If you are planning a trip to East Africa, Kenya should be at the top of your list. And the first thing you should consider doing is contacting Melinda Rees of Best of Kenya. A resident of 28 years and hospitality industry expert, Melinda knows Kenya like the back of her hand. As a product … Continue reading
Crafting an interesting and worthy end-of-build post has become increasingly difficult. Looking back I realize they sound the same. Not a bad thing, but perhaps teetering on boring. The countries are all so different, the culture and the homeowners too, but the emotions remain the same. Each time I want to tell you that we’ve … Continue reading
Eme gives the best hugs. As we greet each other every morning and throughout the day, we embrace. Her long sinewy arms enfold you in a gentle squeeze, heart to heart. Eme is a widow and cares for her 3 children on her own. She also cared for her 95 year old mother who would … Continue reading
One of our favorite challenges is learning the names of the people in the village and as much Chichewa as our brains can absorb! A now familiar name is that of our partner family great grandmother, Chilungula. Chilungula has spent nearly all of her 93 years in Nnima village in Salima district. Of her 8 … Continue reading
Two days of building already under our belt. First chance I have had to buy Internet access and attempt to write a thoughtful blog post. It feels as though our group of 10 has been together much longer. We are enjoying getting to know one another. Working together. Sharing meals. Roommates. Laughing and generally loving … Continue reading
As usual, the week has flown by. Today we had to say goodbye to our village, Celeste and Diana, our amazing construction supervisors Rugerio and Francisco, and tomorrow we will have to say goodbye to our host coordinator Florbela. She has been with us every step of the way and has made our stay here … Continue reading
Having spent the day yesterday in Regua, our batteries were fully charged for a full work day working on Celeste’s house. We awoke to rain and heavy cloud cover; it was cool and perfect build weather since the precipitation quit as we were arriving on site. It’s been heartwarming to see Celeste and her daughters … Continue reading
Portugal’s Duoro Valley is the oldest regulated wine making region in Europe, preceding Bordeaux. Sorry France. Wine estates in Portugal are known as Quintas and as our cultural excursion we visited one of the oldest. The bus ride from Amarate to Regua took about an hour and the views of the hills, valleys and towns … Continue reading
By the end of day three we can usually see a lot of progress made on the house and this build is no different. There are two areas of the house out team is helping to construct so far; the septic system and insulating the walls. Thankfully the pit behind the house for the septic … Continue reading
Light fog and mist covering the surrounding hills disguised our town this morning in what would have been a mystery had we not seen it yesterday. The temperature was about 65 degrees F and none of us minded the cooler weather. We happily resumed our work and made significant progress on the house. I have … Continue reading
Global Staci 