Friends and Supporters,

Thank you!

The project that your support helped enable our team to complete in Kipingi, Kenya was an unbelievable personal experience for me and a turning point in the lives of those in the Kipingi Village. I would like to describe for you just a few moments from the trip that were important to me to give you a feel for the project and it's impact.

The experience of seeing the entire village turn out spontaneously as water started flowing was simply indescribable. As the drilling had dragged on for over a week already by that point, the vibrant crowds that we started with had slowly thinned to just a few stragglers. Somehow, without any evident communication, at least a hundred women and children showed up within minutes of the start of our test pumping. I can only describe the crowd that day as "jubilant." Everyone was singing and playing in the stream of crystal clear water.

Another day Jami and I were making the rounds of the local homes, talking to everyone about who we were, why we were there, and inviting them to attend the community training that we were planning to hold the following week. Caught in the rainstorm at an older widow’s home, I sat on the floor (drawing huge laughs from the women) as they taught us the right way to peel cassava. I did my best to “communicate by example” our respect for them, especially the women of Kipingi who work incredibly hard to support their families and communities. This was probably the best single moment of the trip for me.

In addition to our work at Kipingi, our team spent a lot of time building relationships with influential local leaders, government ministries and other NGOs. Kelly and I spent one afternoon visiting a local orphanage and school run by a bishop who turned out to be a very helpful in our efforts to build community ownership of the well. On our visit, we took a look a pump that they were having trouble with which was very similar to our installation. While neither of us could be described as a “pump expert”, the simple fact that they had engineers on site was valuable. We were able to give them some advice on what was probably wrong, and also information on how much it should cost. It was absolutely wonderful to be able to assist a local group and put our professional skills to use for them.

Thank you again for your support over the past two and half years that I have been working on this project and the five years that we have been engaged with it as a chapter. This has been one of the most challenging and rewarding phases of my life and I look forward to more EWB projects in the years ahead. Clean water as well as the social and organizational skills to sustain it can be life changing for many in Kipingi and this experience was certainly life changing for me.

With sincere thanks,

Rick Kuehn, Health & Safety Officer, Kipingi Project