I find it ironic and kinda funny that just 2 days after an
update video was shown at our home church, which included footage of the road
leading to our house, I was stopped by the mama at the end of the road. In my
limited Swahili I figured out she was telling us she wants the road to be moved
so it doesn’t go past her house. She has several small children so I am
thinking that might be part of the reason why. When I got home I said something
to our day guard who knows English pretty well to stop and talk to her as he
leaves to verify I understood correctly. I then called Keith to let him know
the mama might stop him and talk to him on the way home from work. He decided
to have the guard meet him there so they could talk about it together.
Sure enough that is what she wants. A meeting was scheduled
for the following day (Wednesday) with the various home owners on the road and
a city official about what to do. It was decided a new road would be built in
August during the dry season and that a another meeting was going to held on
Thursday about building a temporary road now so that we have a way to get to
our house in case someone decides to block the road. We have discovered that if
someone isn’t happy about the traffic on the road they may decide to block the
road with plants or large rocks. So when I was told about the temporary and the
reason I had to hold back a laugh. Soon after we started doing maintenance work on our house we arrived one morning to plants across the road. Our vehicle had no problem going over the plants and our land lord talked to the neighbors and got things straightened out.
The Thursday meeting about the temporary road was held but now two weeks later nothing has been started. So we will see what happens. There are now some ladies making bricks and laying them out to dry at the site of the permanent road to be.
