email me, mail us a check or donate on Facebook. Thank you!)

I wrote on Twitter a few days ago that Susan and I were on our way to pay an application fee for building permits. The situation is actually (surprisingly) a lot more complicated than that. You can either rest easy in the knowledge that we're working on it, or you can read the full thing on my blog. Here we go:

Monday (US time), Nathan wired us the money to pay NEMA (National Environment Management Authority) sundry fees for, ah, I don't remember what all they are for, but they are legit, official costs, NOT bribes. Susan and I went to town (when I say 'town' I mean downtown Nairobi) on Wednesday to visit the bank and get paperwork. We realised two things: one, our treasurer, Peris, had gone out of town for a family funeral, and two, our bank here is charging us fees twice for every transaction we make. No thank you.

We collected information from a couple other banks so that we can discuss switching banks at our next board meeting. Then we headed home. We talked to the Mr Muigiri (heretofore referred to as Nema Guy) about meeting him to go to the ministry of lands and paying the fees. And we called Peris.

Susan is meeting Peris tomorrow to sign the paperworks and get almost $2000 in cash from the bank. On Monday, she will meet Nema Guy in Ngong and he will drive her (in his car! woohoo!) to the ministry of lands office (about an hour south of our land) to pay the various fees. What I do during these times depends on how my jet lagged videographers are feeling.

ALLEGEDLY, after paying these fees, NEMA will give us an official report declaring our property fit to be built upon. We can file this report with the ministry of lands and then supposedly we will have our building permits in thirty days.

I'm torn quite equally between hoping hoping hoping that this actually happens (because I'll be around, see?) and knowing it's going to take so much more time, money, patience and heartache than this.

So. We'll see. Today, I'm in my fave coffee shop (coffee AND WIRELESS INTERNET. The power keeps going out just to make sure I remember where I am), blogging, paying a couple bills online, researching for my health and nutrition seminar, which is coming up in June. (More on that later.) (Ha, I find it funny that Simon and Garfunkel's 'America' came on my ipod just as I wrote that.) This weekend, I'll be dragging Jon and Chad around, trying to acclimate them to this time zone and to this crazy, crazy culture. Next week, we'll be visiting, oh, a million places, taking video of anything and everything. This, and the waiting, constitutes my life for the next few days.

Oh, the waiting. and waiting. and waiting.

Keep VG in your prayers!