Lutsanga is 26.3 km from the closest “town”  called Mazeras. To reach Lutsanga we traveled over 14km of rutted dirt road off the nearest asphalt. When we arrived at Lutsanga they had all of the kids in the village come out and meet us and greet us on the road.  They sang songs and waived branches from trees as flags. The reception was overwhelming. I was warned in advance by “Baba” Bret Van Leeuwen to wear dark glasses so they could not see my tears as we watched this wonderful people open their arms  as their village to us. It was well timed advice, as I definitely felt those tears of joy and gratitude at the sight of these good people celebrating the ground breaking of the new School. “Baba” means father in the local dialect and many of the villages in the area know “Baba” Bret. He is the founder of Koins for Kenya and his organization has built over 120 schools in the area since sharing their humanitarian work in 2001. 

As part of the Ground Breaking for the schools they held a grand celebration that was attended by many local school and government officials. Since they have no electricity in the village they had rented a generator and a big tent for the ceremony. Leah (the operations manager for Koins for Kenya)said that this was one of the most elaborate and well organized receptions thrown by any of the villages where they had built schools. They had kids singing and reading to us and many villagers doing  Traditional and more modern dances for our program. They had many local leaders speak and share their excitement about the new school. 

During the program they told us that they had been waiting for a school in this village since 1982! Almost 40 years! 

One of the most exciting things about building the school was the help and cooperation of an important member of the Kenyan Parliament. Kamoti, can be Observed walking into the village with me in some of the videos below. He’s a local celebrity and they are very grateful to him for his work with the Koins  for Kenya group in bringing schools to this part of the country. Kamoti announced At the groundbreaking ceremony that he is working with the federal government to get this school accredited. This is a huge deal because that means that kids to go our school can advance to other accredited schools,  all the way up to high school and college. Most villages don’t have that opportunity.  Mini villages only have a group of students meeting under trees or in a tent  where children learn the basic ABC’s but have no opportunity to expand beyond that.